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The paper aims to report an investigation that was conducted to identify the scholarly publications by faculty members of the Allameh Tabataba’i University that were indexed in two international databases, Science Citation Index (SCI) and Scopus, from the year the databases first included Iranian-authored papers (1987 and 1989, respectively) through the end of 2015.

Scientometric methods and social network analysis techniques were used to conduct the study and to analyze the co-authorship network. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out on the data. Quantitative analysis was accomplished using Microsoft Excel, while the qualitative analysis was carried out using HistCite, VOSviewer and Pajek software.

Faculty members had the most international cooperation with colleagues from the USA and Switzerland, and they jointly authored papers with faculty and staff from other universities within Iran. The three institutions with the highest rate of co-authorship included the Islamic Azad University, Tehran University and Amir Kabir University of Technology.

The overall overlap among the two databases was about 21 per cent. The number of papers indexed by Scopus (583 records) was more than that by SCI (410 records). The total number of papers at an international level was much lower than that at the national level (6,426 records) in both the databases.

This paper provides insight into the scholarly works by the faculty of Allameh Tabataba’i University indexed in two international databases, SCI and Scopus. It also examines the co-authorship network structure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of scholarly electronic journals at the Indian Institute of Science.

The paper examines the methodology and results from a questionnaire‐based survey of networked electronic services in India at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) libraries, serving a variety of disciplines. A random sample of the main cohort was selected and, during five months from January 2004 until May 2004, 700 copies of the questionnaire were distributed among 40 departments of IISc; 397 completed and valid questionnaires (56.7 per cent) were received.

The results showed a growing interest in electronic journals among the users at IISc. Electronic journals were mostly used for research needs and PDF was the most preferred format. The fact that users have free access to electronic journals at all hours from their own computers seems to be the most appealing feature.

There are many factors that may affect the use of scholarly electronic journals. An attempt is made in this study to see how these resources are being used in a multi‐disciplinary institute in India. Limiting its focus to one institute, this paper provides useful empirical evidence for library staff and the research community.

The results of the study will be useful for library staff at IISc and similar institutes in India.

The paper provides original data from Indian end users regarding their use of scholarly electronic journals.

This paper aims to examine the reasons for the high costs of scholarly journals.

A brief review of the literature on journal publishing costs is carried out. The paper focuses on the economics of scholarly English language journals published mainly in the USA and Europe, but which are sold worldwide, largely to academic and research libraries.

Journal literature has long played a prominent role in the scholarly communication chain. In recent decades, however, the scholarly communication system has been facing a crisis due to the ever‐escalating costs of journals. Two of the features of the journal publishing industry cited a decade ago and still valid today are a lack of competition and perverse incentives. “First‐copy cost” is reported to be the main reason for high journal prices both in print and electronic publishing.

The paper provides a useful overview to researchers and document supply librarians, enabling them to achieve quickly a clear picture of journal publishing industry costs.

The purpose of this paper is to review consortia efforts in developing countries.

This paper reviews the literature on library consortia in developing countries in general and India in particular. The paper also outlines the advantages and disadvantages of consortia.

“Library consortia” refers to co‐operation, co‐ordination and collaboration between, and among, libraries for the purpose of sharing information resources. Libraries in developing countries have been working on consortia at national, regional and international level. However, some barriers such as poor technological and communication infrastructure, inadequate finances, culture and context, attitudes toward consortia and multiple efforts are reported to be limitations of consortia activities in developing countries.

The paper provides a useful overview of consortia in developing countries, particularly in India.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of total quality management (TQM) in the library and information sectors.

A review of the literature on TQM concepts was carried out. Focusing on TQM implementation in the library and information sectors, the experiences of libraries adopting this method are also reviewed.

TQM was initially applied as a management philosophy in the manufacturing sector. Following its enormous success, this philosophy is increasingly being applied in the service sector, including libraries.

The paper provides a useful overview of TQM implementation in the library and information sectors.

This paper seeks to review the archiving initiatives of scientific journals created and supported by various organizations or institutions.

A review of nine archiving initiatives including JSTOR, Portico, E‐Print Repositories, Open Access Model, LOCKSS, OCLC Digital Archive, JISC PubMed Central and KB e‐Depot was carried out. The paper focuses mainly on the initiatives by employing an analytical approach.

There is a wide range of archiving initiatives around the world, making it difficult for the author to carry out a comprehensive review. Nevertheless, limiting its focus to the nine existing initiatives, this paper provides a useful overview.

The paper provides a useful starting‐point to anyone who wants to know about the archiving for posterity of scientific electronic journals and enables people to quickly achieve an overview of the existing archiving initiatives to date.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the gender gap in computer and internet usage from all over the world. Design/methodology/approach – The paper addresses some issues on gender and information technology (IT) with focus on gender gap drawn from a review of the literature. It also applies Hofstede's model to justify the gender differences. Findings – Information and communication technology has brought many changes in society in many aspects, has shaped new scenarios and provided new challenges for human beings. Women, comprising over half of society, are not waived of these changes, although, there is a gender gap to access and use of IT among all nations without exception. More recent studies, particularly in developed countries, show gender differences more than gender gap. Originality/value – The paper provides insights into the current computer and especially internet usage by gender among different countries.

The purpose of this paper is to define different types of aggregators and discuss their importance for libraries in the digital era.

A review of literature on aggregators was carried out. The paper focuses mainly on the various aggregators and outlines their advantages and disadvantages for libraries.

Libraries have been working with publishers and aggregators for many years; however, the issues related to aggregators are not well documented. Aggregators have been helping libraries to facilitate their services to users but they have some disadvantages for libraries such as the lack of library influence in selecting individual titles; the lack of control over the contents of aggregator packages; and the confusion of library users when accessing different packages.

The paper provides a useful overview to researchers in any field, enabling them to achieve quickly a clear picture of aggregators in the electronic environment.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the challenges imposed on libraries by the presence of digital resources.

The paper reviews the main challenges and key issues of digital archiving from the point of view of librarians.

Information technology and the presence of the web are challenging the role of librarians in preserving library materials for future generations. Preserving digital resources is not going to be the same as preserving traditional resources and is absolutely a new responsibility for digital librarians. They are facing many new issues and concerns in digital preservation. These issues can be divided into three areas: technical issues, organisational issues and legal issues.

The paper provides insights into the current issues and challenges in digital archiving.