Priorities for publishing research

The author suggests a wide-ranging research agenda, including applying and safeguarding copyright, increasing literacy, comparing the appropriate uses of the printed word and other media, understanding language itself, assisting authors to get their work into print, improving statistics about the industry, predicting the future of suppliers as well as publishers themselves, improving distribution, and influencing the likely future of the information superhighway. J. Kendrick Noble was formerly publishing industry analyst for Paine Webber, Inc.     

A research agenda for libraries

The author proposes a research agenda for libraries focusing on ten problem areas: rising costs, shrinking funding, electronic provision of services, deterioration of materials, use of document delivery services, changes in copyright and licensing, out-sourcing, staff training, organizational challenges, and redefining the library’s role.     

A research agenda for special libraries

The Special Libraries Association (SLA), an international professional association that represents 14,000 information resource experts, is a key influence in defining and meeting the research priorities of the special library community. In June 1986, SLA's Board of Directors formed the Special Committee on Research with the charge of determining if a research program was a necessity for SLA, and, if so, to establish a'comprehensive research strategy, in particular focusing on issues especially relevant to special librarianship and information management. In June 1988, The Board of Directors voted to establish an in-house research department and a standing Research Committee, which formulated a research agenda subsequently approved by the Board in June 1989. SLA's research agenda sets forth priorities and serves as the keystone to all research conducted by and for the Association. In June 1990, the SLA Board of Directors reaffirmed the Association's commitment to research by approving the Strategic Planning Committee's recommendation that research be one of the top priorities for the next five years. This article reviews SLA's research agenda, current research activities and future priorities, and comments on the importance of research to the special library community.     

The scholar's anthology: A research agenda for communication education

These five papers summarize and provide a focus for concerns about research in communication education, and identify critical areas for additional research. The authors also specify areas where educators and scholars should he implementing existing research findings in speech communication instruction.     

Emotional labor in librarianship: A research agenda

Many occupations, including librarianship, require emotional labor, which can be defined as the awareness of the emotional expressions required of a job, and the strategies used to express those emotions. To date, little research has examined emotional labor in library work, even though strong evidence exists to suggest emotional labor is a key component of many library jobs. Research on emotional labor shows that there can be positive and negative effects on individuals such as job satisfaction and job burnout. Research also shows that the negative outcomes from emotional labor may be buffered to some extent by factors such as support from the organization, or job autonomy. Individual differences such as personality traits and attitudes toward customers also impact the effects of emotional labor on employees. Because emotional labor is a critical issue in library work, and because evidence suggests positive outcomes can be fostered, there is a need to study how emotional labor is carried out in libraries, and to identify management techniques for emotional labor that will yield positive outcomes for both employees and organizations. Empirical research on emotional labor is reviewed, and a research agenda for exploration of this important construct in the field of librarianship is presented.     

Establishing a research agenda communication education: A symposium

Organizations charged with wrongdoing often face social legitimacy crises and subsequently issue apologiae. Whether the charge is rooted in incompetence, as was Exxon's after the Alaskan oil spill, or a policy choice viewed to be irresponsible, as in the case of Domino's Pizza after a series of fatal automobile accidents, corporate apologists seek to purify their damaged images through a negative strategy of dissociation and a positive strategy of corrective action and reaffirmation of public values. This generic analysis suggests that corporate apologia warrants a distinct line of research due to the significant'differences that distinguish itffbm individualist conceptions of apologia.     

Leadership: Developing a research agenda for academic libraries

The number of books and journal articles on leadership is large and constantly increasing. Those writings might advance or evaluate different theories and test their application in different settings. The purpose of this article is to stimulate the amount and type of research on the topic appearing in the literature of library and information science. The research discussed is grouped around a conceptual model, one that captures managerial leadership in the information professions.     

Examining e-government enterprise architecture research in China: A systematic approach and research agenda

With the further advancement of China's e-government, enterprise architecture has become one of major topics in the e-government field. This paper attempts to examine the status and progress of e-government enterprise architecture research in China in a systematic approach and frame a research agenda. This paper conducts quantitative and qualitative analyses of research articles on this topic published in Chinese journals over the last six years. For each paper the study examines author's institutional association and department, published journal names and issues, paper length, research themes, research methods, level of analysis, and geographical focus in order to take a multi-faceted perspective. Findings suggest that EA are receiving more and more attention by Chinese scholars over time with the continuing development of e-government in China. However, the research themes covered by a paper in EA are found to be unbalanced and unfocused, most studies on EA in China focus on architecture frameworks and methodologies, advocate of EA and multi-themes. In terms of research methods, papers in the research field lack academic rigorousness in general.     

Building dynamic capabilities of an academic library: A research agenda

Though academic libraries do not compete with others in the real sense, every ambitious librarian would want his or her library to be better than the others. How would a librarian be able to achieve this? Traditionally, librarians have focused on building excellence in processes and operations. However, such processes and operations can be imitated and implemented by other libraries, resulting in those competencies being short lived. Researchers in strategic management have developed theories on how organizations can build competencies that cannot be imitated, and thus be ahead of their competitors. One such theory – referred to as the dynamic capabilities – is adapted to identify the micro-foundations including the roles, activities and competencies required to build these capabilities for academic libraries. Four themes – searching & sensing, shaping, seizing, and transforming – related to developing dynamic capabilities of academic libraries have been identified. Potential research questions have also been formulated to direct future research.     

Measuring journal performance for multidisciplinary research: An efficiency perspective

One of the flaws of the journal impact factor (IF) is that it cannot be used to compare journals from different fields or multidisciplinary journals because the IF differs significantly across research fields. This study proposes a new measure of journal performance that captures field-different citation characteristics. We view journal performance from the perspective of the efficiency of a journal's citation generation process. Together with the conventional variables used in calculating the IF, the number of articles as an input and the number of total citations as an output, we additionally consider the two field-different factors, citation density and citation dynamics, as inputs. We also separately capture the contribution of external citations and self-citations and incorporate their relative importance in measuring journal performance. To accommodate multiple inputs and outputs whose relationships are unknown, this study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA), a multi-factor productivity model for measuring the relative efficiency of decision-making units without any assumption of a production function. The resulting efficiency score, called DEA-IF, can then be used for the comparative evaluation of multidisciplinary journals’ performance. A case study example of industrial engineering journals is provided to illustrate how to measure DEA-IF and its usefulness.     

Developing a new publishing model for interdisciplinary research

It is widely recognized that interdisciplinary collaboration in science is crucial to the success of the research endeavor, but that long‐established institutional structures based on a firm division of the disciplines tend to make such teamwork difficult to achieve in practice. The development of the Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews publishing model highlights some of the opportunities and challenges of crossing these traditional lines of demarcation.     

Barriers and opportunities for research in publishing studies

This paper reports findings from an international survey into the research involvement and support of university teaching staff in a relatively new profession‐orientated discipline, publishing studies (PS). It uses these findings to consider barriers and opportunities for academic research both specifically in PS and more broadly in other profession‐orientated disciplines. Greater understanding was felt to be of value as universities internationally are increasingly being pressurized to create close links with the wider economy, produce employable students, and encourage relevant and implementable research. The survey suggests that while there is strong agreement among respondents that it is beneficial for those teaching PS to be research‐active, there was considerable variation in current levels of research activity. Respondents rated their research activity highest in departments with an active research culture and effective research support processes. Lack of time was the main reason cited for reduced or non‐involvement in academic research and while this is a common issue for academics, PS respondents isolated a number of exacerbating factors. Suggestions are offered for addressing identified barriers and pursuing new opportunities for research. The paper argues that as research outputs of academics are increasingly monitored it is important to consider how the full range of disciplines housed within institutions can be accommodated within research support. Overall, the research has a strong relevance for interdisciplinary areas, and other profession‐ and practice‐orientated subjects within universities.     

Close encounters of the digital kind: A research agenda for the digitalization of public services

This paper contributes to e-government research by presenting a review and discussion on how digitalization of public services has affected the interaction between citizens and government. We argue for a conceptualization and critical reflection on the nature of the underlying interaction between citizens and public officials - the public encounter - that digital public services are developed to support. We apply a qualitative and hermeneutic approach and illustrate that digital public services change public encounters concerning when, where, and how interactions occur, what each actor does, and the skills required of them. By relating these changes to emerging digital technologies (e.g. data mining, machine learning, sensor technology, and service automation), we illustrate that while these new technologies carry the potential to further digitalize service provision and fulfill the democratic goals of digital government, authorities can apply the same technology to restrict, control, and surveil citizens. Based on a critical discussion on what digitalization might entail for society, we identify problem areas arising from this development and propose a research agenda for understanding this phenomenon further. We raise questions and ethical concerns regarding accountability and reskilling of citizens and public officials as public service provision becomes citizen self-service.     

科技期刊学术型合作出版的实践与研究——以《海峡科学》为例

政府机构改革与科技体制改革的发展,科技期刊的环境发生变化,科技期刊的出版产生了多种合作关系.该文介绍一种类型的学术期刊合作出版.