Original Article
Scientometrics
Oranus Tajedini; M. Bagher Negahban; Hamid Khaje
Abstract
Background and Objectives: In today's world, knowledge is a key factor in the progress of societies. The level of knowledge depends on the production, consumption, and accessibility of reliable scientific resources. Research plays a crucial role in advancing industries, agriculture, and services, making ...
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Background and Objectives: In today's world, knowledge is a key factor in the progress of societies. The level of knowledge depends on the production, consumption, and accessibility of reliable scientific resources. Research plays a crucial role in advancing industries, agriculture, and services, making it essential for sustainable development. High-quality research enhances scientific progress and practical applications. Evaluating scientific output in universities and research institutions has become increasingly competitive. Despite the growth in scientific publications, challenges remain in improving research quality. Universities must address these challenges to fulfill their role in knowledge creation. A strong academic environment and a positive research culture contribute to societal development. This study examines the relationship between the academic environment, researchers' experience, and research quality at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between academic environment, researchers' experiences and the quality of research output at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (SBUK), Iran.Methodology: This research was applied in purpose and conducted using a scientometric approach. The research population included articles by researchers from SBUK, which were published in journals indexed in the Scopus citation database. SPSS software (version 21) was used for data analysis in this study.Findings: The findings of this study showed that the researchers' experiences have the potential to significantly predict the quality of research outputs, and an academic environment is not a suitable variable for predicting the quality of research outputs. In other words, it is the growing experience of researchers at SBUK that paves the way for the rising quality of their research outputs. Other findings of this study indicate that there is no relationship between the academic research environment and the quality of research output at SBUK. The analysis of the relationship between researchers' experience and their academic environment also showed that there is no significant relationship between these variables at SBUK.Discussion: Based on the results of this study, in order to raise the quality of research activities, less emphasis should be placed on the quantity of research output. To provide an incentive for scholars to improve the quality of their research endeavors, academic institutions should stress the importance of the most highly cited research articles. By providing adequate research facilities and equipment (up-to-date libraries, well-equipped laboratories and advanced technologies), universities and institutes of higher education can create the ideal context for optimizing the productivity of research environments. Accordingly, any development in research experiences and the subsequent improvement in the quality of research outputs will enhance the country’s progress and excellence in various scientific fields. In this sense, the ideal goals for the comprehensive development of the country will be ultimately realized.
Original Article
Scientometrics
Faramarz soheili; shiva shirdavani
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Citation is an important element in scientific writing and has a prominent role in the production and dissemination of information. Citation analysis is one of the applications of citation that examines the relationship between citing and cited document and studies the rules ...
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Background and Objectives: Citation is an important element in scientific writing and has a prominent role in the production and dissemination of information. Citation analysis is one of the applications of citation that examines the relationship between citing and cited document and studies the rules governing this relation. Citation analysis of patents is nowadays frequently observed in studies and is an important tool for identifying and analyzing the technical knowledge within patents. This research tries to identify determinants of patent citations by using a survival analysis.
Methodology: Research method was patent citation analysis. Research population consisted of 25,392 patents in the USPTO database in the Data Processing: Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Category: 706). There were 25392 AI patents in the USPTO database, among them, 13644 patents remained after deleting duplicates. Therefore, the new list, containing 13,644 patents, was saved in a plain text file by patents number, and these file was used to download the by Ravar Premep software. By using this software and using data mining technique, patents were saved in a separated location whit HTML format. Information needed for this analysis was: patent number, filed year, issue date, title, abstract, inventors, assignee, citations, and categories. This information was extract from patents in a comprehensive file. There were about 80 patent applications in the field at the USPTO, with the manually extracted information from the database added to this comprehensive file. To classify patent, first, patent that did not receive any citation in the field of AI were grouped into separate group and then the rest of the patents were divided into 3 groups using Bradford law based on number of citations. Group 1: Patents that have received at least 22 citations (412 patents).
Group 2: Patent applications that have received at least 9 and at most 21 citations (1123 patents). Group 3: Patents that have received at least 1 and up to 8 citations (4975 patents). Group 4: Patent Letters That Did Not Receive Any Citation (7134 patents). In this study 8922 inventors were retrieved as the first inventors for 13,644 patents. Since the classification of the first inventors did not fit well with any of the conventional classification methods in scientometrics, the inventors were divided into three groups according to the number of inventions. Inventors with more than 20 patents in the first group, inventors with 11 to 20 inventions in the second group and inventors with 10 inventions and fewer in the third group. In the field of AI, 2898 assignees hold 13644 patents. Bradford law was used to classify assignees in terms of frequency of inventions because of their high fit to the data. According to this method, assignees were classified into three groups in terms of their ability to produce patents. First Class (Strong): assignees who have produced at least 87 patents (19 assignees). Second Class (Medium): assignees who have produced at least 7 patents (233 assignees). Third Class (Poor): Proprietors who have produced at least 1 patent (2646 assignees). Bradford law was also used to classify assignees in terms of citation. Since in this method the minimum number is equal to one, assignees whose patents did not receive any citations were placed in a separate group (Group 4) and patent holders whose patents received at least one patent. They were classified into 3 groups according to Bradford method. Cox and Kaplan-Meier regression were used to analyze the data.
Findings: The research findings showed that of the 6749 patents that received first citation, in the first two years, the probability of citing each patent was less than 50 percent, and the probability of being cited increased over time. So that probability has risen to over 90% after 84 months. Kaplan-Meier test results showed that it takes between 38 and 40 months on average to a patent obtain first citation in the field of AI. The Kaplan-Meier test results in survival analysis showed that one year after a patent first was cited, the probability of being cited for the ninth time was 2.2%, and that probability increased over time. The findings also showed that on average, a patent may be cited for the ninth time between 69 and 74 months after receiving its first citation. Kaplan-Meier test showed that in the first 4 months after receiving the ninth citation, the probability of receiving the 22th citation for patent applications was zero, and then the probability increased. Also the finding showed that of the 6749 patents reviewed citation for the first time, in the first 2 years, the probability of citing each patent was less than 50%, and the probability of being cited increased over time. So the probability has risen to over 90% after 84 months.
Discussion: The results of the Cox test showed that, at the significant level of 0.05, inventors and assignees were influenced the productivity and receiving citation of patents. The results showed that the frequency distribution of citations received by patents based on the first inventor and proprietor complies with Bradford’s scattering law. The results showed that the percentage of cited patents increased logarithmically over time. In other words, after a few years, the chances of citing a patent are reduced to a fixed amount. The results of the relationship between the power of first inventors both in terms of productivity and receiving citation showed that, the more the first inventors had a patent or citation, the shorter length of time need to be cited for the first time. The results of Cox test showed that at the significant level of 0.05 percent, inventors and assignees were influential in productivity and receiving citation. In other words, the chance of getting the first citation of assignees whose first inventor is in the first group (strong group) is 1.926 times higher than the patent of their first inventor in the third group. The results also showed that the probability of receiving the first citation for patents whose first inventors were in the first group was 1.925 times higher than that of the third group. Also those patent that the inventors where in second groups 1.44 times higher than of the third group. The results also showed that assignees were influenced by both the time they produced the invention and the citation received. The more assignees have had more or patents or citations, the less time it takes for them to be cited for the first time. The results also showed that the strongest assignees groups were more likely to receive their first citation at the same time interval than the weaker assignees. It may be argued that the role of countries in citing to patent applications is not very influential, but other factors are influential, one of which being the relevance of other patents that the inventor may cited or the evaluator of that role. And the type of citations in patent differs from those based on articles and other scientific documents.
Original Article
Public Libraries
sedigheh raeisi; Fahimeh Babalhavaeji; fatemeh nooshnfard; zahra abazari
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The growing trend of increasing information in today's world has doubled the need for public libraries to pay more attention and accuracy to the resource collection process. The annual increases in the prices of books and periodicals and budget and space shortages have caused ...
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Background and Objectives: The growing trend of increasing information in today's world has doubled the need for public libraries to pay more attention and accuracy to the resource collection process. The annual increases in the prices of books and periodicals and budget and space shortages have caused a scarcity of libraries, no matter how large they can offer the full range of library materials. Collection maintenance is one of the most important and basic tasks in libraries and means collecting materials, including information and data, based on a plan that meets users' needs. Therefore, selecting information resources is one of the most significant steps in collection development, and libraries must devote their limited financial resources to provide materials that are prospective to meet the greatest needs of their users, which require the presence of librarians. Library users are an integral part of any library. Thus, their opinions, perception, and feelings are essential in achieving the library’s primary goals. In addition, public libraries are designed solely to provide free or low-cost information services to the public regardless of status, occupation, gender, or age. Public libraries are expected to play a dynamic role in the community's life. Among them are promoting reading culture, providing excellent information, creating collections relevant to local interests, and providing various services to users such as references, audio and video services, and training. Regarding the creation of collections of local interests, public libraries need to collect and make available information resources on a wide range of subjects to meet users' information needs. This is arguably the biggest challenge facing public libraries. The public library is thus special and requires special attention because it is the only type of library that has the most access. Collection development is a set of processes and activities related to reviewing information needs, selecting, preparing, and making available various information resources required by the library community, both printed and non-printed, based on a specific policy through purchase, donation, exchange, evaluation, and weeding, by performing dynamic, efficient, and up-to-date processes, as well as using the most economical methods to provide information and the possibility of users accessing information.
Methodology: The current research aims to provide a model of public library collection with a grounded theory approach. This research is of an applied type, conducted with a qualitative approach and as a grounded theory method. The studied population to reach theoretical saturation were 10 (out of 15) experts and professors in the information science and epistemology field. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview. The analytical method "Strauss and Corbin" was used to analyze the interviews, which included three stages of open, central, and selective coding. During the central coding phase, the main categories were identified, and after selective coding and determination of relationships, the model of resource collection in public libraries was presented. This study used the criteria of validity, verifiability, reliability, and transferability to validate the study (Creswell, 2011).
Findings: The research findings showed that 5 main categories and 15 sub-components were conceptualized as the dimensions and components of the collection model in public libraries. The five primary categories are causal conditions (structural and administrative factors, cultural and ethnic factors, and financial factors), intermediate conditions (users, librarians, and professionals’ needs), and background conditions. (Space, homogeneity factors and errors in policymakers' halos, cost control that governs policy maker mindset), resource pool model strategy (user voice and equity in resources provision, education structural and financial (reflecting lack of concentration). The consequences of using the resource collection model in public libraries will lead to the satisfaction of users, officials, and librarians, increasing the productivity of the country's public libraries, as well as the popularity and reputation of this institution.
Discussion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that it is necessary to continuously use the opinions of users and librarians, to use new information technologies, and to modify the structural rules regarding the provision of resources. In addition, to paying special attention to the provision of information-based resources. Based on the users' culture, ethnicity, and religion, it is one of the necessities of collection building in the country's public libraries.
Original Article
Public Libraries
Zohreh Riazi; Golnessa Galyani-Moghaddm; Reza Maleki
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Easy access to public libraries is one of the main keys to the successful delivery of public library services. Access to services should be planned in a way that maximizes both ease and convenience for users. One of the most important tasks for city planners is the correct ...
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Background and Objectives: Easy access to public libraries is one of the main keys to the successful delivery of public library services. Access to services should be planned in a way that maximizes both ease and convenience for users. One of the most important tasks for city planners is the correct location of urban elements and services in communities. The present study investigates the establishment of public libraries in Saveh city based on location criteria and subcriteria and suggests optimal areas for the construction of a new public library with the help of a geographic information system Geographic information systems (GIS) are up-to-date and efficient tools for preparing maps and analyzing location data.
Methodology: The research in this study employs meta-analysis for the valuation and weighting of criteria and subcriteria regarding a library's location. Forty studies on location were selected, and the criteria and subcriteria regarding library location were addressed. Based on the results obtained, four main criteria with the highest repetition rate in the studies were selected for analysis: compatibility, ease of access (convenience), desirability and efficiency. Using the scores given to each criterion in the research, together with a hierarchical weighting model (AHP), each of the main criteria was scored employing Expert Choice software.
Findings: From the pairwise comparison of the four criteria, the ease of access criterion has the most importance and weight among the main criteria with a weight of 0.358, followed by the compatibility criterion (weight 0.270), the efficiency criterion (weight 0.247) and the desirability criterion (weight 0.125), respectively. Access to population centers is the most important among the subcriteria of ease of access with a weight of 0.546. In the ease of access component, the two main components of distance and time are important. Two elements--access and the ease of use of urban transportation services--are among the goals of urban planning. When all this is taken into consideration, one finds that locating a library in the central parts of the Saveh city is preferable to locating it in the northwest and southwest parts of the city. One of the main important subcriteria in locating public libraries is proximity to educational institutions (kindergartens, preschools, elementary schools, high schools, etc.). If the place under investigation for locating a library is close to schools, it will have a high level of compatibility; the further away it is, the lower the level of compatibility will be. Once again, centrality is important. A main component among the efficiency subcriteria is the ability to expand. The southwest and northwest parts of the city have the greatest expansion potential, and in this sense, they meet this subcriterion. The middle and central parts of Saveh city have the least potential for expansion. According to the desirability criterion, places and cultural environments should be located in such a way that the people using them get the most enjoyment and use from them. One of the most important components of this criterion is the distance from dangerous areas, which can be divided into the two categories of natural and human environmental hazards. Given this, creating a library in the middle parts of Saveh city has the highest compatibility in terms of desirability; further out, the degree of compatibility decreases.
Discussion: Based on the results obtained for the city of Saveh, Salman Savjoi and Allameh Asgari public libraries are in the incompatible range in terms of comfort, and the other two libraries of Hazrat Wali Asr (A.S.) and Shahid Hasheminejad are in the fully compatible and relatively compatible range, respectively. Then the location of the existing libraries was evaluated according to the location criteria; the compliance status of each library was obtained, and proposed areas for the construction of new libraries in each of the city were identified. At present, the libraries of Salman Savoji and Hazrat Valiasr (AS) of Saveh are located close to each other, while many parts of Saveh do not have libraries, especially Alavi town (Mehr housing), which does not have any libraries at all. After collecting the spatial data of Saveh city and creating a database in the geographic information system environment based on the determined criteria and subcriteria, separate maps were prepared and evaluated, and by summing up the layers and their weight, the compliance status of each the libraries was determined and the final map with suitable locations for the construction of new libraries was prepared.
Original Article
Nazila Mehrabi; Ahmadreza Varnaseri; sahar Khorashadizadeh; Mansoor Koohi Rostami
Abstract
Background and Objectives: One of the influencing variables in job performance is psychological factors. The aim of the current research is to identify the psychological factors affecting the job performance of public library employees in Qom province.
Methodology: This research has been carried out ...
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Background and Objectives: One of the influencing variables in job performance is psychological factors. The aim of the current research is to identify the psychological factors affecting the job performance of public library employees in Qom province.
Methodology: This research has been carried out under the pragmatism paradigm and of an exploratory type. In order to collect information, library and field methods have been considered. In the qualitative phase of this research, the Delphi method was used to identify psychological factors through a semi-structured questionnaire that was provided to the members of the Delphi panel; used and then approved; And in the quantitative phase, the quantitative AHP method was used to rank the factors. In this way, the questionnaire was distributed among academic staff members and employees with master's and doctorate degrees in public libraries of Qom province, and AHP method was used to analyze the data. In order to analyze the resulting data, Spss 25 and Expert Choice 11 software were used to analyze the data.
Findings: The findings obtained in this research show that psychological factors affecting the job performance of public library employees in Qom province include 7 categories of emotional intelligence including 14 components, cognitive intelligence including 4 components, emotional creativity including 3 components, creativity including 7 components, extroversion including 5 components, problem solving ability including 5 components, and responsibility also including 9 components. Based on the comparative analysis, the factor of emotional intelligence with a coefficient of 0.227 in the first degree, the factor of problem solving ability with a coefficient of 0.186 in the second degree, the factor of responsibility with a coefficient of 0.184 in the third degree, the factor of creativity with a coefficient of 0.169 In the 4th grade, the factor of cognitive intelligence was ranked 5th with a coefficient of 0.076, the factor of emotional creativity was ranked 6th with a coefficient of 0.056, and finally the extraversion factor was ranked 7th with a coefficient of 0.053.
Discussion: The results obtained from this research indicate that the mentioned psychological factors are effective in the performance of librarians of public libraries in Qom province. According to the identified psychological factors, it can be said that in the selection of librarians, their emotional intelligence should be identified and since it is ranked A, more attention should be paid to it, and it is also necessary that librarians have the ability to solve problems. and be able to help in solving the problems related to the identification of the information of their clients and be able to fulfill the responsibilities and duties assigned to them well. The extroversion factor was among the psychological factors that had the lowest rank and importance among other factors. Therefore, in the selection of librarians, these psychological factors should be considered and investigated.
Original Article
Scientometrics
Mostafa Ghannad; Mohammad Arabmazar Yazdi; Mohammad Hossein Safarzadeh Bandari; Reza HesarZadeh
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The role and importance of referees in improving the quality of scientific articles are well known, thus, drawing the attention of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology's (MSRT) Scientific Publications Evaluation Commission in defining the evaluation criteria for ...
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Background and Objectives: The role and importance of referees in improving the quality of scientific articles are well known, thus, drawing the attention of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology's (MSRT) Scientific Publications Evaluation Commission in defining the evaluation criteria for scientific publications. To this end, the present paper aims to review the criteria of the MSRT's evaluation system for scientific journals, including the annual listing of reviewers, reviewers' registration with international scientific databases, and their geographical and institutional distribution. Moreover, the gender, specialty (academic major), and scientific rank of reviewers are investigated. Finally, interlocked reviewers (those performing peer-reviews for more than one journal) are identified, and the percentage of scientific accounting publications assigned to the journals' own reviewers is determined.
Methodology: This paper is descriptive survey research and uses a checklist for data collection. Data analysis is performed by adopting an evaluative scientometric method. The statistical population of this study comprises websites of 19 accounting journals indexed in 2021 by the MSRT's scientific journals evaluation system.
Findings: The results demonstrate that 17 out of 19 journals (90%) have annually listed the names of their reviewers on their websites. There are 1364 names of peer reviewers published in accounting journals, with the Journal of Governmental Accounting publishing the most (219) and the Journal of Management Accounting publishing the fewest (8). In addition, the issue of reviewer registration with reputable scientific databases, which strengthens the country's international standing, has not received sufficient attention, as less than 10% of reviewers have created profiles in the Publons database. The geographical distribution of reviewers indicates the contribution of all the country's provinces except for Khorasan-e-Jonoobi, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. Tehran (49%), Fars (7%), and Khorasan-e-Razavi (6%) provinces contribute the most to the peer-review process. Furthermore, the institutional distribution of reviewers reveals that 107 universities have at least one representative on the peer-review boards of accounting journals, with the universities of Al-Zahra (13%), Tehran (7%), and Shiraz (6%) having the highest number of representatives. More than 52% of reviewers hold the academic rank of assistant professor, 32% associate professor, and 12% full professor; only 4% hold a degree below a Ph.D. Females comprise 27% of peer reviewers, and accounting specialists comprise 93% of reviewers. More than 231 of the 622 papers published in 2021 were authored by the journals' own reviewers (37%), with the Journal of Accounting and Auditing Reviews leading the way with 61% of its published papers written by its own reviewers. According to the investigation of interlocked reviewers, Zohreh Hajiha, who participated in the peer-review process of 14 journals, and Rezvan Hejazi, Shokrollah Khajavi, and Gholamreza Kordestani, who performed peer-reviews for 13 journals, have contributed to the most significant number of journals. The total number of reviewers' names published in accounting journals (1364) represents 492 individual reviewers.
Discussion: Considering that several accounting journals do not annually list the names of their reviewers, only publish the names of outstanding reviewers, or over-report the number of reviewers, there should be closer attention paid to the peer reviewers of accounting journals. Furthermore, the small percentage of reviewers registered with international scientific databases, the high proportion of published papers authored by the journals' own reviewers, and the lack of diversity in the specialty of the peer reviewers of accounting journals indicate an unfavorable situation that can be rectified through improved policymaking and the fulfillment of scientific publication criteria by relevant authorities and ultimately result in the improvement of quality of published papers and the advancement of accounting knowledge.
