Publications, Volume 6, Issue 1 (March 2018) – 12 articles

Improvement of academic library services as an outcome of continuous assessment is an aim of libraries of higher education institutions. Academic libraries are realizing the need to document evidence of their value to the institutions and the patrons they serve. Publications that include assessment research are reaching library decision makers, who seek to apply evidence to improve services or implement best practices that benefit all stakeholders. Following two previous studies that reported longitudinally on front-line library services, this paper investigates current five-year trending of three prestigious academic library journals in the publication of assessment studies. Data for this study were drawn through a content analysis process, in which the investigators selected studies for inclusion using a set of criteria developed in a pilot exercise. After individually examining 649 research articles, published between 2012 and 2016, 126 met the study’s selection criteria and were categorized according to the type of service they studied. Papers on information literacy instruction dominated, while reference services, technology, and general assessment studies saw less representation in the three journals. This finding reflects the priority placed upon information literacy instruction and describes how three American library journals are responding to current trends across academic libraries. Full article

Authors who offer papers for publication to professional journals are under the impression that their work is publication-worthy. The editors as well as reviewers adjudge whether the manuscripts should be taken up for publication. This paper presents certain cases of unreliable journals’ management processes with an aim to show how a journal reviewer or editor could squander authors’ time and negatively impact the motivation of scholars to publish. Full article

The first academic periodical was the Journal des Sçavans, which first appeared in January 1665. It was followed two months later by the Philosophical Transactions. The Journal des Sçavans was sponsored by the state and was made up mainly of book reviews and covered all the known disciplines of the time. The Philosophical Transactions was a private venture based on Oldenburg’s correspondence and was restricted to science and technology. Scientific writers were motivated by personal reputation, the desire to improve the human condition, and, sometimes, priority. The “publish or perish” syndrome is a recent development. Among the factors that have influenced it are the increasing professionalization of science, the development of the peer-review system, and, towards the end of the twentieth century, a desire for rapid publication. The fact that English has (recently) become the lingua franca of scientific publishing creates additional difficulties for non-Anglophone scientists, which their Anglophone colleagues do not have to face. Scientific language, similar to all languages, evolves constantly. One area that seems to be changing at the moment is that of passive use, which is the subject of ongoing research. Cultural differences may also have a role to play. For example, French scientists may have to overcome a basically Cartesian education. Full article

In a world of information overload and data deluge, is opening science a research library’s duty? Or is the openness of science deeply changing libraries, ultimately converting them into something else? The purpose of the review is to highlight the challenging issues stemming from the relationship between research and libraries. A broad literature analysis was performed focused on the intersection of three different perspectives: (1) the future of research libraries, (2) the emerging new roles, and (3) the ongoing openness of science. Libraries are still at the heart of science but challenged by several stakeholders within the complexity of present science production and communication. Research support services, research data management, or research information management are emerging roles, among others, sustaining an open path where libraries thrive to be more collaborative while looking forward to establishing new partnerships. Full article

This paper suggests a methodology of academic paper classification for the scientist intending to contribute to peer-reviewed scientific literature. This will enable the progress of the typescript through the publication system to be accurately determined at any stage. The publication process is split into eight subdivisions of differing worth and import: in navel contemplation; in preparation; submitted; in review; revision, revised, and resubmitted; accepted; in press; and publication. Papers in navel contemplation are referred to as in preparation by many, which can be an embarrassment when asked exactly what has been prepared. Rather than listing papers as in preparation in academic submissions, it is better to list them as unpublished data until published. Efficient authors keep a close watch on their papers between submission and the proof stage. They must be sufficiently organized to manage their publications and to be aware when things slow down. The methodology is flexible and, if it does not work for some authors, then they have a simple framework to adapt to their own preferences. In short, scientists need to show care and not be overly optimistic about the progress of any paper. Full article

A truebounded publication list of a scientific author consists of exactly all publications that meet two criteria: (1) they are formally published (e.g., journal article or proceeding paper); (2) they have scientific, scholarly, or academic content. A publication list is overbounded if it includes documents which do not meet the two criteria (such as novels); a publication list is underbounded if it is incomplete. Are authors’ personal publication lists, found on their personal sites on the Internet or in institutional repositories, truebounded, overbounded, or underbounded? And are the respective publication lists generated through bibliographic information services truebounded, overbounded, or underbounded? As case studies, publications of nine International Society of Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) Committee members (published between 2007 and 2016) were collected to create preferably complete personal publication lists according to the two criteria. We connect the “relative visibility of an author” with the concepts of truebounded, overbounded, and underbounded publication lists. The authors’ relative visibility values were determined for the information services Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Google Scholar and compared to the relative visibility of the authors’ personal publication lists. All results of the bibliographic information services are underbounded. Relative visibility is highest in Google Scholar, followed by Scopus and WoS. Full article

This work describes the worldwide applications of dielectric and bioimpedance measurements techniques in various fields. Dielectric and bioimpedance spectroscopy are major non-destructive measurement systems with great potential in the technology field. All results produced by the Scopus database were used as the core of the study in hand, with different items from journals, papers and conference proceedings being taken into account. The results of this analysis show that the interest in electrical properties has risen in the last years due to the advanced technological measurements offered on the scientific level. Results show that bioimpedance studies are considerably more recent compared to dielectric studies, and are more directed towards medical purposes while dielectric spectroscopy focuses on physical aspects, and is used mostly in engineering and material science. It can be stated that bioimpendance and dielectric spectroscopy are being increasingly applied and that they have the capacity to deepen and enhance research investigation. Full article

As a response to intensified globalization, international research collaboration has become common in the social sciences. This paper reports a study that examined what Chinese management academics and their overseas counterparts perceived to be the benefits and challenges arising from research collaboration with each other. Data collected with two parallel questionnaires administered, respectively, to 114 Chinese and 30 overseas management academics revealed a variety of perceived benefits relating mainly to Chinese and overseas academics’ complementing strengths. Analysis of the same data also identified an array of perceived challenges stemming from a combination of cultural, epistemological, ideological, linguistic, institutional, and relational differences. Our study generated insights to be drawn upon in policy-making and in the coordination of international research collaboration. Full article

Purpose: There is ample evidence that students and teachers often seek academic information using participatory online social sites (POSS). The purpose of this study is to explore the intent of social information seeking (SIS) among library & information science research students in Pakistan. The study also attempts to examine the relationship between change in information behaviour and information retrieval strategies while seeking information from online social spaces. The influence of online collaboration in the use of social media was also examined. Methodology: Quantitative research method was used to conduct this study. Data was collected from 123 research (MPhil & PhD) students currently enrolled in seven postgraduate library schools in Pakistan. The data was gathered using survey questionnaire (using 5-point Likert scale items), administered both in print format and online through Google Form. SPSS version 19 was used to analyse the data. Findings: Major findings of this study were that there is a strong positive correlation between SIS and change in the overall information behaviour of research students. Majority of participants responded that social websites help in reshaping the information behaviour in a collaborative environment thus contributing to upsurge the SIS practices among research students. The study also found that LIS research scholars in Pakistan prefer to consult interactive websites more than social media spaces for academic information. Gender has been an influencing variable in SIS practices, however, time spent and frequency of using POSS does not affect one’s SIS practices. Originality: Social Information helps people to connect with each other and is comparatively a new concept in the field of Information Seeking Behaviour. This is the first study on SIS with respect to LIS research students in Pakistan. Full article

Unlike other academic publications whose authorship is eagerly claimed, the provenance of retraction notices (RNs) is often obscured presumably because the retraction of published research is associated with undesirable behavior and consequently carries negative consequences for the individuals involved. The ambiguity of authorship, however, has serious ethical ramifications and creates methodological problems for research on RNs that requires clear authorship attribution. This article reports a study conducted to identify RN textual features that can be used to disambiguate obscured authorship, ascertain the extent of authorship evasion in RNs from two disciplinary clusters, and determine if the disciplines varied in the distributions of different types of RN authorship. Drawing on a corpus of 370 RNs archived in the Web of Science for the hard discipline of Cell Biology and the soft disciplines of Business, Finance, and Management, this study has identified 25 types of textual markers that can be used to disambiguate authorship, and revealed that only 25.68% of the RNs could be unambiguously attributed to authors of the retracted articles alone or jointly and that authorship could not be determined for 28.92% of the RNs. Furthermore, the study has found marked disciplinary differences in the different categories of RN authorship. These results point to the need for more explicit editorial requirements about RN authorship and their strict enforcement. Full article

The goal of this paper is to assess the journal publication process from value and ethical perspectives. The specific objectives are: (1) To define fundamental values relevant to scientific journal publication; (2) To identify stakeholders involved in professional journals and their value rights and responsibilities; (3) To discuss the steps of the journal publication process where ethical dilemmas arise and the potential influences of such dilemmas on the advancement of knowledge; and (4) To summarize actions that can minimize unethical practices throughout the steps of the publication process. Values such as honesty, efficiency, accountability, and fairness will be discussed. Issues related to the various stakeholders such as self-citation, plagiarism, dual publication, a lack of timeliness, and issues related to authorship will be a primary focus. Full article