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…
Abstract
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 of the interviewees worked in the area of theoretical/computational chemistry and therefore their views may not be representative of other chemistry research fields.
Originality/value
Studies about the workflows and the norms in the use of source and output repositories are limited in the literature.
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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'…
Abstract
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 data and the use and expectations of source and output repositories is also discussed.
Research limitations/implications
Interpretation of the results must recognise that the majority of the interviewees worked in the area of theoretical/computational chemistry and therefore their views may not be representative of other chemistry research fields.
Originality/value
Such data was essential for the business analysis that described the functional requirements for the development of the key deliverable of the source‐to‐output repositories (StORe) project, the pilot middleware, which aimed to facilitate and demonstrate the bi‐directional links between source and output repositories. It also enabled the identification of workflows in research practice and contributed to the prime aspiration of the StORe project which was to invest new value to the intellectual products of academic research.
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Abstract
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The purpose of this article is to analyse the literature of chemoinformatics, a subject that has arisen over the last few years and that draws on techniques from a range of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to analyse the literature of chemoinformatics, a subject that has arisen over the last few years and that draws on techniques from a range of disciplines, most notably chemistry (particularly computational and medicinal chemistry), computer science and information science.
Design/methodology/approach
Discusses subject, author and citation searches of (principally) the web of knowledge database.
Findings
The Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (previously the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences) is the core journal for the subject, but with many significant papers being published in journals whose principal focus is molecular modelling, quantitative structure‐activity relationships or more general aspects of chemistry. The discipline is international in scope, and many of the most cited papers describe software packages that play a key role in modern chemoinformatics research.
Originality/value
This is the first bibliometric study of chemoinformatics, and one of only a very few that consider the bibliometrics of computational chemistry more generally.
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An artificial chemistry approach is adopted to explore new ways of investigating a global dynamic of a collective belief. Five derivatives of belief are considered– knowledge…
Abstract
An artificial chemistry approach is adopted to explore new ways of investigating a global dynamic of a collective belief. Five derivatives of belief are considered– knowledge, misbelief, delusion, ignorance, and doubt – to be reactants of an abstract chemical solution. The reactants interact one with another by certain laws obtained though unconventional interpretation of a belief update. Several types of reaction systems are studied in computational experiments with the doxastic solutions. A global dynamic of doxastic chemical solutions is also interpreted from a common‐sense point of view.
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Mats Sundgren and Alexander Styhre
The role of intuition receives little attention in the literature on organizational creativity. This paper describes a study of the role of intuition and its implications for…
Abstract
The role of intuition receives little attention in the literature on organizational creativity. This paper describes a study of the role of intuition and its implications for organizational creativity within pharmaceutical research. The study applies French philosopher Bergson's philosophy of intuition. The study is based on a series of interviews with employees in pre‐clinical research (discovery) in a major pharmaceutical company; in this context, creativity is defined as an organization's ability to bring forth a new candidate drug in the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular therapy areas. This paper concludes that intuition is a resource that facilitates new drug development. Pharmaceutical researchers perceive the roles of intuition and creativity as intertwined in ground‐breaking innovations. However intuition is a controversial phenomenon in the organization because it opposes reductionistic and analytical forms of thinking, which are highly prized in new drug development. Bergson's philosophy may form a fruitful foundation from which intuition and its relevance for organizational creativity can be exploited.
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William G. Town, Bryan A. Vickery, Jan Kuras and James R. Weeks
Chemists communicate in structures. The nature of information available to chemists therefore has to take this into account. With the migration from print to electronic…
Abstract
Chemists communicate in structures. The nature of information available to chemists therefore has to take this into account. With the migration from print to electronic publication nearly complete, the Internet offers the chemical information user many advantages. Journal articles are accessible quickly and easily from the desktop, long before their appearance in paper form. Additionally, research papers can now be uploaded to preprint servers before they even enter the publishing process. This paper discusses the many advantages this brings with it for chemists, but also discusses the disadvantages some may see as a possible result.
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N.L. Sharma and Susobhan Goswami
Based on strategic management approaches, this paper aims to develop a systemic and dynamic model of knowledge creation. The boundaries of the environment are changing in terms of…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on strategic management approaches, this paper aims to develop a systemic and dynamic model of knowledge creation. The boundaries of the environment are changing in terms of contract research, in‐licensing, out‐licensing where strategic intent also changes and gets redefined.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory study using available theories and evidences of companies fanning in different directions in the form of novel types of alliances. Suitable propositions are developed for further study.
Findings
The study concludes that organisations will have to reach for tacit knowledge and enhance the knowledge stock by constantly absorbing and assimilating new ideas and research findings.
Research limitations/implications
More study in depth and across a variety of companies is required to validate the findings particularly comparing the research and development (R&D) paths of organisations located in multiple countries. Not merely big firms, even small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) can be the subject of further study.
Originality/value
Previous studies concentrated on conservation, accumulation and recycling of knowledge without considering the absorption capacity of firms. This study takes for its heart the absorptive capacity as the ingredient of dynamic learning opportunities. Both for micro and macro initiatives, a joint interaction is necessary for knowledge to germinate and grow. Organisational learning is also a part of this process. Intellectual property in specialised research fields therefore must be created and defended.
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Vittorio Chiesa, Federico Frattini, Valentina Lazzarotti and Raffaella Manzini
The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of designing a performance measurement system (PMS) for research and development (R&D) activities; in particular, it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of designing a performance measurement system (PMS) for research and development (R&D) activities; in particular, it investigates if and how different objectives for the PMS use influence the design of its constitutive elements.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was first conducted, aimed at identifying the constitutive elements of a PMS for R&D and the major purposes for its use. Then, a multiple case study involving four Italian technology‐intensive firms was undertaken for investigating the relationship between PMS constitutive elements and measurement purposes.
Findings
Different PMS objectives imply significantly different design choices for constitutive elements. Even when companies are very different in terms of size and sector of activity, similar objectives lead to very similar PMSs.
Research limitations/implications
The research is qualitative. Further research should aim to increase the rationality and objectivity of the proposed relationships and explore the joint effects of the measurement objectives and other contextual factors on the measurement system design.
Practical implications
R&D managers who plan to design a PMS for their departments can follow the guidelines suggested in the paper to tune the basic features of the PMS to the real objectives they mean to pursue.
Originality/value
It is the first attempt, to the best knowledge of the authors, that explicitly and practically suggests how to tailor the design of each PMS's constitutive element according to the objectives that are pursued.