Emerald | Aslib Proceedings | Table of Contents

Physician directed information prescription service (IPs): barriers and drivers

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Vahideh Zarea Gavgani, Ali Roshani Shiramin) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose – The objective of this study is to find out physicians' attitudes towards prescribing information to patients and the barriers they may face regarding IPs to patients. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey of 176 physicians working as clinical faculty members of the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences about the information prescription service (IPs) was undertaken using a structured and validated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and a Fisher's exact test or chi square test were used to analyze data. A P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. All data were analyzed using SPSS.17.0. Findings – The study found that physicians are positive about providing IPs. Most of the specialists, i.e. 95.4 per cent (n=167) completely agreed with prescribing information to patients. The physicians rated barriers that they may face in offering IPs. Majority of the specialists 97 per cent (n=174) acknowledged that patients have the right to receive IPs while being seen by healthcare providers. The study did not find significant association between specialty of physicians with their opinion about importance and necessity of IPs. However, there is a statistically significant relationship between the physicians' specialty and their opinions about the following ideas: “information may create side effects” (p=0.01), “the stage of diseases that patient experiences is important and to be considered in personalization of IPs” (p=0.01). Originality/value – This study is unique because there are no similar studies in the published literature. Physicians are one of the main stakeholders in IPs, therefore it is important to find out their opinions and attitudes towards prescription of information.

Analyzing web citations availability and half-life in medical journals: A case study in an Iranian university

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this study is to compare the situation of internet resource citations in scientific articles of the journals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences from 2005-2009. Design/methodology/approach – The research method is an analytical survey with webometrics and citation analysis. The internet was used as a tool for accessing articles. They are separately analyzed on the basis of journal name and publication year. The analysis is done using MATLAB and Excel software. Findings – A total of 717 articles from seven journals during five years were reviewed. Of 13,448 citations extracted, 120 internet references were found. The final results indicated that the sum of web citations is less than 1 per cent of total citations and only 52 per cent of internet citations in studied journal articles are available. The average half-life for the medical journals is estimated to be 1.02 years. Practical implications – To increase the rate of URLs availability, publishers should oblige authors to utilize online archives such as WebCite to preserve expected information for all of the citations referred to in their articles. Originality/value – This research would be valuable since it is the first that studies stability and persistence of URL domains of medical journals published in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences according to type of domain names and file extensions. Moreover, this is the first time that the half-life for medical universities web citations is calculated.

Enabler and inhibitor factors influencing competitive intelligence practices

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose – This paper has a twofold aim. Firstly, to give some insight into competitive intelligence practices in a little-explored area in the field of competitive intelligence: the higher education sector. Secondly, to find out more about the factors influencing competitive intelligence practices, since little research on this subject has been published. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation used a mixed-methods approach, including face-to-face, semi structured interviews with 47 university managers (degree coordinators, deans and vice-rectors), followed by a semi-structured questionnaire carried out with 400 degree coordinators and deans and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The interviews informed the questionnaire design. Findings – The survey confirms the proposed framework's usefulness for analysing the enabler and inhibitor factors in an organisation for promoting efficient competitive intelligence practice and also gives some insight into which factors enable or inhibit the efficacy of competitive intelligence practices in Spanish universities. Research limitations/implications – The research focused on degree design adapted to the EHEA. A larger study designed to focus on other management areas in universities would provide a fuller picture of factors influencing competitive intelligence practices. Practical implications – The findings indicate the areas where universities could plan actions to optimise intelligence activities, make the most of them and stand out from the rest. Originality/value – This paper sets out a framework to describe factors related to intelligence function and cycle. In addition, the study reveals which indicators act as enablers or inhibitors for competitive intelligence practices and takes account of some of the particular features of the higher education sector.

Conceptualizing perceived affordances in social media interaction design

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theoretically develop the concept of perceived affordance based on the existing studies, and to construct a conceptual framework to show how perceived affordances can facilitate the interaction design of social media. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a review of the relevant literature on affordance and perceived affordance, and conceptually proposes a typology of perceived affordances in social media and an integrative framework for interaction design from sociomateriality perspective. Furthermore, a brief empirical example on the interaction design of crowdsourcing systems is used to ground and illustrate the authors' conceptual framework. Findings – The paper shows that the perceived affordances may have multi-facet characteristics and the interaction design of social media should reflect the multi-dimensional perceived affordances. The perceived affordances can support or facilitate the design of basic elements of social media, such as content and form, to enhance both usability (human-computer interaction) and sociability (human-human interaction). A position of constitutive entanglement does not privilege either users or social media artifacts, nor does it provide a rigid triangle among these three components. Instead, the perceived affordances play a critical role in integrating the key components in social media interaction design as an ensemble. Originality/value – The paper attempts to explore and develop the concept of perceived affordance and employ it as a theoretical lens to underpin interaction design of social media. Overall, the authors' study contributes to the design science literature in the information management field by elaborating a new theoretical perspective and providing a conceptual framework for the researchers and designers.

Literature review writing: how information is selected and transformed

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to report a study of researchers' preferences in selecting information from cited papers to include in a literature review, and the kinds of transformations and editing applied to the selected information. Design/methodology/approach – This is a part of a larger project to develop an automatic summarization method that emulates human literature review writing behaviour. Research questions were: how are literature reviews written – where do authors select information from, what types of information do they select and how do they transform it? What is the relationship between styles of literature review (integrative and descriptive) and each of these variables (source sections, types of information and types of transformation)? The authors analysed the literature review sections of 20 articles from the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2001-2008, to answer these questions. Referencing sentences were mapped to 279 source papers to determine the source sentences. The type of information selected, the sections of source papers where the information was taken from, and the types of editing changes made to include in the literature review were analyzed. Findings – Integrative literature reviews contain more research result information and critique, and reference more information from the results and conclusion sections of the source papers. Descriptive literature reviews contain more research method information, and reference more information from the abstract and introduction sections. The most common kind of transformation is the high-level summary, though descriptive literature reviews have more cut-pasting, especially for information taken from the abstract. The types of editing – substitutions, insertions and deletions – applied to the source sentences are identified. Practical implications – The results are useful in the teaching of literature review writing, and indicate ways for automatic summarization systems to emulate human literature review writing. Originality/value – Though there have been several studies of abstracts and abstracting, there are few studies of literature reviews and literature review writing. Little is known about how writers select information from source papers, integrate it and present it in a literature review. This paper fills some of the gaps.

Personal Knowledge Management: Individual, Organizational and Social Perspectives

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam) — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100