1,744 research outputs found
Can informetrics shape biomedical research? A case study of the HIV/AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa1
Biomedical research is burgeoning as new dangerous diseases and healing methods emerge. Informetrics defined as methods or a research field that uses mathematical and statistical techniques and/or models to examine patterns that show up not only in publications but also in many aspects of life, as long as the patterns deal with information, are widely applied in the evaluation of research performance, among others. Informetrics measures can be divided into descriptive and evaluative measures, commonly referred to as production (publications) count and citation analysis respectively. Whereas the former has continued to gain popularity in sub-Saharan Africa, especially with regard to the assessment of research output of researchers, the latter is rarely applied. The paper focuses on the research evaluation, methods of research evaluation, and the pros and cons of using informetrics techniques to evaluate research performance. Further, the paper addresses the application of informetrics to examine whether or not informetrics can be used to shape biomedical research, with special reference to HIV/AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa. In that regard, the paper reports on an informetrics perspective of the relatedness of opportunistic diseases and other factors (i.e. risk factors, pre-disposing factors, other sexually transmitted diseases, and the other tropical diseases) to:• Demonstrate the use of informetrics techniques in assessing the relatedness of a disease to the pathogens that are associated with it.• Reveal that informetrics can be used to support and/or inform medical opinions regarding the relationship/influence of certainfactors/diseases with/on a given disease, e.g. HIV/AIDS.This paper concludes that the application of informetrics, using various techniques or methodologies associated with it, to shape research in different fields/disciplines, is feasible.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Informetrics, Bibliometrics, Research evaluatio
Arts and Humanities Literature: Bibliometric Characteristics of Contributions by Turkish Authors
Scholarly communication in arts and humanities differs from that in the sciences. Arts and humanities scholars rely primarily on monographs as amedium of publication whereas scientists consider articles that appear in scholarly journals as the single most important publication outlet. The number of journal citation studies in arts and humanities is therefore limited. In this article, we investigate the bibliometric characteristics of 507 arts and humanities journal articles written by authors affiliated with Turkish institutions and indexed in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) between the years 1975–2003. Journal articles constituted more than 60% of all publications. One third of all contributions were published during the last 4 years (1999–2003) and appeared in 16 different journals. An overwhelming majority of contributions (91%) were written in English, and 83% of them had single authorship. Researchers based at Turkish universities produced 90% of all publications. Two thirds of references in publications were to monographs. The median age of all references was 12 years. Eighty percent of publications authored by Turkish arts and humanities scholars were not cited at all while the remaining 20% (or 99 publications) were cited 304 times (anaverage of three citations per publication). Self-citation ratio was 31%. Two thirds of the cited publications were cited for the first time within 2 years of their publications
ONLINE VISIBILITY OF PHARMACY RESEARCH IN TANZANIA: A SCIENTOMETRIC STUDY
Objective: This scientometric analysis was carried out to map the online visibility of pharmacy research at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) from 1981 to 2016.Methods: Publish or Perish software was used to collect data for 33 scientists from the School of Pharmacy at MUHAS. We retrieved data on scholars' publications, citation counts, the number of authors per publication, average citations per paper, average citations per year, h-index, g-index, contemporary H-index (Hc index) and the HI-norm index.Results: A total of 499 publications were recorded for all scholars and the most (61; 12.2%) productive was 2013. The whole study period recorded the mean relative growth rate (RGR) and doubling time (Dt) of 1.62 and 0.46 respectively. A great majority (484; 97%) of the publications were multiple-authored with nearly one third (157; 31.5%) of these being jointly contributed by six or more authors. The maximum number of citations received in a single publication was 241. The degree of collaboration among scientists was as high as 0.97. The top ranked pharmacy researchers showed variation in various metrics.Conclusion: The study findings indicate a continuous growth of pharmacy publications at MUHAS since 1981. There is a high level of collaboration among scholars and many publications have made a great impact through citations.Â
Publication Trends in Physics Education: A Bibliometric study
A publication trend in Physics Education by employing bibliometric analysis
leads the researchers to describe current scientific movement. This paper tries
to answer "What do Physics education scientists concentrate in their
publications?" by analyzing the productivity and development of publications on
the subject category of Physics Education in the period 1980--2013. The Web of
Science databases in the research areas of "EDUCATION - EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH"
was used to extract the publication trends. The study involves 1360
publications, including 840 articles, 503 proceedings paper, 22 reviews, 7
editorial material, 6 Book review, and one Biographical item. Number of
publications with "Physical Education" in topic increased from 0.14 % (n = 2)
in 1980 to 16.54 % (n = 225) in 2011. Total number of receiving citations is
8071, with approximately citations per papers of 5.93. The results show the
publication and citations in Physic Education has increased dramatically while
the Malaysian share is well ranked
Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa
Cite: Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), (2006). Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa. [Online] Available at: DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/assaf/0038Two strands of influence have affected the publication of local scholarly journals in South Africa in the recent past. The first of these was the establishment of the Bureau of Scientific Publications that subsidized the publication of a number of journals that had been established during the 20th century. The ‘Bureau journals’ were an attempt to foster academic publication in South Africa and to make their products available to an international readership – quality of material was to be coupled to quality of production. In this respect the establishment of the Bureau was mimicking a similar development in Australia and could be seen as a mechanism for fostering home-grown talent. The second influence was a new mechanism of funding universities, which rewarded them directly for the academic publications that they produced. Both of these influences had a significant impact on the development of local journals, the behaviour of individuals, the financial sustainability of learned societies that produced the journals, and the institutions that received the ‘output’ subsidy.
The Bureau was recently closed, with only one journal, The South Africa Journal of Science, continuing to receive support through the Academy of Science of South Africa on the basis of its international impact. The funding for ‘outputs’ of the tertiary institutions has continued, although in a modified form that includes a reward for completed masters and doctoral degrees. These developments raised two related questions. The first was whether it was appropriate for the state to support the publication of (some) learned journals in the interest of fostering intellectual exchange. The second question was whether all of the articles, published in journals recognized for the output subsidy of universities, deserved to receive recognition, in view of the wide variation in quality of the material produced. The Academy was commissioned in 2001 in this context by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (now the Department of Science and Technology) to undertake a study to address these two questions, with a view to making recommendations for the optimal development of policy in the future.
The effect of globalization on knowledge exchange, which is mediated very largely through scientific journals being published in English, and having their origins in Europe and North America, has resulted in the neglect of regional journals. It has also led to the development of benchmarks based on bibliometric analysis of publication patterns that has resulted in global ranking of tertiary institutions. These trends are being countered in the African context, with its relatively neglected tertiary sector, by a need that is expressed by the African Academies of Science that are members of the Network of African Scientific Academies (NASAC), to consider the publication of high-quality journals that report work of significance to African scientists. The degree to which such a project is feasible, and whether it could be successfully implemented both in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent, needs to be explored after the release of this report.
Although the report was prepared at the request of, and with funding from the Department of Science and Technology, in order amongst other matters to address specific questions that had been raised about the subsidy for scholarly outputs, its potential impact both in understanding international trends in scholarly knowledge production and in giving guidance to those who would like to foster the publication of indigenous journals, will be great if careful attention is given to the recommendations that are contained in this study. The report was developed and has been guided to a successful conclusion by Prof Wieland Gevers who initiated it during his tenure as President of the Academy and has now brought it to fruition as the Academy’s Executive Officer, with the invaluable assistance of Dr Xola Mati as study director. He and the authors of the various chapters are thanked for the care and attention with which they have produced a seminal analysis of South African publication patterns. They will receive their reward in full measure through the impact that this report will have on the further development of the National System of Innovation.Department of Science and Technolog
Citation Analysis of serials in Postgraduate Theses and Dissertations of Library and Information Science of Public Universities in Southeast, Nigeria
This study is a citation analysis of serials in postgraduate Theses and dissertations of library and information science of public universities in Southeast Nigeria submitted from 2013 to 2021. The study was guide by five research questions in line with the objectives of the study. The study employed a descriptive survey design with a sampled population of 296 derived through census method from four public universities offering library and information science. The principle instruments used in collecting data for this study were self-designed checklists. With the checklists, 12455 serials citations were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mode, mean and range and data presented in tables, charts and graphs using frequencies and percentile. . The study found that the most cited serials types were journals with 76.5% citations followed by conference proceedings/reports with 20% and the least cited being government publication with only .5 citations . This affirms other citation analysis, which found that journals are the most frequently used type. It was further discovered that serials used were either in print or electronic form. . The study also revealed that multi authorship is the most frequently cited author pattern in library graduates theses and dissertations, while annual serials citations range from 1034 to 2205. The study indicated that the average age of serials used was 0 - 20. The study recommended among other things that there should be documentation librarian in each university library whose duty should be tracking down research reports, ensuring proper documentations and upward delivery to the university library circulation unit
Bibliometric and content analysis of the South African Journal of Human Resource Management and the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology from 2006 to 2016.
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville.In South Africa there is limited research available on the patterns of knowledge production. Given the discriminatory past of South Africa, there is a special scarcity of research concerning the racial and gender profiles of academic authors.
This study aims to analyse the bibliometric, demographic and thematic trends of scholarly literature within management studies. Particularly within the fields of human resource management and industrial psychology. Articles published in the South African Journal of Human Resource Management and the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology between 2006 and 2016 were analysed.
The scope of this research is concentrated around the author’s biographical information as well as the research types, approaches, themes, software packages and types of intersectionality used to produce each article. Gathered data was analysed using a mixed methods approach. Inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data and a thematic analysis was applied to generate qualitative themes.
From both journals, a combination of 585 articles were examined and a total of 928 authors were identified. The results revealed that predominantly White male lecturers produced research articles. It was further discovered that authors who published the most frequently were based at historically White universities, however, overall there was a fair international representation of authors. In terms of research methods, over 60% of articles were quantitative with questionnaires being used to collect data. Many authors chose the software package SPSS to analyse raw data. Popular trends included work-family balance, employee wellbeing, emotional intelligence and organisational health and safety, amongst others.
The purpose of this research is to assist universities and policymakers to reassess their research output patterns. Currently, the trends reflect traditional research methods with little variation. Furthermore, the biographical details reveal that black female authors have not been very active in publishing articles over the 10-year period. Going forward it is hoped that this research will help facilitate change in the current status quo and that the research environment becomes a diverse and equal platform for the publishing of scholarly literatur
Book reviews in humanities research evaluations
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