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Questions and Answers
What is the main purpose of scholarly communication?
The main purpose of scholarly communication is to share, disseminate, and publish research findings of academics and researchers so that the academic contents are made available to the global academic communities.
Which is considered a key quality control mechanism for reputable journals?
Scholarly communications historically were mainly driven by individual researchers.
False
What is the focus of the course Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics?
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Which techniques of bibliographic analysis are covered in the course?
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Peer review is discussed as part of the Scholarly Communication course.
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________ examines the ways in which scholarly information is produced, disseminated, and evaluated.
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How does scholarly communication come into existence?
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State the difference between journals, articles, and manuscripts.
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What is the main aim of scholarly communication?
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What are the scientific papers published in scholarly communication journals?
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Discuss the channels of scholarly communication.
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What are some important aspects in academic writing highlighted by Kauffer and Carley (1993)?
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Scholarly research is primarily created for personal financial gains.
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What are some traditional forms of informal communication in science, technology, and medicine?
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The emergence of electronic invisible colleges relies on the use of e-mail, electronic conferences, and discussion groups, replacing the need for ______________.
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What are the main eligibility criteria for an academic journal to be included in renowned citation databases like Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus?
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What is a scholarly paper also known as?
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Who is solely, legally, and morally responsible for the creation and submission of a scholarly paper?
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What types of academic databases are usually available to researchers?
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Who launched the first major citation index, the Science Citation Index, in 1964?
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What does DOAJ stand for?
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Bibliometrics is a qualitative analysis of academic publications.
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What is the role of collaboration networks in scholarly communication?
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What has facilitated sharing of journal articles at new levels?
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According to De Roure (2014), what are articles described as in the digital age?
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Academic journals are the most preferred channel of scholarly communication for publishing primary research results.
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Peek reviewers are drawn from the qualified as well as members of the profession within the relevant ___________.
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Match the forces of scholarly communication with their descriptions:
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What is UlrichsWeb mainly known for?
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UlrichsWeb is a subscription-based product, unlike the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
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What does DOAJ stand for?
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Author guidelines should always be consulted before submitting a paper in an ____________ journal.
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What term was first introduced in 1969 as a substitute for statistical bibliography to describe the field of study concerned with the application of mathematical models and statistics to research?
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Bibliometrics has changed significantly since 1958.
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What term was coined in the seventies to denote the use of bibliometric techniques in the assessment of scientific activity?
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Research evaluation is not the only area of science studies where ______ has a traditional role to play; these techniques are also used for studying the interaction between science and technology, in the mapping of scientific fields, and for tracing the emergence of new disciplines.
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Study Notes
Course Overview
- The course is titled "Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics" and is offered by the Department of Information Science at Jimma University.
- The course covers the production, dissemination, and evaluation of scholarly information, including print and digital modes, formal and informal models, and challenges and opportunities for access to information.
Introduction to Scholarly Communication
- Scholarly communication is a central part of the academic research process, involving the creation, evaluation, dissemination, and preservation of research and scholarly writings.
- The system includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer-reviewed journals, and informal channels, such as electronic mailing lists.
- The learned societies – formal institutions representing scientific and think tank communities – are primarily responsible for initiating scholarly journals in their respective subject areas.
Historical Perspectives of Scholarly Communications
- Scholarly communications have been driven by learned societies and their member communities around the world to publish research findings and scientific discoveries.
- The first sets of learned societies were established in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the Royal Societies being the main promoters and publishers of scholarly journals.
- Examples of old scholarly journals include the Journal des Sçavans (founded in 1665), the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (founded in 1665), the American Journal of Science (founded in 1818), and the Asiatick Researches (founded in 1788).
Foundations of Science and Scholarship
- Since the 19th century, scholarly communications have been transacted through conferences, books, and scientific periodicals launched by scientific societies, national science academies, and other learned communities.
- Many scientific societies have transferred their journal publishing ventures to for-profit publishers or business enterprises, while others still retain their journal publishing activity to provide cross-subsidy into their research and training activities.
- Distinguished scientific journals have made a deep impact on scientific inquiries, advancement of knowledge, and growth of subject areas.### Objectives of Scholarly Communications
- Scholarly communication is the process of sharing, disseminating, and publishing research findings to the global academic community
- A research paper is a standard way of presenting research findings, including scientific experiments, methodologies, key findings, and conclusions
- The peer-review process is a key quality control mechanism for reputable journals to maintain their standards
Scholarly Communication Life Cycle
- The scholarly communication is a part of the larger Research Lifecycle
- The Research Lifecycle involves planning, research proposal, funding, research process, data generation, data analysis, report writing, and communication of findings
- The research team may choose various channels of scholarly communication, such as journals, conference proceedings, and research monographs
Channels of Scholarly Communications
- Scholarly periodicals are a popular channel of scholarly communication
- Conferences and conference papers are another avenue for researchers to present their work
- Research monographs are an effective publishing channel for social sciences and humanities disciplines
- Research reports, theses, and dissertations are formal modes of research communication
- Working papers help researchers get feedback on their work in progress
- Patents are a vehicle for protecting intellectual property rights emanating from scientific projects
Principles and Paradigms of Scientific Culture and Scholarships
- During the European Renaissance, science met modernity, and the scientific revolution was established
- The scientific revolution brought transformed views and interactions between nature and society
- Scientific establishments, in participation with scientific communities and the state, initiate focused innovative scientific research programs
- Scholarly communication has international standards and principles, such as those set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
The Scientific Literature
- Researchers create a huge amount of knowledge for the scientific community and for national development
- Informal communication in science takes place through verbal channels, such as personal contacts, lectures, seminars, and conferences
- Informal communication also takes place through electronic invisible colleges, based on the use of e-mail, electronic conferences, and discussion groups
- Many peer-reviewed journals are migrating to electronic platforms to make their contents globally visible, accessible, searchable, and citable### Migration of Peer-Reviewed Journals to Online Platforms
- Peer-reviewed scholarly journals have migrated to web-based platforms in recent years in addition to publishing their respective print editions.
- Most existing scholarly journals from advanced countries have adopted dual modes, namely online and print formats.
- New e-journals have emerged as online-only editions, without publishing any print edition.
- Some existing scholarly journals have terminated their print edition to publish online edition only.
- Online only editions have more flexibility to accommodate more articles and features than their print counterparts.
Advantages of Electronic Journals
- Electronic journals have flexibility to publish ‘articles in press’ in advance – months before the articles being published with pagination and assigned issue number or volume number.
- E-journals allow embedding of graphs, photos, video clippings, and hyperlinks to other referred sources.
- Migration of scholarly journals from print to web-based platforms supports their global outreach strategy.
Journal Publishers and Subscribers
- Journal publishers offer e-journals in bundles to their prospective institutional subscribers.
- Bundles are formed on the basis of subject areas, such as management sciences, engineering disciplines, applied sciences, biomedical sciences, etc.
- Journals in science, technology, and medicine (STM) disciplines are costlier than humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines.
- Journals in STM disciplines publish a much higher number of articles than journals in HSS disciplines.
Electronic Databases of Journals
- Electronic databases of scholarly journals are globally available to researcher communities through institutional subscription or open access mode.
- Five types of academic databases are usually available to researchers: Bibiliographic Databases, Citation Databases, Full-text Databases, E-Journal Gateways, and Online Directories of Journals.
Citation Databases
- Citation databases systematically record referred literature listed with every published document as its list of references.
- Examples of citation databases include Scopus, Web of Science, Indian Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, and Chinese Science Citation Database.
Full-Text Databases and Journal Aggregators
- Full-text databases and journal aggregators aggregate full-text journal contents in common searchable databases for providing unified/single interface online access to researchers.
- Examples of full-text databases include EBSCOhost and ProQuest.
E-Journal Gateways
- E-journal gateways host full-texts of different scholarly journals, published by various publishers.
- E-journal gateways are collaborative efforts of mainly non-profit publishers, including research councils and learned societies, for freely reaching out global audiences through single searchable portals.
Online Directories of Journals
- Online directories of journals provide information about popular and academic magazines, scientific journals, trade journals, newspapers, and other serial publications.
- Examples of online directories of journals include Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SHERPA/RoMEO.
Bibliometrics
- Bibliometrics is the quantitative analysis of academic publications.
- Bibliometrics attempts to provide a better understanding of how research is produced, organized, and interrelated.
- Importance of bibliometrics includes:
- Illustrating the impact of a scholarly publication or group of publications in the greater research community.
- Supporting application for grants and research funding.
- Evaluating the research output of programs and researchers.
- Identifying research strengths and gaps in research.
- Limitations of bibliometrics include:
- Imperfect metrics.
- Variability in citation counts and behaviors among fields and over time.
- Skewed distributions of metrics.
- Ease of manipulation of metrics.
- Bad data quality.
Collaboration in Scholarly Communication
- The global community of information professionals, researchers, publishers, and scholarly collaboration networks (SCNs) needs to work in tandem to improve the article sharing experience.
- Scholars want to share their articles with research colleagues and provide access or sharing a copy.
- The sharing of journal articles is a practice that dates back to when the scholarly journal was first invented 350 years ago.
- Electronic files, email, and the Internet have facilitated sharing at new levels.
- Global interconnectivity will impact the way scholarly articles are shared.
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Description
Test your knowledge of scholarly communication and bibliometrics with this quiz, designed for information science students.
