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1 – 10 of over 93000This article investigates the links between universities’ opportunities to shape their research profiles, the changing state interest concerning these profiles, and the impact of…
Abstract
This article investigates the links between universities’ opportunities to shape their research profiles, the changing state interest concerning these profiles, and the impact of profile building on research at university and field levels. While the authority of the Dutch state over research profiles of Dutch universities has increased, university management has considerable operational authority over the inclusion of new research fields and removal of existing research fields. Since all universities have begun to follow the same external signals prescribing applied research, research that has easy access to external funding, and research in fields prioritised by the state, a ‘quasi-market failure’ may emerge, as is demonstrated for evolutionary developmental biology and Bose-Einstein condensation.
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Iris Brun Galili and Mette Skov
This article provides insight into researchers' use of academic web profiles and an understanding of how the influencing factors highlighted in the literature interact with each…
Abstract
Purpose
This article provides insight into researchers' use of academic web profiles and an understanding of how the influencing factors highlighted in the literature interact with each other, affecting researchers' motivation to use web profiles.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on motivation theory and literature related to the use of online profile platforms and academic web profiles, the authors present a conceptual framework for motivation factors influencing researchers' use of academic web profiles. The authors use qualitative interviews with researchers to explore and enrich the conceptual framework.
Findings
The conceptual framework of researchers' motivation space shows the relationships and influences between internal and external motivation in connection to three main categories (Identity and professional goals, Organisation and guidelines, Platforms and technology) and 12 more specific aspects of motivation that all play a role in choices regarding academic online profiles and platforms. Personality also plays an important role in itself – and not always in support of professional goals or workplace guidelines.
Originality/value
The study shows that a holistic perspective is necessary to understand the high degree of complexity in terms of researchers' motivation to use academic online profiles, and the presented conceptual framework can be used to understand and activate motivation factors.
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Muhammad Yousuf Ali, Malcolm Wolski and Joanna Richardson
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to help improve a higher education institution’s research profile by using existing resources and existing research outputs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to help improve a higher education institution’s research profile by using existing resources and existing research outputs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was based on quantitative data extracted manually from QS University Rankings-Asia 2016, the 2015 Ranking of Pakistani higher education institutions (HEI) and ResearchGate (RG). Resultant data were loaded into Excel and analyzed in SPSS version 21.
Findings
The results of this study indicate that, while there is no direct correlation between an institution’s national/international ranking and its respective RG score, there is a tendency for lower-ranked institutions to have a lower RG score.
Research limitations/implications
This study was limited to data extracted from RG; however, it would be useful to apply the same methodology to other relevant academic scholarly network sites (ASNS).
Practical implications
This paper has suggested strategies which may be of relevance to those institutions in other countries which are aspiring to lift their national ranking through improved research profiles. Libraries are important contributors to the support of institutional research goals.
Originality/value
There have been no previous published research studies on either the potential for ASNS to contribute to enhancing research outcomes for Pakistani HEI or the role that libraries could play in supporting these outcomes.
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This paper aims to focus on how corporate and regional identity and image build a framework for stakeholder dialogue in higher education institutions.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on how corporate and regional identity and image build a framework for stakeholder dialogue in higher education institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on literature related to corporate identity and image. The approach is qualitative and the data consist of strategic documents and 23 focused interviews conducted with university and stakeholder representatives in three Finnish cities.
Findings
The paper outlines how corporate and regional identities are perceived by university managers and universities' local stakeholders. It claims that the identity and image of the university and the region concerned are among the central determinants of stakeholder interaction.
Practical implications
The paper shows that identity and image are central phenomena to manage communication in higher education institutions. It emphasises that when merging institutions, valuable assets such as the history with local stakeholders may be at risk.
Originality/value
There is information on how university identity and image are formed through research merits and education, but very little knowledge on how they are formed through the so‐called third strand, regional service. The paper sheds light on this question.
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Liubov Vetoshkina, Laura Lamberg, Essi Ryymin, Heta Rintala and Sami Paavola
This study analyses development of research-related innovation activities in a University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland. Focus on production of innovations in relation to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study analyses development of research-related innovation activities in a University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland. Focus on production of innovations in relation to academization challenges the traditions of applied research in UAS, which has always relied on collaboration with local stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the approach of cultural-historical activity theory, the study conceptualizes development of innovation activities as a movement across multiple intertwined developmental lines. The authors ground these conceptualizations in the data, coming from interviews with key researchers in a multidisciplinary research project on smart bioeconomy at a Finnish UAS.
Findings
Development of research-related innovation activities in the UAS happened along six lines: development of researcher's expertise, development of project, development of organization, development of research, development of field and development of funding models and policies. The developmental tensions between the lines were essential for promotion of innovation activities.
Originality/value
The study reveals the complex multilayered nature of research-related innovation activities in the specific context of UAS, where it creates challenges and opportunities for developing the traditions of applied research. The results encourage UAS to critically evaluate their changing role as research institutions in regional, national and international innovation systems.
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Manika Lamba, Neha Kashyap and Madhusudhan Margam
Social interaction applications and reference tools are actively used by researchers to share and manage their research publications. Thus, this paper aims to determine the…
Abstract
Purpose
Social interaction applications and reference tools are actively used by researchers to share and manage their research publications. Thus, this paper aims to determine the scholarly impact of selected Indian central universities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzed 669 articles having both Dimensions citations and Altmetric attention scores published by 35 Indian central universities for 4 subfields of Computer Science using Altmetric Explorer. This paper determined each university’s contribution in the studied subfields of Computer Science and the correlation among Altmetric attention score (aggregated and individual), Dimensions citation, and Mendeley readership counts for all 669 articles and stratified percentile sets of top 25%, and top 50% of the overall number of articles.
Findings
The findings showed that Jawaharlal Nehru University had the maximum Altmetric attention score, Banaras Hindu University received the maximum Dimensions citation, and University of Hyderabad (UoH) received the maximum number of Mendeley readers. Each central university was examined individually and then ranked based on their median values of Dimensions citations and Altmetric attention scores. Further, Twitter had the maximum Altmetric coverage, followed by Google+, Patent and Facebook for the retrieved articles. A significant strong positive correlation was observed between the Dimensions citation and Mendeley readership counts for all the three categories.
Research limitations/implications
Both Altmetric attention scores and Dimensions citations can help funding agencies to assess and evaluate the research productivity of these universities, thus, making important decisions such as increasing, decreasing, re-distributing their funds.
Originality/value
The current body of research is focused mostly on relationships between citations and individual Altmetric indicators predominantly. For most of the studies, the citations were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science or Google Scholar database. It was observed that by far, no study had examined the relationship between citations retrieved from Dimensions database, Altmetrics scores (both aggregated and individual) and Mendeley readership counts.
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Richard Whitley and Jochen Gläser
Recent reforms to higher education systems in many OECD countries have focused on making universities more effective organisations in competing for resources and reputations. This…
Abstract
Recent reforms to higher education systems in many OECD countries have focused on making universities more effective organisations in competing for resources and reputations. This has often involved increasing their internal cohesion and external autonomy from the state to make them more similar to private companies. However, pre-reform universities differed so greatly in their governance and capabilities that the impact of institutional changes has varied considerably between three ideal types: Hollow, State-chartered, and Autarkic. Furthermore, the combination of: (a) the inherent uncertainty of scientific research undertaken for publication, (b) limited managerial control over work processes and reputations, and (c) the contradictory effects of some funding and governance changes has greatly restricted the ability of universities to function as authoritatively integrated organisations capable of developing distinctive competitive competences.
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Anna-Lena Rose, Jay Dee and Liudvika Leisyte
While projects can generate highly relevant knowledge to inform operations and improve performance, organizations face the difficulty of retaining knowledge once a project ceases…
Abstract
Purpose
While projects can generate highly relevant knowledge to inform operations and improve performance, organizations face the difficulty of retaining knowledge once a project ceases to exist. This study aims to examine how project work can lead to organizational learning and, in particular, how knowledge transfer and social learning practices shape project-to-organization learning in a setting where projects complement a traditional functional form of organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study examined a project for inclusive teacher training at a German university. Data were collected and analyzed following an ethnographic approach, including participatory observation, a focus group discussion and 14 interviews with project participants.
Findings
The findings support the idea that much of the learning that occurs within projects is tacit. In this study, tacit knowledge from the project was shared with the organization through social learning practices. These social learning practices had a larger impact on project-to-organization learning than knowledge transfer practices such as codification. Additionally, the findings suggest that when knowledge transfer and social learning practices are in conflict, project-to-organization learning will likely suffer.
Originality/value
This study contributes to existing literature by examining the relative importance of technical and social dimensions of project-to-organization learning and by focusing on universities as an example of organizations where projects operate alongside a traditional functional form. Practical implications suggest that to facilitate project-to-organization learning, universities may need to enact a combination of new practices, some designed to codify and transfer knowledge and others created to generate new interpretations and build common knowledge across organizational boundaries.
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Dong Phong Nguyen, Margaret Vickers, Thi Minh Chau Ly and Mai Dong Tran
The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of the key drivers, and challenges, of the internationalization of Higher Education (HE), especially in the transitioning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of the key drivers, and challenges, of the internationalization of Higher Education (HE), especially in the transitioning economy of Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory qualitative research design used semi-structured interviews. Nine senior institutional leaders from five Vietnamese universities were interviewed. Thematic analysis, informed by the literature, was undertaken on English-translated transcripts.
Findings
The findings shared senior HE leader perspectives on how internationalization of HE in Vietnam was being conceptualized and operationalized, as well as insights as to how these processes might be improved. Further research to monitor the success of internationalization processes in Vietnam, and beyond, is recommended.
Research limitations/implications
This was an exploratory qualitative study including nine interviews with senior HE leaders from Vietnamese Universities. Exploratory findings only are shared.
Originality/value
No previous studies exploring internationalization of HE in Vietnam have been located. Vietnam is a nation in economic transition from a state-based to market-driven economy, and is different culturally, economically and socially, to its Asian neighbors. Internationalizing HE is considered essential to the global integration and development of Vietnam.
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The purpose of this paper is to explain why and how the University of South Australia Library changed its academic outreach model. It discusses the transition from the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain why and how the University of South Australia Library changed its academic outreach model. It discusses the transition from the role of specialist liaison librarian to a team approach to provide support for teaching, learning and research.
Design/methodology/approach
Examines the strategies used to build collaborative relationships with the university community and observes how these relationships have influenced the development of the role of the academic library services teams.
Findings
Concludes that university libraries need to adapt to pedagogic transformations and changes in scholarly communication. Regular and frequent reviews of staffing requirements and the roles of professional librarians are necessary to ensure that the library meets the strategic priorities of the University and responds to the constantly evolving information and resource landscape.
Originality/value
Provides strategies for building productive partnerships between the library and the university community and gives examples of collaborative endeavours.
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