37,415 research outputs found
The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia coverage of academics
Activity of modern scholarship creates online footprints galore. Along with
traditional metrics of research quality, such as citation counts, online images
of researchers and institutions increasingly matter in evaluating academic
impact, decisions about grant allocation, and promotion. We examined 400
biographical Wikipedia articles on academics from four scientific fields to
test if being featured in the world's largest online encyclopedia is correlated
with higher academic notability (assessed through citation counts). We found no
statistically significant correlation between Wikipedia articles metrics
(length, number of edits, number of incoming links from other articles, etc.)
and academic notability of the mentioned researchers. We also did not find any
evidence that the scientists with better WP representation are necessarily more
prominent in their fields. In addition, we inspected the Wikipedia coverage of
notable scientists sampled from Thomson Reuters list of "highly cited
researchers". In each of the examined fields, Wikipedia failed in covering
notable scholars properly. Both findings imply that Wikipedia might be
producing an inaccurate image of academics on the front end of science. By
shedding light on how public perception of academic progress is formed, this
study alerts that a subjective element might have been introduced into the
hitherto structured system of academic evaluation.Comment: To appear in EPJ Data Science. To have the Additional Files and
Datasets e-mail the corresponding autho
Collaboration between Librarians and Learning Technologists to enhance the learning of health sciences students.
Collaboration between Librarians and Learning Technologists at Bournemouth University (BU) has been stimulated and cemented by Pathfinder funding from the Higher Education Academy. This paper will consider four case studies collected as part of the eRes Project that describe the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the School of Health and Social Care at BU. The project aimed to enhance the student learning experience in an increasingly electronic environment. This was achieved by developing and disseminating innovative pedagogical frameworks, bringing together learning activities and academically led quality e-resources within the unit of study. An e-reading strategy which encompasses models for resource discovery and e-literacy was developed, drawing on the experiences and findings of the case studies. Issues considered in this paper will include accessing academic electronic reading materials and using a social bookmarking tool integrated within BUâs virtual learning environment with students studying away from the main campus. Additionally the paper will consider how technology can be used to motivate students, especially in large groups and how it can be used to engage students with a subject perceived as âdryâ or âdifficultâ. The rich possibilities of health science materials can be exploited more fully using new technologies embedded within the curriculum
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Collaborative design of educational digital libraries for African higher education
This thesis will develop a model that can be used to guide collaborative design of educational digital libraries that are relevant to the learning objectives and are appropriate to African Higher Education. Factors affecting connections between educational digital library capabilities, learning processes and learnersâ needs in higher education will be identified and used to develop the model. These factors will be identified through qualitative studies with the key players (i.e. academics, information professionals, digital library technical designers and students). The model will be iteratively developed and later evaluated for correctness by some of the key players. So far a preliminary literature review has been done to locate related work and identify knowledge gaps. In addition, a pilot study has been carried out and identified some temporal factors that will be pursued further in the proposed study
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Going where your users are: embedding library resources into VLE course pages
Genesis of Altmetrics or Article-level Metrics for Measuring Efficacy of Scholarly Communications: Current Perspectives
The article-level metrics (ALMs) or altmetrics becomes a new trendsetter in
recent times for measuring the impact of scientific publications and their
social outreach to intended audiences. The popular social networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin and social bookmarks such as Mendeley and
CiteULike are nowadays widely used for communicating research to larger
transnational audiences. In 2012, the San Francisco Declaration on Research
Assessment got signed by the scientific and researchers communities across the
world. This declaration has given preference to the ALM or altmetrics over
traditional but faulty journal impact factor (JIF)-based assessment of career
scientists. JIF does not consider impact or influence beyond citations count as
this count reflected only through Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database.
Furthermore, JIF provides indicator related to the journal, but not related to
a published paper. Thus, altmetrics now becomes an alternative metrics for
performance assessment of individual scientists and their contributed scholarly
publications. This paper provides a glimpse of genesis of altmetrics in
measuring efficacy of scholarly communications and highlights available
altmetric tools and social platforms linking altmetric tools, which are widely
used in deriving altmetric scores of scholarly publications. The paper thus
argues for institutions and policy makers to pay more attention to altmetrics
based indicators for evaluation purpose but cautions that proper safeguards and
validations are needed before their adoption
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STELLAR (Semantic Technologies Enhancing the Lifecycle of Learning Resources): Jisc Final Report
[Project Summary]
As one of the earliest distance learning providers The Open University (OU) has a rich heritage of archived learning materials. An ever increasing amount of that is in digital form and is being deposited with the University Archive. This growth has been driven by digitisation activity from projects such as AVA (Access to Video Assets) and the Fedora-based Open University Digital Library âa place to discover digital and digitised archival content from the OU Library, from videos and images to digitised documentsâ. Other digital content is being captured from web archiving activities, such as work to preserve Moodle Virtual Learning Environment course websites. An evidence based understanding is required to inform digital preservation policies, curation strategy and investment in digital library development.
Following the Pre-enhancement, Enhancement and Post-enhancement methodology set out by Jisc, STELLAR adopted the model of a balanced scorecard to ascertain the value ascribed to the non-current learning materials. Four aspects were considered: Personal and professional perspectives of value; Value to the Higher Educational and academic communities; Value to internal processes and cultures; Financial perspectives of value. The outcomes of the survey indicated that stakeholders place a high value on the materials, and that they perceived them to have value in all areas evaluated.
Three OU courses were chosen from the digital library for the transformation stage. These materials were enhanced and transformed into RDF, a process that required more extensive metadata expertise and effort than was expected. Following enhancement the RDF was accessed through a tool called DiscOU, created by a member of the project team from the OUâs Knowledge Media Institute. DiscOU uses both linked data and a semantic meaning engine to analyse the meaning of the text in a search query. This is matched against the meaning of the content derived from an index of the full-text of the digital library content.
In the final stage stakeholders were asked through a survey and series of workshops to use the DiscOU proof-of-concept tool to assess their perception of the value of this transformation. This has revealed that overall, academics and other stakeholders in the university do believe that the value of the selected materials was positively impacted by the application of semantic technologies
Community and health science Libguides: A case study on the use of Libguides to enhance library electronic resources and services at the University of the Western Cape Library
Magister Artium - MAAcademic libraries worldwide are using the digital content management and information
sharing LibGuides as a platform to provide and promote subject or course orientated
information resources, to share knowledge, to provide information literacy education, utilize
the Web 2.0 features to communicate with users to support teaching, learning and research.
This study explored the use of LibGuides by four departments in the Community and Health
Science (CHS) Faculty at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) among students,
academics and the faculty librarian. A descriptive case study research design with a sequential
explanatory mixed methods approach was adopted. As data gathering tools web based
questionnaires, face to face interviews and system generated LibGuides page views were
employed. Findings revealed that although the CHS librarian spent quality time to create
LibGuides and to expose faculty members to them, only a few students and teaching staff
actually used the LibGuides and that there was confusion between LibGuides and study or
course guides. Those who used LibGuides, found the information resources they contained
useful â especially course specific resources. Students and teaching staff being made aware of
LibGuides demonstrated willingness to use them, thus librarians should deploy strategies to
market, promote and educate users of LibGuides by amongst others, seeking collaboration. The
impact of the study was revealed by a teaching staff embedding CHS LibGuides in e-learning
courses, teaching staff introducing LibGuides during lectures and students approaching the
CHS librarian for training. It is recommended that the CHS librarian incorporate suggested
information resources into LibGuides, that LibGuides awareness should be raised, more
training be done and that further research to explore the use and benefits of LibGuides at UWC
be undertaken. It is recommended that library managers deploy strategies to reach out to
faculties to enhance the use of library resources using LibGuides
An International Prospectus for Library & Information Professionals: Development, Leadership and Resources for Evolving Patron Needs
The roles of library and information professionals must change and evolve to: 1. accommodate needs of tech-savvy patrons; 2. thrive in the Commons & Library 2.0; 3. provide integrated, just-in-time services; 4. constantly update and enhance technology; 5. design appropriate library spaces for research and productivity; 6.adapt to new models of scholarly communication and publication, especially: the Open Archives Initiative and digital repositories; 7. remain abreast of national and interanational academic and legislative initiatives affecting the provision of information services and resources.
Professionals will need to collaborate in: 1. Formal & informal networks â regional, national, and international; and; 2. Library staff development initiatives â regional, national, international
Professionals will need to use libraries as laboratories for ongoing, lifelong training and education of patrons and of all library staff ( internal patrons ): the library is the framework in which Information Research Literacy is the curriculum . Professionals will need to remain aware of trends and challenges in their regions, the EU, the US and North America, of models which might provide inspiration and support: 1. Top Technology Trends; 2. New paradigms of professionalism; 3. Knowledge-creation and knowledge consumption; 4. The shifting balance of the physical library with the virtual-digital librar
Peer review innovations in Humanities: how can scholars in A&H profit of the "wisdom of the crowds"?
Though supported by a large number of scholars in Scientific, Technical, and Medical (STM) disciplines traditional peer review does not live up to the needs of an efficient scholarly communication system and of quality research control.
Therefore journals in STM are experimenting different forms of refereeing in combination with more traditional peer review system. Such is the case of PLoSONE, Biology Direct, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence, and JIME.
However in STM disciplines public peer review is not regarded an alternative to more traditional quality certification forms.
It may be the case in the Arts & Humanities.
In A&H publishing system peer review is by far a less common practice.
Therefore the adoption of a social peer review process could be very useful to foster research in humanities. Scholars in A&H can profit of the interactive evaluation forms of the public peer-review to strengthen the scholarly debate, to foster active international and interdisciplinary discussions, to focus social attention on topics in Humanities, to broaden the borders of the cultural and intellectual discourse among non-scholars (public debate). This paper will provide some examples of how social peer review has been adopted by innovative communities of scholars in humanities to publish new experimental digital book models.
In the digital environment the concepts of âdocumentâ, of âcompleteness of a documentâ and of âevaluationâ is fast changing. In a close future in scholarly publishing it might become possible to overcome the rigid distinction between ex-ante and ex-post evaluation as the evaluation process might become an enduring part of the text itsel
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