A researcher's perspective on electronic scholarly communication

New information and communications technologies are transforming scholarly communication. Presents a humanities and social sciences researcher’s perspective on these changes. Argues that researchers and research intermediaries need to find new ways of working together in order to understand and take full advantage of the emerging forms and media for scholarly communication. Keywords: Electronic publishing, Communications, Researc

The impact of computer usage on scholarly communication amongst academic social scientists

The study aims to see whether there are differences in the nature and patterns of computer usage for communicating research between disciplines in the social sciences in Brazil and, if so, whether they can be related to factors which can affect the process of communication. The theory embedded in the research model states that pressures that accompany the introduction of information technologies into a university environment are significant factors in the use of such technologies. These pressures produce differences in the communication process itself. Furthermore, there may also be a relationship between individual factors and the use of IT for communication. The research data were collected via a survey using two instruments. Firstly, mailed questionnaires were sent to 760 academic researchers in sociology and economics in Brazil, working in post-graduate programmes. A response rate of 64.1 percent was achieved. Secondly, 36 interviews were carried out with a sample of the most productive researchers in the two subjects studied. The interview sample included both respondents and non-respondents to the questionnaire. A small sample of 11 British academic researchers was included in the interview survey, in order to allow comparisons and see whether Brazilian academics lag behind IT front-runners. Data collected revealed that there is an impact of computer usage on the scholarly communication process, especially in terms of informal communication. Such an impact can be related to changes in the social interactions that underlie knowledge creation among researchers, and also relates to differences in patterns and processes of computer usage between the chosen disciplines. Formal communication has experienced a gradually growing impact by electronic media on the well-established print environment, with the likely co-existence of the two media for some time to come. The results obtained showed that Brazilian researchers do not lag behind the British ones. Not many differences, but most similarities were found between economists and sociologists in both Brazil and the UK

Recent Methodological Opportunities in Online Hypermedia – a Case Study of Photojournalism in Singapore

This methodological paper reviews the recent work done by photojournalists in Singapore who have leveraged on the use of multimedia to create meaning-rich narratives of the social situations they investigate. Using an online multimedia project recently launched by journalists and photojournalists in Singapore, I will show how photographers'/photojournalists' expertise, knowledge and combination of text and photographs serve to exemplify the opportunities that hypermedia affords to sociologists, and argue that hypermedia presentations are particularly useful in extending auto/biographical narratives, encouraging collaborative research, as well as interrogating the everyday social lives of our informants.Visual Sociology, Hypermedia, Online Methods, Singapore, Photojournalism, Visual Methods, Photography

Altmetric and bibliometric scores: does Open Access matter?

Since new publishing models and new communication channels are being developed, traditional ways of measuring journal and article impact are not sufficient – besides bibliometrics, altmetrics arises as a new method based on quantitative analysis of mentions on blogs, in the news, shares on social networking sites etc. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the altmetric indicators for Altmetric top 100 articles in 2014, and to compare them with traditional bibliometric data for the same articles. Also, altmetric scores for Open Access (OA) articles are compared to the scores for non-OA articles. The research confirms low correlation between the number of citations (in the first year after publication) and the altmetric score. Nevertheless, the altmetric score has a potential role in promoting articles and getting post-publication evaluation and feedback

Factors influencing academics\u27 usage of electronic journals

Through a survey of academics at Edith Cowan University, Australia, this study explored their usage of and attitudes towards academic electronic journals (EJs). The data provided insights into the way academics were using EJs at the time of the study and their thoughts on how they will use them in the future. The emergence of academics publishing their work in EJs is a fairly recent phenomenon compared to the established tradition of publishing in paper-based journals. Many publishers have also begun to replace paper journals with electronic ones and many librarians have begun incorporating EJs into their resource collections. Librarians need to know their clients\u27 attitudes towards new service delivery mechanisms and/or formats, such as replacing paper-based journals with EJs. The study\u27s findings supported the earlier work of previous authors, indicating that while some academics were adapting EJs into their work practices, there remained a significant number who were strongly opposed to them. The study drew the following conclusions: I. At the time of the survey EJs were not wholly accepted by academics; 2. A group of committed enthusiasts existed who advocate EJs; 3. There was almost an equal number of academics who avidly preferred print journals, and were unlikely to change their preferences for the foreseeable future, perhaps for the rest of their career; 4. Most academics were not submitting articles to EJs, although more were open to doing so in the future; 5. Academics believe that publishing in EJs is given lower respect than publishing in paper-based journals; 6. Academics are troubled about historical access to EJ articles; 7. While academics are not using EJs fully they are normally aware of them; 8. Academics appear to have no time to obtain new skills such as using EJs, although there is a willingness to do so; 9. Academics are not inclined to have personal subscriptions to EJs; and 10. A minor number of academics cited EJs in their research however, a larger number thought their usage of them would increase in the future. Whatever the future of print journals or EJs may be, academic librarians need to continually assess how their clients will be able to gain access to archival information. Short-term access to bundled EJ titles may seem to be a panacea for stagnant or shrinking library budgets unable to keep up with escalating journal costs; however the true cost of abandoning paper journals in favour of EJs needs to be fully considered if the library is unable to maintain the future licensing costs of EJs

Human Resource Strategy in Times of Disruption

This study sought to obtain knowledge relating to human resources during crisis and disruption. To obtain a deeper understanding of the material, I conducted a qualitative case study using a structured interview process, an anonymous survey process for triangulation. The interview process comprised 15 interviews to achieve saturation, as well as 135 survey respondents. During the participant interview process, I obtained the data to attribute to the current body of research regarding human resources during times of crisis and disruption. Interview participants comprised of individual contributors, people leaders, and human resource professionals. Participants felt strongly that open communication, infrastructure, and training were critical during times of crisis and disruption. Participants noted that flexible work arrangements were key to business operations during crisis and disruption, particularly during the pandemic of 2020. Participants showed challenges with managing remote teams in the virtual work environment created because of the pandemic of 2020. Participants identified major challenges when faced with the immediate crisis of bolting operations from in-person business operations to remote/virtual operations. This shows the need for more information gathering on human resources during crises and disruption

Teaching Autoethnography

This project reviews the literature of autoethnography. A syllabus and course materials for a workshop on autoethnographic methods is presented

Revisiting the United States Hostage Negotiation Policy: An Academic Imperative. Part II

This article comes in two parts - the article and the notes. Article abstract: To get hostages released without harm requires a national policy committed to that principle. With that in mind, there needs to be an understanding of the perpetrators\u27 objective view of reality. These views have political, economic, psychological, cultural, ethno-religious and perceptual dimensions. Those multivariate dimensions of any hostage situation mandate policies that should be based on law enforcement and military perspectives, in order to be flexible enough to permit their consideration and continuously evaluate their national and international implications. Part II: Notes and bibliography for Part I. Both parts of published in IBPP Volume 10, Issue 20 - June 08, 2001