A Comparative Citation Analysis of Web of Science,Scopus, and Google Scholar

This article presents the results of a comparative study of Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Google Scholar (GS) for a set of 15 business and economics journals. Citations from the three sources were analyzed to determine whether one source is better than another, or whether a new database such as Scopus, or a free database such as GS could replace WoS. The authors concluded that scholars might want to use alternative tools collectively to get a more complete picture of the scholarly impact of an article.     

THE SWISS SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION

We have received numerous requests to present in “Higher Education in Europe”, in relatively short form, the main features of higher education systems in the different countries of the Unesco European Region.

As partial response to these requests, we present below a survey on the Swiss system of higher education, written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Dr. Esther C. Garke from the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science, and CEPES Liaison Officer in Switzerland.

We also take this opportunity to invite our readers to provide us with papers or documents for similar presentations.     

Knowledge Integration While Interacting with an Online Troubleshooting Activity

A troubleshooting activity was carried out by an e-tutor in two steps. First, students diagnosed a mistaken statement and then compared their diagnosis to a teacher’s diagnosis provided by the e-tutor. The mistaken statement involved a widespread tendency to over-generalize Ohm’s law. We studied the discourse between pairs of students working with the e-tutor to examine whether and how the activity attained its objective of engaging students in knowledge integration processes; namely to elicit students’ ideas, add scientifically acceptable or non-acceptable ideas and support them in developing criteria to sort out their ideas. We focus here on two case studies involving a pair of students with high prior knowledge and a pair with poor prior knowledge. The micro-analysis of these two pairs shows how the activity triggered students to explicate multiple alternative interpretations of the principles and concepts involved and attempts to align conflicting conceptions. We discuss how successive emendations gradually culminated in the elaboration of the students’ understanding of these concepts.     

Creating a flexible fund structure to meet the needs and goals of the library and its users

This paper describes the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries' new and innovative approach to monograph collection development using a re-engineered internal funding structure and a process that reflects the needs and goals of the library and its users. The paper discusses the goals of the new fund structure, the experience of implementing it, and the results after one year in use.