Ten good reasons to use the Eigenfactor™ metrics

The Eigenfactor score is a journal influence metric developed at the Department of Biology of the University of Washington and recently introduced in the Science and Social Science Journal Citation Reports maintained by Thomson Reuters. It provides a compelling measure of journal status with solid mathematical background, sound axiomatic foundation, intriguing stochastic interpretation, and many interesting relationships to other ranking measures. In this short contribution, we give 10 reasons to motivate the use of the Eigenfactor method.     

Five Challenges Confronting Library-Related Research and Researchers

Instead of presenting a research agenda, this article identifies five challenges of importance to anyone conducting research or wanting to use the results for planning or decision-making purposes. Four general areas that, over time, library researchers have often examined are viewed in terms of these challenges. Coping with these challenges is important as the profession continues to produce theoretical and action research.     

A bias–variance evaluation framework for information retrieval systems

In information retrieval (IR), the improvement of the effectiveness often sacrifices the stability of an IR system. To evaluate the stability, many risk-sensitive metrics have been proposed. Since the theoretical limitations, the current works study the effectiveness and stability separately, and have not explored the effectiveness–stability tradeoff. In this paper, we propose a Bias–Variance Tradeoff Evaluation (BV-Test) framework, based on the bias–variance decomposition of the mean squared error, to measure the overall performance (considering both effectiveness and stability) and the tradeoff between effectiveness and stability of a system. In this framework, we define generalized bias–variance metrics, based on the Cranfield-style experiment set-up where the document collection is fixed (across topics) or the set-up where document collection is a sample (per-topic). Compared with risk-sensitive evaluation methods, our work not only measures the effectiveness–stability tradeoff of a system, but also effectively tracks the source of system instability. Experiments on TREC Ad-hoc track (1993–1999) and Web track (2010–2014) show a clear effectiveness–stability tradeoff across topics and per-topic, and topic grouping and max–min normalization can effectively reduce the bias–variance tradeoff. Experimental results on TREC Session track (2010–2012) also show that the query reformulation and increase of user data are beneficial to both effectiveness and stability simultaneously.     

Digital Archival Image Collections: Who Are the Users?

Archival digital image collections are a relatively new phenomenon in college library archives. Digitizing archival image collections may make them accessible to users worldwide. There has been no study to explore whether collections on the Internet lead to users who are beyond the institution or a comparison of users to a national or international audience. This study of the Orang Asli Archive, a repository for anthropological, historical, journalistic, and other documentary sources relevant to Orang Asli peoples and cultures of Malaysia, examines the Web analytics of its digital archival image collections.     

Stealing meanings – does measuring quality in the arts mean imposing cultural values?

ABSTRACT

An examination of the community youth theatre practice of two groups of culturally and linguistically diverse emerging artists from refugee backgrounds reveals the importance of ‘messages’ in their work and the strong connection to social context. This connection is illustrated by comparing the emerging artists’ perception of the meaning of their art-making (in terms of cultural representation and identity politics) to community audiences’ response to performances. This complex social dynamic is contrasted with the growing practice of using of standardised categories and metrics in an attempt to quantify the value of such arts practice. This approach is problematic because it imposes cultural values on communities and can distort the meaning of community arts performances reducing their social value. The concept of intrinsic value is analysed in relation to the current theoretical discourse on this subject and the criteria used for measuring it are scrutinised and critiqued. The article argues for the importance of allowing community audiences to respond to performances in their own terms because this is integral to the process of how meaning is generated through performance.     

借助文章级附加信息提升数字资源系统用户服务能力

文章级附加信息帮助用户评估单篇文章价值并发现相关文献网络。文章重点介绍PLoS文章级计量信息的六个维度,相关引证文章、相关主题文章、相关作者与机构文章的类型与应用实例,增强系统易用性并与写作环境相融合的举措,提出数字资源系统应利用第三方专业服务整合优质资源,借助文章级附加信息提高搜索效率,重视Web2．0和Web3．0技术应用。     

An overview of learning analytics

Learning analytics, the analysis and representation of data about learners in order to improve learning, is a new lens through which teachers can understand education. It is rooted in the dramatic increase in the quantity of data about learners and linked to management approaches that focus on quantitative metrics, which are sometimes antithetical to an educational sense of teaching. However, learning analytics offers new routes for teachers to understand their students and, hence, to make effective use of their limited resources. This paper explores these issues and describes a series of examples of learning analytics to illustrate the potential. It argues that teachers can and should engage with learning analytics as a way of influencing the metrics agenda towards richer conceptions of learning and to improve their teaching.     

Citations and Citation Metrics in a Serial Assessment Using Master's Theses

We analyzed serial citations in 72 marine biology master's theses as well as the ranking data of aquatic science serials from six global serial citation metrics, to assess serial use by marine biology graduate students from two perspectives. From 1,035 unique serials, a core of 123 titles was identified and evaluated for access. Citation ages averaged 13.5 years, with 27% of serial citations dated prior to 1996. Students cited serials from disciplines beyond marine biology, demonstrating broad title dispersion compared to several other studies. Recommendations are offered for future investigation to develop a stronger understanding of graduate students’ use of the library's serial collection.     

Big Changes Needed: Where to Find the Money?

This article discusses ways that librarians can find the money to make big changes within their organizations. The article discusses strategic planning, metrics, and greater operating efficiencies as sound management methods to obtain the funding to make important changes in tight financial times. The piece has a practical tone addressed to library leaders and to practitioners who are asked to make significant changes in a lean economy.     

Getting the Measure of Measurement: Global educational opportunity

Abstract

Although measurement is widely misused in education, it is indispensable in addressing the problems of injustice in global educational opportunity. Considering how the case can be made for legitimate use of measurement in normative analysis and argument, we explore ways in which metrics have featured in the formulation of theories of justice, with particular attention to resourcist and capabilities approaches. We then consider three means of addressing global inequality and defend a reconstruction of the public sphere in which objective measures of justice, deliberatively constructed, could supersede prevalent assumptions about measurement.