Nordic Research School in Library and Information Science

Informetrics

Presentations and pictures!

Purpose of the course:
Over the last decade or so, informetrics has become a ‘hot topic', not the least in terms of applying informetric indicators for the purpose of research evaluation (and to some extent also, the allocation of research funds). This, together with e.g. an increased effort from the university libraries to build institutional repositories to gather data on local publication activities, has made informetrics a sought-after competency in both the library and research policy sector. Furthermore, informetrics has been one of the main research perspectives in LIS during the last 30 years. The course will present various perspectives on informetrics as research practice, in terms of its application for research evaluation and for mapping research fields, as well as the relation between informetric analyses and theories on the social and intellectual organization of research fields.

In addition to this, doctoral research courses and workshops have proven to be excellent means for sharing the Nordic mentoring expertise and creating contacts between doctoral students and senior researchers. Thus, an important goal of the research course is to provide the doctoral students with a forum in which to present their research projects and to discuss informetric research issues with senior researchers and fellow students.

The research course will be based upon:
- lectures given by senior researchers, both
- introducing aspects of informetrics research
- presenting advanced informetric issues by examples from research
- presentations of research projects by the research students
- a panel discussion
There will be invited a number of Nordic and international senior researchers to give lectures on different aspects. The lecturers involved have recent experiences of informetric research. A required reading list will be sent to participants with the note of acceptance.

Content:
• General informetrics
• Research evaluation
• Visualization
• Webometrics
• Informetrics and IR
• Informetrics and Science studies
• Matrix generation and comparison
• Theoretically informed hypothesis testing on informetric network data

Main responsible person: PhD Fredrik Åström , Lund University Libraries
Local host : Professor Olle Persson , Umeå University

Lecturers (tentative):
Assoc. Professor Birger Larsen ( Copenhagen )
Assoc. Professor Lennart Björneborn ( Copenhagen )
Assoc. Professor Jesper W Schneider ( Aalborg )
Asst. Professor Rickard Danell (Umeå)
Dr Richard Klavans, SciTech Strategies, Inc., USA

Target audience:
The course is primarily intended for PhD students within the NORSLIS network. Provided there is room for more participants, the course will also be open for PhD students from adjacent fields or other LIS departments, as well as senior researchers from NORSLIS and other LIS departments. However, only NORSLIS doctoral students are eligible for NORSLIS travel and accommodation grants.

Reimbursement of travel and accomodation costs

Location:
Dept of Sociology, Umeå University, Sweden
www.umu.se/soc

Time:
June 15-19, 2008

Accommodation:
To be announced

Application deadline:
2008, April 1

Credits:
NORSLIS recommends 5 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) for our research courses.
Note: A 5 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) course normally corresponds to 5 weeks of study. In a typical NORSLIS course, teaching, seminars and discussions are concentrated to one intensive course meeting, normally for 5 days. This means that students need to work on the course both in advance of and after the course meeting. They are usually asked to study the suggested literature and to prepare a presentation in advance of the course. In order for the students to obtain all 5 ECTS they are supposed to write a conference-like paper 1-2 month later, to be send to the course management, evaluated, and to be accepted by the course management (with the course teachers as reviewers). If they do not do that or the submission is really unacceptable, we suggest that they can obtain a reduced number of ECTS. The main responsible person for the course should sign a certificate per participant stating that they actually participated and also give a recommendation about the number of ECTS that the student has achieved (see example here). Of course, it is up to the responsible persons of the local Ph.D. programme to finally decide how credits should be assigned.

How to apply:
Research students are required to submit a five-page abstract (approx. 2500 words) of their PhD research topic, including research questions and the methodical issues of the research project. The application should also include a brief CV. This information will be used for selection purposes (where NORSLIS PhD students will be prioritized). Please, send the application as word or PDF file by e-mail to Fredrik Åström.

For NorsLIS doctoral students: The application must contain the following information:
Name of workshop:
Last name:
First name:
Birth date:
Male/female:
E-mail address:
Estimated travel costs:
Name of supervisor:
Supervisor's e-mail address: