Tove Faber Frandsen, Kristian Møhler Sørensen and Lyngroes Fladmose Anne
Libraries are increasingly trying to communicate the library's contributions and telling the library stories. Stories can be a component of impact assessment and thus add nuance…
Abstract
Purpose
Libraries are increasingly trying to communicate the library's contributions and telling the library stories. Stories can be a component of impact assessment and thus add nuance to an assessment. Evaluations of libraries can include collecting and presenting stories of change, which can serve as evidence in impact assessments. The narrative field allows for many different approaches to a narrative perspective in the study of libraries, but the existing literature provides little overview of these studies. The purpose of this study is to introduce the narrative field and present a systematic review of the existing studies of libraries that use narrative approaches.
Design/methodology/approach
The methods in this study comprise of a systematic review of publications reporting narrative approaches to studying libraries. To retrieve the relevant studies, Library and Information Science Abstracts, Scopus, Web of Science and Proquest Dissertation were searched. Furthermore, the authors examined reference lists and performed citation searches. Study selection was performed by two reviewers independently. Using designed templates, data from the included studies were extracted by one author and confirmed by another.
Findings
The database searches retrieved 2,096 records across the four databases which were screened in two steps, resulting in 35 included studies. The authors identify studies that introduce narrative enquiries in library studies as well as studies using narrative approaches to the study of libraries.
Originality/value
Exploring narratives and stories for understanding and evaluating the library's worth is a promising field. More work is needed, though, to develop theoretical and methodological frameworks. Several of the included studies can serve as examples of the potential of a narrative perspective in the study of libraries.
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Jeppe Nicolaisen and Tove Faber Frandsen
Citation analysis as a method for studying scientific communication is frequently criticized for being based on biased citation practices. Questionable motives for the reference…
Abstract
Purpose
Citation analysis as a method for studying scientific communication is frequently criticized for being based on biased citation practices. Questionable motives for the reference selection have been suggested including the claim that authors tend to cite hot papers in order to show-off. In this study, the authors investigate the claim that authors tend to cite the recent literature in order to show-off.
Design/methodology/approach
Following Moed and Garfield (2004), the authors investigate the claim by analyzing the proportion of recent references as a function of the length of the reference lists of citing papers. The authors analyze reference lists of citing papers in the fields of biomedical engineering, economics, medicine, psychology and library and information science between 2010 and 2019. From each of these fields, a number of journals are included in the analysis to represent the field. In total, 42 journals are included in the analyses comprising a selection of almost 65,000 journal articles. The proportion of recent references is calculated using two citation windows. The proportion of recent references as a function of the length of the reference lists is calculated through simple linear regressions to predict the share of recent references based on the number of references.
Findings
The results of the linear regressions indicate that in most cases, there are a statistically significant relationship between the share of recent references and the number of references. This study’s results show that when authors display selective referencing behavior, references to the recent literature tend to be only marginally increased, and some results even display the opposite tendency (marginally overciting the older literature).
Originality/value
This study of the claim that authors tend to cite the recent literature in order to show-off does not confirm the hypothesis.
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Emil Petersen, Jesper Gabs Jensen and Tove Faber Frandsen
Information seeking can be used to make sense of a situation or solve a problem. Information seeking can be considered a coping strategy when facing illness, crisis or other…
Abstract
Purpose
Information seeking can be used to make sense of a situation or solve a problem. Information seeking can be considered a coping strategy when facing illness, crisis or other life-changing events. Cancer is a globally occurring, life-threatening disease, and this review aims to provide an overview of the existing literature on the active information seeking behaviour of cancer patients specifically focussing on how active information seeking serves as a coping strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adheres to current guidelines for conducting systematic reviews and consequently, thorough literature searches were conducted in four databases: Medline, Embase, CINAHL and Scopus which resulted in 7,179 publications. Following a careful screening process, this systematic review identifies 14 studies on the use of information seeking to cope with cancer.
Findings
The included studies consist of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to analysing the use of information seeking to cope with cancer. The included studies have focussed primarily on demographic factors, the impact of affect, information needs, sources and coping strategies.
Research limitations/implications
A number of research gaps within library and information science are identified. Bringing research in this field into information science could allow for a greater understanding of information literacy, the use of existing information and the process of information searching when using information seeking to cope with serious illness.
Originality/value
This systematic review focusses on how information seeking serves as a coping strategy for cancer patients and provides an overview of the recent literature.
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Tove Faber Frandsen, Dativa Tibyampansha, Glory R. Ibrahim and Megan von Isenburg
The purpose of this paper in information literacy assessment is to explore how library training can promote electronic resource usage. Increasing the usage of electronic resources…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper in information literacy assessment is to explore how library training can promote electronic resource usage. Increasing the usage of electronic resources is an issue of concern for many libraries all over the world. Several studies stress the importance of information literacy and instruction to increase the usage.
Design/methodology/approach
The present article presents the results of implementing training programmes to increase the use of the e-library.
Findings
Training sessions increase the usage of library e-resources significantly; however, the effect seems to be short-lived and training sessions alone may not increase the overall long-term usage.
Originality/value
The present paper presents a study of training sessions as means to increase awareness and usage of library e-resources. Implications for the planning of training are discussed.
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Tove Faber Frandsen, Ronald Rousseau and Ian Rowlands
The purpose of this paper is to clarify earlier work on journal diffusion metrics. Classical journal indicators such as the Garfield impact factor do not measure the breadth of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify earlier work on journal diffusion metrics. Classical journal indicators such as the Garfield impact factor do not measure the breadth of influence across the literature of a particular journal title. As a new approach to measuring research influence, the study complements these existing metrics with a series of formally described diffusion factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a publication‐citation matrix as an organising construct, the paper develops formal descriptions of two forms of diffusion metric: “relative diffusion factors” and “journal diffusion factors” in both their synchronous and diachronous forms. It also provides worked examples for selected library and information science and economics journals, plus a sample of health information papers to illustrate their construction and use.
Findings
Diffusion factors capture different aspects of the citation reception process than existing bibliometric measures. The paper shows that diffusion factors can be applied at the whole journal level or for sets of articles and that they provide a richer evidence base for citation analyses than traditional measures alone.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of this paper is on clarifying the concepts underlying diffusion factors and there is unlimited scope for further work to apply these metrics to much larger and more comprehensive data sets than has been attempted here.
Practical implications
These new tools extend the range of tools available for bibliometric, and possibly webometric, analysis. Diffusion factors might find particular application in studies where the research questions focus on the dynamic aspects of innovation and knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
This paper will be of interest to those with theoretical interests in informetric distributions as well as those interested in science policy and innovation studies.
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Ellen Nebelong‐Bonnevie and Tove Faber Frandsen
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multiple set of journal evaluation indicators using methods and theories from author analysis. Among those are the journal citation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multiple set of journal evaluation indicators using methods and theories from author analysis. Among those are the journal citation identity and the journal citation image.
Design/methodology/approach
The Journal of Documentation is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and for that reason it is portrayed in a bibliometric study using the two indicators, based, e.g. on analyses of references in journal articles and journal co‐citation analyses.
Findings
The Journal of Documentation, which is portrayed in this study is characterized by high impact and high visibility. It publishes a relatively low number of documents with scientific content compared to other journals in the same field. It reaches far into the scientific community and belongs to a field that is more and more visible. The journal is relatively closely bounded to Western Europe, which is an increasing tendency.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on analyses of just three LIS journals.
Practical implications
Journal citation identity and the journal citation image indicators contribute in giving a more detailed multifaceted picture of a single journal.
Originality/value
The multiple set of indicators give rise to a journal evaluation of a more qualitative nature.
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Scholars from developing countries have limited access to research publications due to expensive subscription costs. However, the open access movement is challenging the…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars from developing countries have limited access to research publications due to expensive subscription costs. However, the open access movement is challenging the constraint to access. Consequently, researchers in developing countries are often mentioned as major recipients of the benefits when advocating open access (OA). One of the implications of that argument is that authors from developing countries are more likely to perceive open access positively than authors from developed countries. The present study aims to investigate the use of open access by researchers from developing countries and is thus a supplement to the existing author surveys and interviews.
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliometric analyses of both publishing behaviour and citing behaviour in relation to OA publishing provides evidence of the impact of open access on developing countries.
Findings
The results of the multivariate linear regression show that open access journals are not characterised by a different composition of authors from the traditional toll access journals. Furthermore, the results show that authors from developing countries do not cite open access more than authors from developed countries.
Originality/value
The paper argues that authors from developing countries are not attracted to open access more than authors from developed countries.
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This paper shows that the measure of diffusion introduced by Ian Rowlands called the journal diffusion factor (JDF) is highly negatively correlated with the number of citations…
Abstract
This paper shows that the measure of diffusion introduced by Ian Rowlands called the journal diffusion factor (JDF) is highly negatively correlated with the number of citations, leading highly cited journals to get a low JDF, whereas less cited journals get a high JDF. This property reduces the utility of the JDF as a tool for evaluation of research influence. The paper presents a new definition of the JDF in order to attempt to improve it. This new JDF corrects the strong correlation with the number cited, but has a strongly statistically positive correlation with journal impact factors (JIF). However, the new JDF may still be used as an evaluation tool since, for journals with similar JIF values, the new JDF can be used to differentiate between them. Thereby, journal evaluation will be based on more than one aspect of journal influence when assessing journal influence with similar journal impact factor values.
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Citation analysis is widely used as an evaluation method within sciences. The purpose of this paper is to use citation analyses to add insight into the interaction between…
Abstract
Purpose
Citation analysis is widely used as an evaluation method within sciences. The purpose of this paper is to use citation analyses to add insight into the interaction between economics journals.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a method of citation analysis using multiple linear regressions on both cited and citing economics journals. The proposed method controls for the different characteristics of the journals as well as for their degree of interaction.
Findings
The paper shows some of the hidden structures within the science of economics that are determinants for the results from citation analysis. The analysis indicates several underlying factors within citation patterns in economics that should be accounted for when doing citation analysis for evaluation purposes. A journal is to a large extent self‐supplying with citations but, when this is extracted from the data, journals are dependent on similar journals – with respect to sub‐discipline, geography and JIF – to supply citations.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis in this paper includes only a sub‐set of the journals of the science of economics and other sciences may exhibit other patterns and thus other underlying factors.
Practical implications
In an evaluation that takes place across a wide board of sciences an analysis of both cited and citing journals may help to determine which factors should be taken into account in the evaluation.
Originality/value
This type of analysis enables one to analyse some of the characteristics that separate the sciences.