Relationships between Consumption, Publication and Impact in French Universities in a value perspective: A Bibliometric Analysis

International audienceThe study aims to investigate the relationships between consumption of e-journals distributed by Elsevier ScienceDirect platform, publication (articles) and impact (citations) in a sample of 13 French universities, from 2003 to 2009. It adopts a value perspective as it questions whether or not publication activity and impact are some kind of return led by consumption. A bibliometric approach was used to explore the relations between these three variables. The analysis developed indicators inspired by the mathematical h-Index technique. Results show that the relation between consumption, publication and citations depends on the discipline’s profile, the intensity of research and the size of each institution. Moreover, although relations have been observed between the three variables, it is not possible to determine which variable comes first to explain the phenomena. The study concludes by showing strong correlations, which nevertheless do not lead to clear causal relations. The article provide practical implication for academic library managers who want to show the added value of their electronic e-journals collections can replicate the study approach. Also for policy makers who want to take into account e-journals usage as an informative tool to predict the importance of publication activity. Originality: The study is the first French contribution to e-journal value studies. Its originality consists in developing a value viewpoint that relies on a bibliometric approach.Keywords: scholarly journals, e-journals, ScienceDirect, value, academic libraries, downloads, citations, impact, articles, publication, research outcomes, h-index, France, bibliometry

Verdien av bibliotek i høyere utdanning: en spørreundersøkelse om lesing av vitenskapelige artikler

Konkret kunnskap om hvilken verdi biblioteket har for sine brukere og hvilke resultater biblioteket bidrar til med sine tjenester og ressurser er viktig. Med slik kunnskap vil det være lettere for biblioteket å velge riktig retning og utvikle seg videre til beste for sine brukere. I tillegg vil det være lettere å føre faktabaserte diskusjoner med de som mener at bibliotek i dag har utspilt sin rolle. I denne masteroppgaven er formålet å undersøke hva slags verdi og utbytte lesing av vitenskapelige artikler gir og hva bibliotekets rolle er i anskaffelsen av artiklene. Data er samlet inn gjennom en spørreundersøkelse blant faglig ansatte ved Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag. Utfordringen med verdimåling av goder som ikke er en del av et ordinært marked utgjør bakteppet for problemstillingen. Value-in-use er det sentrale verdibegrepet i oppgaven, med utbytte som et viktig element og utgangspunkt for verdimåling. Hovedfunnene viser at lesing av vitenskapelige artikler spiller en viktig rolle og at biblioteket har en verdi i forhold til anskaffelse, tidsbruk og utbytte. Samtidig viser resultatene også at verdien kan økes gjennom mer kunnskap om hvordan biblioteket kan hjelpe brukerne å oppnå sine mål og gjennom enda større fokus på å ha god tilgang til både eldre og nye artikler.Knowledge about the value of the library for its users and the results the library contributes to with its resources and services is important. Having this knowledge would make it easier for the library to choose the right direction and develop for the benefit of its users. It would also help in leading knowledge-based discussions with those who believe the library no longer has an important role. The purpose of this master thesis is to gain more knowledge about the value and outcome to academic staff of scholarly article reading, and how the library contributes in obtaining the articles. The study was conducted as a survey among the academic staff at Sør-Trøndelag University College. The foundation of the question of library value is the challenge connected with measuring value of a good that is without a marked. Value-in-use is the main concept of value in this thesis, while outcome is sees as an important part of, and surrogate for, value. The main findings show that scholarly article reading plays an important role and that the library has a value in regards to obtaining articles, time invested and outcome. The results also show that value may be increased through more knowledge about how the library can help users achieve their goals and through even higher focus on access to both old and new articles.Master i bibliotek- og informasjonsvitenska

International branch campus faculty member experiences of the academic library

This thesis uses phenomenography to investigate the perceptions and experiences of academic libraries by faculty members across a variety of disciplines working in international branch campuses (IBCs). The main research question addressed by the study asks how faculty members experience the academic library, with the objective of identifying qualitative variations in experience within this group. The findings of this research address established practical problems related to library value and identity, and have implications for practice in both the development and evaluation of library services for faculty members, as well as communication about those services with faculty members. Furthermore, the findings of this research support practical developments in the support of faculty members engaged in transnational higher education provision. The results of the research find that these participants in this context experienced the academic library in at least six different ways and reported a variety of experiences in terms of using information, in and out of the academic library, to accomplish core faculty member functions of teaching and research. The categories of experience generated through the study are: IBC faculty members experience the academic library as relationships with librarians; as a content provider; as a discovery service; as a facilitator for engaging with the academic community; as a champion of reading books; and as a compliance centre for information ethics. Investigations into the information behaviour, library use and perceptions of faculty members have been conducted in a variety of contexts, but are limited in transnational contexts. This research therefore also represents an original and important contribution to an understanding of academic library practice in transnational or cross-border contexts, as well as contributing to a limited knowledge base about the experiences of faculty members in transnational higher education generally. Phenomenographic investigations into the experiences of library and information science elements such as libraries and information centres are rare, and therefore this research represents an original contribution to understanding this phenomenon in this way. The study employed phenomenography as the methodology for understanding the academic library experiences of the participants. Ten faculty member participants representing a variety of IBC institutions located within major educational hubs in the Arab Gulf and Southeast Asia were interviewed about their academic library experiences moving from a home campus to a branch campus, using the story of this move as a critical incident for starting discussion and relaying real experiences to the researcher. These experiences are theoretically situated in the context of information worlds (Jaeger & Burnett, 2010) in order to increase understanding around the formation of these experiences and to critically analyse practical implications. This research design contributes to the phenomenographic method by detailing its procedures and to its theoretical aspects by linking the methodological with a framework, Jaeger and Burnett’s theory of information worlds, which facilitates phenomenography outside its traditional domain of teaching and learning research

Strategies for managing scholarly content at universities in Kenya.

Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.This study investigated strategies employed by universities in Kenya in managing scholarly content and addressed the following research questions: What kinds of scholarly content are generated and used in universities in Kenya? How is the scholarly content generated and/or acquired in universities in Kenya preserved and archived for current and future use? How do Kenyan scholars communicate amongst themselves in the various stages of their research work? To what extent do Kenyan scholars participate in local and/or international professional social networks? To what extent do existing institutional facilities in the universities support scholars‘ research and communication needs? The study was underpinned by three theoretical lenses namely: The Conversation Theory, the Social Network Theory and the Knowledge Management Process Model. The Knowledge Management Process Model was the main theoretical lens used to underpin the research problem in this study as it encompassed most issues of the research problem on the subject matter of scholarly content management in universities in Kenya. The study was based on the post-positivist paradigm and applied quantitative and qualitative approaches. A survey plan was employed within a multiple case study design. The population of the study consisted of academic staff and postgraduate students drawn from six purposively selected universities using the 2013 Webometric academic ranking of best Universities in Kenya (based on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of research output). Convenience sampling was used to identify participants for the study from academic staff and postgraduate students. In this strategy, those respondents who were available and willing to participate in the study when the questionnaires were being administered were included in the study. Academic staff and postgraduate students were targeted for the study since they were considered key actors in the scholarly communication process as creators and consumers of scholarly content. Purposive sampling was used to target all the six University Librarians and all six representatives of the universities‘ research units respectively. Therefore a census of the University Librarians and Representatives of the universities‘ research units was taken. These respondents were considered key informants since they were directly involved in facilitating and managing research and scholarly communication at the universities. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 350 academic staff and 370 postgraduate students while interviews were used to collect data from the key informants from the research units and also from the university librarians. Qualitative data were analysed and presented using derived themes while quantitative data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics and Gephi Social Network Analysis software. Descriptive and inferential statistics were generated by the statistical software while the social network analysis software was used to depict the social networks existing among scholars at the universities. Results of quantitative data analysis were presented using tables, graphs and charts. Cronbach‘s Alpha was generated for individual questions in the survey questionnaire to help determine internal validity. The study adhered to the ethical protocol of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Moreover, permission was obtained from the National Council of Science and Technology in Kenya as well as from individual universities to allow the study to be undertaken in the selected universities. The results revealed that several types of scholarly content were generated through research and publications in the universities surveyed, with the most common being theses, journal articles and conference papers. The results further revealed that a majority of academic staff in universities in Kenya were not actively involved in knowledge generation through research and publications with only 42% of academic staff and 37% of postgraduate students producing 1-3 journal articles in the period 2010-2014. The results also showed that there was high level of awareness among academic staff and postgraduate students regarding preservation of scholarly content as most respondents documented their research procedures, backed up information, moved files to newer computers and used printouts to preserve content. However, the respondents seemed to hardly use digital archives or university servers for preservation of their scholarly content. The results seemed to suggest heavy reliance on modern technology-enabled communication techniques and face-to-face interactions for communication amongst scholars. Institutional repositories were hardly used for scholarly communication although they existed in all universities surveyed. Social Network Analysis revealed limited participation by respondents in local and international scholarly networks with majority of collaborations taking place as independent dyads or triads. Results also revealed inadequate institutional support for research and scholarly communication including funding, material and physical infrastructure, mentorship, and ICT facilities. From the results, it is concluded that strategies for managing scholarly content at universities in Kenya are weak, impacting negatively on quality, quantity and visibility of scholarly content. It is therefore concluded that a policy framework that would encompass the different facets of managing scholarly content is necessary. Specifically, research productivity in universities in Kenya was low owing to among other factors poor research culture, poor mentorship, weak social ties between scholars, and inadequate support for research and scholarly communication in the universities. Moreover, visibility of scholarly content was found to be poor owing to reliance by academic staff and postgraduate students on traditional publishing modes such as subject journals and conference proceedings compared to institutional websites and repositories. The study recommended among other things development of specific strategies to enhance management of scholarly content within the universities. The study recommends development of an elaborate policy framework to guide content generation, storage, dissemination, access and use of scholarly content in universities in Kenya. Additionally, the study recommended institutionalization of mentorship programs to entrench scholarship amongst academic staff and graduate students; nurturing of scholarly collaboration to facilitate knowledge sharing and enhance the quality, quantity and visibility of research output from the universities; provision of more research funds especially by government to strengthen research capacity of the universities; and strengthening of university research niches to improve quality of research. The study makes an original contribution to the area of managing scholarly content from the perspective of universities in Kenya. Unlike previous studies that focus primarily on management of scholarly content from academic staff, the present study included academic staff, postgraduate students and librarians. The Social Network Analysis model was used to depict the departmental, interdepartmental and international scholarly collaborations in the universities surveyed Suggestions for further research include research to establish the nature of policies required at institutional and government level to improve research capacity and training programs in universities in Kenya. It is evident that absence of such policies is negatively impacting on the quality of research going on in universities in Kenya, despite the large quantity of resources already invested on research. Therefore, without such policies, it is inevitable that quality of research within universities in Kenya will continue to be low. Further research is also necessary to evaluate the actual use of electronic resources in university libraries. The study results revealed low usage of these resources by scholars with some claiming they were inaccessible. Such a study would establish usage levels as well as reasons for use or non-use of the resources. A further suggestion is for analysis of the scholarly collaborations existing among Kenyan scholars by using bibliometric techniques and social network analysis to determine the level of research collaboration among scholars. This will provide a further understanding of the nature of their collaborations, as well as research productivity and visibility of these scholars in the global literature

O impacto da biblioteca do conhecimento online (B-on) sobre a utilização e a produção científica portuguesas (2000-2010)

Nos últimos anos, têm sido várias as iniciativas realizadas para promover o acesso universal à Sociedade da Informação e do Conhecimento. Foi neste contexto que, em 2004, a Biblioteca do Conhecimento Online (b-on) foi lançada em Portugal celebrando este ano o seu 10 º aniversário. Com a b-on, tornou-se mais fácil ter acesso ao texto integral de publicações científicas internacionais. Este estudo tem como objetivo apresentar e analisar alguns dos indicadores estatísticos e bibliométricos da produção científica portuguesa relacionando- -os com a b-on. Procurámos conhecer o impacto da b-on quer ao nível da utilização quer ao nível da produção científica. Para tal analisámos o uso dos recursos eletrónicos disponibilizados pela b-on por parte das universidades públicas membros do consórcio, entre 2004 e 2010, tendo escolhido como amostra as cinco universidades com maior número de downloads por FTE (full time equivalent). Analisámos a evolução do número de downloads, os fornecedores de conteúdos mais utilizados, os títulos com maior utilização. Para além dos dados de utilização do consórcio, utilizámos a Web of Science (WoS) a partir da qual identificámos os artigos indexados com afiliação Portuguesa e nas cinco universidades que constituem a nossa amostra entre 2000-2010. Posteriormente, foram identificados os autores com maior número de artigos indexados a quem aplicámos um inquérito por questionário eletrónico sobre o impacto que a b-on tem nas suas práticas de investigação e cujos resultados mostram a relação entre o consumo e a produção científica. Assim, através de uma metodologia quantitativa e bibliométrica, foram identificadas as áreas de pesquisa com o maior número de artigos, revistas científicas com o maior número de artigos publicados, idioma, co-autoria internacional, entre outros. Para além deste levantamento quantitativo, entrevistámos alguns dos principais intervenientes pelo e aquando do aparecimento da b-on ao nível político, operacional e colaborativo. Esta triangulação de métodos permitiu-nos obter uma maior riqueza de dados e, como tal, fazer uma análise mais completa sobre a b-on e o seu impacto junto da comunidade académica e científica nacional. A evolução dos totais globais dos downloads nas universidades estudadas apresentou uma tendência crescente e constante da utilização dos conteúdos eletrónicos. Existe claramente um aumento do consumo dos mesmos por parte da comunidade académica e científica portuguesa, em particular por parte das universidades. Também a produção científica nacional tem crescido nos últimos anos, pelo que se pode concluir que a disponibilidade e o acesso aos recursos eletrónicos contribuem para o aumento da produtividade científica das universidades e que o estudo e a análise do seu uso e produção são essenciais. A b-on é hoje um caso de sucesso e considerada por muitos como um instrumento fundamental no acesso e na produção de conteúdos científicos; The impact of The Online Knowledge Library (b-on) on the usage and Portuguese scientific output (2000-2010) Abstract: In recent years several initiatives have taken place to promote universal access to the Information and Knowledge Society. It was in this context that in 2004 the Online Knowledge Library (b-on) was launched in Portugal celebrating this year its 10th anniversary. With b-on it became easier to get access to full text international scientific publications. This study aims to present and analyse some statistical and bibliometric indicators of the Portuguese scientific output seeking to evaluate its connection with b-on. Our aim was to understand the impact of b-on in terms of usage and scientific output. We analysed the usage of b-on resources by the public universities members of the consortium from 2004 to 2010, and we chose as sample the five universities with more downloads per FTE (full time equivalent). We analyse the evolution of downloads, widely used content suppliers, the favourite titles within total downloads. In addition to the usage data of the consortium, we used the Web of Science (WoS) from which we identified the articles indexed with affiliation in Portugal and in the five Portuguese universities, individually, between 2000 and 2010. Thus, and through a quantitative and bibliometric methodology, we identified the research areas with the largest number of articles, scientific journals with the highest number of published articles, language and international co-authorship, among others. Thereafter, we identified the authors with the largest number of indexed articles and made them a questionnaire about the impact that b-on has on their research patterns and whose results show the relation between consumption and scientific output. Beyond this quantitative analysis, we interviewed some of the key persons responsible for the development of b-on concerning the political, operational and collaborative levels. This triangulation of methods allowed us to obtain a higher data richness and do a more complete analysis of b-on’s impact on the academic and scientific national community. The overall totals for downloads at the studied universities showed a constant growth of the electronic contents usage. Therefore, there is clearly an upward trend in the consumption of scholarly information in electronic form in the Portuguese academic community, especially at the universities We conclude that the availability and access to electronic resources contributes to the increased of the scientific productivity of the universities and that the study and analysis of its use and output are essential. The b-on is a success and considered by many teachers and researchers as a fundamental tool in accessing and producing scientific contents