Information evaluation skills of social science researchers: an assessment

Title: Information evaluation skills of social science researchers: an assessment Authors: Singh, Rajesh; Kumar, Shailendra Abstract: To assess the information evaluation skills of social science researchers, data was collected using questionnaires from 520 respondents belonging to 4 universities in Delhi. Analysis of data shows that 66.9% of researchers had information evaluation skills (IES). Among the institutions studied, researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and those from the field of economics, and those respondents having less than one-year research experience were found to have a higher level of information evaluation skills. Page(s): 222-230

Examining the relationship between academic book citations and Goodreads reader opinion and rating

Title: Examining the relationship between academic book citations and Goodreads reader opinion and rating Authors: Kadiresan, N; Singson, Mangkhollen; Thiyagarajan, S Abstract: Although the traditional bibliometric citation database is an established academic impact assessment source, in this paper, we examine the role of social media impact on academic books. We identified the highly cited books in Scopus and compared the citations with ratings and reviews on the Goodreads website. R stat was used to extract the data from Goodreads website. We found that there is an uneven distribution of Goodreads rating and reviews. Social science books received the highest number of user‘s ratings, reviews and citations. The study finds that there is no relationship between citation counts and Goodreads ratings and reviews count in social science books. Although social science books generated the highest number of studies and engagement by the readers, there seems to be no evidence to suggest that this engagement results in an academic citation. Whereas, a correlation was observed between health science books citations and Goodreads overall rating, as with physical science book reviews and Google Scholar citation counts. Page(s): 215-221

Constructionists’ approaches to information literacy: exploring Savolainen’s everyday life information seeking in information literacy research

Title: Constructionists’ approaches to information literacy: exploring Savolainen’s everyday life information seeking in information literacy research Authors: Lawal, Vicki; Bitso, Connie Abstract: This paper explores current issues in information literacy specifically as it relates to Savolainen’s literary work on Everyday Life Information Seeking. It aims to examine how information literacy research has evolved and how Savolainen’s work derived from a social constructionists’ approach contribute to current information literacy thinking and practice. The methodology used is conceptual analysis. Based on the outcome of the literature review and analysis of the research questions of the paper, the importance of the concepts of information literacy and Everyday Life Information Seeking are emphasised in ways that contribute to previous research and aspects relating to under-studied areas of information literacy research. Page(s): 231-239

Growth of Indian library and information science literature: A study of Annals of Library and Information Studies

Title: Growth of Indian library and information science literature: A study of Annals of Library and Information Studies Authors: Qadri, Saima; Shukla, Archana Abstract: The growth of the LIS literature of 1985-90 and 2005-2010 as reflected through Annals of Library and Information Studies is studied. The paper examines the year-wise growth of the library and information science literature, subjects covered during the specified periods, the most used form of literature, authorship pattern, and most cited journals. Among other things, the study finds that a few areas of research such as ICT applications in LIS are more during the period 2005-2010. Page(s): 209-214

Challenges and opportunities of academic libraries in India because of COVID-19

Title: Challenges and opportunities of academic libraries in India because of COVID-19 Authors: Chakraborty, Sukla; Jana, Siladitya Abstract: The paper discusses the impact of the current pandemic caused by COVID-19 on the academic libraries in India. It identifies four areas concerned with an academic library namely, space, collection development, service, and the overall management to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by them in view of the COVID-19. It shows how COVID-19 posed several challenges to run the academic libraries in India in comparison to pre-COVID-19 period regarding these areas. It also presents the opportunities to the libraries. It suggests that that if the libraries use these opportunities, it may prove to be beneficial to it in the long run. Page(s): 110-118

Preservation and digitization in modern and heritage libraries of Jammu Province (J&K): an analytical study

Title: Preservation and digitization in modern and heritage libraries of Jammu Province (J&K): an analytical study Authors: Sharma, Sheetal Abstract: Twenty-two heritage and modern libraries in the Jammu province of Jammu & Kashmir were studied to understand the digitization status and types of services offered to users. Much of the data were collected from the respective institutes/library websites wherever these were available. For libraries that did not have websites or where the websites were not updated, the librarians of the institutes were interviewed to gather data. The findings show that most of these libraries maintain a unique collection of manuscripts and rare documents of historical importance that need to be preserved for future generations. A few of the libraries have initiated digitization projects to preserve the rare collection of documents. We recommend that the information scientists in Jammu province should continuously make efforts to take up the process of digitization in libraries to serve their users in an effective manner and preserve the knowledge for future generations. Page(s): 119-126

Library and information science theses in Shodhganga repository: a study

Title: Library and information science theses in Shodhganga repository: a study Authors: Mir, Aasif Ahmad; Sevukan, Rathinam Abstract: The study aims to analyse the availability, visibility, impact, and trend of LIS PhD theses deposited in Shodhganga. Data for the study were obtained from Shodhganga ETD repository (http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/) and Google Scholar till December 2019. Ninety six Indian universities have deposited 1767LIS theses in the Shodhganga repository. Detailed analysis of the top five universities contributing to Shodhganga reveals that only 15.68% of the theses were cited. Theses from Savitribai Phule Pune University received the maximum number of citations. Most productive research guides in LIS research based on e-theses in Shodhganga have also been identified. Page(s): 95-100

Altmetrics and social network analysis of economics, econometrics and finance research: the case study of Turkey

Title: Altmetrics and social network analysis of economics, econometrics and finance research: the case study of Turkey Authors: Ergüt, Özlem; Camkıran, Ceren Abstract: Increase in the use of social media has enabled academic studies to be spoken and shared on these platforms. With the widespread use of these networks, concepts such as the number of shares, as well as the number of citations have been among the conspicuous determinants on the visibility, popularity or even usefulness of research works. In this study, Mendeley reader activities and features of 1560 articles that were written by Turkish authors in the field of Economics, Econometrics and Finance between 2016-2018 in Scopus were analysed. By calculating the correlation between citations and Mendeley readership counts, it has been investigated whether Mendeley reader statistics are able to be evaluated as an alternative metric for citations. International cooperation with social network analysis was also evaluated. According to Mendeley results, the articles have a wide audience from various disciplines and different statuses. Correlation between citations and readership counts was statistically significant. When network structure is evaluated, international cooperation has become more concentrated over the years. Page(s): 101-109

Adoption of electronic books in a higher education setting: an exploratory case study based on Diffusion of Innovation and Garner’s Hype Cycle paradigms

Title: Adoption of electronic books in a higher education setting: an exploratory case study based on Diffusion of Innovation and Garner’s Hype Cycle paradigms Authors: Jayasundara, Chaminda Chiran Abstract: The purpose of this research was to examine the status of library users' adoption of e-books in line with Rogers's Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Gartner’s Hype Cycle (GHC) Model in the context of Fiji National University (FNU). The FNU Library introduced e-books to its user community in 2014. Purposively chosen 40 undergraduate students from the College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies were selected as the sample to conduct in-depth interviews. The study revealed that the participants' e-book adoption habits were primarily divided among early adopters, early majority, and late majority. The results disclosed many factors that influence the adoption of e-books, such as familiarity with the technology, personal taste, exposure to trial access, use of preferred access devices and enthusiasm for reading. Findings indicate that e-books adoption of university undergraduates in line with the DOI and GHC paradigms has substantiated how the underpinning theories could help interpret the adoption of e-books in teaching and learning environment. Thus, this research will help librarians and educators develop a robust mechanism for better understanding the inherent status-quo of e-book usage in higher education institutions. These research findings will also help develop strategies that can significantly enhance universities' traditional teaching and learning performance with emerging technologies. Page(s): 258-267

Exploring 120 years of Indian physics and astronomy journals

Title: Exploring 120 years of Indian physics and astronomy journals Authors: Das, Gopinath; Das, Amit Kumar; Dutta, Bidyarthi Abstract: This paper traces one hundred and twenty years journey of Indian physics and astronomy journals. Of the 122 journals that have been published since 1902, 36 journals have ceased publication. The oldest physics related article was published in 1788 in Asiatick Researches, the first Indian research periodical. The oldest Indian astronomy journal Publications of the Maharaja Takhtasingji Observatory came into being in 1902 from Pune and ceased in 1912. The oldest Indian physics journal Bhoutika Kalanidhi or The Treasury of the Physical Sciences started in the year 1911 from Madras (present-day Chennai) and ceased in 1919. In all, 53% of journals belong to broad science discipline but publish articles on physics and astronomy regularly along with other major science disciplines followed by 35% and 12% journals strictly belong to the subject areas, physics, and astronomy respectively. It is observed that nearly 50% of journals are indexed by the Indian Citation Index, while 20% of journals are indexed by the Indian Citation Index, Scopus, and Web of Science. Also, 30% of journals are not indexed by any citation database. In the 120 year period, the highest number of seven journals came into being in the year 2012. Page(s): 238-257

The problem of credit in research evaluation – the case of Economics

Title: The problem of credit in research evaluation – the case of Economics Authors: Crespo, Nuno; Simões, Nádia Abstract: The measurement of scientific performance is usually done giving the full credit of each paper to all its authors. Aiming to analyze the impact of the number of authors on the performance, we propose an adjustment to the h-index that is flexible enough to allow the consideration of distinct co-authorship weighting schemes. We then evaluate the publication performance of the members of the departments of economics of the top 10 world universities. Our results show that the number of authors per paper is rapidly increasing and that this dimension measurably affects the final ranking of authors even in a subject area where the average number of authors is lower than in physical and life sciences. Page(s): 225-229

International collaboration and high citation impact – A case analysis of immunology

Title: International collaboration and high citation impact – A case analysis of immunology Authors: Satish, N G Abstract: Bibliometricians emphasize on international collaboration to enhance the citation impact of research publications. However, Mathew Effect for Countries brings out that the citation impact is not uniformly distributed to all country affiliations. The present study explores whether international collaboration helps in neutralizing the origin of country bias. The study explores this with productivity, author affiliation and citation data from Scopus for the immunology papers for the year 2018. The data considered pertain to India and four comparator countries which are high on international collaboration, namely Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The results point to playout of Mathew Effect and possible confirmation of social constructivist argument of citation practices. Page(s): 366-375

Publisher interest in citations: An analysis of Scopus database

Title: Publisher interest in citations: An analysis of Scopus database Authors: Satish, N G Abstract: Publisher interest in citation to journal articles is an important variable that affect scholarly communication. The focus of citation studies is often on individual journal titles and Journal Impact Factors. The present study analyses the citation related data in the context of publishers represented in Scopus for the years 2016-2018. The results indicate a significant skewness in citations per document for 25 major publishers. Science academies and society publications, along with those publishers with fewer journals represented in Scopus, seem to be on the losing end in harnessing citation impact. Analysis points to the possible influence of publisher branding in the context of citation impact. Page(s): 349-354

The age of librarians as a driver of change in social attitudes

Title: The age of librarians as a driver of change in social attitudes Authors: Wojciechowska, Maja Abstract: Human capital is one of the most valuable resources of libraries. The age of librarians is a variable that may affect their attitudes and behaviours. The purpose of the paper is to pinpoint such correlations. The paper presents the results of research conducted among librarians in 20 countries of the world analysing the impact of age on individual social capital, social activity, social attitudes, civic engagement, level of trust, attitude to patrons and professional preferences. The research was conducted based on the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Individual Social Capital (KPIKS) developed by the Polish psychologist Rafał Styła. The study confirms that there is a correlation between age and attitude and behavioural changes. The age of librarians statistically and significantly differentiates their behaviour and social attitudes. The results may be used in library management processes, e.g. in the area of task and role allocation. Page(s): 355-365

Scientometric study of global mucormycosis (black fungus) research

Title: Scientometric study of global mucormycosis (black fungus) research Authors: LR, Rahul; P, Nishy Abstract: Mucormycosis, a rare infection, caught the attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many COVID-19 and postCOVID-19 patients were infected by the black fungus. This study presents a scientometric review of 6661 research articles related to mucormycosis published from 1947 to 2021 indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. The study analyses the publications quantitatively in terms of growth, collaboration, countries, institutions, journals, keywords, and impact (citation) using the Bib-Excel and visualized in the VOSviewer tool. The highest number of publications on mucormycosis research is from the USA, followed by India, China, Germany, France, and Japan. Most of the research collaborations are among institutions in Europe and the USA. The University of Texas-USA is the most productive institute followed by PGIMER-India. However, the papers from Indian institutes have a significantly lower citation impact than those from the other leading countries. Since most international research is restricted among a few institutes, the international collaboration in mucormycosis research needs to be enhanced for high-quality research. The analysis of author-assigned keywords showed that the studies on the drug isavuconazole to treat mucormycosis are lesser than other major drugs. The research on surgical management of mucormycosis can be improved. Research on the diagnosis methods for mucormycosis and the genetic studies on the causative fungi of the order Mucorales are to be promoted. There are a few studies on Rhizomucor, Lichtheimia, Cunninghamella, Saksenaea, and Apophysomyces, among the several fungi genera that cause mucormycosis. Since mucormycosis is becoming more prevalent and severely affecting a larger population as a post-COVID syndrome, research in this area should be strengthened and new drugs should be explored. Page(s): 376-388

Reading on paper and screens: advantages, disadvantages, and digital divide

Title: Reading on paper and screens: advantages, disadvantages, and digital divide Authors: Lizunova, Irina V.; Weel, Andriaan van der; Garcia-Febo, Loida; Pshenichnaya, Evgeniya V. Abstract: The paper studies reading in the digital age and grounds characteristic reading features on paper and the screen. We studied various scientific points on the uniqueness of reading activities in various formats, effectiveness, and perception of readers about printed and electronic texts. The study concludes that screen-reading practices keep evolving. Digital reading dynamically changes the communication environment, speeding up and simplifying access to information. The new reading format has many opportunities and advantages, and it transforms the reading skills and habits of society. Although it revives social reading, it intensifies the digital divide, leading to a secondary mental cognitive digital divide, and modifies the personal reading experience of contemporaries. Page(s): 34-43

Scrutinising uncitedness and few h-type indicators of selected Indian physics and astronomy journals

Title: Scrutinising uncitedness and few h-type indicators of selected Indian physics and astronomy journals Authors: Das, Amit Kumar; Dutta, Bidyarthi Abstract: The uncitedness of twelve Indian physics and astronomy journals over twelve years (2009-2020) time span is analysed here. Besides Uncitedness Factor (UF), three other indicators are discussed, viz., Time-normalized Citation per paper (CY), H-core Density (HD) and Time-normalised H-index (TH). The journal-wise variational patterns of these four indicators, i.e., UF, CY, HD and TH and the relationships of UF with the other three indicators are analysed. The calculated numerical values of these indicators are observed to formulate seven hypotheses, which are tested by the F-Test method. The average annual rate of change of uncited paper is found to be 67% of the total number of papers. The indicator CY is found temporally constant. The indicator HD is found to be nearly constant journal-wise over the entire time span, while the indicator TH is found to be nearly constant for all the journals. The UF inversely varies with CY and TH for the journals and directly varies with TH over the years. Except for a few Indian journals in physics and astronomy, the majority of the other journals face the situation of uncitedness. The uncitedness of Indian journals in this field is higher by 12% as compared to foreign journals in the same field, which indicates a possible poor circulation of the journals. Page(s): 13-27

A study of research publications of top NIRF ranked engineering institutions in Karnataka

Title: A study of research publications of top NIRF ranked engineering institutions in Karnataka Authors: BS, Shivaram; M, Uma; Sahu, Satya Ranjan Abstract: The study evaluates the research performance of top-six NIRF ranked engineering institutions in Karnataka. The study uses scientometrics indicators like publication and citation growth, AGR, RGR, DT, citation productivity of open access publications, and document types. The analysis revealed that publication productivity increased after the introduction of NIRF in 2016. The average citations of all the institutions increased, and MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT) recorded the highest 1.7 citations per paper, followed by Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) with 1.69 citations per paper. The decreasing trend of relative growth and increased doubling time reveal that the institutes are reaching their saturation point in their publication productivity. The open-access articles' average citations are higher than non-OA articles. The Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) open access articles received the highest citations, 11.8 average citations—nearly four times higher than closed access articles, with 2.58 average citations. Page(s): 44-50

Trust, collegiality, and communication between teachers and librarians to support student learning

Title: Trust, collegiality, and communication between teachers and librarians to support student learning Authors: Anggreini, Erina Wahyu; Mutia, Fitri Abstract: This paper investigates the trust, collegiality, and communication between teachers and librarians to support student learning at three senior high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia. The conceptual research framework uses Montiel-Overall's Model B Cooperation/Partnerships from the Teacher and Librarian Collaboration (TLC) model. The research approach is descriptive/quantitative and is based on 36 respondents consisting of 31 teachers and 5 librarians. The findings indicate that regarding trust, the indicator most depicted is benevolence. In terms of collegiality, teachers, and librarians care for each other, and in the communication aspect, teachers and librarians often communicate with each other. Page(s): 28-33

Immersive services in libraries: perspectives and views of library professionals

Title: Immersive services in libraries: perspectives and views of library professionals Authors: Roy, Samrat Guha; Kanjilal, Uma Abstract: The paper aims to determine whether AR and VR library services are useful and, if so, what are the associated opportunities and challenges. Based on the literature review, 40 libraries that have implemented augmented virtual reality services were identified. An online survey of library professionals belonging to the 40 identified libraries was conducted. Sixty-nine percent of libraries use HTC Vive as their preferred VR headset device. Further, 54 percent of the respondents stated the circulation of VR devices as a new service. Findings show that libraries are offering new services such as 3D Model Gallery, 3D Scanning, 3D Printing, and Data Visualization. SWOT analysis of immersive services in libraries identified VR content archiving, copyrighting of 3D content, and constructing metadata schemas for virtual content as the challenging areas that need further research. The study will be useful to library professionals who plan to introduce or experiment with augmented virtual reality services. Page(s): 183-190

Using text analysis to study doctoral-level library and information science research trends in India

Title: Using text analysis to study doctoral-level library and information science research trends in India Authors: Kumar, Vinit; Thaku, Khusbu Abstract: This study attempts to identify research trends in doctoral-level library and information science research in India. The study uses topic modelling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation to identify research trends by collecting relevant sections from the full-text of theses awarded in the last ten years by Indian universities in the discipline of library and information science. The topic modelling results show that the entire corpus can be classified into ten topics, including information communication technology and its application in libraries. The topic-wise trends indicate that ‘ICT and its application in libraries’ are still the prime themes of choice among doctoral-level research in Indian LIS schools, followed by studies on ‘Information seeking behaviour’. The growth-wise trend analysis suggests the decline in the interest in ‘Bibliometrics/Scientometrics’ and ‘Webometrics/Website evaluation studies’. The findings of the study will be of help to academics studying the development of LIS research, as well as aspiring doctoral-level scholars who are to identify a topic for their research work. Page(s): 191-202

Reinventing acquisition process of print books in university libraries

Title: Reinventing acquisition process of print books in university libraries Authors: Kumar, Naresh Page(s): 203-207

A survey and classification of publicly available COVID-19 datasets

Title: A survey and classification of publicly available COVID-19 datasets Authors: Dutta, Biswanath; Das, Puranjani; Mitra, Sushmita Abstract: The current study curates a list of authentic and open-access sources of alphanumeric COVID-19 pandemic data. We have gathered 74 datasets from 42 sources, including sources from 18 countries. The datasets are searched through the Kaggle and GitHub repositories besides Google, providing a representation of varieties of pandemic-related datasets. The datasets are categorized according to their sources- primary and secondary, and according to their geographical distribution. While analyzing the dataset, we came across some classes in which the datasets can be categorized. We present the categorization in the form of taxonomy and highlight the present COVID-19 data collection and use challenges. The study will help researchers and data curators in the identification and classification of pandemic data. Page(s): 208-220