Awareness of Undergraduates in Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State about Reference Management Software.

This study is on Awareness of Undergraduates in Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State about Reference Management Software.. It aims to provide new essential information on a relatively unexplored subject, with the goal of providing background for future understanding and comparison. For the purpose of this, the descriptive study adopted a survey research design. Therefore, 200 – 400 level students from six department of the college were selected. The total population of the students in the College was 358 to which questionnaire was administered. Consequently 240 were retrieved and were used for the analysis. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Major finding from the study is that undergraduate in western Delta University are not aware of reference management software. It is however recommended among others that adequate awareness campaign and training be provided to undergraduates

LIS journals in India: Current status and some improvement measures

The paper identifies the present status of journal publishing in India in the field of library & information science. Identification of journals were made by consulting various sources. The characteristics of the journals have been studied on various parameters like number of years of existence, type of publisher, accessibility, references and citation characteristics, etc. Of the total 72 identified journals, it was observed that almost 70% journals started their publication from 2000 onwards. About 81% journals are available on subscription basis. Print as well as online format for dissemination of research have been adopted by 59% journals, however, 30% journals are still available only in print form. It is seen that private or profit-making (59%) organizations are more interested to publish LIS journals than non-profit making organizations (41%). One of the major drawbacks of Indian LIS journals is there poor visibility and limited coverage in various bibliographical databases. More than 54% journals are not indexed in any important bibliographic database and only 6 journals are indexed in LISA, LISTA or ILSA. The citation statistics of these journals are not satisfactory as 42 journals did not receive any citations for their articles published during 2011-2013. At the end, the study suggests a few measures for improving the quality of journal in LIS domai

Information-Seeking Behavior (ISB) of IAMSLIC Members in Response to a Query

Using a three-part survey instrument, a quantitative study was conducted to determine the information-seeking behavior of the members of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) in response to queries. Specifically, the study aimed to determine if aquatic science librarians, like other professionals, would opt to go to the Internet first rather than library databases when searching for information (Jamali & Asadi, 2010; Niu et al., 2010; and Superio et al., 2018). Likewise, the study documented the most commonly used websites, open access databases, and repositories used by the respondents. All of the IAMSLIC members were included in the study. An online survey instrument was used. After 40 days, 76 valid responses had been received. Findings of the study revealed that regardless of the librarians’ gender, age, educational attainment, position or designation, regional group affiliation, and library type, they would prefer to use their library’s online public access catalog (OPAC) first when searching for information. Moreover, Aquatic Commons, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistics (FAO Stat), and OceanDocs were the most commonly accessed open access databases and repositories. IAMSLIC established the Aquatic Commons, so it was no surprise that it was the most frequently accessed repository by the IAMSLIC member librarians. The results also suggest that academic social-networking sites (SNS), specifically ResearchGate and Google Scholar, were essential search tools for some of the respondents. Google Scholar has made searching and retrieval of scholarly articles easy

Women in STEM in Higher Education: A Citation Analysis of the Current Literature

Increased efforts to diversify science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the United States have increased the number of studies regarding the experiences of women in STEM programs in higher education. Using citation analysis and data visualization, this study aims to determine the major publishers and journals in this area. We reviewed 647 articles published between 2007 and 2018. Citations were concentrated on a small core set of journals and then scattered over other publications. Overall, just 3% percent of the publications accounted for 25% percent of the citations. The ramifications for STEM librarians and collection development are discussed

Users’ perception of Information Sources and Services at Vardhaman College of Engineering (Autonomous) Library, Hyderabad: A Case Study

Currently, Engineering College Libraries in South India is in various stages of advancement with regard to sources, services and facilities. The VCE Central Library subscribes to a number of print periodicals (national & international), electronic resources (e-journals and e-books) and multiple volumes of books to satisfy the information needs of its users. VCE is renowned and as well as one of the leading institutions of Engineering Education in Telangana State. This paper describes the offering of the Information Sources and Services to the faculty members of Central Library, Vardhaman College of Engineering (Autonomous), Hyderabad and the purpose of this study is to understand how faculty members access different types of information sources, services and facilities and their purposes

Use of social networks for academic purposes: a case study

Purpose- This paper aims to analyse various aspects of an academic social network: the profile of users, the reasons for its use, its perceived benefits and the use of other social media for scholarly purposes. Design/methodology/approach- The authors examined the profiles of the users of an academic social network. The users were affiliated with 12 universities. The following were recorded for each user: sex, the number of documents uploaded, the number of followers, and the number of people being followed. In addition, a survey was sent to the individuals who had an email address in their profile. Findings- Half of the users of the social network were academics and a third were PhD students. Social sciences scholars accounted for nearly half of all users. Academics used the service to get in touch with other scholars, disseminate research results and follow other scholars. Other widely employed social media included citation indexes, document creation, edition and sharing tools and communication tools. Users complained about the lack of support for the utilisation of these tools. Research limitations/implications- The results are based on a single case study. Originality/value- This study provides new insights on the impact of social media in academic contexts by analysing the user profiles and benefits of a social network service that is specifically targeted at the academic community

Social media trends and collaborative learning for scholarly research among postgraduate students in a Nigerian University

The growth in information technology as embedded in Web 2.0, has redefined the way people communicate, interact and participate in the creation and re-use of content. This empirical study investigated social media trends, interactive and collaborative learning for scholarly research among postgraduate (PG) students in a Nigerian university. The utilization of social media and networking tools is crucial for PG students and very helpful in the course of conducting scholarly research and is invariably a key to accomplishing set scholarly targets. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The sampling frames for the study were postgraduate students at Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria for the 2017 academic session. It has a population of 1,361. The 803 (59%) respondents were randomly sampled. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. A Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to interpret the data with frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Pearson moment correlation analysis. Results showed that the researchers had a strong preference for the using Academia (x̄ = 1.94, SD = 1.40). Other social media sites used were Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Research gate etc, where knowledge contents were collaboratively shared by colleagues and used frequently for research. The results also revealedtaht social media has made a significant impact on respondents' research output (x̄ = 3.63, SD = 0.62). Challenges which constrain effective social media usage by PG students include poor internet connectivity, respondents low level of ICT skills etc. The study recommends that regular seminars and training be organized for PG students to attune them with new developments in social media sites so that they can appreciate and maximally utilize the opportunities they offer. Regular overhauling of the electronic devices is recommended.Keywords: Social media, Social network sites, Scholarly research, Information resources use, PG student

Reference management software (RMS) in an academic environment: a survey at a research university in Malaysia

Reference Management Software is used by researchers in academics to manage the bibliographic citations they encounter in their research. With these tools, scholars keep track of the scientific literature they read, and to facilitate the editing of the scientific papers they write. This study presents the results of a quantitative survey performed at a research university in Malaysia. The aims of the survey were to observe how much these softwares are used by the scientific community, to see which softwares are most known and used, and to find out the reasons and the approaches behind their usage. Manually questionnaire was distributed to the Master and PhD students at all faculties in Jun 2014. The data collected were analysed through a constant comparative analysis, and the following categories were drawn: a basic practical approach to the instrument, the heavy impact of the time factor, the force of habit in scholars, economic issues, the importance of training and literacy, and the role that the library can have in this stage. Describing the present situation, the study gives final directions to the libraries to better perform effective tasks about the matter. This study presented here is the first survey of the actual distribution and usage of Reference Management Software in a research university in Malaysia. This picture can give an important glance to Reference Management Software as one of the elements in the academic digital librarie

When are readership counts as useful as citation counts? Scopus versus Mendeley for LIS journals

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Association for Information Science and Technology in Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology on 08/01/2015, available online: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23369 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.In theory, articles can attract readers on the social reference sharing site Mendeley before they can attract citations, so Mendeley altmetrics could provide early indications of article impact. This article investigates the influence of time on the number of Mendeley readers of an article through a theoretical discussion and an investigation into the relationship between counts of readers of, and citations to, 4 general library and information science (LIS) journals. For this discipline, it takes about 7 years for articles to attract as many Scopus citations as Mendeley readers, and after this the Spearman correlation between readers and citers is stable at about 0.6 for all years. This suggests that Mendeley readership counts may be useful impact indicators for both newer and older articles. The lack of dates for individual Mendeley article readers and an unknown bias toward more recent articles mean that readership data should be normalized individually by year, however, before making any comparisons between articles published in different years

Science Gateways: The Long Road to the Birth of an Institute

Nowadays, research in various disciplines is enhanced via computational methods, cutting-edge technologies and diverse resources including computational infrastructures and instruments. Such infrastructures are often complex and researchers need means to conduct their research in an efficient way without getting distracted with information technology nuances. Science gateways address such demands and offer user interfaces tailored to a specific community. Creators of science gateways face a breadth of topics and manifold challenges, which necessitate close collaboration with the domain specialists but also calling in experts for diverse aspects of a science gateway such as project management, licensing, team composition, sustainability, HPC, visualization, and usability specialists. The Science Gateway Community Institute tackles the challenges around science gateways to support domain specialists and developers via connecting them to diverse experts, offering consultancy as well as providing a software collaborative, which contains ready-to-use science gateway frameworks and science gateway components