Journal of Information Science recent issues

Collaborative pricing model for bundling information goods

Chang, W.-L., Yuan, S.-T. — 2008-09-19

The information economy engenders consideration of certain issues such as information goods cost/pricing, technology infrastructure, and information policy in the era of knowledge economy. Due to the unique cost structure and product characteristics of information goods, conventional pricing strategies are unfeasible, and a differential pricing strategy is crucial. Nevertheless, few models exist for pricing information goods in the e-service industry. This study proposes a novel collaborative pricing model in which customers are active participants in determining product prices and adopt prices and services that meet their changing needs. This study also shows that the collaborative pricing model generates an optimal bundle price at equilibrium with optimal profit and utility. Theoretical proofs and practical implications justify this pricing model, which is essential for future information goods pricing in the information economy.

Knowledge organization trends in library and information studies: a preliminary comparison of the pre- and post-web eras

Saumure, K., Shiri, A. — 2008-09-19

Qualitative analyses were used to launch a preliminary exploration of the dominant knowledge organization (KO) trends in the pre- and post-web eras. Data for this study was assembled by searching the Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts database for articles that have used the term `knowledge organization' or `information organization' in their titles, abstracts, or descriptors. Taken as a whole, these preliminary results suggest that the content of the KO literature has shifted since the advent of the web. Although classic KO principles remain prominent throughout both eras, the presence of new content areas, such as metadata, denotes a shift in KO trends. In the pre-web era, the literature was related in large part to indexing and abstracting. In contrast, cataloging and classification issues dominate the landscape in the post-web era. The findings from this paper will be of particular use to those interested in learning about upcoming trends in the KO literature.

Cyberabstracts: a portal on the subject of abstracting designed to improve information literacy skills

Pinto, M. — 2008-09-19

With the overall purpose of improving the information literacy skills of librarianship and information science students, an academic portal specifically centred on abstracts and abstracting resources is proposed. We take the existing literature, together with our knowledge and experience of abstract/abstracting topics and web-based technologies to conceive the research design. The research mainly consists of the selection, assessment and web-display of the most relevant abstracts on knowledge management, information representation, natural language processing, abstract/abstracting, modelling the scientific document, information retrieval and information evaluation. The resulting Cyberabstracts portal presents its products consistently and includes reference, abstract, keywords, assessment and access to the full document. Improvement opportunities for this unique subject-based gateway, representing much more than a mere subject catalogue, are uncovered as the starting point on a planned route towards excellence.

Amusing titles in scientific journals and article citation

Sagi, I., Yechiam, E. — 2008-09-19

The present study examines whether the use of humor in scientific article titles is associated with the number of citations an article receives. Four judges rated the degree of amusement and pleasantness of titles of articles published over 10 years (from 1985 to 1994) in two of the most prestigious journals in psychology, Psychological Bulletin and Psychological Review. We then examined the association between the levels of amusement and pleasantness and the article's monthly citation average. The results show that, while the pleasantness rating was weakly associated with the number of citations, articles with highly amusing titles (2 standard deviations above average) received fewer citations. The negative association between amusing titles and subsequent citations cannot be attributed to differences in the title length and pleasantness, number of authors, year of publication, and article type (regular article vs comment). These findings are discussed in the context of the importance of titles for signalling an article's content.

Word segmentation for the Myanmar language

Tun Thura Thet, , Na, J.-C., Wunna Ko Ko, — 2008-09-19

This study reports the development of a Myanmar word segmentation method using Unicode standard encoding. Word segmentation is an essential step prior to natural language processing in the Myanmar language, because a Myanmar text is a string of characters without explicit word boundary delimiters. The proposed method has two phases: syllable segmentation and syllable merging. A rule-based heuristic approach was adopted for syllable segmentation, and a dictionary-based statistical approach for syllable merging. Evaluation of test results showed that the method is very effective for the Myanmar language.

Linking patterns in European Union countries: geographical maps of the European academic web space

Ortega, J. L., Aguillo, I. F. — 2008-09-19

This national level study intends to describe the existing relationships between the number of web pages, inlinks to and outlinks from Europe and national or internal links in the European Higher Education Area through a sample of 535 European universities' web domains. Several geographical maps are introduced to summarize and visualize this statistical information. The main result shows that larger countries, in number of web pages, link less to the remaining European countries, while the smaller ones are characterized by their link profusion to the European zone. The great presence of national links in large and medium size countries confirms that the European academic web space is shaped by the aggregation of national sub-networks, while the similar low presence in small countries suggests that these are linked to another large country.

A bibliometric analysis of pharmacology and pharmacy journals: Scopus versus Web of Science

Gorraiz, J., Schloegl, C. — 2008-09-19

Our study examines the suitability of Scopus for bibliometric analyses in comparison with the Web of Science (WOS). In particular we want to explore if the outcome of bibliometric analyses differs between Scopus and WOS and, if yes, in which aspects. Since journal indicators vary among disciplines, we analysed only journals from the subject pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. Nonetheless, our study has also broader implications. Its major findings are: (a) Each top-100 JCR pharmacy journal was covered by Scopus. (b) The impact factor was higher for 82 and the immediacy index greater for 78 journals in Scopus in 2005. Pharmacy journals with a high impact factor in the JCR usually have a high impact factor in Scopus. (c) Several medium impact journals could be identified in Scopus which were not reported in JCR. (d) The two databases differed in the number of articles within a tolerable margin of deviation for most journals.

Web robot detection in the scholarly information environment

Huntington, P., Nicholas, D., Jamali, H. R. — 2008-09-19

An increasing number of robots harvest information on the world wide web for a wide variety of purposes. Protocols developed at the inception of the web laid out voluntary procedures in order to identify robot behaviour, and exclude it if necessary. Few robots now follow this protocol and it is now increasingly difficult to filter for this activity in reports of on-site activity. This paper seeks to demonstrate the issues involved in identifying robots and assessing their impact on usage in regard to a project which sought to establish the relative usage patterns of open access and non-open access articles in the Oxford University Press published journal Glycobiology, which offers in a single issue articles in both forms. A number of methods for identifying robots are compared and together these methods found that 40% of the raw logs of this journal could be attributed to robots.

The effects of socio-technical enablers on knowledge sharing: an exploratory examination

Sue Young Choi, , Young Sik Kang, , Lee, H. — 2008-09-19

Recently, the need for knowledge management has been drastically increasing so organizations may meet the high level of dynamic, complex business change and uncertainty. In particular, knowledge sharing has been recognized as a critical process through which organizational knowledge can be utilized. For successful knowledge sharing, companies need to capitalize on various socio-technical enablers. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of how these enablers can affect knowledge sharing intention and behavior, and explore practical implications for knowledge sharing. For this purpose, the paper proposes a theoretical model to investigate these enablers from a socio-technical perspective. PLS (Partial Least Square) analysis was employed to validate the model. This field study involves 164 users. Furthermore, interviews with experts were investigated for practical implications. Our analysis reveals that social enablers such as trust and reward mechanisms are more important than technical support in isolation for facilitating knowledge sharing.

Editorial

Gilchrist, A. — 2008-07-03

Guest Editorial Meeting the challenge

Vickery, B. — 2008-07-03

Fifty years of UK research in information science

Meadows, J. — 2008-07-03

An attempt is made to discern the main research themes in British information science over the past half-century. Within these themes, emphasis is placed on research in the UK that has had some impact on the international information science community. The major factors that have influenced information science research in the UK are also briefly considered.

Smoother pebbles and the shoulders of giants: the developing foundations of information science

Bawden, D. — 2008-07-03

Some developments in the information science discipline over a period of 30 years are discussed, by selecting topics covered in the early issues of Journal of Information Science, and tracing their influence on subsequent developments, largely though by no means exclusively through JIS papers. Five main themes are covered: the information discipline per se; the foundations of that discipline; the nature of information; relations between discipline and profession; and education for information science. The continuing resonance of the writings of Farradane and Brookes is noted.

The last 50 years of knowledge organization: a journey through my personal archives

Dextre Clarke, S. G. — 2008-07-03

At the time when the Institute of Information Scientists was launched, well established principles of classification, especially faceted classification, provided an excellent springboard for developments in knowledge organization thereafter. The principles of thesaurus construction and use were worked out during the first two decades of the Institute's existence. Up until the end of the 1980s, most practical systems to exploit any of these vocabularies were held on cards, some of them highly ingenious. The subsequent arrival of the desktop computer, soon followed by the growth of networks providing access to an almost unimaginable quantity and variety of resources, has stimulated evolution of the knowledge organization schemes to exploit the technology available. Anecdotes of events and practical applications of controlled vocabularies illustrate this account of developments over the period.

On the history of evaluation in IR

Robertson, S. — 2008-07-03

This paper is a personal take on the history of evaluation experiments in information retrieval. It describes some of the early experiments that were formative in our understanding, and goes on to discuss the current dominance of TREC (the Text REtrieval Conference) and to assess its impact.

The information user: past, present and future

Wilson, T. — 2008-07-03

The emergence of research on various aspects of `information behaviour' is explored and its growth as a subject of academic research is documented. The origin of the field as a potential aid to the development of library and information services is noted, as is the transition from this status to that of a subject for research at PhD level and beyond. The development of the field has thus led to a division between the needs of academia for theoretically grounded work, and the needs of the field of practice for guidance for service development. There is, today, a disconnection between research and practice, to a significant extent: early research was undertaken by practitioners but today academic research dominates the scene. Suggestions are made as to how this disconnection can be repaired.

The sociological turn in information science

Cronin, B. — 2008-07-03

This paper explores the history of `the social' in information science. It traces the influence of social scientific thinking on the development of the field's intellectual base. The continuing appropriation of both theoretical and methodological insights from domains such as social studies of science, science and technology studies, and socio-technical systems is discussed.

From chemical documentation to chemoinformatics: 50 years of chemical information science

Willett, P. — 2008-07-03

This paper summarizes the historical development of the discipline that is now called `chemoinformatics'. It shows how this has evolved, principally as a result of technological developments in chemistry and biology during the past decade, from long-established techniques for the modelling and searching of chemical molecules. A total of 30 papers, the earliest dating back to 1957, are briefly summarized to highlight some of the key publications and to show the development of the discipline.

Health informatics: current issues and challenges

Bath, P. A. — 2008-07-03

Health informatics concerns the use of information and information and communication technologies within healthcare. Health informatics and information science need to take account of the unique aspects of health and medicine. The development of information systems and electronic records within health needs to consider the information needs and behaviour of all users. The sensitivity of personal health data raises ethical concerns for developing electronic records. E-health initiatives must actively involve users in the design, development, implementation and evaluation, and information science can contribute to understanding the needs and behaviour of user groups. Health informatics could make an important contribution to the ageing society and to reducing the digital divide and health divides within society. There is a need for an appropriate evidence base within health informatics to support future developments, and to ensure health informatics reaches its potential to improve the health and well-being of patients and the public.

Social informatics and sociotechnical research -- a view from the UK

Davenport, E. — 2008-07-03

This paper explores the connections between two historical lines of research: social informatics in the United States, and sociotechnical studies in the United Kingdom. The author discusses samples of work from three long established UK research sites, at Manchester, Edinburgh and the London School of Economics, to give the reader a sense of sociotechnical work at different historical periods. Though the US and UK traditions share a common interest in the production of technology, and work with complementary concepts and methods, formal links between the two have not been strong for much of the historical period under review. However, there are signs of fusion in the work of a current generation of researchers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The evolution of visual information retrieval

Enser, P. — 2008-07-03

This paper seeks to provide a brief overview of those developments which have taken the theory and practice of image and video retrieval into the digital age. Drawing on a voluminous literature, the context in which visual information retrieval takes place is followed by a consideration of the conceptual and practical challenges posed by the representation and recovery of visual material on the basis of its semantic content. An historical account of research endeavours in content-based retrieval, directed towards the automation of these operations in digital image scenarios, provides the main thrust of the paper. Finally, a look forwards locates visual information retrieval research within the wider context of content-based multimedia retrieval.

Information policies: yesterday, today, tomorrow

Orna, E. — 2008-07-03

This article presents a brief history of the development of ideas about national and organizational information policies, from the first establishment of a UK Ministry of Information in the First World War to the present day. The issues and tensions that have characterized attempts to develop and implement policies on the national and organizational scale are discussed, with particular reference to: the power relations between the parties to them; the relative significance accorded to information technology and information content; the transition from formulating policy to acting on it; and the threats to the survival of those policies that get as far as implementation. In conclusion, the contribution to date of information science to the theory and practice of information policies is assessed, and suggestions are offered on directions for future efforts, in the light of the past of this interesting field.

The disparity in professional qualifications and progress in information handling: a European perspective

Mahon, B. — 2008-07-03

This paper is a personal view of the development of the role(s) of information professionals in the 50 years since IIS was founded. One of the justifications for the formation of IIS was that the then current professional bodies were not relevant to the needs of those employed in industrial information services. This paper reviews briefly the situation when IIS was formed, from the viewpoint of professional requirements and the developments since. The conclusion is drawn that today's information world, very different from that of 50 years ago, faces similar problems of a lack of suitable qualifications and a confusion in the roles of different actors in the field.

Electronic scholarly publishing and open access

Oppenheim, C. — 2008-07-03

A review of recent developments in electronic publishing, with a focus on Open Access (OA) is provided. It describes the two main types of OA, i.e. the `gold' OA journal route and the `green' repository route, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the two, and the reactions of the publishing industry to these developments. Quality, cost and copyright issues are explored, as well as some of the business models of OA. It is noted that whilst so far there is no evidence that a shift to OA will lead to libraries cancelling subscriptions to toll-access journals, this may happen in the future, and that despite the apparently compelling reasons for authors to move to OA, so far few have shown themselves willing to do so. Conclusions about the future of scholarly publications are drawn.

Social software: fun and games, or business tools?

Warr, W. A. — 2008-07-03

This is the era of social networking, collective intelligence, participation, collaborative creation, and borderless distribution. Every day we are bombarded with more publicity about collaborative environments, news feeds, blogs, wikis, podcasting, webcasting, folksonomies, social bookmarking, social citations, collaborative filtering, recommender systems, media sharing, massive multiplayer online games, virtual worlds, and mash-ups. This sort of anarchic environment appeals to the digital natives, but which of these so-called `Web 2.0' technologies are going to have a real business impact? This paper addresses the impact that issues such as quality control, security, privacy and bandwidth may have on the implementation of social networking in hide-bound, large organizations.

Bibliometrics to webometrics

Thelwall, M. — 2008-07-03

Bibliometrics has changed out of all recognition since 1958; becoming established as a field, being taught widely in library and information science schools, and being at the core of a number of science evaluation research groups around the world. This was all made possible by the work of Eugene Garfield and his Science Citation Index. This article reviews the distance that bibliometrics has travelled since 1958 by comparing early bibliometrics with current practice, and by giving an overview of a range of recent developments, such as patent analysis, national research evaluation exercises, visualization techniques, new applications, online citation indexes, and the creation of digital libraries. Webometrics, a modern, fast-growing offshoot of bibliometrics, is reviewed in detail. Finally, future prospects are discussed with regard to both bibliometrics and webometrics.

How I learned to love the Brits

Garfield, E. — 2008-07-03

Contributors to this special edition

2008-07-03

Untying the knot of knowledge management measurement: a study of six public service agencies in Singapore

Chua, A. Y.K., Goh, D. H. — 2008-05-13

This paper seeks to contribute to the on-going research in knowledge management (KM) by presenting a study conducted in six public service agencies in Singapore. The study was guided by three research foci, namely, (1) to elucidate the nebulous nature of KM initiatives, (2) to uncover the motivation behind KM measurement and (3) to identify the various elements of a KM initiative that can be measured. Data collected from the public service agencies revealed that KM initiatives were generally top-down and technology-focused. Project management and the need to quantify the value of KM initiatives drove KM measurement. The measurement indicators adopted by the agencies encompassed four elements of measurement: activities, knowledge assets, organizational processes and business outcomes. In conclusion, this paper highlights two practical implications for the design of a KM measurement regime and suggests a number of possible directions for further research.

An analysis of failed queries for web image retrieval

Pu, H.-T. — 2008-05-13

This paper examines a large number of failed queries submitted to a web image search engine, including real users' search terms and written requests. The results show that failed image queries have a much higher specificity than successful queries because users often employ various refined types to specify their queries. The study explores the refined types further, and finds that failed queries consist of far more conceptual than perceptual refined types. The widely used content-based image retrieval technique, CBIR, can only deal with a small proportion of failed queries; hence, appropriate integration of concept-based techniques is desirable. Based on using the concepts of uniqueness and refinement for categorization, the study also provides a useful discussion on the gaps between image queries and retrieval techniques. The initial results enhance the understanding of failed queries and suggest possible ways to improve image retrieval systems.

RoMEO studies 7: creation of a controlled vocabulary to analyse copyright transfer agreements

Jenkins, C., Oppenheim, C., Probets, S., Hubbard, B. — 2008-05-13

This paper describes the process of creating a controlled vocabulary which can be used to systematically analyse the copyright transfer agreements (CTAs) of journal publishers with regard to self-archiving. The analysis formed the basis of the newly created Copyright Knowledge Bank of publishers' self-archiving policies. Self-archiving terms appearing in publishers' CTAs were identified and classified, then simplified, merged, and discarded to form a definitive list. The controlled vocabulary consists of three categories describing `what' can be self-archived, the `conditions' and the `restrictions' of self-archiving. Condition terms include specifications such as `where' an article can be self-archived; restriction terms include specifications such as `when' the article can be self-archived. Additional information on any of these terms appears in `free-text' fields. Although this controlled vocabulary provides an effective way of analysing CTAs, it will need continual review and updating in light of any major new additions to the terms used in publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies.

Design and development of a concept-based multi-document summarization system for research abstracts

Shiyan Ou, , Khoo, C. S.-G., Goh, D. H. — 2008-05-13

This paper describes a new concept-based multi-document summarization system that employs discourse parsing, information extraction and information integration. Dissertation abstracts in the field of sociology were selected as sample documents for this study. The summarization process includes four major steps — (1) parsing dissertation abstracts into five standard sections; (2) extracting research concepts (often operationalized as research variables) and their relationships, the research methods used and the contextual relations from specific sections of the text; (3) integrating similar concepts and relationships across different abstracts; and (4) combining and organizing the different kinds of information using a variable-based framework, and presenting them in an interactive web-based interface. The accuracy of each summarization step was evaluated by comparing the system-generated output against human coding. The user evaluation carried out in the study indicated that the majority of subjects (70%) preferred the concept-based summaries generated using the system to the sentence-based summaries generated using traditional sentence extraction techniques.

An exploration of concepts of community through a case study of UK university web production

Cox, A. M. — 2008-05-13

The paper explores the interrelation and differences between the concepts of occupational community, community of practice, online community and social network. It uses as a case study illustration the domain of UK university web site production and specifically a listserv for those involved in it. Different latent occupational communities are explored, and the potential for the listserv to help realize these as an active sense of community is considered. The listserv is not (for most participants) a tight knit community of practice, indeed it fails many criteria for an online community. It is perhaps best conceived as a loose knit network of practice, valued for information, implicit support and for the maintenance of weak ties. Through the analysis the case for using strict definitions of the theoretical concepts is made.

Information behaviour meets social capital: a conceptual model

2008-05-13

Much research has been done on the favourable influence of social environment and social networks on knowledge production. The aim of this article is to design a theoretical framework where both information behaviour (IB) research and social capital (SC) research are integrated. Integrating these areas is seen as an advantage when focusing on the social construction of knowledge, and a model is proposed to illuminate sources and consequences of social capital and knowledge sharing. This framework will function as a basis on which to build when the authors proceed with a number of empirical studies involving the university context, social networks of the unemployed, and virtual networks of young people.

Exploring the emerging intellectual structure of archival studies using text mining: 2001--2004

Kim, H., Jae Yun Lee, — 2008-05-13

Archival science, like other disciplines, is evolving into more specific interdisciplinary subfields. To determine this intellectual structure of archival science, the text mining method was used. The data were 432 articles from 2001 to 2004, and we produced 43 clusters of documents using the within-group average method in SPSS. Then we generated pathfinder networks of 43 clusters and grouped them into seven subject categories: digital libraries and digital archiving technologies, online resources and finding aids, archives and archivists, legal and political issues, electronic records and technical issues, records and information management, and e-mail and information professionals. Finally, these seven subject categories were merged into three sectors: digital library, archives and RIM (Business). This study describes dynamic change in the 2001—4 research themes from traditional single-subject areas to emerging, complex subject areas. These results also show that research areas in archival sciences have much growth potential and will continue to expand.

Impact of coherent versus multiple identities on knowledge integration

Willem, A., Scarbrough, H., Buelens, M. — 2008-05-13

This paper addresses the influence of two competing views of social identity on knowledge integration. One view sees social identity primarily as a coherent characteristic of organizations, which can leverage knowledge integration by unconditional cooperative behaviour, shared values, mindsets, trust, and loyalty. The opposing view considers social identity as multiple and fragmented. This fragmented view emphasizes the problematic nature of social identity for knowledge integration and states that social identity is an additional barrier to knowledge integration in organizations. The aim of this paper is to examine these competing accounts and to develop insight into the underlying mechanisms that lead to the different effects of social identity on knowledge integration. Two polar case studies illustrate the different effects of a coherent versus multiple identity on knowledge integration and the need for a coherent company-wide social identity, instead of a multiple community or group based social identity, to leverage knowledge integration in organizations.

The application of cost--benefit and least effort theories in studies of information seeking behavior of humanities scholars: the case of Jewish studies scholars in Israel

Bronstein, J., Baruchson-Arbib, S. — 2008-03-27

The study investigated the process of information channel selection of Jewish studies scholars in Israel according to two theoretical frameworks, the 'cost—benefit ratio' that focused on the quality of the information provided by the channel and the 'least effort principle' that focused on the accessibility of the channel. The study sought to identify which of the two parameters, quality of information or accessibility of the channel, was the decisive one when selecting an information channel. In order to further understand the underlying principle behind scholars' choice of information channels participants were asked about the obstacles they face when searching for information. Four obstacles were stipulated in the structured questionnaire: (1) cost; (2) distance, when the item can only be found at a distant location; (3) unfriendly interface; and (4) time that it takes to get hold of a copy of the desired item. Findings showed that, in general, participants' information channel use was not affected by the obstacles encountered in the information seeking process and that the quality of the information was the decisive factor in choosing an information channel.

Use of collaborative recommendations for web search: an exploratory user study

Xiangmin Zhang, , Yuelin Li, — 2008-03-27

This study investigated use of collaborative recommendations in web searching. An experimental system was designed. In the experimental system, recommendations were generated in a group report format, including items judged relevant by previous users, search queries and the URLs of documents. The study explored how users used these items, the effects of their use, and what factors contributed to this use. The results demonstrate that users preferred using queries and document sources (URLs), rather than relevance judgment (document ratings). The findings also show that using recommended items had a significant effect on the number of documents viewed, but not on precision or number of queries. Task difficulty and search skills had significant impact on the use. Possible reasons for the results are analyzed. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Better reporting of randomized trials in biomedical journal and conference abstracts

Hopewell, S., Eisinga, A., Clarke, M. — 2008-03-27

Well reported research published in conference and journal abstracts is important as individuals reading these reports often base their initial assessment of a study based on information reported in the abstract. However, there is growing concern about the reliability and quality of information published in these reports. This article provides an overview of research evidence underpinning the need for better reporting of abstracts reported in conference proceedings and abstracts of journal articles; with a particular focus in the area of health care. Where available we highlight evidence which refers specifically to abstracts reporting randomized trials. We seek to identify current initiatives aimed at improving the reporting of these reports and recommend that an extension of the CONSORT Statement (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), CONSORT for Abstracts, be developed. This checklist would include a list of essential items to be reported in any conference or journal abstract reporting the results of a randomized trial.

Incremental maintenance of generalized association rules under taxonomy evolution

Tseng, M.-C., Lin, W.-Y., Jeng, R. — 2008-03-27

Mining association rules from large databases of business data is an important topic in data mining. In many applications, there are explicit or implicit taxonomies (hierarchies) for items, so it may be useful to find associations at levels of the taxonomy other than the primitive concept level. Previous work on the mining of generalized association rules, however, assumed that the taxonomy of items remained unchanged, disregarding the fact that the taxonomy might be updated as new transactions are added to the database over time. If this happens, effectively updating the generalized association rules to reflect the database change and related taxonomy evolution is a crucial task. In this paper, we examine this problem and propose two novel algorithms, called IDTE and IDTE2, which can incrementally update the generalized association rules when the taxonomy of items evolves as a result of new transactions. Empirical evaluations show that our algorithms can maintain their performance even for large numbers of incremental transactions and high degrees of taxonomy evolution, and are faster than applying contemporary generalized association mining algorithms to the whole updated database.

Judgements during information seeking: a naturalistic approach to understanding the assessment of enough information

Berryman, J. M. — 2008-03-27

In this article, theories of human judgement and decision making are reviewed and their use by library and information science researchers examined. A different perspective on judgement and decision making is offered by the field of naturalistic decision making (NDM) and the implications of this approach are considered for an expanded understanding of how judgements and decisions are made during information seeking. This discussion is illustrated by a case from a recent empirical investigation into how judgements of enough information are made in the workplace. The article concludes with a critical evaluation of the NDM approach. It is argued that NDM, a recent development in decision theory, offers a new perspective from which to investigate judgements and decisions during information seeking.

An ergonomic format for short reporting in scientific journals using nested tables and the Deming's cycle

Hortola, P. — 2008-03-27

The typical structure of a scientific report involves highly standardized sections. The key concept of a scientific report is the reproducibility of results. Because not only clarity but also conciseness is a tool for the advancement of science, a new format using nested tables is proposed with the aim of improving the design of short reports in scientific journals, namely short communications, short technical reports, case reports, etc. This format is based on the ergonomic philosophy of visual encyclopaedias (one topic, one page) and on the quality system of the Deming's cycle (plan—do—check—act) for continuous improvement. This new editing tool has several advantages over existing forms, because it provides quick and ergonomic, reader-friendly research reports that, at the same time, would render a saving in terms of available space and publishing costs of the printed version of scientific journals.

A comparative study of two automatic document classification methods in a library setting

Pong, J. Y.-H., Kwok, R. C.-W., Lau, R. Y.-K., Hao, J.-X., Wong, P. C.-C. — 2008-03-27

In current library practice, trained human experts usually carry out document cataloguing and indexing based on a manual approach. With the explosive growth in the number of electronic documents available on the Internet and digital libraries, it is increasingly difficult for library practitioners to categorize both electronic documents and traditional library materials using just a manual approach. To improve the effectiveness and efficiency of document categorization at the library setting, more in-depth studies of using automatic document classification methods to categorize library items are required. Machine learning research has advanced rapidly in recent years. However, applying machine learning techniques to improve library practice is still a relatively unexplored area. This paper illustrates the design and development of a machine learning based automatic document classification system to alleviate the manual categorization problem encountered within the library setting. Two supervised machine learning algorithms have been tested. Our empirical tests show that supervised machine learning algorithms in general, and the k-nearest neighbours (KNN) algorithm in particular, can be used to develop an effective document classification system to enhance current library practice. Moreover, some concrete recommendations regarding how to practically apply the KNN algorithm to develop automatic document classification in a library setting are made. To our best knowledge, this is the first in-depth study of applying the KNN algorithm to automatic document classification based on the widely used LCC classification scheme adopted by many large libraries.

RETRACTION: A New WSD approach using word ontology and concept distribution

Hung, J. C. — 2008-03-27