Li Si, Xiaozhe Zhuang, Wenming Xing and Weining Guo
This article aims to summarize the employers' requirements of scientific data specialists and the status quo of LIS education organizations' training system for scientific data…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to summarize the employers' requirements of scientific data specialists and the status quo of LIS education organizations' training system for scientific data specialists. It also focuses on the matching analysis between the course content and the responsibilities as well as requirements of scientific data specialists. Moreover, in order to provide some indications for LIS education of scientific data specialists in China, it presents the training objectives and modes.
Design/methodology/approach
Some job portals for librarians and the comprehensive job portals are investigated as information sources and the keywords such as “scientific data management”, “data service”, “data curation”, “e-Science”, “e-Research”, “data specialist” are selected to retrieval library-released job advertisements for scientific data specialists to understand the library's requirements towards scientific data specialists' core capabilities. Meanwhile the course catalogues of all iSchools' web sites are searched directly in order to find if scientific data courses are provided.
Findings
Libraries value teamwork ability, communication ability, interpersonal ability and a good use of data curation tools as the core competences for scientific data specialists. Candidates who possess a second advanced degree, who understand libraries, who hold demonstrated knowledge of metadata standards, and who emphasize details, under the same condition, are more likely to be considered first. Libraries do not have a unified title for scientific data specialists yet. The current curriculums of iSchools mainly cover research method, data science, data management and data service, data statistic and analysis, data warehouse, information studies and technologies, and so on.
Originality/value
This unique study explores some required qualifications of science data specialist surveyed by job openings, including the core skills, position requirements, responsibilities of the job, and some qualifications. It also investigates the related curriculum setting of iSchool universities through course descriptions. This study is very useful for curriculum development in Chinese LIS education of scientific data specialists including required core courses and selected electives, and to promote the practice of data service in Chinese academic libraries.
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Li Si, Yueting Li, Xiaozhe Zhuang, Wenming Xing, Xiaoqin Hua, Xin Li and Juanjuan Xin
The purpose of this paper is to conduct performance evaluation of eight main scientific data sharing platforms in China and find existing problems, thus providing reference for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conduct performance evaluation of eight main scientific data sharing platforms in China and find existing problems, thus providing reference for maximizing the value of scientific data and enhancing scientific research efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors built an evaluation indicator system for the performance of scientific data sharing platforms. Next, the analytic hierarchy process was employed to set indicator weights. Then, the authors use experts grading method to give scored for each indicator and calculated the scoring results of the scientific data sharing platform performance evaluation. Finally, an analysis of the results was conducted.
Findings
The performance evaluation of eight platforms is arranged by descending order by the value of F: the Data Sharing Infrastructure of Earth System Science (76.962), the Basic Science Data Sharing Center (76.595), the National Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Population and Health (71.577), the China Earthquake Data Center (66.296), the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System (65.159), the National Agricultural Scientific Data Sharing Center (55.068), the Chinese Forestry Science Data Center (56.894) and the National Scientific Data Sharing & Service Network on Material Environmental Corrosion (Aging) (52.528). And some existing shortcomings such as the relevant policies and regulation, standards of data description and organization, data availability and the services should be improved.
Originality/value
This paper is mainly discussing about the performance evaluation system covering operation management, data resource, platform function, service efficiency and influence of eight scientific data sharing centers and made comparative analysis. It reflected the reality development of scientific data sharing in China.
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Xiaoqin Hua, Li Si, Xiaozhe Zhuang and Wenming Xing
Under the new technological environment, academic libraries meet an extremely intense competition in offering information services, and marketing becomes an important means to…
Abstract
Purpose
Under the new technological environment, academic libraries meet an extremely intense competition in offering information services, and marketing becomes an important means to attain the goal of their sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to get an overview of library marketing in Chinese “985” Project Universities, the authors undertook a survey on each library of “985” Project Universities released on the web site of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. And then the authors identified some successful practices based on the survey.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the content of each web site, along with the individual hyperlinks and categories that every library web site has, were browsed to check the availability of the categories. Second, the search function of each library was explored using terms like “blog,” “video” and “tutorial” to retrieve information about services. Third, the Google search engine was used to retrieve information from Renren, microblog and YouTube accounts combining with the name of each library. And then the authors consult reference librarians about marketing methods and tools applied in their libraries with real-time online reference services.
Findings
This paper suggests that 29 libraries are exploiting video marketing, which is the most widely used marketing methods, accounting for 74.36 percent. Mobile library marketing and microblog marketing are another two major application among the 39 “985” Project Universities libraries in China, respectively, accounting for 69.23 and 58.97 percent.
Originality/value
The paper reveals that there are some deficiencies lying in the marketing of these libraries: characteristic resources in really simple syndication (RSS) are insufficient, video themes turn to be traditional and plain, network media marketing is relatively uncommon, and mobile library marketing is limited to mobile messaging services. It may fill in the gap of better understanding the relationship between the traditional information services and modern services from users’ perspective. It is instructive for libraries to systematically summarize success or failure experience of other library marketing, and keep an innovative concept and global vision.
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Li Si, Wenming Xing, Xiaozhe Zhuang, Xiaoqin Hua and Limei Zhou
This paper aims to find the current situation of research data services by academic libraries and summarize some strategies for university libraries to reference. Recent years…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to find the current situation of research data services by academic libraries and summarize some strategies for university libraries to reference. Recent years have seen an increasing number of university libraries extended their traditional roles and provided research data services.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper selected 87 libraries of the top 100 universities listed in the World’s Best Universities released by the USA News in October 2012 as samples and conducted a Web site investigation to check if there were any research data services provided. In addition, it made an interview with the Wuhan University Library’s Research Data Service Workgroup to understand the procedure, difficulties and experiences of their research data service. Based on the survey and interview, it analyzed the current status and difficulties of research data services in university libraries and proposed some strategies for others to reference.
Findings
Of the 87 university libraries investigated, 50 libraries have offered research data services. Most of the services can be divided into six aspects: research data introduction, data management guideline, data curation and storage service, data management training, data management reference and resource recommendation. Among these services, research data introduction is the most frequently provided (47.13 per cent), followed by data curation and storage services (43.68 per cent), data management guideline (42.53 per cent), data management reference (41.38 per cent), resource recommendation (41.38 per cent) and data management training (24.14 per cent). The difficulties met by research data service of Chinese academic libraries are also concluded.
Originality/value
Through Web site investigation and interview with the Wuhan University Library’s Research Data Service, this paper presented an overall picture of research data services in university libraries and identified the difficulties and experiences of research data services of the Wuhan University Library. Based on some successful examples, it put forward some strategies for university libraries to reference. This study is very useful for academic libraries to promote their research data services.
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Erdem Galipoglu, Herbert Kotzab, Christoph Teller, Isik Özge Yumurtaci Hüseyinoglu and Jens Pöppelbuß
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify, evaluate and structure the research that focusses on omni-channel retailing from the perspective of logistics and supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify, evaluate and structure the research that focusses on omni-channel retailing from the perspective of logistics and supply chain management; and to reveal the intellectual foundation of omni-channel retailing research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies a multi-method approach by conducting a content-analysis-based literature review of 70 academic papers. Based on the reference lists of these papers, the authors performed a citation and co-citation analysis based on the 34 most frequently cited papers. This analysis included multidimensional scaling, a cluster analysis and factor analysis.
Findings
The study reveals the limited consideration of logistics and supply chain management literature in the foundation of the omni-channel retailing research. Further, the authors see a dominance of empirical research as compared to conceptual and analytical research. Overall, there is a focus on the Western retail context in this research field. The intellectual foundation is embedded in the marketing discipline and can be characterised as lacking a robust theoretical foundation.
Originality/value
The contribution of this research is identifying, evaluating and structuring the literature of omni-channel research and providing an overview of the state of the art of this research area considering its interdisciplinary nature. This paper thus supports researchers looking to holistically comprehend, prioritise and use the underpinning literature central to the phenomena of omni-channel retailing. For practitioners and academics alike, the findings can trigger and support future research and an evolving understanding of omni-channel retailing.
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Maoliang Bu, Steven Rotchadl and Mengmeng Bu
This paper aims to conduct a comparative study between the historical development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in both the USA and China. It is motivated by the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to conduct a comparative study between the historical development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in both the USA and China. It is motivated by the phenomenon that CSR is developing in two different directions (global vs local).
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative study on sustainability-linked compensation illustrates how CSR in the USA is driven by firm-level economic decisions, in which the manifestations of CSR are usually those which prove to be the most profitable financially. Moreover, a case analysis on the green bond market in China contrarily illustrates how CSR in China is usually based more on alignment with top-down, state-led initiatives in which the state directs the ways in which CSR is manifested.
Findings
This paper reveals that despite globalizing trends are attempting to unify definitions of CSR, they inevitably become localized to fit the societal needs in which they are located.
Originality/value
By understanding how CSR development in these two countries has changed over time, this paper shows that future developments in CSR will likely be influenced more by local practices than by converging global forces.
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Pradeep Kautish and Rajesh Sharma
The purpose of this paper is to bridge together seemingly disparate yet interconnected paradigmatic antecedents of e-tailing and servicescape, i.e., product assortment, order…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bridge together seemingly disparate yet interconnected paradigmatic antecedents of e-tailing and servicescape, i.e., product assortment, order fulfillment, shopping assistance and its consequences for shopping efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed conceptual model is well grounded in the extensive literature from e-tailing as well as retailing domain and to assess the plausibility of the model. Total 246 female online apparel shoppers were surveyed from an Indian university and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling through SmartPLS.
Findings
The outcomes of the study indicate that the e-customer may derive a substantial share of shopping assistance and service interface through product assortment offered by e-tailing sites. Customer-perceived performance of this e-shopping process – a crucial element of e-tail servicescape – directly affects the shopping assistance, along with order fulfillment capability of retail scope.
Research limitations/implications
The study used a sample of graduate students at a north-west university in India, which limits the generalizability of the research to other consumer groups. The paper links a significant body of literature within a conceptually developed framework and identifies key research areas in the e-tailing realm.
Practical implications
By better understanding the role of product assortment as a value-added feature in online value co-creation process, the e-tail managers can leverage the proposed integrated capability to improve e-tailing performance and customer outcomes in the form of business.
Social implications
With rapid advancements in internet-led communication, we are witnessing the dawn of a new era of e-tail innovations around us which is expected to change the way people experience shopping.
Originality/value
This research is an attempt to enrich the level of understanding about online shopping environment in light of relationships among virtual and physical facets of e-tail, i.e., product assortment, order fulfillment, shopping assistance and shopping efficiency. The authors investigate customer-perceived product assortment performance in e-tailing and its significances on shopping outcomes.