Publications, Volume 12, Issue 2 (June 2024) – 3 articles

This paper measures two main inefficiency features (many publications other than articles; many co-authors’ reciprocal citations) and two main inequity features (more co-authors in some disciplines; more citations for authors with more experience). It constructs a representative dataset based on a cross-disciplinary balanced sample (10,000 authors with at least one publication indexed in Scopus from 2006 to 2015). It estimates to what extent four additional improvements of the H-index as top-down regulations (∆H_h = H_h − H_h+1 from H₁ = based on publications to H₅ = net per-capita per-year based on articles) account for inefficiency and inequity across twenty-five disciplines and four subjects. Linear regressions and ANOVA results show that the single improvements of the H-index considerably and decreasingly explain the inefficiency and inequity features but make these vaguely comparable across disciplines and subjects, while the overall improvement of the H-index (H₁–H₅) marginally explains these features but make disciplines and subjects clearly comparable, to a greater extent across subjects than disciplines. Fitting a Gamma distribution to H₅ for each discipline and subject by maximum likelihood shows that the estimated probability densities and the percentages of authors characterised by H₅ ≥ 1 to H₅ ≥ 3 are different across disciplines but similar across subjects. Full article

Recent developments in generative artificial intelligence tools have prompted immediate reactions in the academic library community. While most studies focus on the potential impact on academic integrity, this work explored constructive applications of ChatGPT in the design of instructional materials for courses in academic information literacy. The starting point was the use of openly licenced information resources or content infrastructure as facilitators in the creation of educational materials. In the first phase, course teaching material was developed using a prompt engineering strategy, predefined standards, and a prompt script. As a second step, we experimented with designing a custom chatbot model connected to a pre-defined corpus of source documents. The results demonstrated that the final teaching material required careful revision and optimisation before use in an actual instructional programme. The experimental design of the custom chatbot was able to query specific user-defined documents. Taken together, these findings suggest that the strategic and well-planned use of ChatGPT technology in content creation can have substantial benefits in terms of time and cost efficiency. In the context of information literacy, the results provide a practical and innovative solution to integrate the new technology tool into instructional practices. Full article

Journals that have consistently maintained uninterrupted indexing over an extended period can be assumed to possess stability and sustainability in journal indexing. Building on this assumption, the objective of this study is to scrutinize the years omitted in the indexing of Scopus-indexed journals. To conduct this study, three coverage duration indicators—nyears-covered (total years covered), nyears-skipped (years skipped), and skipped/covered ratio (proportion of years skipped to total years covered)—were formulated. Data from SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) for 2022, consisting of 16,762 records (62% of downloaded data) with a coverage duration of 25 years or less, were used for this study. The results revealed that around 10% of Scopus-indexed journals experienced exclusions or coverage gaps. Longer coverage correlates positively with documents published, h-index, and citations, while skipped years decrease with these indicators. Open access (OA) journals exhibited a lower skipped/covered ratio than non-OA journals, suggesting a better sustainability of indexing than non-OA journals. Disciplinary differences in Scopus journal coverage duration revealed notable variation, suggesting that coverage duration indicators can be effectively used to evaluate journal stability within Scopus. Overall, the coverage gaps reflect Scopus’s efforts to regulate the journals it indexes. The coverage duration indicators proposed in this study can be applied to assess the stability of periodicals in any database, providing insights into the broader dynamics and quality standards maintained by a database, where the database periodically adds and removes its indexed contents. Full article