Reflecting Attitude In It Adoption Research – Theoretical Considerations And Scientometric Evaluations

Users’ attitudes depict one of the main determinants, why individuals use information systems. However, in the basic theoretical understanding of social psychology research attitude could be shaped in two different ways; attitude formation and attitude change. Within this paper, both attitude research streams are theoretically reflected as well as observed in IT adoption literature using data of a scientometric analysis of the following 14 top journals of the IS field according to several journal rankings. The results represent a domination of attitude formation and show that 90% of the articles applied this form. Additionally, it could be revealed that the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior are the most applied underlyings for attitude formation. Furthermore, two interesting aspects could be outlined. Concerning attitude change, besides being by definition a construct to describe dynamic structures with a process-based measurement, 44% of the articles found used underlying theories for static structures with a moment-based measurement

TAKING STOCK AND LOOKING FORWARD: A SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF IS/IT INTEGRATION CHALLENGES IN MERGERS

The last decade has seen a rise in research on the topic of challenges associated with information systems (IS) in corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of IS challenges in M&A activity, absent is the necessary step of consolidating and integrating extant knowledge. In this paper, we review the domain of IS integration in M&As with focus on the theory building in the area. We identify and analyse 48 articles, published in 13 journals and 5 conference proceedings based on their theoretical contribution. Based on the analysis we point out gaps in the literature and suggest directions for future research

The Open Access Landscape of Institutional Repositories : A bibliometric analysis of Lund University Publications

This master’s thesis is a bibliometric study of the institutional repository Lund University Publishing. The study aims to investigate the role of institutional repositories in open access publishing and to examine institutional repositories’ potential in describing research impact through the download statistics they provide for their open access material. The Swedish Research Council’s recent report on research evaluation in Sweden and the planned development of the SwePub national research database are impetus for a closer evaluation of institutional repositories in Sweden. Although related research has approached these topics before, the current thesis will do so uniquely by combining metadata and usage data from an institutional repository with citation analysis from Web of Science to better understand the role of institutional repositories in making research output available open access. The research output data of three faculties at the large, multidisciplinary higher education institution Lund University were examined for the study. The results of the bibliometric analysis showed a trend of increased proportions of publications available open access in the institutional repository from 2008 to 2012. There were however differences between the faculties, with the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering showing a marked increase in open access content while the Faculties of the Humanities and Theology showed no increase. No substantial correlation was found between downloads and citations, suggesting that downloads represent a unique indicator of open access research impact, potentially reflecting use of scholarly material by a user group other than researcher colleagues. Further studies will however be needed to investigate the meaning of usage data in the form of download statistics

The metric tide: report of the independent review of the role of metrics in research assessment and management

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management. The review was chaired by Professor James Wilsdon, supported by an independent and multidisciplinary group of experts in scientometrics, research funding, research policy, publishing, university management and administration. This review has gone beyond earlier studies to take a deeper look at potential uses and limitations of research metrics and indicators. It has explored the use of metrics across different disciplines, and assessed their potential contribution to the development of research excellence and impact. It has analysed their role in processes of research assessment, including the next cycle of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). It has considered the changing ways in which universities are using quantitative indicators in their management systems, and the growing power of league tables and rankings. And it has considered the negative or unintended effects of metrics on various aspects of research culture. The report starts by tracing the history of metrics in research management and assessment, in the UK and internationally. It looks at the applicability of metrics within different research cultures, compares the peer review system with metric-based alternatives, and considers what balance might be struck between the two. It charts the development of research management systems within institutions, and examines the effects of the growing use of quantitative indicators on different aspects of research culture, including performance management, equality, diversity, interdisciplinarity, and the ‘gaming’ of assessment systems. The review looks at how different funders are using quantitative indicators, and considers their potential role in research and innovation policy. Finally, it examines the role that metrics played in REF2014, and outlines scenarios for their contribution to future exercises

COVID-19 and Environment: Impacts of a Global Pandemic

This is a reprint of the MDPI IJERPH Special Issue entitled "COVID-19 and Environment: Impacts of a Global Pandemic". The reprint consists of 17 papers with different topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic and environmental impacts using data from different countries all over the globe