Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Ahead of Print.
Assessing student participation in research and publication is essential, but this area has experienced limited exploration due to data constraints, despite the presence of open researcher profiles. Prior research noted modest student contributions but lacked in-depth analysis. Notably, in the Library and Information Science field, research on student-authored publications is scarce. This study analyzes data from student-authored papers in the Journal of Librarianship and Information Science from 1993 to 2022. Descriptive statistical analysis was employed, with various tables presenting yearly figures and data grouped by decades, along with charts to visualize changing trends over the years. The analysis reveals a significant increase in student engagement in research and publication, with student-authored papers constituting approximately 20% of all publications, highlighting their active participation in academic endeavors. Furthermore, this study underscores a marked shift toward collaborative research, with a substantial 88% of student authors engaging in internal or external collaborations for their publications. Additionally, nearly half of the student authors (48%) assumed the role of main authors, affirming their substantial contributions to research. Moreover, this study sheds light on the impact of research methodologies on student participation, with quantitative analysis emerging as the predominant approach for student-authored papers. Nevertheless, qualitative analysis may pose challenges for student-led research due to skill requirements. For future studies, broadening the scope of data collection to encompass a wider range of academic journals and analyzing the publication activities of graduate students from specific programs would be beneficial endeavors. In conclusion, this study enhances understanding of student authorship and its implications for academic publishing in the Library and Information Science field. It provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of academic publishing and student involvement.
Author Archives: Eun-Ja Shin
Exploring COVID-19 research papers published on journals in the field of LIS
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Volume 55, Issue 3, Page 567-578, September 2023.
As the COVID-19 pandemic prevails, research related to COVID-19 has spread beyond medicine, health science, and biology to almost all academic fields. Library and information science is one of the most active fields that publish COVID-19-related research papers. This study examined 696 research papers related to COVID-19 whose journal being categorized as “information science & library science” by Web of Science. The result of bibliometric analysis showed that the publications were active and on the rise. Most papers were published in English and produced in the United States. According to the keyword clustering map produced by semantic network analysis, two fields, bibliometrics and health communication, were publishing research papers related to COVID-19 most actively. Moreover, the most productive journal was a library and information science journal focusing on health informatics. Additionally, a tendency was found that researchers preferred to publish on journals with high impact factors. Compared with non-COVID-19-related research papers, there was a significant decrease of “time for acceptance” of COVID-19-related papers, and the proportion of open access was relatively high. Confronting the global crisis of COVID-19, the library and information science field also made efforts and challenges to resolve the slow peer-review, delayed publishing, and high paywalls, which have been recognized as a “chronic diseases” of the academic publishing ecosystem. It is expected that these endeavors can serve as a turning point to reconsider and innovate the traditional research-publishing lifecycle.
As the COVID-19 pandemic prevails, research related to COVID-19 has spread beyond medicine, health science, and biology to almost all academic fields. Library and information science is one of the most active fields that publish COVID-19-related research papers. This study examined 696 research papers related to COVID-19 whose journal being categorized as “information science & library science” by Web of Science. The result of bibliometric analysis showed that the publications were active and on the rise. Most papers were published in English and produced in the United States. According to the keyword clustering map produced by semantic network analysis, two fields, bibliometrics and health communication, were publishing research papers related to COVID-19 most actively. Moreover, the most productive journal was a library and information science journal focusing on health informatics. Additionally, a tendency was found that researchers preferred to publish on journals with high impact factors. Compared with non-COVID-19-related research papers, there was a significant decrease of “time for acceptance” of COVID-19-related papers, and the proportion of open access was relatively high. Confronting the global crisis of COVID-19, the library and information science field also made efforts and challenges to resolve the slow peer-review, delayed publishing, and high paywalls, which have been recognized as a “chronic diseases” of the academic publishing ecosystem. It is expected that these endeavors can serve as a turning point to reconsider and innovate the traditional research-publishing lifecycle.