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Books, bingo, blogs! All the world’s a stage
 Mad libs go to Taupo
How do librarians and publishers add value to content? Library Connect Seminars in Japan and Korea shed some light
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Librarians Speak Up:
How is your library helping researchers evaluate their performance?
Jiyeon Han, Librarian, Tae-Joon Park Digital Library, Pohang University of Science & Technology, Pohang City, South Korea
Jiyeon Han
POSTECH, one of Korea’s top universities focusing on science and engineering, recognizes the importance of our researchers' scholarly publishing activities to evaluations of their academic performance. The POSTECH library has played an important role in the evaluative process since the 1990s.
The library provides access to citation databases including Scopus and gives our patrons opportunities to learn how to acquire their own data to evaluate academic performance.
Our patrons’ need to learn how to collect and interpret citation data is increasing.
Moreover, the library works with the Office of Research Affairs and other university departments to provide statistics relating to individual research performance for evaluating faculty members’ achievements. Academic departments are very interested in comparative data between their departments and similar departments of universities selected as benchmarks. Every year, the library is asked to provide statistical analyses comparing our university’s publishing and citation status with that of other research institutions in Korea, as well as universities in other countries.
Our university administrators want our librarians to take a major role regarding academic performance evaluation. My main job is related to bibliometrics. Moving forward, our university will consider this kind of work even more important and I believe librarians can take a primary role in this area. 
Dr. Juan Gorraiz, Universität Wien Bibliotheks und Archivwesen, Oesterreichische Zentralbibliothek fuer Physik, Vienna, Austria
Dr. Juan Gorraiz
Aware of the importance of bibliometrics in the academic world, our library is providing access to the most important citation databases available: Scopus and Web of Science. To license these products the library is spending a considerable amount of its tight budget. Unfortunately, these databases are not always used appropriately. Furthermore, bibliometric analyses are often performed deficiently, and this can lead to grave errors in academic evaluation.
To ensure these databases are used appropriately, we're establishing a bibliometrics group to:
- Provide bibliometric assessment for students and scientific staff
- Teach and assist with efficient use of Scopus and Web of Science
- Support decisions concerning the management of information resources
- Cooperate with other university units involved in academic evaluation, like the departments of Research Activities Documentation and Quality Assurance
- Provide a discussion forum where information experts can exchange advice and promote advanced understanding of bibliometrics
- Participate in international projects, conferences and publications
With this new service we hope to help enhance the quality of research output at our university and, at the same time, identify bibliometric assessment as a modern task of our library.
Boushra Rahal Alameh, Statistician, Medical Dean’s Office, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Boushra Rahal
Alameh
Good research is a major determinant of faculty performance evaluation and promotion, as well as attracting funds. But what constitutes good research?
At the Faculty of Medicine at the American University of Beirut, we’ve developed a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to use in assessing academic and clinical research at our organization. This approach incorporates assorted bibliometric indicators and analyses to complement peer-review evaluation presented in writing. These include publication count, journal impact factor and citation analysis.
Through the use of Scopus, we perform citation analysis, average annual citations, exclude self- and co-author citations, and determine the h-index for faculty members. Using the Journal Citation Report from ISI, we determine journal impact factors, weighted for co-authorship and type of publication, and percentile rank of journals with respect to impact factors in disciplines in which particular researchers have published. We also benchmark the performance of researchers as compared with their peers in the same disciplines or departments.
All these analyses are made possible through our library’s resources as well as continuous advancements in bibliometric sciences. We make sure that evaluation of research by our faculty members is performed in the most accurate, most efficient and least subjective manner possible today.
Gretchen M. Peterson, Knowledge Analyst, Infotrieve, Eaton Corporation, Eaton University Library, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Gretchen M.
Peterson
The Eaton University Library (EUL) provides tools and services to all employees of Eaton Corporation. Eaton employees can access the library in person or via the Web. While we serve all employees, the majority of our users are engineering and technical staff.
The primary way the EUL supports researchers in evaluating their performance is by providing specific online resources. For example, the EUL subscribes to Ei Patents on the familiar Engineering Village platform, which allows researchers to easily monitor the status of their patent applications and track their patents after publication.
Everyone likes to stand on the shoulders of giants, but it’s equally as important to know when you’re the giant.
Eaton’s technical staff need to be able to monitor who (both individuals and organizations) are citing and building on the intellectual property in the patents that Eaton has been granted. Everyone likes to stand on the shoulders of giants, but it’s equally as important to know when you’re the giant.
Five Quick Questions
Cliff Morgan
1. Why are NISO and ALPSP working on the issue of multiple versions of journal articles?
In the digital world, multiple versions of journal articles are often available online. This can cause confusion because there is no established way of identifying the various versions by either a common terminology or identification scheme.
2. What solution are NISO and ALPSP putting forward?
The NISO/ALPSP Working Group on Journal Article Versions will recommend terms and definitions for journal article versions and define the relationships between these versions. We’re focusing on key stages rather than every possible iteration of an article from origination to publication.
3. Will the solution help ensure the identification of the Version of Record for journal articles?
The “Version of Record” is one of our key stages. We will also recommend appropriate metadata to identify each variant version and its relationship to other versions. The metadata can be applied by authors, repository managers and publishers.
4. Why is it important to identify clearly the Version of Record?
The Version of Record constitutes “the minutes of science”— the formally certified record of a research project. It is this version that has been peer-reviewed, edited, composed and verified by the author; it is this version that benefits from publisher investment in managing the above process, building the journal brand and adding functionality such as linking and e-alerts, and for which the publisher takes legal responsibility. This is also the version that is most likely to be cited by other researchers.
“We’re focusing on key stages rather than every possible iteration of an article from origination to publication.”
5. Could multiple versions affect the evaluation of research, and if so how will the NISO/ ALPSP solution help address this problem?
By knowing what version of an article they are reading, researchers are better able to gauge both the quality and completeness of the piece at hand. The NISO/ALPSP Working Group’s recommendations of a standard terminology and associated metadata will help in this understanding.
