The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles and the broadband elites: Do you need an informaticist?

The World Wide Web (WWW) is growing in size and is becoming a substantial component of life. This seems especially true for US professionals, including social workers. It will require effort by these professionals to use the WWW effectively and efficiently. One of the main issues that these professionals will encounter in these efforts is the quality of materials located on the WWW. This paper reviews some of the factors related to improving the quality of information obtained from the WWW by social workers. The final version of this manuscript for citation is: Holden, G. & Rosenberg, G. (2003). The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles, and the broadband elite: Do you need an informaticist? Social Work in Health Care, 36(4), 1-18

Bibliometrics: A potential decision making aid in hiring, reappointment, tenure and promotion decisions

The assessment of scholarship assumes a central role in the evaluation of individual faculty, educational programs and academic fields. Because the production and assessment of scholarship is so central to the faculty role, it is incumbent upon decision makers to strive to make assessments of scholarship fair and equitable. This paper will focus on an approach to the assessment of the quantity and impact of the most important subset of an individual’s scholarship – peer-reviewed journal articles. The primary goal of this paper is to stimulate discussion regarding scholarship assessment in hiring, reappointment, tenure and promotion decisions. Final version of manuscript for citation: Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., & Barker, K (2005). Bibliometrics: A potential decision making aid in hiring, reappointment, tenure and promotion decisions. Social Work in Health Care, 41, ¾, 67-92. © by The Haworth Press, Inc

Shallow science or meta-cognitive insights: A few thoughts on bibliometrics

As preface to our reactions, we want to thank our colleagues for their insightful and reasoned commentaries on our work and the current state of affairs in bibliometrics. Individually and collectively, they have enhanced our undertaking on bibliometrics by raising issues and posing questions that we will respond to below. We will begin by addressing a general critique of the use of bibliometrics in social work. Then we will weave our responses to our colleagues comments into material that has either appeared since we wrote the three main articles in this volume or that we missed in our initial literature search. Our goal in doing this is to provide you with the most comprehensive and current view of bibliometrics in social work. Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., & Barker, K. (2005). Shallow science or meta-cognitive insights: A few thoughts on bibliometrics. Social Work in Health Care, 41, ¾, 129-148. © by The Haworth Press, In

Tracing thought through time and space: A selective review of bibliometrics in social work

Bibliometrics is a field of research that examines bodies of knowledge within and across disciplines. Citation analysis, a component of bibliometrics, focuses on the quantitative assessment of citation patterns within a body of literature. Citation analysis has been used in social work to examine the quantity and the impact of the work of individuals and academic institutions. This paper presents a selective review of these uses of bibliometrics within social work. Final version of manuscript for citation: Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., & Barker, K. (2005). Tracing thought through time and space: A selective review of bibliometrics in social work. Social Work in Health Care, 41, ¾, 1-34. © by The Haworth Press, Inc

What happens to our ideas? A bibliometric analysis of articles in Social Work in Health Care in the 1990s

Scholars spend a considerable amount of time reflecting upon their professional work. When individuals decide to communicate their professional thoughts beyond informal venues, the penultimate expression of their reflection is the peer reviewed journal article. The study reported here entailed a bibliometric analysis of articles appearing in the journal Social Work in Health Care during the 1990s, in order to better understand what happens to our ideas after they appear in a peer reviewed journal article. Final version of manuscript for citation: Rosenberg, G., Holden, G., & Barker, K (2005). What happens to our ideas? A bibliometric analysis of articles in Social Work in Health Care in the 1990s. Social Work in Health Care, 41, ¾, 35-66. © by The Haworth Press, Inc

An assessment of the predictive validity of impact factor scores: Implications for academic employment decisions in social work

Citation for final version: Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., Barker, K., & Onghena, P. (2006). An assessment of the predictive validity of impact factor scores: Implications for academic employment decisions in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 6, 613-624.Objective: Bibliometrics is a method of examining scholarly communications. Concerns regarding the utility of bibliometrics in general, and the impact factor score (IFS) in particular, have been discussed across disciplines including social work. While there are frequent mentions in the literature of the IFS as an indicator of the impact or quality of scholars’ work, little empirical work has been published regarding the validity of such use. Method: A proportionate, stratified, random sample, of n=323 articles was selected from 17 Web of Science listed social work journals published during the 1992-1994 period. Results: The relationship between journals’ impact factor scores and the actual impact of articles published in those journals (predictive validity) was r = .41 (short term) and r = .42 (long term). Conclusion: The practice of using the IFS as a proxy indicator of article impact merits significant concern as well as further empirical investigation. The final, definitive version of this article has been published in Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 6 © SAGE Publications Ltd at the Research on Social Work Practice page: http://rswp.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com

The Evaluation Self-Efficacy scale

The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale(ESE)was developed as an outcomes assessment instrument for social work courses focusing on evaluation. In the two studies on the scale to date, the results regarding its psychometric properties have been encouraging

EPAS objectives and foundation practice self-efficacy: A replication

This replication study continued the examination of the psychometric properties of the Foundation Practice Self-Efficacy Scale (FPSE) with a sample of MSW students. As in the original study, evidence regarding the reliability, validity and sensitivity to change of this measure was found. First, internal reliability estimates for the FPSE all exceeded .95. Second, in terms of validity, the large positive correlation that had been predicted between the FPSE and the Social Work Empowerment scale was observed. Third, the amount of change in students’ FPSE total scale scores between pretest and posttest was found to be statistically significant. The final version of this manuscript for citation is: Holden, G., Anastas, J., & Meenaghan, T. (2005). EPAS objectives and foundation practice self-efficacy: A replication. Journal of Social Work Education, 41(3), 559-570

Student self-efficacy as an outcome of social work education

Social work educators need reliable and valid measures of educational outcomes to meet the increasing demands of social work program development and the accreditation process. The research reported here is one element in an ongoing program that is attempting to develop a social work educational assessment approach using the Social Cognitive Theory construct self-efficacy. In this replication study with 331 MSW students, we found evidence supporting the reliability and sensitivity to change of the Social Work Self-Efficacy scale

Hospitalized Children Navigating within a Computer Based Community: Participants’ Perspectives of Starbright World

The use of technology in the delivery of social services is receiving increased attention in social work (e.g., Schopler, Abell, & Galinksy, 1998). Starbright World is a computer based network that links seriously ill, hospitalized children into a fully navigable interactive community. It presents a virtual reality play space in which children are able to explore and verbally and visually communicate with each other through the use of a representational avatar (i.e., an on screen character). Starbright World also allows children to interact with each other in real time via voice and video conferencing. The present study reports findings from a qualitative analysis of Starbright World