Generalized h-index for Disclosing Latent Facts in Citation Networks

What is the value of a scientist and its impact upon the scientific thinking? How can we measure the prestige of a journal or of a conference? The evaluation of the scientific work of a scientist and the estimation of the quality of a journal or conference has long attracted significant interest, due to the benefits from obtaining an unbiased and fair criterion. Although it appears to be simple, defining a quality metric is not an easy task. To overcome the disadvantages of the present metrics used for ranking scientists and journals, J.E. Hirsch proposed a pioneering metric, the now famous h-index. In this article, we demonstrate several inefficiencies of this index and develop a pair of generalizations and effective variants of it to deal with scientist ranking and with publication forum ranking. The new citation indices are able to disclose trendsetters in scientific research, as well as researchers that constantly shape their field with their influential work, no matter how old they are. We exhibit the effectiveness and the benefits of the new indices to unfold the full potential of the h-index, with extensive experimental results obtained from DBLP, a widely known on-line digital library.Comment: 19 pages, 17 tables, 27 figure

The ranking of top IS journals: a perspective from London School of Economics

The Information Systems and Innovation Group at the London School of Economics has developed a distinct profile of social theory driven research across a wide range of mainstream and specialist IS topics. In this paper, we explain why we do not find existing IS journal rankings appropriate for the assessment of quality of the publications of our Group. We present a set of lists of internationally recognised outlets that we provide to the committee responsible for promotions decisions in our university and we use to advise junior staff and students on where they should publish their work. In addition to these lists, decisions on research quality in our university require the opinion of specialist experts on both the particular outlet of a publication and the publication itself. We argue for the merits of our research quality assessment approach and reflect on its risks

Identifying attractive research fields for new scientists

Prior to the beginning of a scientific career, every new scientist is obliged to confront the critical issue of defining the subject area where his/her future research will be conducted. Regardless of the capabilities of a new scholar, an erroneous selection may condemn a dignified effort and result in wasted energy, time and resources. In this article we attempt to identify the research fields which are attractive to these individuals. To the best of our knowledge, this is a new topic that has never been discussed or addressed in the literature. Here we formally set the problem and we propose a solution combining the characteristics of the attractive research areas and the new scholars. Our approach is compared against a statistical model which reveals popular research areas. The comparison of this method to our proposed model leads to the conclusion that not all trendy research areas are suitable for new scientists. A secondary outcome reveals the existence of scientific fields which although they are not so emerging, they are promising for scientists who are starting their career

COVID-19 Pandemic: A Usability Study on Platforms to Support eLearning

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the higher education communities throughout almost the entire world have moved from traditional face-to-face teaching to remote learning by using video conferencing software and online learning applications and platforms. With social distancing requirements, it is expected that eLearning will be part of the delivery modalities at least until an effective vaccine is widely available. Even after the pandemic is over, it is expected that remote learning and online education will be part of the new or next normal. Such online and remote learning modalities are not simply restricted to academic institutions. Businesses are using online and remote learning to re-train, re-tool, and re-educate their employees. The students, in general, are not enthusiastic about the virtual classroom. Niche.com surveyed 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students in April 2020 and found that more than 2/3 of them thought online classes are not as effective as in-person and teacher-centered classes. This unplanned change in teaching modes caused by COVID-19 and the negative feedback from students creates some serious concerns for educators and universities. How to enhance the eLearning experience for students? How to choose from many eLearning platforms on the market? Which eLearning platform is the most user friendly and the best suited for online classes? Which eLearning platforms enable the best class participation and student involvement? In this research, we apply the eLearning usability heuristics to evaluate the major video conferencing platforms (e.g., Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom)