University of Arizona

School of Information Resources & Library Science

IRLS 589 - Scholarly Communication

Spring 2003 - Course Outline (draft)

Instructor: Anita Sundaram Coleman
Instructor Office Hours: By email
WebCT Technical Support: TBD
GAT: TBD
Mode of Instruction: Virtual via WebCT
First day of classes: 15 January, 2003; First day for IRLS 589: 17 January, 2003
For WebCT backup and announcements subscribe to IRLS589, Course Listserv: IRLS589

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 ;

Recommended Text: Libraries, The Internet, and Scholarship: Tools and Trends Converging. Charles Thomas, Editor. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2002. ISBN: 0-8247-0772-9. Cost: $99.75. URL: http://www.dekker.com/servlet/product/productid/0772-9

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.

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: Citation/Internet Exercise
Assignment 2: DLIST Exercise
Assignment 3: Scholarly Study/Paper

Details will be given within WebCT.

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, etc.

Complete weekly readings by the end of the day they are scheduled.

Adhere to the UA codes of student conduct and academic integrity.

Use the opportunity to work with plenty of practical tools. Discussions, exercise, and final papers will require you to select and use databases/indexes and initiatives such as DLIST . Get a head start by browsing, reading, and interacting with the resources assembled here, http://www.u.arizona.edu/~asc/isin.html

SCHEDULE OF READINGS

IMPORTANT: The required text by Cronin & Atkins is referred to as Festschrift. Readings from the recommended text are listed under Thomas.

Module 1: Historical Perspectives

Week 1, Jan. 17 - 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.
Thomas, Chapter 2: The Internet, Scholarly Communication, and Collaborative Research.

Week 3, Jan. 31 - Hands-On with Databases and Indexes

Read Festschrift, Chapter 2: How the Science Citation Index Got Started

Week 4, Feb. 7 - Scholarly Traditions

Fjallbrant, Nancy. Scholarly Communication: Historical Development and New Possibilities. URL: http://educate.lib.chalmers.se/IATUL/proceedcontents/fullpaper/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 5, Feb. 14 - 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 6, Feb. 21 - Bibliometrics

Read Festschrift Chapter 7: Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics Revisited

Week 7, Feb. 28 - 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 8, Mar. 7 - Collaboration

Read Festschrift, Chapter 10: Collaboration Networks in Science
Read Festschrift, Chapter 11: International Collaboration in Science: The Case of India and China

Week 9, Mar. 14 - 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 10, Mar. 21 - Spring Break!
Happy Spring Break!

Module 4: Evaluative Bibliometrics

Week 11, Mar. 28 - 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 12, April 4 - 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 13, April 11 - Patents

Read Festschrift, Chapter 21: Do Patent Citations Count?

Module 5: Social Network Analysis

Week 14, April 18 - 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 15, April 25 - 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 16, May 2 - Trends and New Technologies
Read Thomas, as appropriate/assigned.
Discussion of Eprints , Creative Commons , Collaboratories , Webmetrics , E-metrics
Read as assigned/appropriate from the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog

MILESTONES/IMPORTANT DATES

May 9 - Final papers due
Due Dates for other assignments will be given within WebCT.

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.

Coleman Home | Syllabus
Created By: Anita S. Coleman