Educational Impact and Open Access Journals

Educational Impact and Open Access Journals
Alireza Noruzi

Introduction
Scholars may find out that they (i.e., their papers, ideas, findings, methods, models or theories) have been invoked (i.e., cited, mentioned, or linked to) by others. Citations (links) are no longer found only in classical scholarly texts, nor are they directed only to scholarly texts: Scholars may be cited formally, or merely mentioned en passant in listservs and others electronic discussion fora, or they may find out that they have been included in reading lists or electronic syllabi (Cronin et al., 1998). The Web is both a publishing and a conversational medium. It engenders new modes of scholarly communication, interaction and signaling (Cronin et al., 1998).
Google and especially Google Scholar offer potentials for tracking scientific and technological progress traditionally excluded from bibliometric or scientometric studies, such as the use of scientific journals in teaching/presentations and by the general public (Björneborn, 2004). Google Scholar, as a citation tracking service and a bibliometric tool, can be used to locate citations from a variety of file types (e.g., PPT, DOC, PHP, HTML, PDF) that are not covered by the ISI Web of Science and traditional citation indexes (Noruzi, 2005).
Online course syllabi provide a convenient source of information about a journal use (Williams, Cody & Parnell, 2004). The number of faculty members who use the Web to post syllabi and other course materials is increasing. Therefore, editors and publishers of journals should use this golden opportunity to maximize journals visibility and educational impact. The educational impact of a journal depends not only on online accessibility (open access), but also on how widely it is used by educators.
The inclusion of an open access (OA) journal in recommended/required reading lists in the course syllabi is important for its visibility and of course for its impact factor. Moreover, the creation of hyperlinks to OA journals in web-based syllabi increases their link popularity. The syllabi can be used to determine how a journal is used and how much it is used.
While a few of the references to a journal are from papers, books, theses, web resources, etc., references from course syllabi might be considered differently. It is essential for an educator to cite a reference in a paper. But a listing on a course syllabus seems to indicate that the educator thinks the resource is worth being consulted by students. If a book or a journal is frequently cited or mentioned as reading text in the course syllabi, it serves the information needs of educators and students. Therefore, it seems interesting to know to what extent a journal has been included in reading lists or electronic syllabi and cited in PowerPoint presentations. For example, some of the papers published in Webology are included in the course syllabi for library and information science (LIS) schools. Some of these occurrences are on syllabi for LIS schools in the U.S. and Canada. We also found that Webology journal was cited 17 times in the PowerPoint presentations.

Conclusion
The online syllabi can reveal a better picture of how a journal is used and can present the educational impact of the journal. It is obvious that open access will improve the educational impact of journals. For example, Webology journal is very often mentioned in lists of journals and e-journals or in lists of links on topics covered by Webology, especially in the fields of library and information science and computer science. We found several online syllabi that listed the journal.

References

- Björneborn, Lennart (2004). Small-world link structures across an academic web space: A library and information science approach. PhD Thesis. Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark.

- Cronin, B., Snyder, H.W., Rosenbaum, H., Martinson, A., & Callahan, E. (1998). Invoked on the Web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(14): 1319–1328.

- Noruzi, A. (2005) Google Scholar: The new generation of citation indexes. LIBRI, 55(4), 170-180.

- Williams, L.M., Cody, S.A., & Parnell, J. (2004). Prospecting for new collaborations: mining syllabi for library service opportunities. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30 (4), 270-275.

Bibliographic information of this paper for citing:
Noruzi, A. (2007). "Editorial: Educational Impact and Open Access Journals." Webology, 4(4), editorial 14. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2007/v4n4/editorial14.html

Folksonomies: (Un)Controlled Vocabulary?

Abstract

Folksonomy, a free-form tagging, is a user-generated classification system of web contents that allows users to tag their favourite web resources with their chosen words or phrases selected from natural language. These tags (also called concepts, categories, factes or entities) can be used to classify web resources and to express users' preferences. Folksonomy-based systems allow users to classify web resources through tagging bookmarks, photos or other web resources and saving them to a public web site like Del.icio.us. Thus information about web resources and online articles can be shared in an easy way. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the folksonomy tagging phenomenon (also called social tagging and social bookmarking) and explore some of the reasons why we need controlled vocabularies, discussing the problems associated with folksonomy.

Alireza Noruzi (2006). Folksonomies: (Un)Controlled Vocabulary? Knowledge Organization, 33(4).

A Study of HTML Title Tag Creation Behavior of Academic Web Sites

Abstract

The HTML title tag information should identify and describe exactly what a web page contains. This paper analyzes the Title element and raises a significant question: "Why is the title tag important?" Search engines base search results and page rankings on certain criteria. Among the most important criteria is the presence of the search keywords in the title tag. This research concentrates on exploring the retrieval results of Google in retrieving web pages without the title tag. More than one million of academic web pages are found to be untitled, that is, they have not used the title tag.

Noruzi, Alireza (2007). A Study of HTML Title Tag Creation Behavior of Academic Web Sites. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33(4): 501-506.

Web Presence and Impact Factors for Middle-Eastern Countries

Abstract
This study investigates the Web presence and Web Impact Factor (WIF) for country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) of Middle-Eastern countries, and sub-level domains (SLDs) related to education and academic institutions in these countries. Counts of links to the web sites of Middle-Eastern countries were calculated from the output of Yahoo search engine. In this study, we compute the WIF at two levels: top-level domains, and sub-level domains.
The results show that the Middle-Eastern countries, apart from Turkey, Israel and Iran, have a low web presence. On the other hand, their web sites have a low inlink WIF. Specific features of sites may affect a country’s Web Impact Factor. For linguistic reasons, Middle-Eastern web sites (Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, and Hebrew languages) may not receive and attract the attention that they deserve from the World Wide Web community.

Keywords: Webometrics, Bibliometrics, Web Impact Factors (WIF), Link analysis, Middle-East, Asia, Universities
Noruzi, Alireza (2006). Web Presence and Impact Factors for Middle-Eastern Countries. Online, 30(2): 22-28. Available at: http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005738/

Webotherapy: Reading Web Resources for Problem Solving

Alireza Noruzi
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Background: The term 'webotherapy' has been coined to refer to a form of supportive psychotherapy in which carefully selected reading material (web resources, e-books, e-journals, poetry, and short stories) are used to assist an individual in solving personal problems or for other therapeutic purposes. Webotherapy is simply defined, here, as the use of selected web resources to help people solve personal problems or for psychiatric therapy.

Methods: Webotherapy, which can be conducted with individuals or groups, refers to the use of web resources or other online reading material (e.g., e-books, e-journals) to assist clients (especially children and young adults) in their healing process. It may be defined as the use of web resources to help others gain additional insight and to help them cope with everyday life. Most people have probably read web resources to determine how others have approached a delicate issue.

Discussion and Conclusion: This article suggests that webotherapy is a potentially powerful method for psychologists, librarians, school teachers and counselors to use on many levels. It begins with a brief review of the history of webotherapy; continues with a discussion of some approaches to webotherapy (developmental, clinical, and interactive); then addresses the four basic stages of webotherapy (identification, selection, presentation, and follow-up); and finally discusses benefits and limitations of webotherapy.

Keywords: Web-based therapy; Internet therapy; Online therapy; E-therapy; E-mail therapy; Webtherapy; Bibliotherapy; Counseling; Self-improvement

References

Noruzi, A. (2006). Editorial: Webotherapy and Beyond. Webology, 3(3), editorial 9. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n3/editorial9.html

Noruzi, A. (2007). Webotherapy: Reading Web Resources for Problem Solving. The Electronic Library, forthcoming.

Webotherapy and Its Widening Applications

I coined the term 'webotherapy', examining the concept and practice of 'webotherapy.' The papers describe the goals and aspects of webotherapy (the use of web resources to help clients cope with problems): what it is, its history, its processes, techniques in administering it, implementation precautions, and its limitations. The process of presenting web resources (e.g, e-books and e-journals) to psychological and medical patients who needed help understanding their problems is referred to as webotherapy. A webotherapeutic approach can be highly effective in helping clients better understand their problems (Noruzi, 2006,2007).
When I decided to applied bibliotherapy to the Web, I knew as much about bibliotherapy as a student. Note that to write these papers , I read more than 250 papers and book chapters. Interestingly, the more I investigated, the more I realized that I have, in fact, been practicing bibliotherapy and webotherapy for just about as long as I've been a librarian without being aware that I am using this technique.

References
Noruzi, A. (2006). Editorial: Webotherapy and Beyond. Webology, 3(3), editorial 9. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n3/editorial9.html
Noruzi, A. (2007). Webotherapy: Reading Web Resources for Problem Solving. The Electronic Library, forthcoming.

The Web Impact Factor: A Critical Review

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyze the link-based web site impact measure known as the web impact factor (WIF). It is a quantitative tool for evaluating and ranking web sites, top-level domains and sub-domains. The paper also aims to discuss the WIF's advantages and disadvantages, data collection problems, and validity and reliability of WIF results.
Design/methodology/approach – A key to webometric studies has been the use of large-scale search engines, such as Yahoo! and AltaVista that allow measurements to be made of the total number of pages in a web site and the total number of back-links to the web site. These search engines provide similar possibilities for the investigation of links between web sites/pages to those provided by the academic journals citation databases from the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI). But the content of the web is not of the same nature and quality as the databases maintained by the ISI.
Findings – This paper reviews how the WIF has been developed and applied. It has been suggested that web impact factors can be calculated as a way of comparing the attractiveness of web sites or domains on the web. It is concluded that, while the WIF is arguably useful for quantitative intra-country comparison, application beyond this (i.e. to inter-country assessment) has little value.
Originality/value – The paper offers a critical review of literature on the WIF and associated indicators.
Keywords Worldwide web, Measurement, Data collection, Search engines, Databases
Paper type Literature review

Noruzi, Alireza (2006). The Web Impact Factor: A Critical Review. The Electronic Library 24(4): 490-500.
Available at E-LIS: http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00005543/

Albert Einstein - Online Access

The Einstein Archives Online provides the first online access to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts held by the Albert Einstein Archives and to an extensive Archival Database, constituting the material record of one of the most influential intellects in the modern era.

Persian or Farsi? What Is the English Name of the Iranian Language

The Announcement of the Persian Academy:

The Language of the nation of Iran [Persia] in English is called "Persian" [or in other European languages: Persane, Persisch, Persa, Persiska, etc.] and is known worldwide as PERSIAN. Recently some Iranians [Persians] have been trying to use "Farsi" instead of Persian, the trend which has also been followed by some non-Iranians. This has occurred to the extent that it has raised the question "Which is the correct word, in English, for the language of Iran's people, Persian or Farsi?!..."This question was put to the official institution FARHANGESTAN (Persian Language and Literature Academy in Tehran) by the Commerce Department for Australia, at Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In their 34th meeting on 7th of December 1992, the Persian Academy unanimously passed the resolution that this language must be called PERSIAN and the reasons given were:
1- PERSIAN has been used in a variety of publications including cultural, scientific and diplomatic documents for centuries and, therefore, it connotes a very significant historical and cultural meaning. Hence, changing PERSIAN to FARSI is to negate this established important precedence.
2- Changing PERSIAN to FARSI may give the impression that it is a new language, and this may well be the intention of some Farsi users.
3- It may also give the impression that FARSI is a dialect of some parts of Iran and not the predominant (official) language of this country.
4- Fortunately, FARSI has never been used in any research paper or university document in any Western language and the proposal of its usage will create doubt and ambiguity about the name of the official language of our country.

The Persian text of the the Announcement of the Persian Academy