Comparative Usage of Science E-book and Print Collections at Texas A&M University Libraries

This study compares usage figures between equivalent e-books and print books owned by the Texas A&M University Libraries in the physical sciences and technology. For NetLibrary, the top 10 science e-books were used over six times more than the print books, and the top 10 chemistry e-books were used over three times more than their print counterparts. For ebrary, the top 17 science e-books were used at least 17 times more than the same print books. In Safari, the top 10 computer science e-books were used 207 times more than their print counterparts. Usage statistics such as these can help librarians make informed e-book purchase decisions, especially in times of retrenchment.     

Testing the fairness of citation indicators for comparison across scientific domains: The case of fractional citation counts

Citation numbers are extensively used for assessing the quality of scientific research. The use of raw citation counts is generally misleading, especially when applied to cross-disciplinary comparisons, since the average number of citations received is strongly dependent on the scientific discipline of reference of the paper. Measuring and eliminating biases in citation patterns is crucial for a fair use of citation numbers. Several numerical indicators have been introduced with this aim, but so far a specific statistical test for estimating the fairness of these numerical indicators has not been developed. Here we present a statistical method aimed at estimating the effectiveness of numerical indicators in the suppression of citation biases. The method is simple to implement and can be easily generalized to various scenarios. As a practical example we test, in a controlled case, the fairness of fractional citation count, which has been recently proposed as a tool for cross-discipline comparison. We show that this indicator is not able to remove biases in citation patterns and performs much worse than the rescaling of citation counts with average values.     

Student Decision-Making about a Globally Familiar Socioscientific Issue: The value of sharing and comparing views with international counterparts

This paper focuses on the views of 16–17-year-old science students from England, Germany, Hong Kong and Sweden on whale hunting, and their perceptions of the views of their international counterparts. The students were all provided with the same decision-making task, discussed the issue in small groups and then presented their views on video, which were shared with their counterparts. The findings show that the decision-making task served to deepen and modify students' views across all nationalities, and the students generally valued and learned from the sharing of views with students of the same age from around the world. However, an important discovery was that the German students' opinions often ran counter to those from the other 3 locations, and the paper cautions against making broad-sweeping generalisations about students' views on socioscientific issues.     

Different statistical measures create different perceptions of the digital divide

Simultaneous two-dimensional comparisons of time series data—vertically (static difference) and horizontally (Sicherl-time-distance)—for numerous ITU and Eurostat datasets show that estimates of the magnitude of digital divide can differ substantially between conventional static measures and Sicherl-time-distance, a dynamic measure of disparity. Comparing digital divide indicators with other indicators of social inequality (life expectancy, infant mortality), the analysis shows that high ICT growth rate improved well-being in developing countries and reduced some world inequalities. This methodology enables researchers, policy makers, and business managers how to draw new insights from existing data, including monitoring the attainment of targets.     

Dimensional comparisons in students' perceptions of the learning environment

This study aims to add empirical evidence to the generalized internal/external frames of reference (GI/E) model, according to which students' social and dimensional achievement comparisons might not only be related to students' self-concepts but also to perceptions of the learning environment. In a sample of N = 4926 German students, math and language achievements were measured along with two facets of students' perceptions of the learning environment, i.e., perceived instructional quality of math and language classes and perceived relations to math and language teachers. In the GI/E path model, achievement and perceptions of the learning environment were positively related within matching domains but negatively related or unrelated across non-matching domains. This pattern of relations indicates that social and dimensional achievement comparisons contribute to the formation of students' perceptions of the learning environment but the pattern of relations was stronger for math than for language achievement. Students' perceptions of instructional quality were more strongly related to achievement than perceptions of student–teacher relations. The findings were generalizable across same-aged elementary and secondary school students. The results are discussed regarding their implications for the proposed GI/E model and their importance for future research.     

Getting the fish out of the water: Considering benefits and problems of doing research on teacher education at an international level

Structure and content of teacher education depend on a deeper rationale, which is a result of cultural boundaries. At the same time teaching is a cultural practice that differs across countries. Like the water in the fish's tank, such cultural givens are too often invisible as we debate research designs. In this article, we focus in particular on the understanding of three main components of teacher education: mathematics, mathematics pedagogy and general pedagogy, and on juxtaposing two extreme models: Germany and the US. It turns out that benefits and problems of international comparisons are closely related to each other.     

Information and misinformation in bibliometric time-trend analysis

A diachronous time-series of bibliometric data (using all data available) suggests rising normalised citation impact (nci) for Germany and other G7 nations, while China suffers a decline in later years of any series. This is shown to be a consequence of the time-series, which has led to an erroneous interpretation of real trajectories. A synchronous series (using fixed time windows) based on the final year suggests a lower trajectory while a diachronous series tracking the fate of a single publication year reveals that nci progressively falls for Germany and the USA whereas it climbs for China. This has implications for research policy and for the interpretation of changes in the competitive research environment in the presence of dynamic growth. By analogy, this may extend to institutional as well as national comparisons. It has implications for analytical methodology, supporting prior suggestions that recent papers should be omitted from citation analysis.     

The formation of academic self-concept and interest in primary school: Examining the generalized internal/external frame of reference model with first- and third-grade children

The generalized internal/external frame-of-reference (GI/E) model explains the formation of self-perceptions and motivational constructs through social and dimensional comparisons. Research examining the GI/E model with primary school children is scarce, especially with first-grade children. Using two fully representative first-grade cohorts and two fully representative third-grade cohorts (N = 21,162; 48% girls) from Luxembourg, we examined the relations between math and verbal achievements and corresponding domain-specific academic self-concepts (ASCs) and interests. In addition, we tested whether the relations between domain-specific achievements and interests are cross-sectionally mediated through ASCs. Positive achievement-ASC and achievement-interest relations were found within matching domains in both grade levels, while the relations between achievements and ASCs and between achievements and interests across nonmatching domains were significantly negative for third-grade children. For first-grade children, the majority of cross-domain relations were nonsignificant, except for the path between math achievement and verbal interest. For school children in both grade levels, domain-specific ASCs were found to mediate the relation between achievements and interests. Overall, the findings indicate that social comparisons play an important role in the formation of domain-specific ASCs and interests for both grade levels, while dimensional comparisons are not as important in the first school year as it is later in the third grade. Gender and cohort invariance were established in both grade levels.     

National modernisation and global science in China

The paper reviews the rapid growth and improvement of science in China since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the 1980s and especially in the last two decades, situating the achievement and its limitations in the contexts of both the global science system, and national policy and strategy. The key is the effective combination of national science with global science. Science in China has worked to global norms while remaining nested in national government and Sinic governance, in which Confucianism and Legalism are combined with Leninism. The paper reflects on trends in investment in R&D, the number of published papers, discipline balance, national and global networking, and policies on cross-border partnerships and mobility. China has established a strong autonomous position at world level in science that is partly separated from the intensively networked Euro-American systems but has benefitted especially from a mutually productive relationship with the United States. However, that relationship is now in question.