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The information needs of information carers: a framework to support a comprehensive understanding
No full text© 2010 Dr. Basil AlzougoolThere has been little research that fully explores the nature and aspects of information needs of informal carers or provides a complete account of these needs. A comprehensive understanding of these needs is important because it is the first step to meeting these needs effectively.
This research project set out to identify all the potential aspects of informal carers' information needs that could be used for investigating, understanding and classifying these needs comprehensively. Three main studies were undertaken. The project initially adopted a conceptual approach (study 1) to develop a framework for these aspects. Then this framework was tested, refined and validated using a qualitative approach (study 2), followed by a quantitative approach (study 3).
The conceptual study involved analysing critically the existing literature on the information needs of informal carers, as well as related literature on health informatics and information needs more generally. Following this analysis, a conceptual framework was developed that encompassed the potential aspects of informal carers' information needs. This framework divides these aspects into two broad types: (i) the information needs focus, which includes four foci (the persons needing care, the informal carers themselves, the interaction between informal carers and persons needing care, and the interaction between informal carers and other parties) and (ii) the information needs state, which includes four states (recognised-demanded, recognised-undemanded, unrecognised-demanded, and unrecognised-undemanded).
The qualitative study involved conducting two separate but related sub-studies (study 2A and study 2B) with nine informal carers of diabetic children as an example of a group of informal carers. Study 2A aimed to confirm or disconfirm the existence of the four foci of information needs of informal carers and to identify any additional foci. Study 2B aimed to confirm or disconfirm the existence of the four states of information needs of informal carers and to identify any additional states. It also aimed to develop items for the questionnaire that was used to measure the information needs state with a large sample of informal carers in the quantitative study.
The quantitative study employed a questionnaire with 198 informal carers (above 18 years old) of all kinds. It aimed to test the defined information needs states, to examine whether they were distinct from each other in the wider community of informal carers, and to examine whether they varied in terms of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of informal carers.
The existence of the two broad types of aspects of information needs of informal carers was confirmed empirically. This research also showed that informal carers may give priority to some foci over others at different stages during their caring journey, and the occurrence and frequency of the four states may vary among informal carers. Thus the validated framework worked well in portraying a comprehensive picture of the information needs of informal carers in this study.
These two different aspects of information needs of informal carers are in turn useful to researchers and practitioners. For researchers, these two aspects provide a new perspective from which to better investigate, understand and classify the information needs of informal carers and information needs in general. For practitioners, these two aspects assist in designing and providing information that may meet the needs of informal carers more effectively
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Electronic Commerce Technologies Adoption by SMEs: A Conceptual Study
Get PDFThe use of Electronic Commerce (EC) technologies enables Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) to improve their efficiency and competitive position. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive framework that gives a multi-faceted account for the phenomenon of EC technologies adoption by SMEs. This paper therefore develops a theoretical framework of EC technologies adoption which is composed of four dimensions: perceived organisational readiness (micro level), perceived industry readiness (meso level), perceived national readiness (macro level) and the perceived environmental pressure. The proposed framework is then used to develop a more specific research model to guide future study in exploring EC technologies adoption by SMEs. The proposed framework and research model will be empirically validated by administering a survey questionnaire among SMEs in a number of developing countries
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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