Library and Information Science Commons^™

Expert Recommended Biomedical Journal Articles: Their Retractions Or Corrections, And Post-Retraction Citing, Peiling Wang, Jing Su

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Faculty Opinions has provided recommendations of important biomedical publications by domain experts (FMs) since 2001. The purpose of this study is two-fold: 1) identify the characteristics of the expert-recommended articles that were subsequently retracted; 2) investigate what happened after retraction. We examined a set of 232 recommended, later retracted or corrected articles. These articles were classified as New Finding (43%), Interesting Hypothesis (16%), etc. More than 71% of the articles acknowledged funding support; the NIH (US) was a top funder (64%). The top reasons for retractions were Errors of various types (28%); Falsification/fabrication of data, image, or results (20%); Unreliable …

In Our Very Blood: The Use Of Social Media In The 2018 West Virginia Teachers' Strike, Everette Scott Sikes

Doctoral Dissertations

The 2018 West Virginia teachers’ strike exemplifies the changing shape of social movements and events of dissent and protest in the digital age. The use of information communication technologies (ICT) and social media have changed the ways such events develop and unfold. These technologies offer new tools for organizing and strategizing, for generating large numbers of participants, and for communicating crucial information while reducing temporal and spatial barriers. The teachers’ strike presents an opportunity to increase our understandings of these issues and to widen the scope of research in the field of information sciences to include the impact of ICTs …

Tweeting Tennessee's Collections: Where Bots & Special Collections Meet, Meredith L. Hale

UT Libraries Faculty: Other Publications and Presentations

This project demonstrates how a Twitterbot can be used as an inclusive outreach initiative that breaks down the barriers between the Web and the reading room to share materials like postcards, music manuscripts, photographs, and cartoons with the public. Once in place, Twitterbots allow our physical materials to converge with the technical and social space of the Web. Twitterbots are ideal for busy professionals because they allow librarians to make meaningful impressions on users without requiring a large time investment. This poster covers my recent implementation of a digital collections bot (@UTKDigCollBot) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and provides …

Social Network And Content Analysis Of The North American Carbon Program As A Scientific Community Of Practice, Molly E. Brown, Monica Inez Ihli, Oscar Hendrick, Sabrina Delgado-Arias, Vanessa M. Escobar, Peter Griffith

UT Libraries Faculty: Peer-Reviewed Publications

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was formed to further the scientific understanding of sources, sinks, and stocks of carbon in Earth's environment. Carbon cycle science integrates multidisciplinary research, providing decision-support information for managing climate and carbon-related change across multiple sectors of society. This investigation uses the conceptual framework of communities of practice (CoP) to explore the role that the NACP has played in connecting researchers into a carbon cycle knowledge network, and in enabling them to conduct physical science that includes ideas from social science. A CoP describes the communities formed when people consistently engage in shared communication and …

Dimensions Of Access To Traceability Information For Us Beef Cattle Producers: Merging Information Frameworks For Assessment And Visualization Of State Web-Based Resources In An Effort To Strengthen National Security Connections Between Government And Cattle Farming Operations, Reid Isaac Boehm

Doctoral Dissertations

US consumers eat a lot of beef. The nation’s beef cattle production industry is a multi-faceted, complex supply chain which makes it an area rich for discussion about information practices, yet vulnerable to problems such as disease and terrorist attack. This research looks at cattle identification and traceability information resources that are accessible to beef cattle producers through two web channels: the state cooperative Extension website and the state Department of Agriculture website. This is a state by state content analysis of all fifty states to look at the topics, types, formats, quality, and interactivity of the available resources. By …

Pay It Forward: Investigating A Sustainable Model Of Open Access Article Processing Charges For Large North American Research Institutions Survey Instrument, Carol Tenopir, Betsy D. Dalton, Misty K. Jones

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

A survey of faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers at four large North American research universities (n = 2021) asked respondents to rate how eight different journal factors and five different audiences influence their choice of publication output.

Citizen Science: Framing The Public, Information Exchange, And Communication In Crowdsourced Science, Todd Ernest Suomela

Doctoral Dissertations

Citizen science, the participation of non-scientists in scientific research, has grown over the last 20 years. The current study explores the communication frames used to describe citizen science and how they are created. It also investigates the effects of citizen science on the relationship between the public and science. It also situates citizen science in a larger historical context that critques normal science and intersects with a number of other scholarly discussions including science and technology studies, citizenship, expertise, professionalism, and participation.

The dissertation draws on theory from the social worlds analysis of Anselm Strauss, framing in science communication, the …

The Information Landscape Of A Wicked Problem: An Evaluation Of Web-Based Information On Colony Collapse Disorder For A Spectrum Of Citizen Information Seekers, Reid Isaac Boehm

Masters Theses

The following research takes a mixed method approach to understanding the information landscape of a wicked problem. Wicked problems are defined as being uncertain in cause, having many stakeholders with conflicting interests, and inevitably have no foreseeable solution. Through the study a framework is implemented that assesses a portion of the landscape of colony collapse disorder information from the federal government via the web. Using a government information valuation framework that takes into account a spectrum of citizen user needs, the research was able to look at the information content within the context of the public sphere and to apply …

The Value Of Scholarly Reading In The Life Sciences, Carol Tenopir, Rachel Volentine

School of Communication Studies Publications and Other Works

Surveys of academic staff in six universities in the U.K. provide insights for publishers and universities into scholarly article, book, and other publication reading patterns of academics and differences based on academic discipline of readers. These surveys were part of the 2011 UK Scholarly Reading and the Value of the Library Study funded by JISC Collections and based on Tenopir and King Studies conducted since 1977. Reading patterns of life and environmental scientists differ from other disciplines, in particular social sciences. Scholarly articles, especially those obtained from the library’s e-journal collections, are vital to the work of all academic disciplines. …

Complex Adaptive Systems Theory Applied To Virtual Scientific Collaborations: The Case Of Dataone, Arsev Umur Aydinoglu

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is the exploration of the emergence of DataONE, a multidisciplinary, multinational, and multi-institutional virtual scientific collaboration to develop a cyberinfrastructure for earth sciences data, from the complex adaptive systems perspective. Data is generated through conducting 15 semi-structured interviews, observing three 3-day meetings, and 51 online surveys. The main contribution of this study is the development of a complexity framework and its application to a project such as DataONE. The findings reveal that DataONE behaves like a complex adaptive system: various individuals and institutions interacting, adapting, and coevolving to achieve their own and common goals; during the process new …

Content Analysis Of Social Tags On Intersectionality For Works On Asian Women: An Exploratory Study Of Librarything, Sheetija Kathuria

Masters Theses

This study explores how the social tags are employed by users of LibraryThing, a popular web 2.0 social networking site for cataloging books, to describe works on Asian women in representing themes within the context of intersectionality. Background literature in the domain of subject description of works has focused on race and gender representation within traditional controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). This study explores themes related to intersectionality in order to analyze how users construct meaning in their social tags. The collection of works used to search for social tags came from the Association …

Biodiversity Information Needs In The Southern Appalachians:, Miriam L.E. Steiner Davis, Suzie Allard, Carol Tenopir, Christopher E. Caldwell, Jana Redmond

Annual Research Symposium of the College of Communication and Information

No abstract provided.

Collaboration - It's A Good Thing!: A Multi-Faceted Role Analysis In Graduate Student Education As "Faculty-In-Training"., Priyanki Sinha, Jim Malone, Todd E. Suomela, Elizabeth Noakes, Lisa Metzer, David L. Sims

Annual Research Symposium of the College of Communication and Information

“Collaboration appears to play a unique role in science and science education today,” and serves as a rite of passage for new graduate students that indicates acceptance and achievement in research (Hara et. al. 2003). Collaboration is a crucial skill for faculty and students, helping advance knowledge and exploit the results of research effectively. In this project a group of six new Ph.D. students worked together with one faculty member and one post-doctoral researcher to develop a new course in Environmental Information Science. This poster is a report on the successes and barriers to collaboration encountered during the course of …

Information Seeking Behavior Of Scientists In Venezuela, Simon Luis Aristeguieta Trillos

Doctoral Dissertations

Information is one the essential elements of science. It is an imperative condition that researchers review antecedent works as they advance and create new knowledge. Knowledge creation in science is a process of adding and refining new pieces of data, information, and knowledge to what has already been accomplished by others. Few scientific communities have unlimited access to scientific information sources. Most communities’ access to information is limited by economic, social, cultural, and technological conditions.

This study investigates information seeking behavior and information dissemination practices of the Venezuelan scientific community. A model of scholarly communication in a context of dependency …

Rural Library Professionals As Change Agents In The 21st Century: Integrating Information Technology Competencies In The Southern And Central Appalachian Region (Itrl), Bharat Mehra, K. Black, V. Singh

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Rural Library Professionals as Change Agents in the 21st Century: Integrating Information Technology Competencies in the Southern and Central Appalachian Region (ITRL) ($567,660). Institute of Museum and Library Services, Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, October 2009 – September 2012. Principal Investigators: B. Mehra, K. Black, and V. Singh. Project Partners: Clinch-Powell Regional Library (Clinton, Tennessee: S. Simmons, Director), Nolichucky Regional Library (Morristown, Tennessee: D. Reynolds, Director), Sevier County Public Library System (Sevierville, Tennessee: K. C. Williams, System Director), and the Watauga Regional Library (Johnson City, Tennessee: N. Renfro, Director).

Being User-Oriented: Convergences, Divergences, And The Potentials For Systematic Dialogue Between Disciplines And Between Researchers, Designers, And Providers, Brenda Dervin, Karen Fisher, Eric Meyers, Charles Naumer, Marilyn Ostergren, Carol Tenopir, Kreetta Askola, Louann F. Blocker, Carly Hamlett, Timothy Lepczyk, Ashley Mcconnell, Anthony Schlagel, Kelli Y. Williams, Andrew Dillon, Lorraine Normore, Tingting Lu, Shannon Hoste, Troy Elias, Peter H. Jones, Carrielynn D. Reinhard, Bethany Simunich, Donald Case, Melissa A. Gardner, Gary K. Hughes, Jennifer L. Robinette, Robert J. Trader, Granger H. Butler, Melissa D. Davis, Sarah M. Donaldson, Susan M. Finley, Betsy A. Law, Anne E. Ledford, Christina Joy Mark, Nancy R. Marshall, Krista M. Mcmanis, Jennifer Paul, Sarah F. Pratt, Latisha M. Reynolds, Kathryn P. Sexton, Roberta D. Shannon, Sara Fowdy Strange

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

The challenge this panel addresses is drawn from intersecting literature reviews and critical commentaries focusing on: 1) user studies in multiple fields; and 2) the difficulties of bringing different disciplines and perspectives to bear on user‐oriented research, design, and practice. 1

The challenge is that while we have made some progress in collaborative work, we have some distance to go to become user‐oriented in inter‐disciplinary and inter‐perspective ways. The varieties of our approaches and solutions are, as some observers suggest, an increasing cacophony. One major difficulty is that most discussions are solution‐oriented, offering arguments of this sort ‐‐ "if only …