A.N. Zainab

LIS journals scientific impact and subject categorization: a comparison between Web of Science and Scopus

The study compares the coverage, ranking, impact and subject categorization of Library and Information Science journals, specifically, 79 titles based on data from Web of Science (WoS) and 128 titles from Scopus. Comparisons were made based on prestige factor scores reported in 2010 Journal Citation Reports and SCImago Journal Rank 2010 and noting the change in ranking when the differences are calculated. The rank normalized impact factor and the Library of Congress Classification System were used to compare impact rankings and subject categorization. There was high degree of similarity in rank normalized impact factor of titles in both WoS and Scopus databases. The searches found 162 journals, with 45 journals appearing in both databases. The rankings obtained for normalized impact scores confirm higher impact scores for titles covered in Scopus because of its larger coverage of titles. There was mismatch of subject categorization among 34 journal titles in both databases and 22 of the titles were not classified under Z subject headings in the Library of Congress catalogue. The results revealed the changes in journal title rankings when normalized, and the categorization of some journal titles in these databases might be incorrect.

Relative measure index: a metric to measure the quality of journals

Journal impact factors (JIF) have been an accepted indicator of ranking journals. However, there has been increasing arguments against the fairness of using the JIF as the sole ranking criteria. This resulted in the creation of many other quality metric indices such as the h-index, g-index, immediacy index, Citation Half-Life, as well as SCIMago journal rank (SJR) to name a few. All these metrics have their merits, but none include any great degree of normalization in their computations. Every citation and every publication is taken as having the same importance and therefore weight. The wealth of available data results in multiple different rankings and indexes existing. This paper proposes the use of statistical standard scores or z-scores. The calculation of the z-scores can be performed to normalize the impact factors given to different journals, the average of z-scores can be used across various criteria to create a unified relative measurement (RM) index score. We use the 2008 JCR provided by Thompson Reuters to demonstrate the differences in rankings that would be affected if the RM-index was adopted discuss the fairness that this index would provide to the journal quality ranking.

Using journal use study feedback to improve accessibility

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine users preference and use of electronic journals in general, especially those published in a hosting system, Electronic Journal of the University of Malaya (EJUM)Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized the survey method and employed an online questionnaire as the data collection instrument. A list of 330 users who registered with EJUM was selected and an e‐mail was sent to each with an invitation to complete the survey form linked to their mail. A total of 140 responses were returned, out of which 102 responses were usable.Findings – The electronic journals are used for searching new information, reading full‐text articles, reading abstracts, and browsing the table of contents. Users are led to EJUM by chance while browsing the internet (41.8 per cent) when searching using Google, through citations obtained from conference papers, from articles or citations in databases. About 50 per cent of respondents rated the journals as “good” and 20.6 per ...

Biomedical and health sciences publication productivity from Malaysia.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine Malaysian contributions in the field of biomedical and health sciences. METHODS In this study, 3697 publications affiliated to Malaysian addresses from the sci database between 1990 and 2005 were sampled. This study also explored publication productivity trends, authorship and collaboration pattern, core journals used, and citations obtained. RESULTS Main contributions were journal articles (73.3%). Most authors (63.7%) contributed only one article and 16.1% produced over 30-68 publications. Multi-authored works were the norm. The productive authors were named either first or second in publications. There were active collaborations with authors from Asia-Pacific countries (35%) and Europe (30%). The majority of publications were contributed by institutions of higher learning (87%). Core journals used follow quite close to Bradfords zonal ratios of 44:152:581. The active research areas were identified. About 71.3% of publications received citations especially those published from 1995 to 1999. CONCLUSION This study helped librarians identify active researchers, active research areas and journals relevant to biomedical and health sciences researchers and useful when producing reports to university management and planning medical collection policies and deciding on journal subscriptions and cancellations.

Sudanese library anxiety constructs

Library anxiety is manifested in the form of negative feelings, fear, stress, distress, confusion and has debilitating effects on students’ academic performance, which makes it a serious phenomenon for investigation. This study explores library anxiety amongst Sudanese university students and identifies factors that contribute to this phenomenon. The factors were identified using the diary approach collected from 51 third year undergraduate students who were taking the research method course at the Sudan University of Science and Technology for the first time. The analysis of diary entries revealed eight library constructs named Sudanese Library Anxiety Construct (SULAC). The constructs comprises Negative perceptions towards academic library environment, Negative perceptions towards library staff, Affective barriers, Negative perceptions towards peers, Negative perceptions towards library services, Negative perceptions towards library collections, Negative perceptions towards library regulations, and Cognitive barriers. Details of factors underlying each construct are described.

Digital libraries in the classroom: secondary school teachers' conception

This paper presents findings from a case study investigating secondary school teachers’ understanding of the term digital libraries and their relationship with learning. The study addresses two research questions: (1) How do teachers conceptualize digital libraries, their relevance and issues relating to their integration into the curriculum? and (2) What are the teachers’ perceptions of the initiative to develop a collaborative digital library for school projects? A series of interviews were carried out on six History subject teachers which provide a detailed and succinct information on their understanding of digital libraries, their knowledge and use of the Internet and digital resources, their perception of the possible impact of digital resources on teaching and learning, the benefits teachers seen in digital resources and the problems they have in using them. It also offers important insights on History subject teachers’ perceptions of the initiative to develop a collaborative digital library for History projects, perception of its potential use, pointing out the conditions that facilitate its use in the classrooms. The paper also points out the relevance of digital libraries to the History curriculum which will make readers understand that using the technology is relevant to the teaching of all subjects.

Evaluating the influence of a medical journal using Google Scholar

This study shows how a journals influence can be calculated by using citations obtained from Google Scholar and other methods even though the journal is not covered by any citation databases. Influence is measured in terms of foreign contributions, ‘equivalent’ immediacy scores of recent articles, and the calculation of citations and ‘equivalent’ impact factor. A total of 580 articles published in the Medical Journal of Malaysia (MJM) between 2004 and 2008 served as the sample. Very few foreign authors contributed to MJM (12.5%), implying its low regional acceptance as a channel for research communication. Immediacy scores for each year indicate citations were received by recently published articles. A total of 1,164 citations were received by 446 of the 580 articles and the main citing sources were journals (1,083) with reasonable h index and impact factor. Yearly impact scores ranged between 0.367 and 0.616. Higher impact factor scores were obtained by older articles.

What a Digital Library of Malay Manuscripts Should support: An Exploratory Needs Analysis

The paper describes an exploratory needs analysis for a digital library of Malay manuscripts. The manuscripts are facing several problems, including (a) the lack of trained manuscript librarians; (b) budgetary constraints in manual and digital preservation initiatives; (c) the problems in storage and maintenance of the collection; (d) restricted access for users, (e) the need to preserve the fragile manuscripts, (e) the difficulty of undertaking collaborative transliteration work because of the access problems; (f) the dispersal of titles at several repositories which exacerbates the access issue; and (g) a lack of detail in the description in the manuscript library catalogues. The objectives of this study are: (a) to find out the current state of manuscript collection management and practices in selected libraries; (b) to identify the problems faced by manuscript repositories; (c) to study the meta data schema used by repositories to describe their manuscript collections, and (d) to identify a suitable open source digital library software to support a digital library of manuscripts. The study gathers qualitative data from an open-ended questionnaire distributed to five manuscript librarians in Malaysia. Cataloguing practices in manuscript repositories were observed and the open-source digital library software Green stone was studied for its suitability. The information gathered and observed which helped determine the requirements of a digital library that empowers repositories in building, storing, preserving and disseminating information about manuscript collections is presented. The design and modules of the digital library are described.

Moving a repository of scholarly content to a cloud.

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the problems faced by MyAIS, an open access repository of scholarly content, the reasons for moving to a cloud infrastructure and the design of the system.Design/methodology/approach – MyAIS is supported by an IBM HS22V multiple blade server using virtualization technology. A single blade server runs both MyAISs back‐end that handles the processing of digital repository and front‐end that handles the web server. The whole system runs on a Linux platform. The virtualized servers deliver an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to the Faculty of Computer Science, University of Malaya researchers as well as students.Findings – Sharing resources in the cloud cuts maintenance cost and leaves a smaller carbon footprint due to its modular design. Virtualization makes it easy to monitor access traffic and usage of hardware resources on‐the‐fly. The scalability and expansion of MyAIS is improved. It allows for faster system recovery in case of hard disk failure and speedy file m...

Accessibility and facilities for the disabled in public and university library buildings in Iran

The study examines the views of architect experts and physically disabled users on the accessibility status of 14 public and university library buildings in Iran. The respondents rated on the availability of items listed in a checklist grouped under five categories: parking, ramps, interior layout, exclusive space and public space for the disabled. The checklist was based on the American Disability Act and International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions checklist for libraries for the disabled. The results indicate that the point of view of both disabled users and architects on all criteria is similar except for the ratings on the ramp and the interior layout for the disabled in library buildings. Based on the architects’ responses, 53.8 percent of libraries did not provide ramps and 63.0 percent had no exclusive space for the disabled. Disabled users who rated higher on library accessibility were frequent visitors to the library. The provision of access and equipment met minimum compliant standards on the standard checklist, but there is room for improvements.