Contextualised Browsing in a Digital Library's Living Lab

Contextualisation has proven to be effective in tailoring \linebreak search results towards the users' information need. While this is true for a basic query search, the usage of contextual session information during exploratory search especially on the level of browsing has so far been underexposed in research. In this paper, we present two approaches that contextualise browsing on the level of structured metadata in a Digital Library (DL), (1) one variant bases on document similarity and (2) one variant utilises implicit session information, such as queries and different document metadata encountered during the session of a users. We evaluate our approaches in a living lab environment using a DL in the social sciences and compare our contextualisation approaches against a non-contextualised approach. For a period of more than three months we analysed 47,444 unique retrieval sessions that contain search activities on the level of browsing. Our results show that a contextualisation of browsing significantly outperforms our baseline in terms of the position of the first clicked item in the result set. The mean rank of the first clicked document (measured as mean first relevant - MFR) was 4.52 using a non-contextualised ranking compared to 3.04 when re-ranking the result lists based on similarity to the previously viewed document. Furthermore, we observed that both contextual approaches show a noticeably higher click-through rate. A contextualisation based on document similarity leads to almost twice as many document views compared to the non-contextualised ranking.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, paper accepted at JCDL 201

Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication

Scientometrics have become an essential element in the practice and evaluation of science and research, including both the evaluation of individuals and national assessment exercises. Yet, researchers and practitioners in this field have lacked clear theories to guide their work. As early as 1981, then doctoral student Blaise Cronin published The need for a theory of citing - a call to arms for the fledgling scientometric community to produce foundational theories upon which the work of the field could be based. More than three decades later, the time has come to reach out the field again and ask how they have responded to this call. This book compiles the foundational theories that guide informetrics and scholarly communication research. It is a much needed compilation by leading scholars in the field that gathers together the theories that guide our understanding of authorship, citing, and impact

Theories of Informetrics and Scholarly Communication

Scientometrics have become an essential element in the practice and evaluation of science and research, including both the evaluation of individuals and national assessment exercises. Yet, researchers and practitioners in this field have lacked clear theories to guide their work. As early as 1981, then doctoral student Blaise Cronin published "The need for a theory of citing" —a call to arms for the fledgling scientometric community to produce foundational theories upon which the work of the field could be based. More than three decades later, the time has come to reach out the field again and ask how they have responded to this call. This book compiles the foundational theories that guide informetrics and scholarly communication research. It is a much needed compilation by leading scholars in the field that gathers together the theories that guide our understanding of authorship, citing, and impact

Innovation in a Circular Economy: Conceptual, empirical and policy underpinnings for transition through an eco-innovation pathway

As the world seeks answers to the defining challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability, several hypotheses are being canvased in the search for a solution to decouple economic growth and social development from resource exploitation. Among those, the circular economy (CE) emerged as an operational response defined by its opposition to a harvesting-wasting economic model, proposing instead restorative and regenerative activities. But reconfiguring existing paradigms is not trivial. Aligning innovation activities with more sustainable paths is a central requirement for the desired socio-techno-economic paradigm shift. This work proposes that a new pathway is needed for gearing the sustainable innovation agenda towards a CE, and foster structural change. CE-inducing eco-innovation (EI) must, however, be monitored and measured, and implications to socio-cultural agents, organisational strategies and policy priorities have to be bore in mind, if we are to ascertain if progress is being made. As CE and the EI – CE nexus research is still in its early days, this work adds to the discussion by contributing (1) to the theoretical development of these concepts and their interrelations; (2) to the empirical definition of pro CE EI proxies; and (3) to the prospective anticipation of CE developments. Within the sustainability debate, and using an innovation studies perspective, this research adopted a mixed methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative methods such as literature reviews, bibliometrics, patent and trademark analysis (using the specific case of Portugal), and foresight techniques (Delphi study). The overall findings suggest that CE’s main ideas are arguably timely. CE’s establishment within the sustainability debate seems, nevertheless, dependent on overcoming short term barriers constraining its further development, of technological and economic nature, but also of a socio-cultural kind. CE is argued as a multidimensional, multi-actor approach reliant on “systemic transformative” innovation, thus dependent on a combination of “harder”, (technological, R&D-driven), and “softer” (non-technological change in social and business culture) knowledge. The empirical diagnosis of an innovation system’s pro circularity tendencies proved to be informative as to assess convergence to circularity. In the Portuguese case, it successfully shed light on ongoing dynamics related with signs of effective transformation towards CE activities, even if highlighting structural limitations associated with systemic failures regarding actors and networks. Redirecting innovation systems towards a more “circular” paradigm is, therefore, deeply dependent on an institutional “coordination role” enabling “framework conditions” directly linked to a systemic action. That is, associating bottom-up measures to top-down policies in a coherent strategic roadmap, in order to avoid mismatches and contradictory incentives. This pointed to the usefulness of rethinking innovation policy design. In one hand, to address market and system failures, leading to underinvestment and lack of connectivity in innovation. In the other hand, to promote the diffusion of CE related information for enterprises and civil society, in order to encourage market awareness and change mind-sets towards “circular” behaviours. As the conceptual and practical implementation challenge remains pressing, this work added important underpinnings for fine-tuning a CE inducing “policy mix”.Num mundo crescentemente interdependente, as alterações climáticas e a sustentabilidade ambiental são questões globais complexas. A importância de dissociar desenvolvimento da exploração de recursos tem propiciado um alargamento de horizontes a novos conceitos. Nesse contexto, a economia circular emergiu como uma resposta operacional, definida pela sua oposição ao modelo económico atual de exploração/desperdício. Contrapõe, ao invés, processos restaurativos e regenerativos. A reconfiguração dos paradigmas existentes, a este nível, não é, contudo, algo trivial. Uma vez que o alinhamento das atividades de inovação com objetivos mais sustentáveis é um requisito central na alteração de paradigma sócio-tecno-económico, este trabalho foca a necessidade de orientar a agenda de inovação para a “circularidade”. A eco-inovação pro-circularidade deve, no entanto, ser monitorizada e medida, e as implicações para os agentes socioculturais, estratégias organizacionais e prioridades políticas levadas em conta, se quisermos verificar o seu progresso. Nesse âmbito, pretendeu-se contribuir para o debate em curso contribuindo para: 1) uma melhor compreensão teórica do papel da eco-inovação na implementação de uma economia circular; 2) a definição e teste de proxies empíricas de inovação pro-circularidade; 3) o desenvolvimento de uma visão prospetiva de futuros desenvolvimentos nesta área. No contexto do debate da sustentabilidade, e usando uma perspetiva baseada nos estudos da inovação, foram adotados métodos quantitativos e qualitativos, incluindo revisões de literatura, métodos bibliométricos, análise de patentes e de marcas comerciais (usando o caso específico de Portugal), assim como o uso do método prospetivo Delphi. As conclusões gerais sugerem que as principais ideias da economia circular são indiscutivelmente oportunas. Dentro do debate da sustentabilidade o estabelecimento de uma economia circular parece, no entanto, dependente de se vencerem barreiras de curto prazo, de natureza tecnológica, económica e sociocultural. A abordagem preconizada pela economia circular é assim tida como multidimensional, multi-ator, dependente de uma inovação sistémica "transformadora”, compreendendo não só inovação tecnológica, mas também mudanças institucionais abrangentes quanto a políticas públicas, mercados e práticas sociais. O diagnóstico empírico das tendências pró-circularidade de um sistema de inovação provou ser informativo nessa avaliação. No caso português, permitiu conhecer as atuais dinâmicas, sublinhando sinais de transformação efetivas em direção a atividades circulares, ao mesmo tempo que assinalou as limitações estruturais associadas a falhas sistémicas quanto aos atores e redes (interconexões). Redirecionar os sistemas de inovação para um paradigma mais “circular” é, portanto, profundamente dependente de um “papel de coordenação” institucional que permita “condições de enquadramento” diretamente ligadas a uma ação sistémica. Isto é, associando medidas bottom-up e top-down num roteiro estratégico coerente, a fim de evitar desequilíbrios e incentivos contraditórios. Importa, por isso, repensar igualmente os instrumentos das políticas de inovação. Por um lado, resolvendo falhas de mercado e sistema, que levam a sub-investimento e falta de conectividade. Por outro, promovendo a difusão de informação para empresas e sociedade civil, a fim de estimular a conscientização e mudar mentalidades em relação a comportamentos “circulares”. O desafio de implementação continua a ser premente, este trabalho pretendeu contudo acrescentar ao debate tendo em vista contribuir para o ajuste do “mix de políticas” indutoras de circularidade

Publishing practice(s) of academics from Group of Eight universities in Australia

Motivated by the ever-increasing pressure on academics in higher education, this study investigates the challenges faced and strategies adopted by academics in attaining and maintaining their research publication goals. The performance-based criteria introduced as part of Western neo-liberalisation policies in academia have strengthened the impact of hierarchical structure on the academic publishing practices within the field of higher education. While there is an extensive body of knowledge in relation to the publishing policies followed by different universities or the higher education sector, most of these studies have not explored, firstly, how the interests of diverse stakeholders in academic publishing are perceived and addressed by the academic community, and secondly, what strategies academics adopt to achieve the publication criteria set by their universities or research bodies. The present study aims to understand how academics, as members of the higher education community, address the challenges experienced in the competitive publishing environment. The study achieves this objective by exploring and evaluating the hypotheses: (1) researchers adopt strategies to overcome these publishing challenges to ensure a high-volume of publication; (2) publishing habits of researchers are framed only by university or institutional policies; and (3) individual academics’ publishing choices are influenced by publishing opportunities provided by publishers only if they help to meet the publishing expectations of their university. Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus inform the study. While the concept field assists in identifying the field of higher education in relation to publishing, the concept capital provides an understanding of the factors that are significant for academics in the field, and the concept habitus provides an understanding of academics’ publishing practices. A self-administrated online survey is used as an instrument to collect data from academics working in research-focussed Australian universities (Group of Eight Universities, Go8). The study finds that, although academics use various publishing strategies, only some strategies directly contribute toward enhancing their publication volume. The results also reveal that the relationship between academics and publishers remains opaque. The study leads us to the realisation and understanding of the dynamic relationship between research assessment policies, universities and academics’ use of digital media platforms. The nature of the relationship between academics and academic publishers is comparatively less disrupted by digital technology when compared to that in other media industries. By addressing the real-time issues related to an activity that has multiple stakeholders, this study contributes to different academic disciplines at various levels, whilst being significant for academics, since it is an original empirical study of academic practices. The critical evaluation of academics’ publishing goals imparts insights to universities for administering best human resource practices for developing and retaining academic talent. The study also provides an opportunity for academic publishers to understand their customers, their challenges and how to potentially address those challenges, and to customise their services to the Australian region. This study successfully demonstrates how Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and habitus can be applied to increase our understanding of other social field theories. By critically examining the practices in a public management environment using Bourdieu’s concepts, the study accomplishes the advantage of using social theories in different contexts. Mostly importantly, the study enhances the body of knowledge by explaining Fligstein and McAdams’ concept of field relations (2012) using Bourdieu’s concepts. The findings of this research are limited to the Australian Go8 HASS context, and further empirical evidence is suggested to visit these challenges in other developed nations’ universities. The study offers researchers and stakeholders of higher education an opportunity to replicate the study in other contexts, and to benchmark and compare the research results