Whither Information Science in France?

International audienceInformation science (IS) in France forms part of an inter-discipline named 'Information & Communication Sciences' (ICS), officially recognized as an academic discipline in the French higher education system in 1972. There is a diffuse belief among its academic community that the Anglophone conception of IS is very different from theirs because it is supposedly rooted in Shannon's mathematical theory of communication while the French conception is more rooted in the social sciences and humanities, owing to the literary origins of its founding figures (Robert Escarpit, Roland Barthes, Jean Meyriat). However, a review of the international literature shows that there are no profound distinctions in theories and paradigms underlying research in IS whether undertaken by French or by Anglophone researchers. The differences that do exist are surface level, due mainly to political and institutional factors. These factors also account for the poor state of IS in France today. Indeed, the institutional recognition and development of the field was not grounded upon the foundational works of the pioneers of documentation and IS in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Paul Otlet, Henri Lafontaine, Suzanne Briet). Another factor which has had a lasting impact on the French IS landscape were the inconsistent government policies implemented from the early 1970s till the late 1990s which led to a narrowing down of focus of IS to Scientific and technical information (STI) only, thus orienting the field towards a technological agenda. This in turn affected the direction higher education training and research took in the first three decades. Finally, but not the least adverse factor, the cohabitation of IS with communication science in the same inter-discipline has made it more difficult for the former to affirm its identity and exist as a recognized academic field in France

Should Top Universities Be Led By Top Researchers and Are They? A Citations Analysis

[Excerpt] This paper addresses the question: should the world’s top universities be led by top researchers, and are they? The lifetime citations are counted by hand of the leaders of the world’s top 100 universities identified in a global university ranking. These numbers are then normalized by adjusting for the different citation conventions across academic disciplines. Two statistical measures are used -- Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient and Spearman\u27s rho. This study documents a positive correlation between the lifetime citations of a University’s president and the position of that university in the global ranking. Better universities are run by better researchers. The results are not driven by outliers. That the top universities in the world -- who have the widest choice of candidates -- systematically appoint top researchers as their vice chancellors and presidents seems important to understand. This paper also shows that the pattern of presidents life-time citations follows a version of Lotka’s power law. There are two main areas of contribution. First, this paper attempts to use bibliometric data to address a performance- related question of a type not seen before (to the author’s knowledge). Second, despite the importance of research to research universities -- as described in many mission-statements -- no studies currently exist that ask whether it matters if the head of a research university is himself or herself a committed researcher. Given the importance of universities in the world, and the difficulty that many have in appointing leaders, this question seems pertinent

Utilising content marketing metrics and social networks for academic visibility

There are numerous assumptions on research evaluation in terms of quality and relevance of academic contributions. Researchers are becoming increasingly acquainted with bibliometric indicators, including; citation analysis, impact factor, h-index, webometrics and academic social networking sites. In this light, this chapter presents a review of these concepts as it considers relevant theoretical underpinnings that are related to the content marketing of scholars. Therefore, this contribution critically evaluates previous papers that revolve on the subject of academic reputation as it deliberates on the individual researchers’ personal branding. It also explains how metrics are currently being used to rank the academic standing of journals as well as higher educational institutions. In a nutshell, this chapter implies that the scholarly impact depends on a number of factors including accessibility of publications, peer review of academic work as well as social networking among scholars.peer-reviewe

Chemistry

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