This investigation forms part of the author's doctoral research project and was intended as a preliminary and exploratory gauging of the area in order to establish the potential for further investigation of OA (publishing) as a peripheral practice. / The regional distribution of Open Access (OA) journals in the ISI citation databases differs significantly from the overall distribution of journals, namely in favour of peripheral areas and regions constituted predominantly of poorer countries. According to McVeigh (2004) in the ISI citation databases as a whole, North America and Western Europe account for 90% of the titles indexed, yet they account for only 40% of OA journals. Less than 2% of European and North American journals employ the OA model, yet 15% of those from the Asia-Pacific region and 40% from Central and South America are OA. This leads the author to conclude that "[for] many journals, providing free content online expands their access to an international readership" (McVeigh 2004, p.4). Departing from this assumption the study at hand addresses the following questions: Is the geographic distribution of OA journals in general more favourable towards peripheral publishing countries? How does it differ from the distribution of scholarly journals in general? Which proportions of scholarly journals and of scholarly online journals are OA in different regions and in groups of economically similar countries?* For this purpose, publishing data for active scholarly/academic journals from Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) were gathered and analysed using descriptive statistical techniques. The data was gathered in May 2005. The results indicate interesting differences between the geographic distribution of scholarly journals in general and the subgroup of OA journals. To illustrate, among the top 25 publishing countries for all journals, 7 do not belong to the group of high income countries*, and only 6 in the case of scholarly online journals. Yet for OA journals this number increases to 11, with Brazil taking the 3rd and India the 5th spot. According to the DOAJ almost a fifth (18%) of OA journals in the Health Sciences and over a quarter (26%) of Biology and Life Science OA journals are published in the Latin American and Caribbean region. While the group of high income countries publishes 6% of its online journals as OA, 32% of those from upper middle income countries, 10% of those from lower middle income countries, and 34% of online journals emanating from low income countries are OA. Correspondingly, 5% of online journals published in Western Europe* and 6% of those from Canada and the USA are OA, yet 51% of online journals published in Latin America and the Caribbean are. (South Asia: 7%, Africa/Middle East: 8%, Eastern Europe/Central Asia: 15% East Asia/Pacific: 15%) This also has to be seen in the light of the fact that the USA, Canada, and the countries of Western Europe together account for 80% of all registered academic online journals, while their share of OA journals amounts to 59%. Due to the fast changing nature of the subject the results are meant to provide a snapshot as well as to be indicative and exploratory, and also to invite different interpretations. Yet at the same time they are also intended to instigate debate about the role OA is attributed and its significance as a peripheral practice. Notes: * see World Bank Classification of Economies. http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/countryclass.html ** for the purpose of this study â Western Europeâ means pre-enlargement European Union, plus Switzerland, Iceland, and Norway.

The information on this page will help you to understand the basic concepts involved in searching for documents on GPO Access. It contains general instructions, covering topics such as how to construct a query and how to interpret a results list. For specific instructions on how to use a particular database, as well as sample searches, please consult the Search Tips for that database. Search Tips are available from the main search page for each database and from the GPO Access Databases page.

This presentation is an envrionmental scan of the search engine industry and commercial information service providers. It aims at providing an alternative perspective in answering the question of where libraries should go next in the new digital age. This presentation is part of a panel discussion for the Digital Library and Information Systems Team of the University of Arizona Libraries.

This is a data collection form

In our days every part of business goes on-line. Using old methods of information gathering means that your business might be left behind or maybe even be at risk of extinction. Information gathering in publishing business is a critical task. Information and media gathering and storing is a task of highest importance. Computerizing this task means that you can have more data in less time. Data must be gathered anytime, anywhere. To accomplish this critical goal online data management systems are created. Every data management system must have data gathering system connected to it. In this paper document gathering system conception, problems and realization methods are analyzed. Document uploading system is an "entry point" for data management systems. Document gathering system lets us accomplish document uploading, storing and management tasks. Such system consists of three parts. Document or media uploading task.

This study examined the prevalence of information epidemics in the physics literature. The primary interest was to find out whether outliers observed on time series charts of literatures are due to information epidemics, whether these epidemics are widespread occurrences in physics, whether literatures showing such rapid growth arise mainly due to the influence of an important work and, if so, what characterizes these literatures. Information epidemics were defined as spurts of growth in the literature of a field that reflect a sudden excitement and increase in activity. It was hypothesized that information epidemics are common occurrences in the growth of the physics literature and that outliers observed during the growth of a field are caused by influential works that attract new workers into it and cause them to publish extensively. Growth spurts where information epidemics lead to a permanent change and the emergence of a new subspecialty are termed knowledge epidemics. / The monthly number of abstracts indexed by each chapter of Physics Abstracts between 1977 and 1987 was plotted on a time series chart and an envelope of +/-3 standard deviations was fitted around the regression line. All spikes that crossed the envelope were considered to be outliers and thus potential information epidemics. The abstracts contained in each outlier were identified in the Science Citation Index and analyzed for spread (corporate sources of authors) and impact (citations). / Results show that information epidemics exist, but they are not widespread. Only four information epidemics were identified in the data. They are in chapters 2 (mathematical methods), 36 (clusters), 73 (heterostructures) and 74 (superconductivity). Only the growth in superconductivity can be considered to be a knowledge epidemic. All four arose due to new instrumentation and/or cheaper materials and are examples of puzzle-generating and enabling science. A second major result was that information epidemics are caused by as well as carried forward by groups of influential works. Third, increased activity in a given field is accompanied by an increase in conference papers. On the other hand, the journal literature of a given field is sufficient to represent the direction of literature, growth accurately. / This work confirms and extends the epidemic model for the growth of literatures by demonstrating that not only does the contagion effect exist in physics but that there is also a catalyst effect present. It provides a statistical description for the growth and decline of fields of research.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 26, 2008) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Göttingen, 2006. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. [145]-155).