Chris Rensleigh

Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar: A content comprehensiveness comparison

Purpose – The research aim for this study was to compare three citation resources with one another to identify the citation resource with the most representative South African scholarly environmental sciences citation coverage. This paper focuses on the results of the content verification process which measured amongst others the citation counts, multiple copies and inconsistencies encountered across the three citation resources ISI Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar. Design/methodology/approach – The research, the first phase of a longitudinal study, used a comparative research design method with a purposive, non-probability sample. Data from the South African scholarly environmental sciences journals for the year range 2004-2008 (first phase) were extracted from the three citation resources and compared. Findings – It became evident during the verification process that the citation resources retrieved varied results. The total citation counts indicated that ISI Web of Science (WOS) retrieved the ...

Comparing Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar from an environmental sciences perspective

This paper presents a macro- and micro-level comparison of the citation resources Web of Science (WOS), Scopus and Google Scholar (GS) for the environmental sciences scholarly journals in South Africa during 2004-2008. The macro-level measuring instruments consisted of 26 evaluation criteria with the following broad categories: content, access, services, interface, searching, search results, cost, citation and analytical tools, and linking abilities. The micro-level measuring instruments evaluation criteria represented the data fields of the journal records to establish comprehensivity. The macro-level evaluation results indicated that Scopus surpassed both WOS and GS whereas the micro-level evaluation results indicated that WOS surpassed both Scopus and GS. Based on the macro- and micro-level evaluation results the study was able to establish that GS is not yet a substitute but rather a supplementary citation resource for the fee-based WOS and / or Scopus for the South African international accredited scholarly environmental sciences journals during the period 2004-2008.

Investigating online community portals for enhanced alumni networking

Purpose – The core purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which web portal technology and online communities could be successfully applied by the alumni offices of higher education institutions in South Africa (using the University of Johannesburg as a case study) to create information‐sharing with and amongst its alumni affinity groups, in order to build and maintain valuable relationships, networks and partnerships.Design/methodology/approach – This research project falls under Pasteurs quadrant of use‐inspired research. Using quantitative empirical research, a total number of 10,380 questionnaires was distributed to graduates of the University of Johannesburg at the Autumn graduation ceremonies in April 2006, thereby making it a self‐selecting, purposeful (purposive) and convenient sample.Findings – Based on the literature study, the results of the empirical research and the case study, the final conclusion made from this research project is that an online community portal can enhance to...

Multi-Dimensional Factors Impacting on E-Government Adoption in Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi

With widespread adoption of ICT usage in public service delivery platforms (e-Government) throughout the world, African countries have vowed not to be left behind in this marathon. Robust e-Government adoption depends on the strategy employed to implement it. This paper presents the different initiatives that have been employed to promote e-Government development and development in Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi thereby showing the impact of such initiatives on overall e-Government agenda. Using extensive document and literature reviews, this paper further intends to investigate the status of e-Government implementation in these three countries and understand the multi-dimensional factors that dictate adoption and use of e-Government services. The paper has found that deliberate fiscal ICT policies, trust of e-applications, availability of ICT infrastructures such as appropriate mobile phone and base stations technology, usability of ICT platforms, and relevant ICT skills of ordinary citizens have a lasting positive impact on people’s intention to engage in e-Government.

E-visibility of environmental science researchers at the University of South Africa

Research e-visibility embodies online presence on the World Wide Web, discoverability via research e-profiles and accessibility of research output available online. The purpose of this study is to report on the e-visibility status phase of a longitudinal e-visibility study (Dec 2014 – April 2017) investigating the e-visibility themes of online presence, researcher discoverability and accessibility of research output of the environmental science researchers at the University of South Africa. Bibliometric and altmetric data were collected via online searches and an online survey was completed by the School of Environmental Sciences during December 2014. The results for online research presence indicate a preference for using free search engines versus fee-based traditional resources. Regarding researcher discoverability via e-profiles, the results indicated a preference for using free websites, with the highest distribution on LinkedIn. A higher distribution of research output on free online resources was reported, with a low percentage of researchers participated in self-archiving on social networking tools, in online archives and in repositories, which resulted in a small percentage of accessible research output online. This research suggests that the development of an e-visibility strategy would support and enable academic e-visibility, therefore increasing online research visibility, discoverability and accessibility of the School of Environmental Sciences researchers at University of South Africa.