Knowledge transfer activities in Humanities and Social Sciences: which determinants explain research group interactions with non-academic agents?

Trabajo presentado a la DIME-DRUID Academy Winter Conference: "Economics and Management of Innovation, Technology and Organizations", celebrada en Aalborg (Dinamarca) del 20 al 22 de enero de 2011.In the current society, universities and research centers have acquired an important role as agents responsible for knowledge transfer (KT) to the non-academic environment (OCDE 1996). The different ways in which these collaborations take place have been the subject of many conceptual (Molas-Gallart et al. 2002) and empirical studies (D'Este and Patel 2007; Landry et al. 2007) in recent years. The aim of this exploratory study paper is to contribute to KT literature from an area of study generally neglected, humanities and social sciences (HSS), and from a unit analysis perspective that have received less attention: the research group. Thus, the questions addressed in this study are: what are the main activities of KT used by HSS research groups to collaborate with non-academic agents? Do group characteristics or group’ leader profile influence the group’ engagement in a specific knowledge transfer activity? Data for this study has been gathered through questionnaires, interviews and databases for a sample made up of 79 research groups (80% of the population) belonging to the HSS area of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Descriptive and multivariate analyses have been conducted. Results indicate that HSS research groups are very active in some KT activities such as technical advice, consultancy and contract research, whereas their involvement in personal mobility activities is low. Logistic regression analysis shows that the likelihood that research groups engage in any KT activities is not explained by the same factors. However, we obtain evidence showing that there is a common variable positively related with the engagement of HSS research groups for almost all the different activities analyzed: the focus on the social utility of the research.The study benefited from financial support from the Spanish National R&D Plan (Ref.: SEJ2005-24033-E) and the Valencian Regional Government (Ref.: GV06/225).Peer reviewe

Knowledge transfer activities in social sciences and humanities: Explaining the interactions of research groups with non-academic agents

The aim of this research is to achieve a better understanding of the processes underlying knowledge transfer (KT) in social sciences and humanities (SSH). The paper addresses: first, the extent of SSH research groups' engagement in KT and the formal KT activities used to interact with non-academic communities; and second, how the characteristics of research groups may influence engagement in various types of KT. The empirical analysis is at research group level using data derived from a questionnaire of SSH research groups belonging to the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). We find that KT activities are based on relational rather than commercial activities. The most frequent relational activities in which SSH research groups engage are consultancy and contract research. We find also that the characteristics of research groups (e.g. size and multidisciplinarity) and individuals (e.g. academic status and star scientist) are associated with involvement in KT activities and that a deliberate focus on the societal impacts and relevance of the research conducted is strongly related to active engagement of research groups in all the modes of KT considered in this study. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that measures promoting a focus on the societal impact of research could enhance research groups' engagement in KT activitiesOlmos-Peñuela, J.; Castro-Martinez, E.; Deste Cukierman, P. (2014). Knowledge transfer activities in social sciences and humanities: Explaining the interactions of research groups with non-academic agents. Research Policy. 43(4):696-706. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2013.12.004S69670643

Measuring Economic Journals' Citation Efficiency: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

This paper by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and statistical inference evaluates the citation performance of 229 economic journals. The paper categorizes the journals into four main categories (A to D) based on their efficiency levels. The results are then compared to the 27 “core economic journals” as introduced by Dimond (1989). The results reveal that after more than twenty years Diamonds’ list of “core economic journals” is still valid. Finally, for the first time the paper uses data from four well-known databases (SSCI, Scopus, RePEc, Econlit) and two quality ranking reports (Kiel Institute internals ranking and ABS quality ranking report) in a DEA setting and in order to derive the ranking of 229 economic journals. The ten economic journals with the highest citation performance are Journal of Political Economy, Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Finance, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity.Ranking journals; Data Envelopment Analysis; Indexing techniques; Nonparametric analysis.

Do peers see more in a paper than its authors?

Recent years have shown a gradual shift in the content of biomedical publications that is freely accessible, from titles and abstracts to full text. This has enabled new forms of automatic text analysis and has given rise to some interesting questions: How informative is the abstract compared to the full-text? What important information in the full-text is not present in the abstract? What should a good summary contain that is not already in the abstract? Do authors and peers see an article differently? We answer these questions by comparing the information content of the abstract to that in citances-sentences containing citations to that article. We contrast the important points of an article as judged by its authors versus as seen by peers. Focusing on the area of molecular interactions, we perform manual and automatic analysis, and we find that the set of all citances to a target article not only covers most information (entities, functions, experimental methods, and other biological concepts) found in its abstract, but also contains 20% more concepts. We further present a detailed summary of the differences across information types, and we examine the effects other citations and time have on the content of citances

Croatian social scientists’ productivity and a bibliometric study of sociologists’ output

According to (pseudo)longitudinal empirical studies, the publication productivity of Croatian social scientists has been following the main global trends, especially the increase in co-authored and international/foreign publications. However, it shows more similarities to the social science output of other post-socialist countries than to the techno-scientifically developed European regions. The most recent bibliometric study of sociologists’ publication productivity offers a more detailed picture of social science publication practices, as well as a specific disciplinary culture. Books form an essential part of sociological and SS&H output and thus they should also be included in any system of research productivity monitoring and evaluation. Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) bibliographical and citation data bases differ in covering sociological publications (especially books), which results in considerably different indicators of the quantity and visibility of published output. Empirical typology of visibility of sociologists’ publications detects the difference between article and book visibility, as well as local and international visibility combined with WoS and GS coverage. The predictors of visibility types suggest that increasing the impact of Croatian sociological research should be based on stimulating publication by sociologists in both international books and journals. (IN CROATIAN: Prema (pseudo)longitudinalnim empirijskim studijama, znanstvena produktivnost hrvatskih društvoznanstvenika prati glavne globalne trendove, posebno porast koautorskih i međunarodnih/stranih publikacija. No, ona pokazuje više sličnosti s autputom društvenih znanosti drugih postsocijalističkih država nego sa znanstveno-tehnološki razvijenim evropskim regijama. Najnovije bibliometrijsko istraživanje sociološke znanstvene produktivnosti nudi detaljniju sliku objavljivačkih praksi društvenih znanosti, kao i sliku jedne specifične disciplinarne kulture. Knjige čine esencijalni dio sociološke i društveno-humanističke produkcije, te bi stoga trebale biti uključene u svaki sustav praćenja i vrednovanja znanstvene produktivnosti. Web of Science (WoS) i Google Scholar (GS) baze razlikuju se u obuhvatu socioloških publikacija (posebno knjiga) što rezultira značajno različitim pokazateljima brojnosti i vidljivosti objavljene produkcije. Empirijska tipologija vidljivosti socioloških publikacija otkriva razliku između odjeka članaka i knjiga, kao i lokalne i međunarodne vidljivosti u kombinaciji s WoS i GS obuhvatom. Prediktori tipova vidljivosti sugeriraju da bi povećanje odjeka hrvatskih socioloških istraživanja trebalo temeljiti na poticanju sociologa na objavljivanje u inozemnim knjigama i časopisima.

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

News stories as evidence for research? BBC citations from articles, books and Wikipedia

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by John Wiley & Sons in Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology on 17/07/2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23862 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Although news stories target the general public and are sometimes inaccurate, they can serve as sources of real-world information for researchers. This article investigates the extent to which academics exploit journalism using content and citation analyses of online BBC News stories cited by Scopus articles. A total of 27,234 Scopus-indexed publications have cited at least one BBC News story, with a steady annual increase. Citations from arts and humanities (2.8% of publications in 2015) and social sciences (1.5%) were more likely than citations from medicine (0.1%) and science (<0.1%). Surprisingly, half of the sampled Scopus-cited science and technology (53%) and medicine and health (47%) stories were based on academic research, rather than otherwise unpublished information, suggesting that researchers have chosen a lower quality secondary source for their citations. Nevertheless, the BBC News stories that were most frequently cited by Scopus, Google Books and Wikipedia introduced new information from many different topics, including politics, business, economics, statistics, and reports about events. Thus, news stories are mediating real world knowledge into the academic domain, a potential cause for concern

The Extent of Online Platforms Utilization for Scholarly Research Work Dissemination: A Survey of Academic Staff in African Universities

An assessment of the extent of the use of electronic platforms by African academic staff in universities to disseminate research was done in this study. The study is informed by the growing importance of online repositories and preprint servers in the scientific communication of scholarly output, especially in an era where the use of metrics for research appraisals and funding decisions is commonly practised. The quantitative research method was adopted, based on the descriptive survey research design. The snowball sampling technique was used for data collection. Data were collected from 1,977 respondents, distributed across 24 African countries, through the use of an electronic survey. There was a high rate of willingness among universities’ academic staff in Africa, to adopt various online platforms for research dissemination; ResearchGate is currently utilized the most for research dissemination, but Google Scholar is the platform respondents are more willing to adopt for research dissemination; the rate at which academic staff research output can be found online as a ratio of their total publication is 64.04% and in the ratio of 2.00:3.12; poor access to Internet facilities at home and workplaces are the major challenges academic staff face in the utilization of digital platforms for RD. It was recommended, amongst others that academic staff in universities should endeavour to explore and utilize at least ten of the online platforms mentioned in this study, to enable them disseminate their scholarly works to a wider audience and for increased visibilit

Information-seeking Behavior of Social Sciences and Humanities Researchers in the Internet Age

This study focuses on how Internet technology influences and contributes to the information-seeking process in the social sciences and humanities. The study examines the information-seeking behavior of faculty and doctoral students in these fields and observes and extends Ellis’s model of information-seeking behavior for social scientists, which includes six characteristics: starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, and extracting. The study was conducted at Tennessee State University. Thirty active social sciences and humanities faculty and doctoral students were interviewed about their use of Internet resources, their perception of electronic and print materials, and their opinions concerning the Ellis model and how it might be applicable to them. The research confirmed all the continuing relevance of all characteristics of the Ellis model, and theorized that an extended model could potentially include two additional characteristics: preparation and planning and information management. Based on the interview results, the researcher provides suggestions on how current information services and products can be improved to better serve social sciences and humanities researchers, discusses the implications of these new characteristics for information-searching needs, and makes recommendations for improving library services and technologies that will meet the needs of future social sciences and humanities scholars

An Assessment of Impact Metrics’ Potential as Research Indicators Based on Their Perception, Usage, and Dependencies from External Science Communication

The demand for practicable methods for quantitative assessments of scientific products’ relevance has risen considerably over the past decades. As a consequence, research and commercial providers of scholarly data developed a wide variety of impact indicators, ranging from citation-based to so-called altmetrics. This highly heterogeneous family of indicators is based on the principle of measuring interactions with scientific publications that are observable online, and covers for instance mentions of publications in social and journalistic media, in literature management software, or in policy documents. The various metrics' theoretical validity as impact indicators is debated constantly, as questions regarding what it is that different metrics measure or express in many facets remain unanswered. This thesis makes two central contributions towards answering these questions. Its first part systematically assesses the status quo of various metrics’ perception and usage by researchers. This assessment serves to determine the significance of metrics in academic daily routines, as well as to identify relevant perceived problems concerning their usage. The challenges identified this way are in later sections of the thesis opposed with concrete measures to be taken during the development of future research metrics and their infrastructure to effectively solve common criticisms regarding current metrics and their use. Proceeding from the first part’s user studies, this thesis’ second part examines the relationship between research metrics and external science communication. It this way addresses a wide research gap with considerable potential implications for metrics’ validity as indicators for quality - the question to which degree these metrics are merely the result of promotion, which respective research publications receive