scholarly journals Publication lag and early view effects in information science journals

2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umut Al ◽  
Irem Soydal

Purpose A major problem in today’s scholarly publishing process is the long tails for the assignment of volume and issue numbers for approved articles. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which information science journals offer early view features and the effects of these features. Design/methodology/approach The study addresses three basic questions: Do the articles approved for publication in information science journals appear in the online platforms of these journals before the assignment of volume and issue numbers? How long do the articles wait in the online platforms before they get the volume and issue numbers? Is there a statistically significant relationship between the online accessing numbers of the articles before they are published and bibliometric indicators? Findings More than half of the information science journals complete the editorial process in reasonable durations and share new articles with their readers before publishing them. In some journals, there are articles that wait for more than a year to be assigned volume and issue numbers after the completion of the editorial process. There are statistically significant differences, in terms of both their impact factor and immediacy index values, between the journals that offer early view features and those that do not. Both the impact factor and the immediacy index values of the journals that provide early view are higher than the others. Practical implications Adopting the early view policy may significantly help increase the impact factor and immediacy index values of the journals, as well as the visibility of their contents Originality/value The answers to this study’s research questions offer a new perspective to overcome the challenges in the processes through which scientific products meet with their users.

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (8/9) ◽  
pp. 653-664
Author(s):  
Yingqi Tang ◽  
Hungwei Tseng ◽  
Charlcie Vann

Purpose The purpose of the study is to use a multidimensional perspective on the analysis of scholarly articles published in the top-tier Library and Information Science (LIS) journals. The relationships between the impact factors (Altmetric attention score [AAS], citation count and Mendeley readership) were analyzed, and reader profiles were characterized and studied. Design/methodology/approach This paper examined citation count, AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in the top-tier LIS journals – The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Government Information Quarterly and Library and Information Science Research. A total of 61 articles were analyzed. Data were recorded on an Excel spreadsheet and exported to the statistical software package SPSS 18.0 for Windows to perform the descriptive and correlation analysis. Findings This study suggests that Mendeley readership and AAS could be used as supplemental measurements for assessing the impact of a publication or author in the LIS. AAS and Mendeley readership are positively correlated with citation count, and the correlation between Mendeley readership and citation count was stronger than AAS and citation count. Librarians are dominant readers of the top-tier LIS journals, followed by social sciences, computer science and arts and humanities professions. Originality/value This study introduces two newly launched metrics for measuring the research impact factor and discusses how they correlated with citation count. Moreover, the study details the spectrum of Altmetric for discovering readership of LIS top-tier journals. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that presents the spectrum of AAS and Mendeley readership of the most cited articles published in top-tier of LIS journals. The study reveals an alternative way of measuring LIS publication’s impact factor that enables researchers, librarians, administrators, publishers and other stakeholders in LIS to assess the influence of a publication from another angle.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Caiazza ◽  
David Audretsch ◽  
Tiziana Volpe ◽  
Julie Debra Singer

Purpose – Existing work documents the role that institutional setting plays in the process of spin-off creation. However, despite decades of studies, scholars have not clearly explained why some regions are more involved in spin-off activity than others. Drawing from institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to compare different institutional settings identifying factors affecting the general environment capability to support spin-off activity of a specific region. Design/methodology/approach – The authors utilize a cross-national analysis of American, Asian, and European areas identifying factors affecting their different rate of spin-off activity. This study contributes to the policy debate concerning entrepreneurship and how best to spur spin-off activities. Findings – In this paper, the authors identify the general and specific factors that explain the cross-national diversity in spin-off creation. The authors then perform an analysis of the impact of these factors in various regions of the USA, Asia, and Europe, providing evidence for the necessity of specific combinations of these factors. Originality/value – The paper offers a new perspective on the causes of spin-offs through a cross-national analysis of many areas around the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.R.S. Sarma ◽  
Aalok Kumar ◽  
Nishat Alam Choudhary ◽  
Sachin Kumar Mangla

PurposeThis paper aims to develop supply chain strategies for the fashion retail supply chain (FRSC), likely to be disrupted by the current pandemic (COVID-19) under physical and online retail stores. The resilient retail supply chain design is proposed under budget allocation and merchandise capacity constraints.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilises the theory of constraint (ToC) and goal programming (GP) to address the COVID-19 impact on FRSC. The budgetary and capacity constraints are formulated with a constraint optimisation model and tested with six different priorities to deal with the physical and online stores. Next, all priorities are developed under different FRSC business scenarios. The ToC-GP-based optimisation model is validated with one of the Indian fashion retail supply chains.FindingsThe proposed optimisation model presents the optimal retailing strategies for selling fashion goods over physical and online platforms. The multiple scenarios are presented for developing trade-offs among different strategies to maximise the retailer's merchandise performance. This paper also highlighted the strategic movement from high merchandise density stores to low merchandise density stores. This implies a reduction of sales targets and aspiration levels of both online and physical fashion stores.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed model is validated with one of the fashion retailers in India. Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future.Practical implicationsThis research helps fashion retail supply chain managers deal with consumer demand uncertainty over physical and online stores in pandemic times. Limitation: Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future.Originality/valueThis is the first study that considered the impact of COVID-19 on the retail fashion supply chain. The effect of physical and online platforms is mainly discussed from consumer marketing perspectives, but an inventory and resilience perspective is missing in earlier studies. The role of merchandise planning is highlighted in this study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-16
Author(s):  
Leonor Gaspar Pinto ◽  
Paula Ochôa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss emerging practices in open evaluation, namely, the concept of co-evaluation and how research on evaluation developed within information science can contribute to enhance stakeholders and citizens’ involvement in open science. Design/methodology/approach A meta-evaluative and transdisciplinary approach – directed toward the intersection between information science, evaluation, competences management, sustainability transitions management and participatory methodologies – provided the basis for the identification and subsequent reflection on the levels of stakeholder participation embedded into ISO 16439’s (2014) methods for assessing the impact of libraries and on the domains and competences to be mobilized for (co)evaluation. The contributions of Engaged 2020 Action Catalogue, as well as several taxonomies of evaluator competences and the Council of Europe’s (2016) conceptual model of competences for a democratic culture were particularly relevant for this (re)construction process. Findings Two results of the line of research carried out since 2012 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal) can significantly contribute to improve stakeholders’ participation in Open Science: ISO 16439’s systematization of methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries and the (co-)evaluation competency framework. Originality/value This paper presents the transdisciplinary concept of co-evaluation and examines the current epistemological challenges to science by analyzing the general tendency to openness through the lens of research on evaluation and participatory methods developed within information science.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Lin Chang ◽  
Michael McAleer

Purpose – Both journal self-citations and exchanged citations have the effect of increasing a journal’s impact factor, which may be deceptive. The purpose of this paper is to analyse academic journal quality and research impact using quality-weighted citations vs total citations, based on the widely used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). A new Index of Citations Quality (ICQ) is presented, based on quality-weighted citations. Design/methodology/approach – The new index is used to analyse the leading 500 journals in both the sciences and social sciences, as well as finance and accounting, using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs) that are based on alternative transformations of citations. Findings – It is shown that ICQ is a useful additional measure to 2-year impact factor (2YIF) and other well-known RAMs for the purpose of evaluating the impact and quality, as well as ranking, of journals as it contains information that has very low correlations with the information contained in the well-known RAMs for both the sciences and social sciences, and finance and accounting. Practical implications – Journals can, and do, inflate the number of citations through self-citation practices, which may be coercive. Another method for distorting journal impact is through a set of journals agreeing to cite each other, that is, by exchanging citations. This may be less coercive than self-citations, but is nonetheless unprofessional and distortionary. Social implications – The premise underlying the use of citations data is that higher quality journals generally have a higher number of citations. The impact of citations can be distorted in a number of ways, both consciously and unconsciously. Originality/value – Regardless of whether self-citations arise through collusive practices, the increase in citations will affect both 2YIF and 5-year impact factor (5YIF), though not Eigenfactor and Article Influence. This leads to an ICQ, where a higher ICQ would generally be preferred to lower. Unlike 5YIF, which is increased by journal self-citations and exchanged citations, and Eigenfactor and Article Influence, both of which are affected by quality-weighted exchanged citations, ICQ will be less affected by exchanged citations. In the absence of any empirical evidence to the contrary, 5YIF and AI are assumed to be affected similarly by exchanged citations.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Anwarul Islam ◽  
Naresh Kumar Agarwal

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the place of library and information Science (LIS) research within leading knowledge management (KM) journals and conferences. Design/methodology/approach Authors examined articles published from 2000-2018 in top-20 KM publications identified by Google Scholar to look for relationship with LIS. Authors analyzed the identified LIS-related articles to determine the publication trends based on LIS terms used, populations, authorship pattern, country, information setting type and top-cited articles. Findings Authors found that the coverage of LIS-related articles within leading KM publications was very low. From the more than 10,000 KM research articles, less than 1 per cent were LIS-related. Research limitations/implications This study would help LIS researchers measure the space they have created for their field within leading KM research. By showing the relatively low coverage of LIS within KM research, the study demonstrates that LIS researchers/practitioners need to do more for LIS to be recognized as an important area within KM. KM publications can also enable greater synergies with LIS for mutual benefit. Originality/value LIS researchers have increasingly called for KM implementation within libraries. The KM field has a long history in library practice in the context of managing and organizing codified knowledge. Both KM and LIS share the common goals of providing access to knowledge for sharing, transfer and use. However, hardly any studies have looked at the amount of synergy or overlap between these two different but related areas, and whether LIS matters to KM, even though LIS practitioners have been highlighting that KM matters to LIS.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 809-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sertan Kabadayi ◽  
Genevieve E. O’Connor ◽  
Sven Tuzovic

Purpose This paper aims to synthesize the widespread economic impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 and presents a new concept, service mega-disruptions (SMDs), which refers to fast moving market disturbances at a massive scale caused by a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework to recognize the impact of SMDs on service ecosystems and a call to action for service researchers in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an overview of massive market disturbances that is observed across multiple service sectors based on current news reports. It then develops themes for timely and actionable research for service scholars. Findings The outbreak of COVID-19 demonstrates that both service industries and the service research community face a new reality, something that we are not well-prepared to handle. A new framework is needed to understand the impact of such virus outbreaks, and current service marketing concepts need to be re-investigated from a new perspective. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature and service research community by addressing the phenomenon of SMDs by curating a framework and collection of research themes to understand what we observe and what we need to learn to do better in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leida Chen ◽  
Xiaohan Zhang ◽  
Zhensheng Li

Purpose Drawing upon the theory of information culture from information science and prior research on Chinese information practices. The purpose of this paper is to posit that instead of over-relying on Hofstede’s national cultural values, the IS field should develop theories on national information culture to bridge the theoretical gaps found in explaining the differences in individuals’ IT perceptions and behaviors across cultures. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the objectives of this study, two quantitative studies were conducted. The first study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the development and calibration of an instrument to measure the Chinese information culture (CIC). The second study takes a confirmatory approach to investigate the impact of the CIC on IT perceptions of manager. Findings The study develops and validates an instrument for measuring the CIC that comprises information source and format preference, information ownership and analysis style, and centralized decision-making and information control. The CIC is found to influence IT perceptions of managers including perceived performance improvement resulted from IT use, attitude toward using work technologies and attitude on the value of IT in general. Originality/value This study is one of the first studies to theorize national information culture to understand IT perceptions at the individual level. The development of the CIC measure provides the much needed methodological support for contextualizing cross-cultural research.


Author(s):  
Sandra Castro-González ◽  
Belén Bande

PurposeThis paper aims to show how managers model culture for employees to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.Design/methodology/approachThe proposal begins by highlighting the importance of culture for CSR implementation and then explains the impact of culture on employees.FindingsCurrently, many companies carry out activities under the CSR umbrella, but they may do so without considering whether their company’s context is ideal for such initiatives. They may also not consider the types of employees composing the workforce or their disposition toward CSR. In these circumstances, organizations may miss out on the added value of CSR practices.Originality/valueThe important influence of CSR practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors at work requires organizations to implement these types of actions. Therefore, the contextual factors that are most likely to aid in developing and maintaining these practices must be acknowledged. This paper seeks to offer a new perspective to managers and human resource managers regarding the implementation of CSR activities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasia Gonnerman ◽  
Ken Johnson

Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how to create and sustain a successful mentoring program for reference student assistants in the liberal arts environment. The study delineates student training, program assessment and the impact on reference practice in a way that can be used at other institutions considering implementing a similar initiative. Design/methodology/approach This case study is written by professionals who have been deeply engaged in initiating, running and assessing the program. It presents the value of the program in an unbiased and objective manner by including the voices of the student mentees themselves reflecting on the experience. Findings The mentorship program has proven to be worthwhile and rewarding in equal measures to both the mentees and reference librarians working with our future successors. It serves an important role in inspiring and encouraging library student workers to become interested in academic librarianship as a career choice and it prepares them to be successful students in library and information science graduate programs. Originality/value Although the discussion of training reference student assistants per se is not rare in the library literature, this particular program is unique in several ways: its main intent is to mentor students who are interested in pursuing librarianship as a career goal; it occurs in the context of a liberal arts college rather than in a larger university setting, especially those offering degrees in information and library science; and it empowers students to provide in-depth independent reference services for their peers and faculty.


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