Research Methods in Library and Information Science

Library and information science (LIS) is a very broad discipline, which uses a wide rangeof constantly evolving research strategies and techniques. The aim of this chapter is to provide an updated view of research issues in library and information science. A stratified random sample of 440 articles published in five prominent journals was analyzed and classified to identify (i) research approach, (ii) research methodology, and (iii) method of data analysis. For each variable, a coding scheme was developed, and the articles were coded accordingly. A total of 78% of the articles reported empirical research. The rest 22% were classified as non‐empirical research papers. The five most popular topics were “information retrieval,” “information behaviour,” “information literacy,” “library services,” and “organization and management.” An overwhelming majority of the empirical research articles employed a quantitative approach. Although the survey emerged as the most frequently used research strategy, there is evidence that the number and variety of research methodologies have been increased. There is also evidence that qualitative approaches are gaining increasing importance and have a role to play in LIS, while mixed methods have not yet gained enough recognition in LIS research

Alternative Metrics for the Evaluation of Scholarly Activities : An Analysis of Articles Authored by Greek Researchers

Recently, altmetrics have emerged as alternative means of measuring scholarly impact, aiming at improving and complementing both traditional and web-based metrics. The aim of the present study is to contribute to the altmetrics literature by providing an overview of the coverage of altmetrics sources for the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) publications. We used Scopus to collect all research articles stating AUTh as the affiliation of at least one author and published from 2010 to 2016. The altmetric data originated from Altmetric Explorer, a service provided by Altmetric.com. Only 17% of all publications retrieved from Scopus had some kind of mentions, while there was a clear increasing trend over the years. The presence of altmetrics was different from each Altmetric.com attention source. Around 81% of all mentions came from Twitter. Facebook was a distant second, followed by news outlets. All other sources had very low or negligible coverage. The overwhelming majority of tweets had been posted by members of the public, who do not link to scholarly literature. Medical Sciences had by far the highest number of publications with altmetric scores, followed, in a distance by Sciences. However, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences publications exhibited a significant altmetric activity. More research is needed in order to get a better insight into the altmetric landscape in Greece and develop an understanding about the kind of influence altmetrics measure, and the relationship, if any, between altmetric indicators and scientific impact

Open Access Infrastructure in Greece : Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives

Open access (OA) is a global movement to make research results widely available by removing price and permission barriers. OA infrastructure is necessary for implementing open access and open science in any country. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (i) to give a description of the Greek OA infrastructure with emphasis on academic repositories and OA journals, and (ii) to examined the OA availability of publications authored by Greek researchers and published in international journals. Results indicated that Open access infrastructures in Greece have been steadily improving over the past years, with 28 out of 36 HEIs running their own IR and 116 OA journals being published. The OA availability of the literature produced by Greek researchers is similar to that found in other studies and falls within the range that has been reported for European countries. Although numbers seem rather satisfactory, there are a number of challenges that have to be addressed at both the infrastructural and the policy level, the most important being the implementation of national open policies and funders mandates

Πολιτικές εκπαιδευτικής και κοινωνικής ένταξης των Ατόμων με Αναπηρία

Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να μελετήσει την εκπαιδευτική και την κοινωνική ένταξη των ατόμων με αναπηρία, τόσο σε εθνικό όσο και σε ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο. Σχετικά με τον ελληνικό χώρο, εξετάζουμε την εκπαιδευτική πολιτική που έχει θεσπιστεί μέσα από σχετικές νομοθεσίες, βλέποντας την εξέλιξή τους τα τελευταία χρόνια. Πέρα από το θεσμικό κομμάτι μας ενδιαφέρει η πρακτική εφαρμογή των νόμων αυτών στην πραγματικότητα της ελληνικής εκπαίδευσης καθώς και τα μετέπειτα στάδιά της. Με τη φράση αυτή αναφερόμαστε στην επαγγελματική κατάρτιση που ακολουθεί για τα άτομα με αναπηρία και την απασχόλησή τους σε θέσεις εργασίας. Ο τομέας αυτός παρουσιάζει ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον, καθώς απασχολεί σημαντικά τα ίδια τα άτομα αλλά και τις οικογένειές τους, που προσπαθούν διαρκώς να επιτύχουν την αυτονόμηση και την ανεξαρτησία. Εκτός από τον εργασιακό χώρο θα εξετάσουμε και την ένταξη των ΑμεΑ στο κοινωνικό σύνολο και την εναρμόνισή τους με αυτό. Μελετώντας την περίπτωση της Ελλάδας, δεν μπορούμε παρά να ασχοληθούμε και με το γενικότερο ευρωπαϊκό πρότυπο για την ένταξη των ατόμων με αναπηρία, μέσα από ευρωπαϊκές συμβάσεις και διατάγματα, αφού αποτελούν παράδειγμα για τη χώρα μας, η οποία προσπαθεί να προλάβει τις επιστημονικές και πολιτικές εξελίξεις σε αυτό τον τομέα. Ωστόσο μέσα από την προσπάθεια να επιτύχουμε την σωστή ένταξη των ατόμων με αναπηρία οφείλουμε να μην ξεφεύγουμε από τον σημαντικότερο στόχο της συμπερίληψης, που επιδιώκει μια κοινωνία ισότιμη για όλους τους ανθρώπους, σεβόμενη κάθε μορφή διαφορετικότητας, σε όλους τους τομείς της κοινωνικής ζωής, συμπεριλαμβανομένου της εκπαίδευσης και της εργασίας.The purpose of this thesis is to present the educational and social inclusion of the disabled people in Greece and generally in Europe. We are going to make a research in the current laws to see what is established and what progress has been made through the years. It is important to have a look not only at what has been enacted by law but also at what truly happens in schools and society. It is also of high importance to investigate if disabled children and teenagers are learning professional skills, as the main worry of the parents is what happens if they can’t help their children as they grow old. What they truly care for is for their children to be economically and vocationally independent. We will also investigate the adjustment of disabled people in the society and the way they are behaved and accepted by their environment. Apart from Greece, we are going to research the inclusion in European countries, by investigating the legislature and the resolutions of the European committee. By making a research in the laws and the facts of the previous years we should not deviate from the idea of inclusive education, which promotes respect and equal treatment for every kind of diversity in education, employment and the society in general

Open Access Infrastructure in Greece : Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives

Open access (OA) is a global movement to make research results widely available by removing price and permission barriers. OA infrastructure is necessary for implementing open access and open science in any country. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (i) to give a description of the Greek OA infrastructure with emphasis on academic repositories and OA journals, and (ii) to examined the OA availability of publications authored by Greek researchers and published in international journals. Results indicated that Open access infrastructures in Greece have been steadily improving over the past years, with 28 out of 36 HEIs running their own IR and 116 OA journals being published. The OA availability of the literature produced by Greek researchers is similar to that found in other studies and falls within the range that has been reported for European countries. Although numbers seem rather satisfactory, there are a number of challenges that have to be addressed at both the infrastructural and the policy level, the most important being the implementation of national open policies and funders mandates

Open Access Infrastructure in Greece : Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives

Open access (OA) is a global movement to make research results widely available by removing price and permission barriers. OA infrastructure is necessary for implementing open access and open science in any country. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (i) to give a description of the Greek OA infrastructure with emphasis on academic repositories and OA journals, and (ii) to examined the OA availability of publications authored by Greek researchers and published in international journals. Results indicated that Open access infrastructures in Greece have been steadily improving over the past years, with 28 out of 36 HEIs running their own IR and 116 OA journals being published. The OA availability of the literature produced by Greek researchers is similar to that found in other studies and falls within the range that has been reported for European countries. Although numbers seem rather satisfactory, there are a number of challenges that have to be addressed at both the infrastructural and the policy level, the most important being the implementation of national open policies and funders mandates