Panayiota Polydoratou

Revisiting 'obsolescence' and journal article 'decay' through usage data: an analysis of digital journal use by year of publication

The publication age or date of documents used (or not used) has long fascinated researchers and practitioners alike. Much of this fascination can be attributed to the weeding opportunities the data is thought to provide for libraries in their never-ending battle to find the space to accommodate their expanding collections. In general journal article age studies have shown an initial increase in use/citation, then a gradual or sharp decline, depending on the discipline concerned. This characteristic has been termed obsolescence or decay and was largely measured, in the absence of accurate journal usage/borrowing data, by citations. In the sciences the decay rate was shown to be the greatest. This was largely put down to the rapid obsolescence of much scientific content. New research findings, methods or ensuing events rendered the material obsolescent. Of course, when reviewing the data we need to be reminded of the fact that citation studies reveal ‘‘use’’ by authors, whereas library loans or downloads represent actual use by readers, and it is readers that libraries and digital libraries principally target. Clearly the fall of in use with time must have also been a function of the way that libraries arranged their material (in reverse chronological order); a lack of time and patience will inevitably result in readers aborting their searches after a few years and those few years will be the most recent ones. Similarly, it must also have been a function of the difficulties of searching hard-copy back volumes/issues in libraries over time.

Consumer trust in health information on the web

In the case of health information the quality and authenticity of the digital information have always been a matter of major concern for health and information professionals. This paper seeks to explore these concerns from the consumers perspective. It addresses issues around the consumers trust of health information. An online questionnaire was used to gather the data. Over a period of three weeks more than 1,300 people responded to the online questionnaire produced by The British Life and Internet Project: 81 per cent or 997 of the respondents were from the UK. A major finding was that half the respondents believed only some or even none of the health information found on the web and 45 per cent said that they had found misleading health information. This was found to be truer for respondents who surfed around. Thus respondents who used five or more sites to inform them were more likely to have found misleading information. Finally, data are presented to show that data collected from another independent study, conducted on behalf of the Department of Health, come to many of the same conclusions.

The general public's use of (and attitudes towards) interactive, personal digital health information and advisory services

Examines statistically the publics use and attitudes towards interactive and personal health services via an online questionnaire survey and enhances these data with an expert assessment of a number of consumer health sites and their services. Over a period of three weeks more than 1,300 people responded to an online questionnaire produced by The British Life and Internet Project. Of the respondents, 81 per cent were British. The likely potential uptake figure for support group participation among Internet health users is about 20 per cent while around 11 to 13 per cent will go online to describe a medical condition. Those in poor heath were approximately ten to 13 times more likely to have participated in an online support group. Those aged over 65 were four times as likely to e‐mail their doctor. More positive health outcomes were associated with those respondents that participated in online support groups and the least number of health outcomes were associated with those people that maintained e‐mail contact with a doctor or surgery.

Culture and Competencies: A Multi-Country Examination of Reference Service Competencies

Abstract Reference librarians have the opportunity to interact with patrons and colleagues of many different backgrounds, languages, and cultures as a result of our increasingly interconnected and peripatetic world. In order to provide the best possible service to these varied communities, reference librarians should understand some of the culture differences that exist across countries, and in particular, the differences in the way that reference services are conceived and delivered in different countries. This study explores some of these differences in reference services by surveying current practitioners in thirteen countries to find out which competencies they believe are most important for academic reference librarians right now, and in the near future. The results of this study highlight some important commonalities and differences, and could help reference librarians to manage and meet the expectations of their international patrons, and perhaps help them to prepare for an international job experience of their own. Academic reference librarians may be interested to see the extent to which their counterparts in other countries face similar challenges and expectations with regard to delivering reference services. Teaching faculty in library science programs will be interested to understand reference competencies and expectations in other countries, especially as they teach greater numbers of international students or consider collaborating with international colleagues. In addition, an international understanding is important in developing students who can compete in a global job market.

Open access journals --what publishers offer, what researchers want

The SOAP Study of Open Access Publishing project has analyzed the current supply and demand situation in the open access journal landscape. Starting from the Directory of Open Access Journals, several sources of data were considered, including journal websites and direct inquiries within the publishing industry to comprehensively map the present supply of online peer-reviewed OA journals. The demand for open access publishing is summarised, as assessed through a large-scale survey of researchers opinions and attitudes. Some forty thousand answers were collected across disciplines and around the world, reflecting major support for the idea of open access, while highlighting drivers of and barriers to open access publishing.

Familiarity with and use of metadata formats and metadata registries amongst those working in diverse professional communities within the information sector

Metadata registries are considered to be a solution to the problem of ata sharing and standardising of information on the Internet. The International Organization for Information recognised the need for a standardised approach to this problem and produce ISO/IEC 11179 Information Technology ‐ Specification and standardisation of data elements. As part of an ongoing research project on the ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registries implementation a questionnaire survey was carried out on four discussion lists an the EU funded SCHEMAS 2nd workshop (23‐24th November 2000). Results from this survey, which was essentially aiming to identify how familiar people were with metadata and metadata registries, are presented along with a brief introduction to the ISO/IEC 11179 Information Technology ‐ Specification and standardisation of data elements standard.

Use of digital repositories by chemistry researchers: results of a survey

Purpose – This paper aims to present findings from a survey that aimed to identify the issues around the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the chemistry researchers expectations about their use.Design/methodology/approach – This survey was performed by means of an online questionnaire and structured interviews with academic and research staff in the field of chemistry. A total of 38 people took part in the online questionnaire survey and 17 participated in face‐to‐face interviews, accounting for 55 responses in total.Findings – Members of academic and research staff in chemistry from institutions in the UK were, in general, favourably disposed towards the idea of linking research data and published research outputs, believing that this facility would be either a significant advantage or useful for the research conducted in the domain. Further information about the nature of the research that they conduct, the type of data that they produce, the sharing and availability of research dat...

Scientific Journals, Overlays and Repositories: A Case of Costs and Sustainability Issues

Publishing scientific research is an area of study that attracts interest from various stakeholders such as publishers, academic and research staff, libraries and funders. In the past decade increased journal subscription fees prompted calls for cheaper and more efficient means of accessing the scientific literature. Factors such as the expansion of digital repositories, the introduction of open source journal management software, an increasing awareness within the scholarly community at large of the issues around open access, and an increasing readiness within the publishing community to experiment with new models, suggest that the circumstances may now be right for new models of scientific publishing to be explored, as well as potential business models and sustainable solutions around them. This paper explores some of the issues around the costs and sustainability of a prospective journal model known as the overlay journal. We present estimates of initial start up costs for such a model, discuss the factors that would influence scientists in deciding whether to publish in a journal overlaid onto a public repository; and report their views on the relative importance of different features and functions of a journal in terms of funding priorities.

Use and linkage of source and output repositories: interviews with chemistry researchers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report research findings from interviews with chemistry researchers about the use and linkage of source and output repositories and the expectations of the chemistry research community about their use.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 17 face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with members of academic staff and postgraduate research students (PGRs), in chemistry departments at a number of UK universities.Findings – As part of the StORe project (http://jiscstore.jot.com/WikiHome), which sought to develop new ways of linking academic publications with repositories of research data, 38 members of academic and research staff from institutions across the UK provided valuable feedback regarding the nature of their research, the type of data that they produce, the sharing and availability of research data and the use and expectations of source and output repositories.Research limitations/implications – Interpretation of the results must recognise that the majority ...

Open access publishing: an initial discussion of income sources, scholarly journals and publishers

The Study for Open Access Publishing (SOAP) project is one of the initiatives undertaken to explore the risks and opportunities of the transition to open access publishing. Some of the early analyses of open access journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) show that more than half of the open access publishing initiatives were undertaken by smaller publishers, learned societies and few publishing houses that own a large number of journal titles. Regarding income sources as means for sustaining a journals functions, article processing charges, membership fee and advertisement are the predominant options for the publishing houses; subscription to the print version of the journal, sponsorship and somewhat less the article processing charges have the highest incidences for all other publishers.