80 research outputs found
Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines
A cross-disciplinary examination of the user behaviours involved in seeking
and evaluating data is surprisingly absent from the research data discussion.
This review explores the data retrieval literature to identify commonalities in
how users search for and evaluate observational research data. Two analytical
frameworks rooted in information retrieval and science technology studies are
used to identify key similarities in practices as a first step toward
developing a model describing data retrieval
Webometric analysis of departments of librarianship and information science: a follow-up study
This paper reports an analysis of the websites of UK departments of library and information science. Inlink counts of these websites revealed no statistically significant correlation with the quality of the research carried out by these departments, as quantified using departmental grades in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise and citations in Google Scholar to publications submitted for that Exercise. Reasons for this lack of correlation include: difficulties in disambiguating departmental websites from larger institutional structures; the relatively small amount of research-related material in departmental websites; and limitations in the ways that current Web search engines process linkages to URLs. It is concluded that departmental-level webometric analyses do not at present provide an appropriate technique for evaluating academic research quality, and, more generally, that standards are needed for the formatting of URLs if inlinks are to become firmly established as a tool for website analysis
A Damage Mechanics Approach to Fatigue Assessment in Offshore Structures
This article is intended to describe the development of a fatigue damage model capable of assessing fatigue damage in offshore structures. This is achieved by for mulating a set of damage coupled constitutive and evolution equations which make the for mulation of a unified approach possible under both low and high cycle fatigue damage and consistent with the structural dynamic response of the changing/deteriorating material be haviors. The structural analysis for the whole designed period, say about 30 years, can be carried out with the aid of the proposed analytical procedure, in which the fundamental characteristics of sea wave statistics responsible for the structural dynamic response can be sufficiently considered. An offshore structure subject to complex ocean environment is described by a general stochastic system which embeds a group of stochastic subsystems, each characterizing a duty cycle. An effective analytical method is established by introduc ing the concept of duty strain range with a clear mathematical definition and its analytical solution which covers all possible spectral parameters. The history-dependent damage is also included in the damage model so that the overload effects can be analyzed. It should be pointed out that the whole procedure can be fully computerized such that the practical or engineering significance of varying design variables can be readily highlighted.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67255/2/10.1177_105678959300200405.pd
Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library
Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries
Theoretical and technological building blocks for an innovation accelerator
The scientific system that we use today was devised centuries ago and is
inadequate for our current ICT-based society: the peer review system encourages
conservatism, journal publications are monolithic and slow, data is often not
available to other scientists, and the independent validation of results is
limited. Building on the Innovation Accelerator paper by Helbing and Balietti
(2011) this paper takes the initial global vision and reviews the theoretical
and technological building blocks that can be used for implementing an
innovation (in first place: science) accelerator platform driven by
re-imagining the science system. The envisioned platform would rest on four
pillars: (i) Redesign the incentive scheme to reduce behavior such as
conservatism, herding and hyping; (ii) Advance scientific publications by
breaking up the monolithic paper unit and introducing other building blocks
such as data, tools, experiment workflows, resources; (iii) Use machine
readable semantics for publications, debate structures, provenance etc. in
order to include the computer as a partner in the scientific process, and (iv)
Build an online platform for collaboration, including a network of trust and
reputation among the different types of stakeholders in the scientific system:
scientists, educators, funding agencies, policy makers, students and industrial
innovators among others. Any such improvements to the scientific system must
support the entire scientific process (unlike current tools that chop up the
scientific process into disconnected pieces), must facilitate and encourage
collaboration and interdisciplinarity (again unlike current tools), must
facilitate the inclusion of intelligent computing in the scientific process,
must facilitate not only the core scientific process, but also accommodate
other stakeholders such science policy makers, industrial innovators, and the
general public
Prioritisation, resources and search terms: a study of decision-making at the virtual reference desk.
The reinterpretation of the traditional reference service in an online context is the virtual reference desk. Placing reference services into an online setting, however, presents many challenges. We report a study and analytic framework which addresses support for decision-making during virtual enquiry work. Focusing on specialist law-libraries, the study shows that enquirers do not volunteer important information to the service and that asynchronous communication media and some social obstacles present barriers to prompting. Also, previous enquiries are frequently used to inform current enquiry strategies but barriers exist in accessing this information. We conclude that email is an inadequate medium for supporting virtual reference services, and that system should support automatic, speculative matching between new enquiry content and integrated enquiry knowledge bases. The contribution of the framework is to offer a structured approach to evaluation in multiple virtual reference contexts and enable rapid convergence on barriers to efficient and effective service
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