University of Arizona
School of Information Resources & Library Science
IRLS 589 - Scholarly Communication
Spring 2004 - Course Outline (Final)
Instructor: Anita Sundaram Coleman
Instructor Office Hours: By WebCT email
& chat
WebCT Technical Support: John Stanton (email:
stanton@email.arizona.edu)
GAT: Youfen Su (email:
yfs@email.arizona.edu)
Mode of Instruction: Virtual via WebCT
First day of classes: 14 January,
2004; First day for IRLS 589: 23 January, 2004
For WebCT backup and
announcements subscribe to IRLS589, Course Listserv: IRLS589 [Note: You
MUST susbscribe to this list and MUST have UA account to subscribe - if you
don't have one, you can get UA email and web account online by visiting https://account.arizona.edu/.]
COURSE TEXTS
Required Text: The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift
in Honor of Eugene Garfield. Edited by Blaise Cronin and Helen Barsky Atkins.
ASIS Monographs. 2000. 544 pp/hardbound. ISBN: 1-57387-099-4 Cost: $49.50. URL:
http://www.infotoday.com/catalog/asist.htm
CATALOG DESCRIPTION
IRLS 589: Structure and workings of scholarly
communication and product in the U.S. Examines the content and technology of
scholarly communication in various disciplines. (Identical with COMM
589)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course studies the history, theory and practices
of scholarly communication, primarily in broad disciplinary cultures, such as
the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. However, other special areas
such as geographical information systems are also included. This is an
introductory course that both surveys the state of the art and techniques that
exist or are emerging in scholarly communication, and presents informetrics
research studies primarily in the sciences.
COURSE HISTORY
Browse through the syllabi of this course as taught here,
at SIRLS, in the past to gain a preliminary understanding of this area of study;
in Spring 1999 (Instructor:
Prof. Gelfand), Spring 1998
(Instructor: Prof. Seavey), Summer 1998 (Instructor: Prof.
Gelfand), Spring
1996 (Instructor: Prof. Veaner). Compare these with a similar course titled
Scholarly
Communication and Bibliometrics taught at UCLA by Prof. Furner. I taught
this course in Spring
2003.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The main goal of the course is to become familiar
with the scholarly communication processes in academic disciplines. The primary
method used to gain such an understanding and knowledge is through a case study
of Eugene Garfield ,
founder of ISI and
products that use both conventional abstracting and
indexing and citation indexing . By
the end of the course, the student will demonstrate:
An understanding of
the scholarly communication cycle
Knowledge about the trends in
scholarly information
Familiarity with the technologies that underlie or
are used for scholarly communication
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Requirements and specific
assignments/activities include:
- Assignment 1: Discussion of readings
- Assignment 2: Citation Study (mid-term report)
- Assignment 3: Citation Study/Paper (final report)
Details will be given
within WebCT Assignments.
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
The classroom environment for this virtual course
is WebCT . Here are guidelines to help
schedule learning:
Do not expect to do too much within WebCT until after
Feb. 1. Complete readings, familiarize yourself with the course syllabus, read the hyperlinks cited, etc.
Complete weekly readings by the end of the day they are scheduled and discuss in the WebCT Discussions (forums).
Adhere to the UA codes of student conduct and academic integrity.
If this is your first semester in SIRLS or your first WebCT course, read my Advising FAQ and related documents such as Preparing
for SIRLS Online Courses sections.
Make sure you have VPN software installed as you will need this for access to the library databases.
I generally try to post my lecture notes and discussion post responses on Fridays and Mondays.
You may want to try and schedule a regular time for learning too (this includes, reading, discussing, reflecting, and doing).
There is no synchronous communication during this course (we don't come together at a single point in time every week). Be prepared to deal with some frustrations and information overload.
The major project for this course, is a Citation study and Assignments link and discussions in WebCT will carry full details. As part of this study you will be introduced to about four major bibliographic databases.
Read, reflect, experiment and share. I expect you to ask questions nased on text; I don't push out lectures of the text all the time though I will do as needed, once in a while. The Discussion Forums will be set up to facilitate discussions for Assignment 1.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
IMPORTANT: The required text
by Cronin & Atkins is referred to as Festschrift.
Module 1:
Historical Perspectives
Week 1, Jan. 23 - Introduction to
Scholarly Communication
- What is a Festschrift? URL:
http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crs/Bib0590.htm
- Where in the MARC Bibliographic Record is a Festschrift indicated? URL: http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/ecbd008s.html#mrcb008
- Examples of Festschrifts: URL: http://www.acsh.org/press/releases/festschrift022399.html
and http://www.uni-protokolle.de/buecher/isbn/3540418822/
and http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~tkpw/hk-ies/n23b/
- Festscrift, Introduction, The Scholar's Spoor
- Festschrift, Chapter 1: Eugene Garfield: History, Scientific Information
and Chemical Endeavor.
Week 2, Jan. 30 - Hands-On with
Databases and Indexes
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 2: How the Science Citation Index Got
Started
Week 3, Feb. 6 - Scholarly Traditions
- Fjallbrant, Nancy. Scholarly Communication: Historical Development and New
Possibilities. URL: http://www.iatul.org/conference/proceedings/vol07/papers/full/nfpaper.html
- ARL. Framing the Issue: Open Access. URL: http://www.arl.org/scomm/open_access/framing.html
- Festschrift, Chapter 3: Garfield as Alchemist
- Festschrift, Chapter 4: Assessing the Value of a Database Company
Module 2: The Scientific Literature
Week 4, Feb. 13 -
Growth of Knowledge
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 5: Growth of Journal Literature: A Historical
Perspective
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 6: The Role of Journals in Growth of Scientific
Knowledge
Week 5, Feb. 20 - Bibliometrics
- Read Festschrift Chapter 7: Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics
Revisited
Week 6, Feb. 27 - Publication Patterns and Citation
Connections
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 8: Publication Velocity, Publication Growth and
Impact Factor: An Emprirical Model
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 9: Visualizing Citation Connections
Module 3: International Issues
Week 7, Mar. 5
- Collaboration
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 10: Collaboration Networks in Science
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 11: International Collaboration in Science: The
Case of India and China
Week 8, Mar. 12 - Publication Indicators
and Database Coverage
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 12: Publication Indicators in Latin America
Revisited
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 13: How Balanced is the Science Citation Index's
Journal Coverage?
Week 9, Mar. 19 - Spring Break!
Happy Spring
Break!
Module 4: Evaluative Bibliometrics
Week 10, Mar. 26
- Citation Analysis
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 14: A Short History of the Use of Citations as a
Measure of the Impact of Scientific and Scholarly Work
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 15: The Pandora's Box of Citation Analysis:
Measuring Scientific Excellence- The Last Evil?
Week 11, April
2- Scientometrics
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 16: The Complementarity of Scientometrics and
Economics
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 17: The Development of Science Indicators in the
United States
Week 12, April 9 - Patents
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 21: Do Patent Citations Count?
Module 5: Social Network Analysis
Week 13, April 16 -
Sociology of Science
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 22: On the Garfield Input to the Sociology of
Science: A Retrospective Collage
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 23: Charting Pathways Through Science: Exploring
Garfield's Vision of a Unified Index to Science
Week 14, April 23 -
Visualization (Citation Maps, Nodes, Graphs, & Networks)
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 24: Toward Ego-Centered Citation Analysis
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 25: Graphing Micro-Regions in the Web of
Knowledge
- Read Festschrift, Chapter 26: The Citation Network as a Prototype for
Representing Trust in the Virtual Environment
Week 15, April 30 -
Trends and New Technologies
Discussion of Eprints , Creative Commons , Collaboratories , Webmetrics , E-metrics
Read as
assigned/appropriate from the Scholarly Electronic Publishing
Weblog
MILESTONES/IMPORTANT DATES
May 7 - Final papers due
Due Dates for
mid-term will be determined shortly.
EVALUATION
- All work must be turned in on the dates due by 5:00 pm Arizona time
(unless other times are allowed by the WebCT submission facility). WebCT will
NOT allow submissions past the DUE Date/Time if I have set it up to be so.
Therefore, read your Assignments page and instructions carefully. Availability
times are very clearly marked under the Assignments link in WebCT and in case
of doubt, email the GAT for the course.
- All work must be turned in using the submit/email facility within WebCT.
- HTML format must be used for all work turned in for grading.
Grade Breakdown:
Assignment 1: 30%
Assignment 2:
30%
Assignment 3: 40%
Total: 100%
Grade Assignment:
All work must be done and turned in on time to get a passing grade in
this course. Course grades will be assigned as follows:
A=90+ (Superior
work)
B=80-89 (Very Good)
C=70-79 (Marginally satisfactory)
F=0-69
(Failed)
WebCT will contain the
final, definitive syllabus and record of all work to be done for this
course.
Created By: Anita S. Coleman