Aggregation of the web performance of internal university units as a method of quantitative analysis of a university system: the case of Spain

The aggregation of web performance data (page count and visibility) of internal university units could constitute a more precise indicator than the overall web performance of the universities and, therefore, be of use in the design of university web rankings. In order to test this hypothesis, a longitudinal analysis of the internal units of the Spanish university system was conducted over the course of 2010. For the 13,800 URLs identified, page count and visibility were calculated using the Yahoo! API. The internal values obtained were aggregated by university and compared with the values obtained from the analysis of the universities' general URLs. The results indicate that, although the correlations between general and internal values are high, internal performance is low in comparison to general performance, and that they give rise to different performance rankings. The conclusion is that the aggregation of unit performance is of limited use due to the low levels of internal development of the websites, and so its use is not recommended for the design of rankings. Despite this, the internal analysis enabled the detection of, among other things, a low correlation between page count and visibility due to the widespread use of subdirectories and problems accessing certain content.Orduña Malea, E. (2013). Aggregation of the web performance of internal university units as a method of quantitative analysis of a university system: the case of Spain. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 64(10):2100-2114. doi:10.1002/asi.22912S210021146410Aguillo, I. F., Granadino, B., Ortega, J. L., & Prieto, J. A. (2006). Scientific research activity and communication measured with cybermetrics indicators. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57(10), 1296-1302. doi:10.1002/asi.20433Aguillo, I. F., Ortega, J. L., Fernández, M., & Utrilla, A. M. (2010). Indicators for a webometric ranking of open access repositories. Scientometrics, 82(3), 477-486. doi:10.1007/s11192-010-0183-yBarjak, F., Li, X., & Thelwall, M. (2006). Which factors explain the Web impact of scientists’ personal homepages? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(2), 200-211. doi:10.1002/asi.20476Chu, H., He, S., & Thelwall, M. (2002). Library and Information Science Schools in Canada and USA: A Webometric Perspective. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 43(2), 110. doi:10.2307/40323972Glänzel , W. Debackere , K. 2009 On the “multi-dimensionality” of rankings: Some methodological and mathematical questions to be solved in university assessmentHix, S. (2004). A Global Ranking of Political Science Departments. Political Studies Review, 2(3), 293-313. doi:10.1111/j.1478-9299.2004.00011.xLi , X. 2005 National and international university departmental Web site interlinking: a webometric analysisLi, X. (2003). Scientometrics, 57(2), 239-255. doi:10.1023/a:1024189702463Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., & Musgrove, P. (2005). National and international university departmental Web site interlinking. Scientometrics, 64(2), 151-185. doi:10.1007/s11192-005-0246-7Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., & Musgrove, P. (2005). National and international university departmental Web site interlinking. Scientometrics, 64(2), 187-208. doi:10.1007/s11192-005-0247-6NERI, F., & RODGERS, J. R. (2006). Ranking Australian Economics Departments by Research Productivity. Economic Record, 82(s1), S74-S84. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4932.2006.00334.xOrduña-Malea , E. 2012 Propuesta de un modelo de análisis redinformétrico multinivel para el estudio sistémico de las universidades españolas (2010)Orduña-Malea E. Espacio universitario español en la Web (2010): estudio descriptivo de instituciones y productos académicos a través del análisis de subdominios y subdirectoriosOrduña-Malea, E., Serrano-Cobos, J., & Lloret-Romero, N. (2009). Las universidades públicas españolas en Google Scholar: presencia y evolución de su publicación académica web. El Profesional de la Informacion, 18(5), 493-500. doi:10.3145/epi.2009.sep.02Orduña-Malea, E., Serrano-Cobos, J., Ontalba-Ruipérez, J. A., & Lloret-Romero, N. (2010). Presencia y visibilidad web de las universidades públicas españolas. Revista española de Documentación Científica, 33(2), 246-278. doi:10.3989/redc.2010.2.740Ortega , J.L. 2007 Visualización de la Web universitaria Europea: análisis cuantitativo de enlaces a través de técnicas cibermétricasTang, R., & Thelwall, M. (2003). U.S. academic departmental Web-site interlinking in the United States Disciplinary differences. Library & Information Science Research, 25(4), 437-458. doi:10.1016/s0740-8188(03)00053-7Tang, R., & Thelwall, M. (2004). Patterns of national and international Web inlinks to US academic departments: An analysis of disciplinary variations. Scientometrics, 60(3), 475-485. doi:10.1023/b:scie.0000034388.70594.ccThelwall, M. (2011). A comparison of link and URL citation counting. Aslib Proceedings, 63(4), 419-425. doi:10.1108/00012531111148985Thelwall, M., & Harries, G. (2004). Can Personal Web Pages that Link to Universities Yield Information about the Wider Dissemination of Research? Journal of Information Science, 30(3), 240-253. doi:10.1177/0165551504044669Thelwall, M., & Harries, G. (2003). Do the Web sites of higher rated scholars have significantly more online impact? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(2), 149-159. doi:10.1002/asi.10362Thelwall, M., Li, X., Barjak, F., & Robinson, S. (2008). Assessing the international web connectivity of research groups. Aslib Proceedings, 60(1), 18-31. doi:10.1108/00012530810847344Thomas, O., & Willett, P. (2000). Webometric analysis of departments of librarianship and information science. Journal of Information Science, 26(6), 421-428. doi:10.1177/016555150002600605Utrilla Ramírez, A. M., Fernández, M., Ortega, J. L., & Aguillo, I. F. (2009). Clasificación Web de hospitales del mundo: situación de los hospitales en la red. Medicina Clínica, 132(4), 144-153. doi:10.1016/j.medcli.2008.05.00

New Roman milestones and other Latin inscriptions from Bani Walid, Tripolitania

This paper publishes the texts of three new Roman milestones and two other Latin texts from the vicinity of Bani Walid. These stones were found lying on the ground in the western suburbs of the city, apparently having been collected up and put aside by the landowners in clearing their fields to grow crops on their farms. Although previously postulated, these milestones are the first confirmation that a Roman road ran through Bani Walid. As a group these new texts offer new insight into the development of the transport infrastructure and agricultural economy of this Pre-Desert zone in the third century AD

Quantitative mapping of rainfall rates over the oceans utilizing Nimbus-5 ESMR data

The electrically scanning microwave radiometer (ESMR) data from the Nimbus 5 satellite was used to deduce estimates of precipitation amount over the oceans. An atlas of the global oceanic rainfall was prepared and the global rainfall maps analyzed and related to available ground truth information as well as to large scale processes in the atmosphere. It was concluded that the ESMR system provides the most reliable and direct approach yet known for the estimation of rainfall over sparsely documented, wide oceanic regions