Information need and uses : an analysis of the literature published in Spain, 1990-2004

This article presents a descriptive analysis of works published in Spanish journals and of the papers of conferences held in Spain in the field of information needs and uses in the period 1990–2004 in order to determine if the change in approach described by Dervin and Nilan, among others, also occurred outside the English speaking world. An analysis of the characteristics of relevant publications in this field (by year, authorship, type of document, type of work, and means of publication) shows that although activity is increasing, information needs and uses have not yet become a well-established area. In addition, a study of the content characteristics (by type of user, methodology used, aspects of the informationseeking process, use of a theoretical basis, and references to research) leads to the conclusion that in Spain there has not yet been a change in the orientation towards a user-oriented model.Abad García, María Francisca: [email protected]; Gonzalez Teruel, Aurora: [email protected]

Grounded theory for generating theory in the study of information behavior

The use of grounded theory procedures for the study of information behavior has contributed to generating theory in this field. Thirty-one works were analyzed with regard to a) their relationship to the context in which the research was carried out, b) the aspect of information behavior researched, c) the use of grounded theory procedures, and d) the generation of theory. Most of the studies were carried out in the context of health information, and grounded theory procedures were for the most part only partially applied. The theoretical propositions produced depended on the subject being studied. Although this methodology is suitable for the study of an individual’s interaction with information from that individual’s own point of view, documentation of the procedures involved is often deficient

The influence of Elfreda Chatman's theories: a citation context analysis

The range of theoretical frameworks currently being used by researchers into information behaviour is abundant and diverse. We need to examine thoroughly the contribution of theories and models to further research, as this would help to improve future investigations in the field. This paper adopts this approach, by thoroughly examining the influence that Elfreda Chatman's three middle-range theories have had on subsequent research. A citation context analysis was carried out on the basis of those received by Information poverty theory, life in the round theory and normative behaviour theory. Analysis covered the year of publication, the type of work and the subject-matter of the citing documents. The cites in context or theoretical incidents were analysed for frequency of citation in citing documents, the content of Chatman's work being cited, the context co-citation analysis, the citation style and the citation location. The analysis of citation in context has allowed us to draw a distinction between the author and her work, while verifying that not all cites are the same. These differences reflect the unequal relevance of these theories to subsequent research

Estratègies de formació i informació per implantar l'OpenCourseWare a la Universitat de València. Participació dels usuaris potencials en el procés

Objectius: conèixer les necessitats de formació que diuen tenir els docents de les titulacions en ciències de la salut de la Universitat de València per ser competents en la incorporació de l'OpenCourseWare. Conèixer quines estratègies de màrqueting i informació pensen aquests docents que s'haurien de dissenyar per augmentar el dipòsit de materials. Metodologia: estudi qualitatiu amb entrevistes semiestructurades al professorat de la Universitat de València. Resultats: les necessitats de formació dels docents per implantar l'OpenCourseWare a la Universitat de València varien depenent de les seves característiques relacionades amb l'experiència docent, el domini de les TIC i la disposició dels materials docents. Aquestes necessitats fan referència a formació sobre l'OpenCourseWare, les TIC en diversos nivells, els principis de l'accés obert (open access) i, a més, per als docents més novells, la metodologia didàctica. Les estratègies de màrqueting considerades necessàries han estat: promoció des de la institució, i difusió general i individualitzada. A més, s'hauria de proporcionar informació sobre propietat intel·lectual, recompenses, motivació i visibilitat

Journal author rights and self-archiving: the case of Spanish journals

Contiene 10 figuras y una tablaOpen access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. The lack of clarity of publisher permissions for archiving in OA repositories affects the adoption of the green OA route. This paper explores editorial policies and elf-archiving conditions in 1,615 Spanish scholarly journals. 48% are published by university and research institutions, 25% by associations/societies, and 17% by commercial publishers; social sciences and humanities (SSH)accounted for 67% of the journals (44.5% and 22.5%, respectively) followed by health sciences (20%); 71% offered gratis access immediately after publication, and 11% after an embargo; 31% provided some mention of author rights. Self-archiving was specifi cally allowed by 65% of the journals; 52% were classified as ROMEO-blue, 12% as green and 15% as white, and 21% could not be classifi ed; 21%, mostly in SSH, used some type of Creative Commons license.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Proyecto coordinado refs. CSO2011-29503-C02-01 CSO2011-29503-C02-02.Peer reviewe

Author Rights vs Self-Archiving in Spanish Scientific Journals

The paper analyzes publishers" copyright policies and self-archiving conditions of Spanish scientific journals. Data are extracted from the directory DULCINEA that contains information of 1318 Spanish journals, of which 775 (61%) allow some form of self-archiving to be about 60% of the post-print version and allowing them 87% of the deposit of the version of record. In 72% of journals the deposit can be performed immediately after publication and in 16% after article acceptance. 72% of the journals are freely available without charge to the user this figure raises up to 86% if free access after an embargo is considered. Only 18% of the journals use Creative Commons licenses. The adoption of different open access journals model in Spain is favorable, however there is still a high percentage of journals (39%) that do not provide any information about authors and publishers rights and that difficult or inhibits reuse of published articles

Políticas de acceso abierto a la ciencia en las universidades españolas

El objetivo del artículo es analizar el estado de la cuestión de las políticas en favor del acceso abierto (OA) a la ciencia en las universidades españolas. Para ello se han establecido cinco grandes mecanismos de intervención (la creación de infraestructuras y prestación de servicios, la comunicación y difusión, la incentivación económica, la coordinación institucional así como la reglamentación u obligación) que permiten llevar a cabo políticas a favor del acceso abierto y que hemos utilizado para el análisis y la valoración de la situación. La recogida de datos se ha basado en un cuestionario enviado a los vice-rectores de investigación y se ha complementado con la consulta de directorios de repositorios, revistas científicas españolas y políticas institucionales de acceso abierto. Los resultados muestran un panorama diversificado en relación a las actuaciones llevadas a cabo, pero han permitido clasificar las universidades en cinco grupos en función del número y de la calidad de acciones que han realizado. El primero, formado por siete universidades (9% del total) que disponen de una política completa en acceso abierto. El segundo incluye a doce universidades (16%) con una política destacada. El tercero, diecisiete centros (23%) con una política encaminada y el cuarto incluye otras diecisiete universidades (23%) que han implementado una o dos acciones. Finalmente, quedan las 21 universidades (28%) que no disponen de ninguna acción para favorecer el acceso abierto a la ciencia

The situation of open access institutional repositories in Spain: 2009 report

Introduction. The DRIVER I project drew up a detailed report of European repositories based on data gathered in a survey in which Spain's participation was very low. This created a highly distorted image of the implementation of repositories in Spain. This study aims to analyse the current state of Spanish open-access institutional repositories and to describe their characteristics. Method. The data were gathered through a Web survey. The questionnaire was based on that used by DRIVER I: coverage; technical infrastructure and technical issues; institutional policies; services created; and stimulators and inhibitors for establishing, filling and maintaining their digital institutional repositories. Analysis. Data were tabulated and analysed systematically according responses obtained from the questionnaire and grouped by coverage. Results. Responses were obtained from 38 of the 104 institutions contacted, which had 29 institutional repositories. This represents 78.3% of the Spanish repositories according to the BuscaRepositorios directory. Spanish repositories contained mainly full-text materials (journal articles and doctoral theses) together with metadata. The software most used was DSpace, followed by EPrints. The metadata standard most used was Dublin Core. Spanish repositories offered more usage statistics and fewer author-oriented services than the European average. The priorities for the future development of the repositories are the need for clear policies on access to scientific production based on public funding and the need for quality control indicators. Conclusions.This is the first detailed study of Spanish institutional repositories. The key stimulants for establishing, filling and maintaining were, in order of importance, the increase of visibility and citation, the interest of decision-makers, simplicity of use and search services. On the other hand the main inhibitors identified were the absence of policies, the lack of integration with other national and international systems and the lack of awareness efforts among academia

Características y visibilidad de las revistas españolas de ciencias de la salud en bases de datos

Se describen las características de 207 revistas españolas de ciencias de la salud activas en 2014 y su visibilidad en seis bases de datos biomédicas y multidisciplinares. Scopus e Ibecs son las bases de datos que mayor número de revistas cubren, y Medline y WoS las que menos. La disciplina mejor representada es medicina, seguida de psicología, enfermería y farmacia. Se observa la práctica ausencia de revistas editadas exclusivamente en papel, la existencia de revistas publicadas en inglés, el aumento de versiones bilingües español-inglés y el acceso gratuito a los contenidos. El artículo incorpora el censo de revistas, que puede servir de referencia para los investigadores para seleccionar la revista dónde publicar, para los editores de revistas de ciencias de la salud, y para documentalistas que gestionan bases de datos o que asesoran a otros profesionales en las tareas mencionadas. The main features of 207 Spanish health sciences journals active in 2014, and their visibility in six biomedical and multidisciplinary databases are described. Of these databases, Scopus and Ibecs provide the best coverage of these journals, and Medline and WoS the worst. The discipline best represented is medicine, followed by psychology, nursing and pharmacy. Among the observed characteristics, there were an absence of journals published exclusively on paper and the presence of journals published in English or bilingual Spanish-English and with open access. The article includes the journal list, which can be a reference tool for researchers selecting target journals for publication, for publishers in the health sciences areas and for information scientists for use in their database management tasks or in advising other professional

Exploring why global health needs are unmet by research efforts: the potential influences of geography, industry and publication incentives

Abstract Background: It has been well established that research is not addressing health needs in a balanced way ¿ much more research is conducted on diseases with more burden in high-income countries than on those with more burden in lower-income countries. In this study, we explore whether these imbalances persist and inquire about the possible influence of three factors, namely geography, industry and publication incentives. Methods: We use WHO data on the Global Burden of Disease as a proxy measure of health needs and bibliometric information as a proxy for research efforts. Scientific publications on diseases were collected from MEDLINE using MeSH terms to identify relevant publications. We used Web of Science to collect author affiliations and citation data. We developed a correspondence table between WHO ICD-10 and MeSH descriptors to compare global health needs and research efforts. This correspondence table is available as supplementary material. Results: Research output is heavily concentrated in high-income countries and is mainly focused on their health needs, resulting in a relative lack of attention to diseases in lower income countries. A new finding is that diseases with a similar burden in high- and middle-income countries are also under-researched, both globally and in relation to disease burden in high- and middle-income countries. Global industrial R&D is found to be very similar to the focus of public research. Diseases more prevalent in high-income countries generate ten-fold more research attention than those in low-income countries. We find no discernible preference towards diseases of high-income countries versus those of low-income countries in the top 25% most prestigious journals. However, in middle-income countries, citation rates are substantially lower for diseases most prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. Conclusions: From a global perspective, the imbalance between research needs and research efforts persists as most of the research effort concentrates on diseases affecting high-income countries. Both pharmaceutical companies and the public sector also tend to focus on diseases with more burden in high-income countries. Our findings indicate that researchers in middle-income countries receive more citations when researching diseases more prevalent in high-income countries, and this may divert the attention of researchers in these countries from diseases more prevalent in their contexts