Although previous studies of today's globalised and competitive research landscape have mentioned the research collaborations of CANZUK countries (i.e., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United ...Kingdom), none have yet studied them in detail. Further, such studies have used different measures of international research collaboration (IRC), resulting in disparate findings. This paper, therefore, analyses the strengths of CANZUK research collaborations, how those collaborations have changed over time, and assesses the effect of three ways of measures on the results (absolute strength, bilateral similarity, and multilateral similarity). We provide a detailed characterisation of the CANZUK research network and its relationships with partner countries, which reveals that the most collaborative CANZUK countries are the UK and Australia, among other findings. We also confirm that many findings differ depending on which measures are used. We offer an explanation of this difference with reference to the nature of the measures (i.e., what they really measure) and make suggestions for suitable measures in future studies depending on their purpose. Finally, we discuss how this study's findings can be used by research policy makers (in CANZUK and elsewhere) in deciding on research strategy and by researchers in appropriately measuring IRC.
Collaborative partners are important in international research collaboration. The research collaborations between four CANZUK countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) are ...examined to see whether their research connections are different from the research relationships with other countries. This paper measures the affinity index values and analyses the development of research collaborations among CANZUK countries with those between the CANZUK and other countries. The whole counting method and the fractional counting method are applied in this study to compare the differences in the results. The findings show that although the affinity index values of CANZUK countries were decreasing over time, the importance of CANZUK partners to CANZUK countries has likely increased over time at the expense of the other partners' importance. The study also shows the minor differences in results obtained by applying two different counting methods. These differences can be explained by the nature of the counting methods, and the choice to use either one of these two counting methods should be considered in other international research collaboration studies.
The information society generally, and information studies specifically, are understandably concerned with productive actions done with data and information, like preservation, access, and (re)use ...over time. While such concerns are important and their related activities are clearly valuable, we will soon be facing limits to storage and related resources, and so information scholars and practitioners must more fully consider and support the complementary part of the information lifecycle: deletion. We outline the growing necessity of data and information deletion for social and environmental sustainability through several example concerns. We then consider several challenges of and to deleting that must be considered and addressed, from societal to individual scales, by drawing on works in information behaviour, personal information management, human-computer interaction, and the history, philosophy, and ethics of information. Deletion is an understudied phenomenon of growing importance, and although it has a broadly negative perception in comparison to preservation, it has some notable advantages for individuals and society. Information scholars and practitioners have an important role to play in understanding and supporting deletion; recommendations for each are provided here.
This article presents findings from interviews with 18 writers and artists in New Zealand, whose lives and work have potential heritage value. The objective was to investigate the perceived value of ...participants’ personal collections, the relevant management practices and challenges, and their potential effects on preservation and (re)use. The findings provide a characterisation of the personal information management (PIM) practices of writers and artists, revealed challenges common to organising personal collections across time and devices as well as those caused or increased by the nature of writers’ and artists’ work, and produce insights into the impact of perceived collection value and PIM practices on future access, preservation and (re)use of such collections.
Abstract Purpose Our work seeks to overcome data quality issues related to incomplete author affiliation data in bibliographic records in order to support accurate and reliable measurement of ...international research collaboration (IRC). Design/methodology/approch We propose, implement, and evaluate a method that leverages the Web-based knowledge graph Wikidata to resolve publication affiliation data to particular countries. The method is tested with general and domain-specific data sets. Findings Our evaluation covers the magnitude of improvement, accuracy, and consistency. Results suggest the method is beneficial, reliable, and consistent, and thus a viable and improved approach to measuring IRC. Research limitations Though our evaluation suggests the method works with both general and domain-specific bibliographic data sets, it may perform differently with data sets not tested here. Further limitations stem from the use of the R programming language and R libraries for country identification as well as imbalanced data coverage and quality in Wikidata that may also change over time. Practical implications The new method helps to increase the accuracy in IRC studies and provides a basis for further development into a general tool that enriches bibliographic data using the Wikidata knowledge graph. Originality This is the first attempt to enrich bibliographic data using a peer-produced, Web-based knowledge graph like Wikidata.
Examining the relationships among scientific disciplines is important today, but existing methods are limited by the contents and structure of their bibliographic databases. We therefore demonstrate ...a novel approach that measures disparity by examining the organization of published scientific books and monographs into Library of Congress Subject Headings. After outlining the method and analyses conducted, we compare our results with those produced by prior works, note potential implications of the demonstrated method for use by bibliometric practitioners, and suggest directions for further research.
Introduction. Music streaming services have changed how music is played and perceived, but also how it is managed by individuals. Voice interfaces to such services are becoming increasingly com-mon, ...for example through voice assistants on mobile and smart devices, and have the poten-tial to further change personal music management by introducing new beneficial features and new challenges. Method. To explore the implications of voice assistants for personal music listening and management we surveyed 248 participants online and in a lab setting to investigate (a) in which situa-tions people use voice assistants to play music, (b) how the situations compare to established activities common during non-voice assistant music listening, and (c) what kinds of com-mands they use. Analysis. We categorised 653 situations of voice assistant use, which reflect differences to non-voice assistant music listening, and established 11 command types, which mostly reflect finding or refinding activities but also indicate keeping and organisation activities. Results. Voice assistants have some benefits for music listening and personal music management, but also a notable lack of support for traditional personal information management activities, like browsing, that are common when managing music. Conclusion. Having characterised the use of voice assistants to play music, we consider their role in per-sonal music management and make suggestions for improved design and future research.
Death is an inevitable part of life and highly relevant to information management: its approach often requires preparation, and its occurrence often demands a response. Many works in information ...science have acknowledged so much, and yet death is rarely a focused topic, appearing instead sporadically and disconnected across research. As a result there is no introduction to, overview of, or synthesis across studies on death and information. We therefore conducted an extensive literature search and reviewed nearly 300 scholarly publications at the intersection of death and information (and data) management. Covering seven topics in total, we review two groups of work directly engaging information management in relation to death (digital possessions, inheritance, and legacy; information behavior, needs, and practices around death), three engaging death and technology that require information and its management (death and the Internet, thanatosensitive design and technology‐augmented death practices, and the digital afterlife and digital immortality), and two reflecting the ethical and legal dimensions unique to death and information. We then integrate the collective findings to summarize the landscape of death‐related information research, outline remaining challenges for individuals, families, institutions, and society, and identify promising directions for future information science research.
This article discusses how e-mail and e-mail archives can serve as legacy for individuals, families, and societies. Toward this end, it outlines the scope and scale of e-mail as a tool and a task, ...and gives an overview of the many individual, group, and institutional factors in e-mail management that influence the form and contents of e-mail archives. Finally, drawing on the authors' experiences and observations as personal information management (PIM) researchers, the article discusses e-mail management practices, makes recommendations for effective e-mail management, and suggests future research topics that span library and information studies.
PDF
