Science communication between researchers and policy makers Reflections…

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Science communication between researchers and policy makers. Reflections from a European project :

“The SCOOP project aimed to maximise the potential for the transfer of research findings into policy using European-funded socio-economic sciences and humanities research. The project incorporated a News Alert Service to communicate policy-relevant elements of research findings to interested stakeholders. It also sought to further develop the skills of researchers to effectively communicate research outcomes to policy makers through a programme of Masterclasses. A series of evaluation surveys were held to both tailor the project outputs to the target audiences, and to measure the impact of project actions on the interactions between SSH researchers and policy makers. Both SCOOP elements were well received, with evidence of improved communication, utilisation of SSH research by policy makers, and greater awareness and proactivity on the part of the researchers. More generally, interviews and questionnaire findings demonstrated that mediators play a crucial role: various intermediaries and interpreters work between policy makers and researchers to put in context the research outcomes and convey information through dedicated channels and formalised processes as well as informal, fluid processes.”

URL : http://jcom.sissa.it/archive/11/03/Jcom1103%282012%29C01/Jcom1103%282012%29C07

Exploring Publishing Patterns at a Large Research University…

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Exploring Publishing Patterns at a Large Research University: Implications for Library Practice :

Objective : The research project sought to explore the value of data on publication patterns for decision-making regarding scholarly communications and collection development programs at a research-intensive post-secondary institution, the University of Utah in the United States.

Methods : Publication data for prolific University of Utah authors were gathered from Scopus for the year 2009. The availability to University of Utah faculty, staff, and students of the journals in which University of Utah authors published was determined using the University of Utah Libraries’ catalogue; usage was estimated based on publisher-provided download statistics and requests through interlibrary loan; and costs were calculated from invoices, a periodicals directory, and publisher websites and communications. Indicators of value included the cost-per-use of journals to which the University of Utah Libraries subscribed, a comparison of interlibrary loan costs to subscription costs for journals to which the University of Utah Libraries did not subscribe, the relationship between publishing venue and usage, and the relationship between publishing venue and cost-per-use.

Results : There were 22 University of Utah authors who published 10 or more articles in 2009. Collectively, these authors produced 275 articles in 162 journals. The University of Utah provided access through library subscriptions to 83% of the journals for which access, usage, and cost data were available, with widely varying usage and at widely varying costs. Cost-per-use and a comparison of interlibrary loan to subscription costs provided evidence of the effectiveness of collection development practices. However, at the individual journal title level, there was little overlap between the various indicators of journal value, with the highest ranked, or most valuable, journals differing depending on the indicator considered. Few of the articles studied appeared in open access journals, suggesting a possible focus area for the scholarly communications program.

Conclusions : Knowledge of publication patterns provides an additional source of data to support collection development decisions and scholarly communications programming. As the estimated value of a journal is dependent on the factor being studied, gathering knowledge on a number of factors and from a variety of sources can lead to more informed decision-making. Efforts should be made to expand data considered in areas of scholarly communications and collection development beyond usage to incorporate publishing activities of institutionally affiliated authors.”

URL : http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/17122

Web Impact Factor WIF and Link Analysis of…

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Web Impact Factor (WIF) and Link Analysis of Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs): A Webometric Study :

“This paper examines and explores the web impact factor through a webometric study of the present 16 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) of India. Identifies the domain systems of the websites; analyzes the number of web pages and link pages, and calculates the simple web impact factor (WIF), self link web impact factor and external web impact factor of all the IIT. Also reflects that some IIT have higher number of web pages, but correspondingly their link pages are very small in number and websites fall behind in their simple, self link and external link web impact factor.”

URL : http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/789/

Promoting Open Access at the Cyprus University of…

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Promoting Open Access at the Cyprus University of Technology: survey results :

“Today the Open Access movement gains more and more followers. The Library and Information Services at the Cyprus University of Technology has defined Open Access as one of its main strategies. Considering the current economic crisis, Open Access appears to be a solution to the reduction of funds at the academic institutions. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the perception and reaction of the academic community of the Cyprus University of Technology towards Open Access. The Library and Information Services conducted a survey in order to examine the familiarity of the academic community with Open Access and to define any difficulties that they find.

The survey results showed that the academic community is generally aware of the Open Access movement, but a lot of effort and work has to be done in order to make the academic community to trust and use Open Access. The survey also showed that Ktisis, the institutional repository of the Cyprus University of Technology, is not being used effectively by the academics. It was proved that the deposits in Ktisis do not reach the desired level and the reason is that the academic community is not aware of its existence. Therefore the academic community has to be convinced to prefer Open Access publishers for the deposit of their academic publications instead of commercial publishers and to retain sufficient rights adopting the SPARC addendum. Also, to promote open access through “author pay model” like Biomed Central.”

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/17339

Scholar publications and open access policies the Ktisis…

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Scholar publications and open access policies: the Ktisis case :

“Throughout the world, academic libraries have come to the conclusion that the development of institutional repositories must be one of their major goals. Institutional repositories are the means for libraries to provide access to the research product of the academic community and also to promote open access. The publication of the research results in open access journals assists in the global diffusion of this information. The open access movement is becoming very popular among the academic institutions. Today more than 320 organizations have signed the Berlin declaration on Open Access. The Library and Information Services at the Cyprus University of Technology is one of these organizations. By signing this declaration the University commits to promote and support Open Access encouraging the researchers to publish their work based on the Open Access policies. The Library has developed the first institutional repository in Cyprus, Ktisis. This paper briefly describes the implementation process of Ktisis and continues to examine the set of activities used in the strategic plan of Ktisis, including the definition of open access policies.”

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/17314

Analyzing the Performance of an Institutional Scientific Repository…

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Analyzing the Performance of an Institutional Scientific Repository – A Case Study :

“Scientific knowledge evolution is mainly based on an effective dissemination of research results. The concept of Open Access gives us the theoretical foundation of a model for accessing scientific knowledge, free from the constraints of traditional publishing and technologically supported by the Internet.

Institutional Repositories are information systems that allow preserving, storing and disseminating scientific knowledge produced in higher education and scientific research institutions.

They increase the visibility and the citation level of the documents. They also contribute to minimizing negative aspects like plagiarism of content because documents are exposed to peers in real time.

As an alternative way to the traditional system of publishing scientific research content, repositories are developed in a cultural climate of great visibility leading to an immediate critical evaluation by peers.

The Scientific Repository of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco – Portugal (RCIPCB) was created in 2009 but its official presentation took place in January 2010. Its main purposes are promoting Open Access (OA), and preserving and disseminating the scientific knowledge produced at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB). Using DSpace as a technological platform, RCIPCB is an institutional project supported by the president of the IPCB.

Therefore, the present study was developed with the aim of analyzing the performance of RCIPCB considering the evolution and growth in terms of users, archiving and self-archiving, the number of published documents (scientific) versus deposited documents in 2010 and the heterogeneity among communities/collections and its causes.

Data were collected in RCIPCB, in the 2010 scientific publication list of the institute and through a questionnaire survey distributed among the members of the community with most documents deposited and those of the community with the fewest documents.

For data collected in RCIPCB and in the publication list, average, standard deviation and counts were calculated. Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS.

The results show that RCIPCB indicates an asymmetric growing dynamics. Nevertheless, it reflects the institutional organization, in the sense that the communities related to the older schools possess more documents than the communities related to more recent schools. Communities having higher numbers of deposited documents seem to have also higher levels of searches and downloads. Therefore, it increases significantly the visibility of the institution and its researchers.

Concerning the 2010 scientific production when compared with the deposit level of the corresponding community, the results show that the number of documents deposited is much lower than the number of published documents.

Data obtained from the questionnaire answers from the communities The School of Agriculture (ESACB) and The School of Applied Arts (ESART) suggest that the strategy of communication used by RCIPCB is correct because everybody knows about the Repository. However, that is not related to the number of documents deposited. They also suggest that the strategy is not efficient and it needs some improvements in order to become effective.

Considering the results it is clear that RCIPCB needs to have a mandatory depositing policy that might also be extended to user registration. Those factors would minimize both the heterogeneity and the asymmetric growth of communities and collections. Moreover, it would also decrease the difference between scientific production and the corresponding deposit in RCIPCB.”

URL : http://www.rivista-incontri.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/8047/8436

High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical…

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High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical industry funding: case-control study :

“Reprints of published articles are a potential valuable means of disseminating information. Many individuals and organisations may request reprints, including the authors of the articles themselves, other members of the scientific community, study sponsors, and pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical industry is thought to be the largest purchaser of reprints. After gifts and drug samples, reprints are the most common form of promotional material circulated among doctors by pharmaceutical companies.

Because pharmaceutical companies may buy from journals copies of articles they have funded, reprints of published articles have been suggested as a possible source of conflict of interest that could lead to publication bias. Orders can be worth large sums of money and could potentially influence the chance of a paper being accepted, especially with the current organisational framework, under which editors can be responsible for the journal’s content and its finances. Studies sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry are also more likely to be published in higher impact factor journals than are studies without industry funding.

Data on the numbers of reprints ordered are scarce. One study examined the characteristics of articles published in the Lancet in 1998 in the top 21 of reprint orders and compared these with a set of control articles from the same journal. Reprint orders were not reported in detail, but less than 25% were stated to concern over 100 000 copies. Studies sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry were marginally significantly over-represented in the high reprint group compared with the control articles. Using more recent data we report the number of reprints ordered for the top articles by reprint order in medical journals, identify the sponsors and designs of these studies, and quantify the possible financial implications for journals.”

URL : http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e4212