Conceptual framework for scholarly communication guidance by the academic library: The case of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1137-1151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther White ◽  
Lizette King
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah

This article seeks to give academic librarians insight and guidelines into the provision of an effective scholarly communication guidance to doctoral students. The findings of the study showed that doctoral students had not received much training and guidance on research and scholarly communication practices from their supervisors and academic librarians. The study adopted a case study research design with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as the research site and sequential explanatory mixed method approach. A proposed scholarly communication guidance model to be used by the academic library is presented. The model proposes that scholarly communication guidance should be offered to doctoral students immediately they enrol for their programmes, throughout their research process, and finally when the research is completed since they are expected to conduct original research. The model will guide the drafting of policies and the academic library in developing tailor-made channels and contents for scholarly communication guidance to doctoral students. The study has contributed to the body of knowledge on scholarly communication guidance by the academic library to doctoral students as previous studies recorded in the literature pertains mostly to faculty and not to students – particularly doctoral students.

scholarly journals Reinventing ourselves: new and emerging roles of academic librarians in Canadian research-intensive universities

Bibliosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 15-36
Author(s):  
Ada Ducas ◽  
Nicole Michaud-Oystryk ◽  
Marie Speare
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Research Support ◽  
Digital Scholarship ◽  
Perceived Impact ◽  
Library Profession ◽  
Canadian Research

The academic library profession is being redefined by the shifting research and scholarly landscape, the transformation in higher education, and advances in technology.A survey of librarians working in Canada’s research-intensive universities was conducted to explore new and emerging roles. This study focuses on librarians’ activities in: Research Support, Teaching and Learning, Digital Scholarship, User Experience, and Scholarly Communication. It addresses the scope and nature of the new roles, the skills required to provide new services, and the confidence librarians have in their abilities to perform the new roles. It also reports on librarians’ job satisfaction and their perceived impact on the academic enterprise.

scholarly journals Investigators Reflections on the Process and Experience of a Mini-Ethnographic Case Study Research in Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezenwayi Amaechi ◽  
Patricia Fusch
Keyword(s):  
Women Entrepreneurs ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Study Research ◽  
Field Notes

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the investigator's reflections, both prospective and retrospective, on the process and experience of conducting a mini-ethnographic case study research in Nigeria. The research titled “Exploring barriers to women entrepreneurs in Enugu State Nigeria” was written to add to the body of knowledge on barriers facing some small-scale women entrepreneurs in the marketplaces in Nigeria. A mini-ethnographic case study design was used for this study, this methodology is a combination of ethnography and case study research that can assist a researcher to gain an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon. The data collection methods used for this study included open-ended semi-structured interviews, direct observation, reflective journaling, and field notes. Reflection enables investigators to engage in self-analysis throughout the research process. Reflections and experiences in the three marketplaces where the research took place, including interactions with the gatekeepers as well as the women entrepreneurs who shared their lived experiences, will be discussed.

scholarly journals Is the Political Slant of Psychology Research Related to Scientific Replicability?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1310-1328
Author(s):  
Diego A. Reinero ◽  
Julian A. Wills ◽  
William J. Brady ◽  
Peter Mende-Siedlecki ◽  
Jarret T. Crawford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Psychology Doctoral Students ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Psychology Doctoral

Social science researchers are predominantly liberal, and critics have argued this representation may reduce the robustness of research by embedding liberal values into the research process. In an adversarial collaboration, we examined whether the political slant of research findings in psychology is associated with lower rates of scientific replicability. We analyzed 194 original psychology articles reporting studies that had been subject to a later replication attempt ( N = 1,331,413 participants across replications) by having psychology doctoral students (Study 1) and an online sample of U.S. residents (Study 2) from across the political spectrum code the political slant (liberal vs. conservative) of the original research abstracts. The methods and analyses were preregistered. In both studies, the liberal or conservative slant of the original research was not associated with whether the results were successfully replicated. The results remained consistent regardless of the ideology of the coder. Political slant was unrelated to both subsequent citation patterns and the original study’s effect size and not consistently related to the original study’s sample size. However, we found modest evidence that research with greater political slant—whether liberal or conservative—was less replicable, whereas statistical robustness consistently predicted replication success. We discuss the implications for social science, politics, and replicability.

Information Behavior of Electrical Engineering and Computing Doctoral Students and Their Perception of the Academic Library’s Role: A Case Study in Croatia

Libri ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kornelija Petr Balog ◽  
Boris Badurina ◽  
Jadranka Lisek
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Information Behavior ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Postgraduate Students

Abstract Th aim of the paper is to present findings of a study on information sources and information behavior of doctoral students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. The study also looked into student perceptions of the role of the academic library and their attitudes toward it as a legitimate partner in the research process, as doctoral students are required to publish the results of their doctoral research in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals during their course of study. However, they rarely use the library and its services; the study was undertaken with the intent to obtain insight into the students’ information behavior as well as needs and reasons for overlooking the library as a relevant partner in their research process. The online survey was conducted on a sample of 138 postgraduate students, with semi-structured interviews with five postgraduate students also conducted. The findings show a dominant student orientation towards online sources such as online databases and Google Scholar. Students tend to overlook the library as a relevant information source but have positive attitudes toward librarians (their knowledge, skills and courtesy). The library needs to become more active in promoting its services and, especially in the domain of postgraduate education, needs to be regarded as a necessary location for any serious research work, where librarians are regarded as cooperating partners in the research process. There were a few limitations of the study: respondents were unwilling to dedicate their time to this research and therefore the interviews were too short to examine the topics discussed in-depth, while the sample was extremely homogeneous, making the results only in part transferable to other contexts.

scholarly journals Restructuring and Formalizing: Scholarly Communication as a Sustainable Growth Opportunity in Information Agencies?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Million ◽  
Cynthia Hudson Vitale
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Of Innovation ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Association Of Research Libraries ◽  
Growth Opportunity ◽  
Communication Work

Emerging technologies are revolutionizing the field of scholarly communication. Because of this, scholars increasingly need specialized support during all stages of the research process. With the academic library as the unit of analysis, two concepts from Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation theory and organizational innovation literature are drawn upon to assess the sustainability of scholarly communication work in libraries. These concepts are organizational restructuring and formalization. Data on Association of Research Libraries (ARL) employees with relevant job titles and three digital curation competencies documents are analysed. Study findings suggest that ARL information agencies have restructured to provide added research sup-port and that skills associated with scholarly communication positions are becoming more uniform. We conclude that scholarly communication information professionals are part of a sustainable area of practice within ARL information agencies, that has matured over the past decade, and this trend is likely to continue in at least the short term.

scholarly journals A 20-year evaluation of PLAAS research outputs: Impact on the scholarly domain and in social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 115 (7/8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Kerchhoff ◽  
Michelle Kahn ◽  
Mary Nassimbeni
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Unique Identifier ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Impact

Patterns and methods of scholarly communication have changed with the growth in information technology, particularly the Internet and the social web. The changes have necessitated a broader definition of scholarly communication and the role of social media in the research process. We sought to record the body of work that the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), a research institute at the University of the Western Cape, produced over a 20-year period (1995–2015) – the first two decades of its existence – and to measure its visibility and impact using bibliometrics and altmetrics. A survey was also carried out to investigate to what extent PLAAS researchers knew and used social media in their research practice. Scopus and Google Scholar were used as citation indices and Altmetric.com provided Altmetric scores – a measure of impact through social and mainstream media. The full list of PLAAS outputs showed a composition of 54% grey literature and 46% journal articles and monographs. Given that over half of PLAAS research outputs were in the form of grey literature, and therefore not indexed in traditional bibliometric databases, we suggest that alternative metrics be used in conjunction with bibliometrics, to measure the impact of a body of work on the scholarly domain. Although the bibliometrics in this study were a useful quantitative indicator of the impact of PLAAS research, this study was inconclusive with regard to determining the impact of the research output via altmetrics, partly because not any of the grey literature, nor any author from PLAAS, had a unique identifier, thus making it difficult to track and find quantitative indicators. Nonetheless, the potential benefit for PLAAS of using altmetrics was demonstrated in selected case studies of the output of three PLAAS researchers active on social media platforms.

scholarly journals Getting started in primary care research: choosing among six practical research approaches

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. e000042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D Fetters
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Primary Care Research ◽  
Care Research ◽  
Continuous Quality

While many primary care practitioners want to conduct research, many also struggle with getting started. This article’s purpose is to assist emerging researchers in identifying a topic of interest, to try the ‘fit’ of feasible research approaches and commit to a research approach. The article addresses six objectives: (1) identify how important primary care research comes from clinical stories; (2) recognise how clinical stories become the source of research topics; (3) discern how the research process resembles the care of patients; (4) distinguish the essential features of six research approaches feasible for primary care researchers; (5) evaluate the fit of the six research approaches featured in this special issue; and (6) develop a list of steps that need to be taken to implement primary care research projects. Using ‘HPV (human papilloma) vaccination’ as a hypothetical topic, the article illustrates how an emerging researcher can complete the worksheets. Using the HPV topic, a worksheet illustration shows how to complete the worksheets, and examples from the literature illustrate how actual studies have used six feasible research approaches for primary care: (1) survey research, (2) semistructured qualitative interviews, (3) curriculum development, (4) continuous quality improvement, (5) clinical policy analysis and (6) case study research. The worksheet exercises support choosing a feasible research approach for emerging researchers. Emerging researchers using these exercises can identify a topic, choose a research strategy aligned with the researcher’s interest, create a study title, develop a list of the next steps, and be well positioned to implement an original research project

25 Reflections on Accounting Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana R. Hermanson
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Journal Review ◽  
Accounting Research

ABSTRACT In this essay, I reflect on my roughly 25 years in accounting research by discussing 25 topics related to (1) the journal review process, (2) specific types of accounting research, and (3) the research process. I hope that these observations will prompt additional thought and discussion, help accounting doctoral students and faculty to publish their research, and potentially challenge some readers.

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