ryerson university library and archives rta mmp creative research methods winter 2012 gaudi
TRANSCRIPT
Ryerson University Library and Archives
RTA MMP Creative Research Methods Winter 2012
Gaudi
Virtual Parking Lot
If you should have questions that are
either too time consuming, theoretical
or technical in nature to be addressed
in this introductory session, then e-mail
your question to
Jay Wolofsky [email protected]
… the answer to your question(s) will be Picasso
shared with the group.
Session Objectives
1 Introduction/Raison d'être
2 Library ‘Research Styles’
3 Information Sources I
3.1 RULA Web Page
4 Information Quality I
4.1 Boolean Logic Moore
4.2 Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journals
5 Information Sources II
5.1 Journal Databases
5.2 Digital Facilitators
5.3 Deep Web/ Federated Search Engines
5.4 Open Access
6 Information Quality II
6.1 Smart Searching: Cited Reference Searching
6.2 Journal Ranking
7 Clinic
Research Questions
In what ways does auto-ethnography Braque
change the process in media research?
What are the practical implications of
Postmodern thought on media research?
How does social media impact upon or
interact with the “tissue of sociality”?
Library ‘Research Styles’
Braque
Library ‘research styles’ range from ‘traditional’ to ‘informal’
Traditional: users need to become familiar with search strategies
using specific databases to provide solutions to information-
seeking problems
Informal: users enter words into a search box and allow the
search engine to do most of the work
The empirical literature shows a definite trend towards the informal style
Library Research Spectrum
Traditional ………………………… Informal
Boolean Logic
3D Representations of Combination, Intersection and Subtraction
Smart Searching Using Boolean Logic
This technique was invented by George Boole (1815-1864)
Boole’s work ultimately led to the application of
binary mathematics to contemporary computer
programming
Essentially is a form of linguistic algebra which
allows combination, intersection,and subtraction
of concepts
Critically important when searching journal
databases
Quickly pinpoints relevant information
Minimises information overload
Smart Searching Using Boolean Logic
Boolean Machine
Operators
AND
NOT
OR
WILDC*RD* AND TRUNATIO*
NESTING
Scholarly Journals
Van Gogh
Distinguishing Scholarly Journals
Peer-Review
Peer review is the process of subjecting an author’s
scholarly ms to the scrutiny of experts in the same field
prior to publication in a journal
Single-blind peer review (norm) where the author’s
identity is known to the reviewers, but for the reviewers’ Gaudi
identity to be hidden from the author (blinding allows free
comment without fear of repercussions)
Double-blind (most effective) peer review where the identities
or the author and reviewers are hidden from each other, assuming
that if the reviewers do not know the author or their institution, then
they will focus on content, unaffected by conscious or even
unconscious bias
Open peer review author’s and reviewers’ identities are known
to each other and optionally published ensuring transparency,
i.e. higher quality reviews
Post publication (supplemental open peer review variant) where
all readers are able to reviewand rate the ms on a numerical scale
Research DatabasesTraditional
Need to know
Which are the
most relevant
Syntax
Structure of the thesaurus
Limits
Modigliani
Digital Facilitators
Informal Kandinsky
Digital facilitators assist publishers in digitising their publications for the Internet
Provide content management and end-user access for
e-content from the world's leading publishers
Host digital journal editions, conference proceedings and books
HighWire Press, MetaPress, Scholar's Portal Journals
The Deep Web
The Deep Web is the set of web-sites and their documents that cannot be accessed via standard crawler-type search engines, e.g. Google or Safari since each source has a unique method of access
The Deep Web contains high quality information found in more specialised or remote corners of the Internet, e.g. journal databases
Federated Search Engines
Informal
Federated search engines execute simultaneous real time search of the Deep Web using sophisticated software “connectors”
The results are collated and presented back to the user in a unified format
Federated Search Engines
Informal Dali
One type, a ‘web spider variant’ crawls information from from as many databases as possible creating a giant uniform index, e.g. Google Scholar
A more advanced type searches across each database’s own indexing AND crawls information, e.g., Biznar, Mednar, DeepDyve
Federated Search Engines
There are 3 general types:
The first type searches across each
database using its own indexing Dali
The second type ‘web spider’ crawls information
from as many databases as possible creating a
giant uniform index, e.g. Google Scholar, OpenDOAR
The third type searches across each database’s
own indexing AND crawls information, e.g.
Biznar, Mednar, DeepDyve …
Open Access
Informal
Gaugin
Alternative to the current scholarly publishing
model
Digital information is made freely available
Users may have a variety of permissions, including
the right to copy, use, change, distribute or display
the information, as long as the original author are cited
Digital Commons@Ryerson, T-Space, OpenDOAR
Cited Reference Searching
Cited Reference Network Visualisation
Cited Reference Searching
Who has cited (referred to) previously
published works
Find more recent articles which update
earlier research
Find responses to an article
See how influential an article or book
has been
Identify articles on the same topic as the original work
Cited Reference Searching
Research databases
that provide links to
citing sources
Escher
Academic Search Premier
Google Scholar
IEEE
Scopus
Web of Science
Journal Ranking: A Very Brief Overview
Eigenfactor Network Visualisation
Raison d'être
Widely used in academia for the evaluation
of journal’s quality
Indicator of the status of a journal within its
field
Relative difficulty of being published in that
journal and the associated prestige
Consistent high-quality work which defines
their field Modigliani
Lower ranked journals, although peer-reviewed,
may have a higher acceptance rate and contribute
less to their field as a whole
ScaffoldingJR is a sub-set of bibliometrics (biblio: books,
information; metric: measure) which is a
sub-discipline of information science
Pareto Principle (Vilfredo Pareto, 1848-1923)
“80/20” rule
20% of journals account for 80% of use
Zipf’s Law (George Kingsley Zipf, 1902-1950)
disproportionate distributions of use popularity
Lotka’s Law/Long Tail (Alfred James Lotka,
1880-1949) most authors contribute few articles
Modigliani
Bradford’s Law (Samuel C. Bradford, 1878-1948)
similar to Pareto’s, Zipf’s and Lotka’s distributions
Journals may be grouped into a core of relevance and successive rings of lesser relevance for any
subject or discipline
Dali
Simply put: A small number of core journals have the greatest concentration of relevant articles
Qualitative Journal Ranking
Using expert opinion
Lipchitz
Qualitative Journal Ranking
Tier A
World-wide distribution and readership
Virtually all papers are of a very high quality
Contributions are scientifically and methodologically
most fastidious and innovative
Acceptance rates are typically very low
High competition Bacon
Stringent criteria used for selection of editorial board
Double blind peer review process
Qualitative Jounal Ranking
Tier B
Supraregional distribution
Contributions are scientificaly and
methodologically sound
Braque
Submissions from a supraregional realm
Braque
Frequently important outlets for the work of
PhD students and early career researchers
Relatively high acceptance rates
Criteria used for selection of editorial board
Usually single blind peer reviewed process
Qualitative Journal Ranking
Tier C
Minimally national distribution
Practitioners rank amongst the core target group
Less stringent criteria used for selection of editorial board
Usually single blind peer review process Picasso
Quantitative Journal Ranking
Van Gogh
Citation Metrics
Statistics gathered on the number
of times a journal article has been
cited by other journal articles Bacon
Used to assess the quality of a journal
The assumption is that if a journal is
frequently cited, then it must be publishing
important, high quality or ground breaking
research
Citation Metrics
Selected Methods
Age-Weighted (AWCR, AWCRpa, AW)
AR-index
Egghe’s g-Index
Eigenfactor
Essential Science Indicators (ESI)
Hirsch’s h-Index
Contemporary h-Index
e-index
Egghe’s g-Index
Generalised h-index
Individual h-Index
hl-index, hl-norm, hm-index
Humanities Journal Rankings (ESF)
JCR Impact Factor
Journal Ranking.com (Red Jasper)
Publish or Perish
SciMago Dali
Science Gateway
Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP)
Zhang’s E-Index
Journal Impact Factor
Moore
Seeks to measure the influence a journal has in its field
More specifically, it measures how often scholars
and researchers have cited articles in a particular
journal in the most recent 2 (or 5) years
Simply put, the higher the number, the better the
journal's impact factor
The better the journal's impact factor, the more
influence it is presumed to have in its field
Eigenfactor
Moore
Scholarly literature forms a vast network of academic papers connected to one another by citations in bibliographies and footnotes
The structure of this network reflects millions of decisions by individual researchers and scholars about which papers are
important and relevant to their own work
Within the structure of this network is a wealth of information about the relative influence of individual journals, and also about the patterns of relations among academic disciplines
Eigenfactor
Gaudi
The Eigenfactor™ algorithm corresponds
to research model in which researchers
follow chains of citations as they move
from journal to journal
A researcher selects a journal article at random
and after reading the article, randomly selects
a citation from that article, and reads it … n!