Noticias em eLiteracias

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✇ Online Information Review

The scientific periphery and new flows of knowledge: the case of regional preprint servers

Por François van Schalkwyk — 31 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
The scientific periphery and new flows of knowledge: the case of regional preprint servers
François van Schalkwyk
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

It is unclear whether regional rather than global or discipline-focussed preprint platforms as an innovation in the communication of science are removing any of the barriers faced by researchers in the scientific periphery or whether they are increasing access to and visibility of science from the periphery. In response, this paper focusses on the uptake, visibility and academic impact of regional preprint publishing platforms in two peripheral regions (Africa and Latin America) to gain insights into the use and possible impact of regional preprint servers.

Comparative quantitative analysis using bibliometric and altmetric data to compare six preprint servers (two regional, one global and three discipline-specific).

There is evidence of the uptake of regional preprint servers, but the uptake is comparatively modest compared with global and discipline-focussed preprint servers. The academic and social visibility of preprints available on regional preprint servers is comparatively lower when compared to other preprint servers. The preprint server SciELO preprint in comparison to AfricArxiv shows signs of increasing growth and visibility, but more time is required to reach any definitive conclusions.

The research is limited by the short timeframe that the regional preprint servers have existed compared to some of the other preprint servers. The absence of reliable data on the research populations by region or globally by discipline places limits on the comparability of the raw data.

The article provides for the first time a detailed empirical analysis of the contribution of preprint servers targeted at researchers from the scientific periphery to global science.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2023-0153

✇ Online Information Review

Social media use and social well-being: a systematic review and future research agenda

Por Krishna Murari — 29 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Social media use and social well-being: a systematic review and future research agenda
Krishna Murari, Shalini Shukla, Lalit Dulal
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic review of the existing literature on social media (SM) use and examine its relationship with various facets of social well-being (SWB).

The study identifies and selects relevant articles using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework, wherein 273 articles were identified using the keyword search criteria from 5 databases namely Web of Science, Emerald, Pubmed, Google Scholar and EBSCOhost, and finally, 20 relevant studies were included for this systematic review. In order to provide directions for future research, a thorough profile with the key findings and knowledge gaps is presented.

The majority of the reviewed studies report an increase in the use of SM, especially amongst adolescents, and this suggests a seriously detrimental impact on their SWB in terms of cyberbullying, lifestyle comparison and impact on self-esteem, substance abuse, declined academic performance, fear of missing out (FoMo) and social overload. However, some of the studies reported life satisfaction, a reduction in loneliness and improved social support and belongingness, particularly those focussing on old age people who experience social isolation. The review also affirmed improved job performance and employees’ well-being. These findings vary across various demographic variables and various SM platforms namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, WeChat, YouTube, etc.

The findings have significant implications for SM researchers, family members and educators concerning promoting appropriate SM use, especially in terms of their SWB. The study also provides various suggestions for future studies and the need to further explore the topic as the field of SM use and SWB is ever-growing.

✇ Online Information Review

Transgender health information: assessing the quality of online resources

Por Hasbi Alikunju — 29 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Transgender health information: assessing the quality of online resources
Hasbi Alikunju, Anila Sulochana
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The internet has evolved into an indispensable platform for seeking health information, particularly among transgender individuals. With an abundance of online resources available, extensive research into the credibility and reliability of this information is essential, as concerns about the quality of online resources persist. Transgender individuals are drawn to online health information due to the anonymity it offers, providing them with a sense of freedom from social isolation and the discomfort of experimenting with their transgender identity. However, it is crucial to assess the accuracy and reliability of the transgender health information available on the internet. This article aims to evaluate the quality of online transgender health resources by utilizing ten credibility indicators, along with six indicators to assess the veracity of the content.

A total of 179 online resources were meticulously reviewed after excluding any unnecessary and irrelevant ones, to ensure a comprehensive assessment.

The findings suggest that among the chosen resources, none of them meet all the criteria for maintaining high standards of accuracy and reliability in health information. In other words, none of these sources completely adhere to the established measures for ensuring that the information they provide is trustworthy and of high quality in the context of health.

The study provides valuable insights into the online realm of transgender health information, revealing both the strengths and weaknesses of the existing resources. By pinpointing areas that need enhancement and showcasing commendable practices, this research strives to promote a more knowledgeable and supportive online environment for individuals in search of transgender health information.

✇ Online Information Review

Mobilization, self-expression or argument? A computational method for identifying language styles in political discussion on Twitter

Por Lingshu Hu — 22 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Mobilization, self-expression or argument? A computational method for identifying language styles in political discussion on Twitter
Lingshu Hu
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This study develops a computational method to investigate the predominant language styles in political discussions on Twitter and their connections with users' online characteristics.

This study gathers a large Twitter dataset comprising political discussions across various topics from general users. It utilizes an unsupervised machine learning algorithm with pre-defined language features to detect language styles in political discussions on Twitter. Furthermore, it employs a multinomial model to explore the relationships between language styles and users' online characteristics.

Through the analysis of over 700,000 political tweets, this study identifies six language styles: mobilizing, self-expressive, argumentative, narrative, analytic and informational. Furthermore, by investigating the covariation between language styles and users' online characteristics, such as social connections, expressive desires and gender, this study reveals a preference for an informational style and an aversion to an argumentative style in political discussions. It also uncovers gender differences in language styles, with women being more likely to belong to the mobilizing group but less likely to belong to the analytic and informational groups.

This study provides insights into the psychological mechanisms and social statuses of users who adopt particular language styles. It assists political communicators in understanding their audience and tailoring their language to suit specific contexts and communication objectives.

This study reveals gender differences in language styles, suggesting that women may have a heightened desire for social support in political discussions. It highlights that traditional gender disparities in politics might persist in online public spaces.

This study develops a computational methodology by combining cluster analysis with pre-defined linguistic features to categorize language styles. This approach integrates statistical algorithms with communication and linguistic theories, providing researchers with an unsupervised method for analyzing textual data. It focuses on detecting language styles rather than topics or themes in the text, complementing widely used text classification methods such as topic modeling. Additionally, this study explores the associations between language styles and the online characteristics of social media users in a political context.

✇ Online Information Review

Polarization and reliability of news sources in Wikipedia

Por Puyu Yang — 18 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Polarization and reliability of news sources in Wikipedia
Puyu Yang, Giovanni Colavizza
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Wikipedia's inclusive editorial policy permits unrestricted participation, enabling individuals to contribute and disseminate their expertise while drawing upon a multitude of external sources. News media outlets constitute nearly one-third of all citations within Wikipedia. However, embracing such a radically open approach also poses the challenge of the potential introduction of biased content or viewpoints into Wikipedia. The authors conduct an investigation into the integrity of knowledge within Wikipedia, focusing on the dimensions of source political polarization and trustworthiness. Specifically, the authors delve into the conceivable presence of political polarization within the news media citations on Wikipedia, identify the factors that may influence such polarization within the Wikipedia ecosystem and scrutinize the correlation between political polarization in news media sources and the factual reliability of Wikipedia's content.

The authors conduct a descriptive and regression analysis, relying on Wikipedia Citations, a large-scale open dataset of nearly 30 million citations from English Wikipedia. Additionally, this dataset has been augmented with information obtained from the Media Bias Monitor (MBM) and the Media Bias Fact Check (MBFC).

The authors find a moderate yet significant liberal bias in the choice of news media sources across Wikipedia. Furthermore, the authors show that this effect persists when accounting for the factual reliability of the news media.

The results contribute to Wikipedia’s knowledge integrity agenda in suggesting that a systematic effort would help to better map potential biases in Wikipedia and find means to strengthen its neutral point of view policy.

✇ Online Information Review

The emergence of preprints: comparing publishing behaviour in the Global South and the Global North

Por Kristin Biesenbender — 15 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
The emergence of preprints: comparing publishing behaviour in the Global South and the Global North
Kristin Biesenbender, Nina Smirnova, Philipp Mayr, Isabella Peters
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The recent proliferation of preprints could be a way for researchers worldwide to increase the availability and visibility of their research findings. Against the background of rising publication costs caused by the increasing prevalence of article processing fees, the search for other ways to publish research results besides traditional journal publication may increase. This could be especially true for lower-income countries.

Therefore, the authors are interested in the experiences and attitudes towards posting and using preprints in the Global South as opposed to the Global North. To explore whether motivations and concerns about posting preprints differ, the authors adopted a mixed-methods approach, combining a quantitative survey of researchers with focus group interviews.

The authors found that respondents from the Global South were more likely to agree to adhere to policies and to emphasise that mandates could change publishing behaviour towards open access. They were also more likely to agree posting preprints has a positive impact. Respondents from the Global South and the Global North emphasised the importance of peer-reviewed research for career advancement.

The study has identified a wide range of experiences with and attitudes towards posting preprints among researchers in the Global South and the Global North. To the authors' knowledge, this has hardly been studied before, which is also because preprints only have emerged lately in many disciplines and countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2023-0181

✇ Online Information Review

Development of a mobile health information application for immigrant women in South Korea

Por Sou Hyun Jang — 11 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Development of a mobile health information application for immigrant women in South Korea
Sou Hyun Jang, Yong Jeong Yi, Yun-Mi Song
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The primary objective was to develop a user-centered mobile health application (app) tailored to the specific health information needs of among immigrant women from diverse backgrounds in Korea.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 immigrant women to gain insights into their health information-seeking behavior. Based on the findings, a mobile app was designed and developed. A beta version of the app underwent validation by an MD and seven expert reviewers who assessed the app for content accuracy and conformance to mobile heuristics. Last, immigrant women (n = 12) evaluated the usability of the app.

The study revealed that the interviewed immigrant women had strong health information needs related to pregnancy and parenting. Most of them used multiple sources to find and verify health information. Language barriers were identified as a major obstacle to accessing and evaluating health information. The results of the user test indicated that the app effectively facilitated study participants' search for reliable health information, meeting their specific needs.

This research extended the literature by addressing the limited availability of mobile apps tailored to the health information needs of immigrant women in Korea.

By incorporating multilingual support and focusing on pregnancy and parenting information, the health app serves as a valuable tool to bridge the gap in health information access and to facilitate the well-being of immigrant women in the country.

✇ Online Information Review

TAI: a lightweight network for content-based fake news detection

Por Na Ye — 8 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
TAI: a lightweight network for content-based fake news detection
Na Ye, Dingguo Yu, Xiaoyu Ma, Yijie Zhou, Yanqin Yan
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Fake news in cyberspace has greatly interfered with national governance, economic development and cultural communication, which has greatly increased the demand for fake news detection and intervention. At present, the recognition methods based on news content all lose part of the information to varying degrees. This paper proposes a lightweight content-based detection method to achieve early identification of false information with low computation costs.

The authors' research proposes a lightweight fake news detection framework for English text, including a new textual feature extraction method, specifically mapping English text and symbols to 0–255 using American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) codes, treating the completed sequence of numbers as the values of picture pixel points and using a computer vision model to detect them. The authors also compare the authors' framework with traditional word2vec, Glove, bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) and other methods.

The authors conduct experiments on the lightweight neural networks Ghostnet and Shufflenet, and the experimental results show that the authors' proposed framework outperforms the baseline in accuracy on both lightweight networks.

The authors' method does not rely on additional information from text data and can efficiently perform the fake news detection task with less computational resource consumption. In addition, the feature extraction method of this framework is relatively new and enlightening for text content-based classification detection, which can detect fake news in time at the early stage of fake news propagation.

✇ Online Information Review

Predatory journals in dermatology: a bibliometric review

Por Amrollah Shamsi — 8 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Predatory journals in dermatology: a bibliometric review
Amrollah Shamsi, Ting Wang, Narayanaswamy Vasantha Raju, Arezoo Ghamgosar, Golbarg Mahdizadeh Davani, Mohammad Javad Mansourzadeh
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

By distorting the peer review process, predatory journals lure researchers and collect article processing charges (APCs) to earn income, thereby threatening clinical decisions. This study aims to identifying the characteristics of predatory publishing in the dermatology literature.

The authors used Kscien's list to detect dermatology-related predatory journals. Bibliometric parameters were analyzed at the level of journals, publishers, documents and authors.

Sixty-one potential predatory dermatology publishers published 4,164 articles in 57 journals from 2000 to 2020, with most publishers claiming to be located in the United States. Most journals were 1–5 years old. Six journals were indexed in PubMed, two in Scopus and 43 in Google Scholar (GS). The average APC was 1,049 USD. Skin, patient, cutaneous, psoriasis, dermatitis and acne were the most frequently used keywords in the article's title. A total of 1,146 articles in GS received 4,725 citations. More than half of the journals had <10 citations. Also, 318 articles in Web of Science were contaminated by the most cited articles and 4.49% of the articles had reported their funding source. The average number of authors per article was 3.7. India, the United States and Japan had the most articles from 119 involved countries. Asia, Europe and North America had the most contributed authors; 5.2% of articles were written through international collaboration. A majority of authors were from high- and low-middle-income countries. Women contributed 43.57% and 39.66% as the first and corresponding authors, respectively.

The study had limitations, including heavy reliance on Kscien's list, potential for human error in manual data extraction and nonseparation of types of articles. Journals that only published dermatology articles were reviewed, so those occasionally publishing dermatology articles were missed. Predatory journals covering multiple subjects (Petrisor, 2016) may have resulted in overlooking some dermatology papers. This study did not claim to have covered all articles in predatory dermatology journals (PDJs) but evaluated many of them. The authors accept the claim that Kscien's list may have made a mistake in including journals.

The wide dispersion of authors involved in PDJs highlights the need to increase awareness among these authors.

✇ Online Information Review

Geographical and gender inequalities in health sciences studies: testing differences in research productivity, impact and visibility

Por Manuel Goyanes — 5 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Geographical and gender inequalities in health sciences studies: testing differences in research productivity, impact and visibility
Manuel Goyanes, Márton Demeter, Gergő Háló, Carlos Arcila-Calderón, Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Gender and geographical imbalance in production and impact levels is a pressing issue in global knowledge production. Within Health Sciences, while some studies found stark gender and geographical biases and inequalities, others found little empirical evidence of this marginalization. The purpose of the study is to clear the ambiguity concerning the topic.

Based on a comprehensive and systematic analysis of Health Sciences research data downloaded from the Scival (Scopus/Scimago) database from 2017 to 2020 (n = 7,990), this study first compares gender representation in research productivity, as well as differences in terms of citation per document, citations per document view and view per document scores according to geographical location. Additionally, the study clarifies whether there is a geographic bias in productivity and impact measures (i.e. citation per document, citations per document view and view per document) moderated by gender.

Results indicate that gender inequalities in productivity are systematic at the overall disciplinary, as well as the subfield levels. Findings also suggest statistically significant geographical differences in citation per document, citations per document view, and view per document scores, and interaction effect of gender over the relation between geography and (1) the number of citations per view and (2) the number of views per document.

This study contributes to scientometric studies in health sciences by providing insightful findings about the geographical and gender bias in productivity and impact across world regions.

✇ Online Information Review

Fight against hair loss together: exploring self-disclosure and social support in an online hair loss support community

Por Zizhong Zhang — 5 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
Fight against hair loss together: exploring self-disclosure and social support in an online hair loss support community
Zizhong Zhang
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Hair loss is often overlooked but psychologically challenging. However, the emergence of online health communities provides opportunities for hair loss patients to seek social support through self-disclosure. Nevertheless, not all disclosures receive the desired support. This research explores what patients disclose within the community and how their health narrative (content, form and linguistic style) regarding self-disclosure influences the social support they receive.

This study investigated a 13-year-old online support group for Chinese hair loss patients with nearly 240,000 members. Using structural topic modeling, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, and a negative binomial model, the research analyzed the content of self-disclosure and the interrelationships between social support and three narrative dimensions of self-disclosure.

Self-disclosures are classified into 14 topics, grouped under analytical, informative and emotional categories. Emotion-related self-disclosures, whether in content or effective word use, receive deeper social support. Longer and image-rich posts attract more support in quantity, but not necessarily in quality, while cognitive words have a limited impact.

This study addresses the previously overlooked population of hair loss patients within online health communities. It employs a more comprehensive health narrative framework to explore the relationship between self-disclosure and social support, utilizing unsupervised structural topic modeling methods to mine text. The research offers practical implications for how patients seek support and for healthcare professionals in developing doctor-patient communication strategies.

✇ Online Information Review

A contribution-based indicator of research productivity: theoretical definition and empirical testing in the field of communication

Por Olga Blasco-Blasco — 1 de Janeiro de 2024, 00:00
A contribution-based indicator of research productivity: theoretical definition and empirical testing in the field of communication
Olga Blasco-Blasco, Márton Demeter, Manuel Goyanes
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The purpose of this article is to theoretically outline and empirically test two contribution-based indicators: (1) the scholars' annual contribution-based measurement and (2) the annual contribution modified h-index, computing six criteria: total number of papers, computed SCImago Journal Rank values, total number of authors, total number of citations of a scholar’s work, number of years since paper publication and number of annual paper citations.

Despite widespread scholarly agreement about the relevance of research production in evaluation and recruitment processes, the proposed mechanisms for gauging publication output are still rather elementary, consequently obscuring each individual scholar’s contributions. This study utilised the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method, and the authors built two indicators to value author's contribution.

To test both indicators, this study focussed on the most productive scholars in communication during a specific time period (2017–2020), ranking their annual research contribution and testing it against standard productivity measures (i.e. number of papers and h-index).

This article contributes to current scientometric studies by addressing some of the limitations of aggregate-level measurements of research production, providing a much-needed understanding of scholarly productivity based on scholars' actual contribution to research.

✇ Online Information Review

Bibliometric analysis of literature on social media trends during the COVID-19 pandemic

Por Rujing Xin — 22 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Bibliometric analysis of literature on social media trends during the COVID-19 pandemic
Rujing Xin, Yi Jing Lim
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This study employs bibliometric analysis to map the research landscape of social media trending topics during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors aim to offer a comprehensive review of the predominant research organisations and countries, key themes and favoured research methodologies pertinent to this subject.

The authors extracted data on social media trending topics from the Web of Science Core Collection database, spanning from 2009 to 2022. A total of 1,504 publications were subjected to bibliometric analysis, utilising the VOSviewer tool. The study analytical process encompassed co-occurrence, co-authorship, citation analysis, field mapping, bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis.

Interest in social media research, particularly on trending topics during the COVID-19 pandemic, remains high despite signs of the pandemic stabilising globally. The study predominantly addresses misinformation and public health communication, with notable focus on interactions between governments and the public. Recent studies have concentrated on analysing Twitter user data through text mining, sentiment analysis and topic modelling. The authors also identify key leading organisations, countries and journals that are central to this research area.

Diverging from the narrow focus of previous literature reviews on social media, which are often confined to particular fields or sectors, this study offers a broad view of social media's role, emphasising trending topics. The authors demonstrate a significant link between social media trends and public events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper discusses research priorities that emerged during the pandemic and outlines potential methodologies for future studies, advocating for a greater emphasis on qualitative approaches.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2023-0194.

✇ Online Information Review

Open science policies as regarded by the communities of researchers from the basic sciences in the scientific periphery

Por Alejandra Manco — 19 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Open science policies as regarded by the communities of researchers from the basic sciences in the scientific periphery
Alejandra Manco
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This paper explores the different open science policy effects on the knowledge generation process of researchers in basic sciences: biology, chemistry and physics.

This paper uses a qualitative methodology with a content analysis approach. It uses seventeen semi-directed interviews.

The main perceived effect of open science is access to research inputs, with open access, open research data and code reuse as primary sources. Another issue is the increase of collaboration with other colleagues in terms of the ability to collaborate faster and encouraging the exchange of ideas. However, this benefit does not translate to the division of labor in large transnational teams. Time spent on tasks like cleaning up data and code, scooping and other ethical issues are unfavorable aspects noted.

Policymakers could use this study to enhance current open science policies in the countries.

This study analyzes the perspectives of basic sciences researchers from two countries about open science policies. The main conclusion is the fact that open science policies should focus on the research process itself – rather than research outputs – in order to effectively tackle inequalities in science.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2023-0135

✇ Online Information Review

Shaming behavior in online communities: exploring a new configuration of digital conversations

Por Osnat Roth-Cohen — 12 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Shaming behavior in online communities: exploring a new configuration of digital conversations
Osnat Roth-Cohen, Tsuriel Rashi
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This research aims to conceptualize online shaming discourse in virtual communities and to serve as a practical guide for online community managers and members.

This conceptual study explores the construction of meanings in human interaction in online communities by presenting a conceptual model, “The Triple-Responsibility Model in Online Communities,” that is based on Kantian ethics.

The model includes characterizing the roles of core participants in online communities: writer, reader and group manager; and delineating four ethical principles – truth, necessity, proportionality and caution – that can help society find the golden mean between social change and respecting human dignity and concern for an individual’s public image and provide a theoretical contribution and practical guidelines.

It addresses shaming in virtual communities by suggesting a balance of several key principles, including truth, necessity, proportionality and caution. This is a new conceptualization of online shaming relevant to today's digital arena.

The guidelines can contribute to the ongoing political debate over what constitutes appropriate and justified regulation. Moreover, Facebook community leaders are responsible for formatting the group’s identity, the technical facets of group management and for setting group boundaries and determining the rules of participation. The posited rules may affect social media group managers, as they are called upon to leverage their privileged position and channel their media power into influencing online discourse.

The current study provides insights into how shaming can be used as a legitimate tool in society by implementing an ethical approach, resulting in guidelines that restrict online discourse for participants in virtual communities and affect the work of social media group managers and policymakers.

By presenting a new conceptual model, the authors suggest that ethics are a helpful tool and offer insights into how online communities' participants and managers should use their voice and balance between shaming and maintaining the dignity of the individual.

✇ Online Information Review

Digital preservation practices for information resources in university libraries of Pakistan

Por Rafiq Ahmad — 5 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Digital preservation practices for information resources in university libraries of Pakistan
Rafiq Ahmad, Muhammad Rafiq
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The digital contents (d-contents) are vulnerable to various threats either natural or manmade. Digital preservation is the plethora of a wide array of strategies necessary for the long-term preservation of digital objects. This study was carried out to assess the digital preservation practices for information resources in university libraries of Pakistan.

A quantitative survey based on a structured questionnaire was carried out to conduct the study. The questionnaire containing two sets of strategies (general and technical) was distributed amongst the whole population and received 90% response rate.

Overall, progressive implementation of general digital preservation practices was noted in these libraries like checking the digital collections for viruses, keeping the digital media in fire/water/theft proof locations, restricting unauthorized access, maintaining ideal humidity and temperature, and checking the digital media for functionality. Amongst the technical practices, only replication was in practice at a progressive rate, followed by metadata recording and media refreshing that was sometimes practiced in these libraries. The other technical practices were rarely or never practiced in these libraries. Significant variances in general and technical digital preservation practices were noted based on their physical locations (regional distribution).

The study contributes a comprehensive set of digital preservation practices divided into general and technical types to conduct similar studies in other parts of the world.

The findings stress the need for national and institutional policies, funding streams and skill enhancement of library staff.

The study fills the literature gap and contributes a comprehensive set of digital preservation practices divided into general and technical types to conduct similar studies in other parts of the world.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-02-2023-0074

✇ Online Information Review

Who corrects misinformation online? Self-perceived media literacy and the moderating role of reflective judgment

Por Porismita Borah — 5 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Who corrects misinformation online? Self-perceived media literacy and the moderating role of reflective judgment
Porismita Borah, Kyle John Lorenzano
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to understand the factors that facilitate correction behavior among individuals. In this study the authors examine the impact of self-perceived media literacy (SPML) and reflection on participants’ correction behavior.

Methods: Data for the study were collected from Amazon's MTurk using an online survey. Data were collected after a certificate of exemption was received by the Institutional Review Board in a research university in the United States (US) Qualtrics software was used to collect data. The total number of participants was 797.

Findings: The findings show that although both SPML and reflection are positively associated with rumor refutation, higher SPML alone is not enough. Reflective judgment is critical for individuals to take part in this behavior online, such that individuals with higher reflective judgment indicated that they refute rumors online, irrespective of their SPML score.

Originality: The authors tested the relationship of multiple variables with participants correction behavior. Although research shows the importance of social correction, there is not much knowledge about what facilitates actual misinformation correction.

✇ Online Information Review

Connecting differential psychological motivations for WeChat use with civic engagement: the significant role of bonding and bridging social capital

Por Hua Pang — 1 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Connecting differential psychological motivations for WeChat use with civic engagement: the significant role of bonding and bridging social capital
Hua Pang
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The primary objectives of this article are to systematically explore whether and how certain WeChat use motives could lead to bridging social capital, bonding social capital and civic engagement among young people.

The data was collected from a large-scale online survey of 1208 young people in mainland China. Zero-order correlation analyses and structural equation modeling were carried out to examine the corresponding hypotheses.

Obtained findings show that WeChat use for informational and social motivations are positively associated with bonding and bridging social capital. Moreover, bonding social capital could mediate the relationship between WeChat usage for informational and relational motivations and civic engagement.

Theoretically, this article underlines the unique social and technological affordances of WeChat by exploring mobile social media use and how it would contribute to the quality of democracy by fostering young people's engagement in civic life. Practically, bridging and bonding social capital play significant roles in enhancing young people's civic engagement, which could be the meaningful resource for mobile social media designers, managers and government officials.

These obtained outcomes underlined the vital role of these newly emerging communication technologies in fostering democratic involvement and production of social capital in contemporary socially networked society.

✇ Online Information Review

Breaking the silence: the role of social media in fostering community and challenging the spiral of silence

Por Tal Laor — 1 de Dezembro de 2023, 00:00
Breaking the silence: the role of social media in fostering community and challenging the spiral of silence
Tal Laor
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This research aims to examine the ways and the extent to which social media platforms undermine the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of diverse voices and opinions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of closed groups focused on non-consensus topics.

Facebook closed group members perceive the media as isolating and portraying their issues negatively. However, these groups offer support, inclusion and non-judgmental opinion-sharing space. Consequently, members feel more comfortable discussing and sharing the topic outside the group, indicating a slight trend of challenging and undermining the spiral of silence through social networks.

The study faces challenges in comparing diverse groups due to unique circumstances, complex needs and societal attitudes. Each group stands alone, potentially yielding slightly different findings.

Social media challenges and undermines the spiral of silence, as these opinions are shared with the wider society and can even find their way back to mainstream media outlets. Thus, social media platforms play a significant role in disrupting the spiral of silence and facilitating the expression of diverse opinions that may have been previously suppressed.

This research emphasizes the critical role of social media in shaping public opinion and its interaction with the broader media landscape, illustrating a circular process where social media disrupts the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of previously suppressed diverse opinions, which can then potentially influence mainstream media.

This study adds value by exploring how social media platforms can challenge and undermine the spiral of silence, enabling the expression of diverse, marginalized and underrepresented opinions in society. It highlights the role of social media in shaping public opinion and discourse, challenging the dominance of traditional media. Its originality emanates from its revelations concerning the legitimization of conversational topics, which may consequently affect media agendas.

✇ Online Information Review

Cognition and gender differences in cyberbullying in China: an investigation of textual cues and sentimental clues

Por Wanqi Li — 28 de Novembro de 2023, 00:00
Cognition and gender differences in cyberbullying in China: an investigation of textual cues and sentimental clues
Wanqi Li, Huaxin Peng
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

Cyberbullying is a globally pervasive problem and not novel in academia. Previous studies mainly focussed on the features, consequences and technological management of cyberbullying. However, most of the studies took cyberbullying examples in the West, and some issues still need to be addressed in the Chinese context. Thus, this study investigates how participants use cyberbullying words and why they use them in that particular way in China.

This study uses content analysis to summarise the typical features of cyberbullying words, revealing a positive relationship between cyberbullying words and sentimental expressions. This paper also uses the questionnaire (N = 705) to explore the prevalence of cyberbullying among Chinese Internet users and to compare the gender differences in the cognition of cyberbullying words and involvement in cyberbullying, in line with the social cognitive theory.

This study stated that people prefer repetitively using offensive words to achieve cyberbullying goals. Interestingly, this study does not find obvious gender differences in cyberbullying roles and cyberbullying language use. However, it explained the relationship between cognition and the use of cyberbullying words from a gender perspective.

Theoretically, this study expands cyberbullying studies into a new cultural environment, pointing to a novel term, “imbalanced relation,” for exploring cyberbullying behaviours. This study highlights the significance of technology and education in detecting and preventing cyberbullying, suggesting that educators and social media platforms can directly predict and prevent cyberbullying through textual perspectives and individuals' cognition of cyberbullying.

This study aims to examine cyberbullying linguistic and emotional features and individual differences in cyberbullying behaviour in a high-context culture like China. Its values include comparing the differences between cyberbullying in China and cyberbullying in the West from the linguistic and cultural directions and reconsidering the “power imbalance” feature of cyberbullying.

✇ Online Information Review

How internet use affects personal privacy risk perception: empirical evidence from China

Por Xiao Zhou Liu — 20 de Novembro de 2023, 00:00
How internet use affects personal privacy risk perception: empirical evidence from China
Xiao Zhou Liu, Shuang Ling, Ying Liu
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between Internet use and personal privacy risk perceptions, the mediating effect of trust and the moderating effect of satisfaction on that relationship, which is exactly conducive to the practice of personal information protection.

A moderated mediation model will be employed to test the hypothesized relationships using the 2017 Chinese Society Survey data.

The authors find that Internet use positively relates to citizens' risk perceptions toward privacy security, and trust partially mediates the relationship between Internet use and privacy risk perception. In addition, the analysis of moderating effects showed that satisfaction with social life significantly enhances the negative impact on individuals' privacy risk perceptions of interpersonal trust. The positively moderating effect of satisfaction with local governments' work mainly reveals the relationship between interpersonal trust (or institutional trust) and citizens' privacy risk perception. Moreover, satisfaction with Internet platforms positively moderates the relationship between consumer trust and privacy risk perception.

This article contributes to the social risk amplification framework by applying it to the personal privacy information protection field, which was rarely discussed before. It also enriches privacy research by identifying the internal mechanism of how Internet use influences citizens' risk perceptions towards privacy information leakage.

✇ Online Information Review

Shame on you! How incivility and absence of supporting evidence in likeminded Facebook comments influence evaluations of ingroup members and online political participation

Por Yonghwan Kim — 30 de Outubro de 2023, 00:00
Shame on you! How incivility and absence of supporting evidence in likeminded Facebook comments influence evaluations of ingroup members and online political participation
Yonghwan Kim
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This study examined how likeminded Facebook comments with incivility and without supporting evidence influence readers' evaluations of the commenter and online political participation intention. This study also investigated whether the indirect effect of exposure to uncivil comments and comments without evidence on online political participation through evaluations of the commenters is contingent on the strength of partisanship.

The study used a 2 (uncivil comments vs civil comments) × 2 (comments without supporting evidence vs comments with supporting evidence) factorial design with a scenario about reading similar viewpoints about the gun control issue in Facebook comments.

The results showed that compared to exposure to civil agreeing comments, exposure to uncivil likeminded comments resulted in higher levels of negative evaluations of the commenters, which in turn decreased willingness to participate in political activities online. Exposure to comments without evidence led to more negative evaluations of the commenters, but it did not significantly influence online political participation. In addition, the strength of partisanship did not significantly moderate the indirect effect of exposure to uncivil comments and comments without evidence on online political participation through evaluations of the commenters.

Although previous studies have demonstrated the significant effects of incivility and reasoned argument, little is known about whether and how people evaluate ingroup members' comments that are uncivil and lacking reasoned arguments. Most of these studies have examined incivility in political contexts, but few have extended the context to the effect of likeminded comments, especially when the comments are uncivil and lack supporting evidence. The current study aims to fill this gap in the literature.

✇ Online Information Review

The complex information needs of Chinese parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Por Zhengbiao Han — 19 de Outubro de 2023, 00:00
The complex information needs of Chinese parents of children with autism spectrum disorder
Zhengbiao Han, Huan Zhong, Preben Hansen
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

This study aims to explore the information needs of Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how these needs evolve as their children develop.

This study collated 17,122 questions regarding raising children with ASD via the Yi Lin website until November 2021.

The information needs of parents of children with ASD were classified into two categories: 1) Cognition-motivation: related to children with ASD; and 2) Affection-motivation: related to their parents. Child development causes the adaptation of information needs of these parents. Within the first three years, nine different topics of these parents' information needs were identified. Major information needs at this stage are as follows: intervention content, intervention methods and pre-diagnosis questions. During the ages of three to six years, there were 13 topics of information needs for parents, focusing on three areas: intervention content, intervention methods and diagnosis and examination. There are eight topics of information needs post six years. Parents are more concerned with the three topics of intervention content, life planning and intervention methods.

This novel study indicates the complex and changing information needs of parents of children with ASD in China. It may enhance the understanding of the information needs of these parents at theoretical and practical levels, provide support for them to understand their own information needs and provide a reference for relevant government and social organisations to provide targeted information services for them.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0247

✇ Online Information Review

Stories worth sharing – why do people spread news online?

Por Maria-Magdalena Rosu — 19 de Outubro de 2023, 00:00
Stories worth sharing – why do people spread news online?
Maria-Magdalena Rosu, Ana-Maria Cosmoiu, Rodica Ianole-Calin, Sandra Cornoiu
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

The insidious proliferation of online misinformation represents a significant societal problem. With a wealth of research dedicated to the topic, it is still unclear what determines fake news sharing. This paper comparatively examines fake and accurate news sharing in a novel experimental setting that manipulates news about terrorism.

The authors follow an extended version of the uses-and-gratification framework for news sharing, complemented by variables commonly employed in fake news rebuttal studies.

Logistic regression and classification trees revealed worry about the topic, media literacy, information-seeking and conservatism as significant predictors of willingness to share news online. No significant association was found for general analytical thinking, journalism skepticism, conspiracy ideation, uses-and-gratification motives or pass-time coping strategies.

The current results broaden and expand the literature examining beliefs in and sharing of misinformation, highlighting the role of media literacy in protecting the public against the spread of fake news.

This is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study to integrate a breadth of theoretically and empirically driven predictors of fake news sharing within a single experimental framework.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2022-0693

✇ Online Information Review

Creating a virtuous circle during a pandemic threat: netizens' resilience via information-induced psychological distance and social media approach

Por Chih-An Lin — 13 de Outubro de 2023, 00:00
Creating a virtuous circle during a pandemic threat: netizens' resilience via information-induced psychological distance and social media approach
Chih-An Lin, Yu-Ming Hsu, Homin Chen
Online Information Review, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.-

During COVID-19 restrictions, people spent more time in cyberspace and consuming health-related information. An increase was also observed in mediated caring messages or health-relevant information sent to one another. This study aims to explore how the information and interactions around COVID-19 can provide a good learning opportunity for public health, specifically related to eHealth literacy and eHealth promotion.

While mainstream literature has concentrated on experimental designs and a priming effect, this study inspects psychological distance related to a health threat under real-life circumstances. The article adopted a survey approach and utilized PLS-SEM techniques to examine the proposed hypotheses.

Results indicated that whereas closer social support correlates with closer psychological distance and less usage of the social media approach, more substantial COVID-19 impacts were associated with closer psychological distance but greater use of social media. Since both closer psychological distance and social media approach contribute to eHealth literacy, social support from closer and virtual social networks should be embraced but utilized through different routes and for different purposes. The timing of messages but not psychological distance affects people's social media approach, indicating that morning messages should be employed. Moreover, eHealth literacy mediates timing preferences and leads to a preference for eHealth communication earlier in the day. Overall, morning messages create a virtuous circle during a health crisis.

This paper establishes a mechanism of virtuous cycles for eHealth communication during a health threat. Additionally, it bridges existing research gaps by expanding chronopsychology and CLT in the health domain using an empirical approach, a real-life case and an extension of performance regarding information-seeking and utilization.

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