Comparison of USA and UK rankings of LIS journals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate UK academics’ views of the importance and prestige of journals relevant to library and information science (LIS) teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire, based on one used previously in the USA, was sent to UK academics involved in LIS teaching and research. The questionnaire asked respondents to rate the importance of 87 LIS journals, to suggest others that were of importance to them but that were not amongst the 87, and to identify the five most prestigious journals for promotion purposes. In addition, those journals were identified that had figured in institutional submissions to the LIS Unit of Assessment in Research Excellence Framework (REF). Findings – While there was a fair measure of overall agreement between US and UK rankings of the 87 journals, with both highlighting the standing of the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology and of the Journal of Documentation, some substantial differences were also noted. Evidence is presented for a strong locational component to academics’ assessments of journal prestige, and analysis of the REF2014 submissions demonstrates the highly inter-disciplinary nature of LIS research in the UK. Research limitations/implications – The sample size is small, comprising 30 completed responses. Originality/value – This is the first study to report UK academics’ rankings of LIS journals, and to compare those with comparable data for US academics

Forecasting the Subject Trend of International Library and Information Science Research by 2030 Using the Deep Learning Approach

This study seeks to forecast the subject trend of library and information science research until 2030 based on modeling previous research topics in this field, which has been done with a text mining and in-depth learning approach. After pre-processing and thematic classification of the studies, deep neural network algorithms were used to model previous studies and forecast future topics. The study population included 90,311 journal articles in library and information science publications indexed on the Web of Science website from 1945-2020. All research processes were implemented in the Python programming language. The findings showed that the largest number of studies in the future would be related to Internet and web studies, and the growth rate of these topics will be higher in the future. However, topics related to libraries and their work processes and other traditional disciplines such as theoretical foundations will have a lower growth rate in library and information science studies. As a result, knowledge of important future issues, while helping to plan for future research, can identify study gaps and investment opportunities in the R&D sector, thereby assisting researchers, universities, and relevant research institutes in selecting projects intelligently.https://dorl.net/dor/ 20.1001.1.20088302.2022.20.1.26.

Library Review 1989-2017 : publication and citation statistics

Purpose: To provide a bibliometric review of the journal Library Review from 1989 until its relaunch in 2018 as Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication. Design/methodology: Bibliometric analysis of 1,084 articles published in Library Review in the period 1989-2017. Findings: Authors from 69 different countries have published in the journal, with Scotland providing the largest single contribution in terms of authors and institutions. Articles in the journal have been extensively cited, with the citations coming not only from the core library and information science literature but also from journals in a very broad range of disciplines. Originality: This paper extends previous work on articles published in the journal and provides the first detailed study of citations to those published articles

Perceptions of Intellectual Property:A Review

In “The right to good ideas: patents and the poor”, The Economist depicts two driving forces in the contemporary discourse on IP and globalization. The one is interested in advancing the knowledge economy, an approach based on the belief that knowledge is the driving factor behind economic growth. The other resides on a belief that IP is a major means to advance the process of globalization. While the former is strongly motivated by new economic growth theory, as for example advanced by Stanford professor Paul Romer, the latter is based on typical anti-globalization arguments, such as for example the position that the IP system helps multinational companies to build up monopolies to the detriment of the poor, drives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local business in developing countries out of business and increases prices for consumer products, be they pharmaceuticals or software. The purpose of this review is to help understand the current discourse on intellectual property, to grasp underlying themes, assumptions and connotations associated with the term “IP”, so as to identify paths leading to a more comprehensive understanding of IP and the opportunities and pitfalls it may provide

Temas y métodos de investigación en ciencia de la información, 2000-2019. Revisión bibliográfica

Se realiza una revisión sistemática de bibliografía que analiza los temas de investigación y los métodos y técnicas utilizados en la Ciencia de la Información que han sido recogidos en revisiones y estudios publicados entre 2000 y 2019. Se han revisado 36 trabajos. Según los resultados obtenidos no hay un consenso sobre los temas nucleares de la disciplina, ya que éstos evolucionan y cambian dinámicamente en relación con otras disciplinas y con los contextos sociales y culturales dominantes. En relación con los métodos y técnicas de investigación, puede afirmase que en su mayoría han sido adoptados del campo de las ciencias sociales, a los que hay que añadir los métodos numéricos, especialmente en las áreas de bibliometría e informetría. A systematic literature review is carried out, detailing the research topics and the methods and techniques used in information science in studies published between 2000 and 2019. The results obtained allow us to affirm that there is no consensus on the core topics of information science, as these evolve and change dynamically in relation to other disciplines, and with the dominant social and cultural contexts. With regard to the research methods and techniques, it can be stated that they have mostly been adopted from social sciences, with the addition of numerical methods, especially in the fields of bibliometric and scientometric research

Tracing paradigm shifts in information literacy: a progressive knowledge domain visualization approach

An information literate population is a fundamental component of modern society, but the definition of what it means to be information literate has changed over time, resulting in debates within the information literacy community. Through the lens of Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions and Shneider's four stages of a discipline framework, this dissertation examines the progress of the information literacy research domain using both scientometric and content analysis methods. Three research questions are addressed in this study. First, the structural and temporal features of the information literacy knowledge domain are identified using document co-citation analysis to identify major research areas, landmark and hub documents, and active research topics. Second, pivotal papers connecting major research areas are explored using pathfinder network scaling algorithms to identify critical paths of transition in the domain. Finally, full-text pivotal documents are examined using qualitative content analysis to trace the progression of information literacy construct definitions in seminal research documents. Findings support a paradigm shift occurred in the domain when the skills-based information literacy definition was rejected in favor of a metaliteracy model. Technological advancement emerged as an influencing factor on paradigms, playing a major role in the domain's evolution over the past half-century. Information literacy research and instruction is built upon the framework used to define what it means to be information literate. Therefore, this study has practical implications for information literacy researchers, librarians, and students.Includes bibliographical references

Evaluación de la actividad científica en ciencia de la información a partir de indicadores bibliométricos y altmétricos

La presente investigación es un análisis de la producción científica en Ciencia de la Informacion (CI), fundamentada en el contexto epistemológico e histórico de la disciplina, para identificar las tendencias de uso de la información en plataformas de publicación formales e informales. A partir de la implementación de indicadores bibliométricos e indicadores alternativos, se pretende establecer. ¿Como la integración de indicadores altimétricos en la evaluación científica, posibilita la identificación de tendencias en la investigación disciplinar? Y si es valido afirmar, que la altmetría es una herramienta confiable y útil para la evaluación de los dominios científicos. Se toma como referente la producción visible en Web of Science durante el periodo 2012- 2016, para identificar las dinámicas científicas de investigación en la CI, a partir de una muestra de 1224 registros en los cuales se utilizan indicadores bibliometricos de producción, citación o impacto e indicadores altimétricos recuperados de las plataformas ResearchGate (RG) y Plum Analytics (PlumX). Los resultados evidencian que los indicadores alternativos aun están en periodo de desarrollo y necesitan normalización; de lo cual se concluye, que la evaluación científica requiere la complementación de modelos métricos clásicos junto a métricas alternativas que permitan identificar las dinámicas sociales y de comunicación que se generan en la comunidad científica más allá del impacto y la citación.This research is an analysis of the scientific activity in Information Science (CI), based on the epistemological and historical context of the discipline, to identify trends in the use of information in formal and informal publishing platforms. Based on the implementation of bibliometric iand alternative indicators, it is intended to establish: How does the integration of altmetric indicators in scientific evaluation make it possible to identify trends in disciplinary research? And, if it is valid to say that altmetrics is a reliable and useful tool for the scientific evaluation of scientific domains. Visible production in Web of Science during the 2012-2016 period is taken as a reference to identify the scientific dynamics of research in the CI, from a sample of 1224 records in which bibliometric indicators of production, citation or impact and altmetric indicators recovered from the ResearchGate (RG) and Plum Analytics (PlumX) platforms are used. The results show that the alternative indicators are still under development and need to be standardized; from which it is concluded that scientific evaluation requires the complementing of classical metric models with alternative metrics that allow identifying the social and communication dynamics generated in the scientific community beyond the impact and citation.Profesional en Ciencia de la Información - Bibliotecólogo (a)Pregrad

Research and development in science and technology in GCC countries: role of information centres and libraries

This research study identifies the role of library and information centres at the major science and technology related universities and research institutes in the six GeC countries i.e. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, in relation to the institutes/organisations research and development activities. It also had a comparative aspect in that it examined information resources and information services available in the institutes/organisations under study with users perceptions on the effectiveness and efficiency of library and information services. A survey research design utilizing questionnaires was chosen as the most appropriate and effective method for gathering the data needed with intensive interviews with academe, Deans/Directors of Library Information Centres and R&D personnel to answer the study's research questions. The different populations were queried including the Chief Executives of institutes/organisations, Deans/Directors of Library and Information Centres and selected R&D personnel associated with them. It was found that in spite of large library collections and a number of de-centralised library systems in all the universities, information services available to the R&D personnel were inadequate. The fmdings of this investigation provided the means for the development of the proposed regional and national library/information network systems for successful library and information services model presented in this study. As an alternative a GeC infonnation subsystem GCC-SIST has been recommended along with emphasis on an electronic information system