User participation in an academic social networking service: A survey of open group users on Mendeley

Although there are a number of social networking services that specifically target scholars, little has been published about the actual practices and the usage of these so-called academic social networking services (ASNSs). To fill this gap, we explore the populations of academics who engage in social activities using an ASNS; as an indicator of further engagement, we also determine their various motivations for joining a group in ASNSs. Using groups and their members in Mendeley as the platform for our case study, we obtained 146 participant responses from our online survey about users' common activities, usage habits, and motivations for joining groups. Our results show that (a) participants did not engage with social-based features as frequently and actively as they engaged with research-based features, and (b) users who joined more groups seemed to have a stronger motivation to increase their professional visibility and to contribute the research articles that they had read to the group reading list. Our results generate interesting insights into Mendeley's user populations, their activities, and their motivations relative to the social features of Mendeley. We also argue that further design of ASNSs is needed to take greater account of disciplinary differences in scholarly communication and to establish incentive mechanisms for encouraging user participation

The use of electronic mail in the communication practices of community colleges : an evaluation of current practice between faculty and administration

Electronic mail is one of most popular uses of information technology. This study examined the use, fit and effect of email communication within thirteen community colleges in Tennessee. Four specific research questions were addressed: 1) How is email being used in faculty/administration communication within community colleges in the state of Tennessee? 2) Are there differences in the way email is used for communication between faculty in different disciplines and their administrators? 3) Is email communication changing access of faculty to administrators and vice versa at the community college level in Tennessee? 4) Do faculty and administrators perceive that the processes of professional communication are being changed by email? The researcher created a survey for the assessment of the research questions. The survey instrument was distributed to a sample of administrators and faculty from each of the thirteen institutions during the spring semester 2002. The responses to the survey were analyzed to address the research questions

AN EXAMINATION OF THE USE OF DIALOG CHARTS IN SPECIFYING CONCEPTUAL MODELS OF DIALOGS

The conceptual design of user interfaces focuses on the specification of the structure of the dialog, independent of any particular implementation approach. While there is common agreement with respect to the importance of this activity, adequate methods and tools to support it are generally unavailable. The Dialog Charts (DCs) yield high level dialog schemas that are abstract enough to support the conceptual design of dialog control structures. They combine dialog concepts with widely accepted design principles, in a uniform diagramming framework. Specifically, the DCs distinguish between the dialog parties, provide for hierarchical decomposition and enforce a structured control flow. A clear set of guiding principles for the conceptual design of dialogs has yet to emerge. In this paper we have elected to focus on the notions of descriptive power and usable power, as they apply to conceptual dialog modeling tools. The conceptual descriptive power of the DCs is informally examined by applying them in a varied set of examples and relating them to their lower level counterparts, namely implementation dialog models like augmented transition networks or context-free grammars. The usable power of the DCs has been examined empirically through a qualitative study of their actual use by system designers. The Dialog Chart models were found by dialog designers to be a useful conceptual design tool, which exhibit the essential attributes identified for conceptual models.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

The Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia

This book represents the second phase of a multi-method, multi-study of the ‘Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia’. Drawing on Whitley’s Theory of Scientific Change, the study analysed the degree of ‘professionalisation’ of the Information Systems Discipline, the overarching research question being ‘To what extent is Information Systems a distinct and mature discipline in Australia?’ The book chapters are structured around three main sections: a) the context of the study; b) the state case studies; and c) Australia-wide evidence and analysis. The book is crafted to be accessible to IS and non-IS types both within and outside of Australia. It represents a ‘check point’; a snapshot at a point in time. As the first in a hoped for series of such snap-shots, it includes a brief history of IS in Australia, bringing us up to the time of this report. The editorial team comprises Guy Gable, architect and leader; Bob Smyth, project manager; Shirley Gregor, sponsor, host and co-theoretician; Roger Clarke, discipline memory; and Gail Ridley, theoretician. In phase two, the editors undertook to examine each component study, with a view to arriving at an Australia-wide perspective

Competencies for bibliometrics

Universities are increasingly offering support services for bibliometrics, often based in the library. This paper describes work done to produce a competency model for those supporting bibliometrics. The results of a questionnaire in which current practitioners rated bibliometric tasks as entry level, core or specialist are reported. Entry level competencies identified were explaining bibliometric concepts, doing basic calculations and some professional skills. Activities identified by participants as core are outlined. Reflecting on items that were considered in scope but specialist there was less stress on evaluating scholars, work at a strategic level, working with data outside proprietary bibliometric tools and consultancy-type services as opposed to training for disintermediated use. A competency model is presented as an appendix