Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore webometric analysis of keywords and expressions of the biochemistry field of study via LexiURL Searcher.

Interfaces for assisting users with information access have received considerable attention. Along with the extraction of data on Web sites for webometric purposes (e.g. link analysis, ranking of Web sites, etc.), LexiURL Searcher presents some information on the arrangement of links among different Web sites. Such capability enables users to identify one or more Web sites around their intended subject and, accordingly, explore all Web sites linked with their identified Web site(s). LexiURL Searcher has preceded webometric analysis by considering the main expressions and keywords derived from the MeSH database.

The worldwide survey indicated that links from countries such as England, Japan, Germany, Australia and Canada were among the Web sites that are most used in biochemistry. Alternatively, other countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Poland had the most advantageous links to the outside world, whereas South Africa, New Zealand and The Netherlands had the least link effect. Biochemistry, being a specialized domain, would benefit greatly from site linking and would provide users the most assistance in information processing.

Most webometric studies remain on the level of link analysis and Web site statuses; however, this paper gives information on the common thread Web sites based on a standard thesaurus.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of LexiURL as a Web intelligence tool for collecting and analysing links to digital libraries, focusing specifically on the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH).

The Web intelligence techniques in this study are a combination of link analysis (web structure mining), web server log file analysis (web usage mining), and text analysis (web content mining), utilizing the power of commercial search engines and drawing upon the information science fields of bibliometrics and webometrics. LexiURL is a computer program designed to calculate summary statistics for lists of links or URLs. Its output is a series of standard reports, for example listing and counting all of the different domain names in the data.

Link data, when analysed together with user transaction log files (i.e. Web referring domains) can provide insights into who is using a digital library and when, and who could be using the digital library if they are “surfing” a particular part of the Web; in this case any site that is linked to or colinked with the NeLH. This study found that the NeLH was embedded in a multifaceted Web context, including many governmental, educational, commercial and organisational sites, with the most interesting being sites from the.edu domain, representing American Universities. Not many links directed to the NeLH were followed on September 25, 2005 (the date of the log file analysis and link extraction analysis), which means that users who access the digital library have been arriving at the site via only a few select links, bookmarks and search engine searches, or non‐electronic sources.

A number of studies concerning digital library users have been carried out using log file analysis as a research tool. Log files focus on real‐time user transactions; while LexiURL can be used to extract links and colinks associated with a digital library's growing Web network. This Web network is not recognized often enough, and can be a useful indication of where potential users are surfing, even if they have not yet specifically visited the NeLH site.

The purpose of this research is to present a report on Nigerian universities' use of their web sites for collaboration.

Descriptive research methodology and content analysis technique were adopted in the research. The research was undertaken through an examination of the various university web site contents and web link structures. The study relied on the Google search engine as the source of its electronic data, while manual evaluation was used to carry out content analysis. Only Nigerian universities with 500 or more web pages were considered; 15 of the 92 universities met this criterion and were subsequently sampled.

The research revealed that Nigerian universities' web sites did not contain appropriate contents. Both non‐academic and academic contents expected to be found in university web sites were not available and, hence, made the expected inter‐university web links, electronic social networking and cooperation non‐existent. Consequently, only commercially‐based web sites had web link with the sampled web sites. The findings show that the required structure needed to support web collaboration among Nigerian universities has not been developed. Hence, further research to understand the existing structure required for electronic collaboration among Nigerian universities is needed.

Since the study was limited to only those university web sites that had 500 or more web pages, this meant that universities with fewer than 500 web pages, which nevertheless may have traces of social network and cooperation in their link structures, were automatically excluded.

The research provides information on the readiness of Nigerian universities to adopt web site technology for collaboration and solving the problem of resource sharing that they currently face. It has also laid the foundation for understanding Nigerian universities' web site use in relationship with three social capital dimensions: structural, contents, and relational.

The research provides web analysis information on Nigerian universities. Past experience has shown that research available on web analysis and characteristics of Nigerian universities is very limited and that none has been carried out on their web site use for e‐collaboration.

The paper investigates the problems of using commercial search engines for web‐link research and attempts to clarify the nature of the problems involved in the use of these engines. The research finds that search engines are highly variable in the results they produce, are limited in the search functions they offer, have poorly and/or incorrectly documented functions, use search logics that are opaque, and change the search functions they offer over time. The limitations which are inherent in commercial search engines should cause researchers to have reservations about any conclusions that rely on these tools as primary data‐gathering instruments. The short‐comings are market‐driven rather than inherent properties of the web or of web‐searching technologies. Improved functionalities are within the technical capabilities of search engine programmers and could be made available to the research community. The findings also offer mild support for the validity of the connection between web links and citations as analogues of intellectual linkage.

This web mining paper aims at analyzing whether the number of links pointing to a web page is biased by the structure of web sites.

By web‐design mining methods, two collections of web pages are extracted and the in‐links counts are determined by querying web search engines.

The paper finds that the structure bias and pages on a higher hierarchical level are likely to receive more links than other pages.

The links are set by web page authors whose behaviour is not yet fully understood and which requires further research.

The paper shows that the structure bias of in‐links should be considered by link analysis measures used in search engines. Potential consequences are presented.

The number of links toward a web page are considered to be an indicator for the quality of that page. This measure is biased and cannot be solely trusted as a knowledge source for the quality of a page.

The paper seeks to extend co‐link analysis to web sites of heterogeneous companies belonging to different industries and countries, and to cluster companies by industries and compare results from different countries.

Web sites of 255 companies that belong to five stock exchange indexes were included in the study. Data on co‐links pointing to these web sites were gathered using Yahoo!. Co‐link data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to generate MDS maps that would position companies based on their co‐link counts.

Comparisons of results across different countries and economies showed the following overall pattern: companies whose businesses are information‐based tend to form well‐defined clusters, while companies operating on a more traditional business model tend not to form clear groups. A comparison between the EU zone and the USA suggests that the EU economy is not well integrated yet.

The findings from the study suggest the possibility of using co‐link analysis to distinguish information‐based industries from traditional industries.

The paper extends co‐link analysis from a single industry to heterogeneous industries with global and complex business phenomena.

This article aims to display the structure and reveal the web influence of institutions in the MENA zone, in geographic terms (country) and academic terms (universities), by means of their links.

Using search engines and webcrawlers designed to gather information about web links, in conjunction with visualization techniques and degree indicators based on social network analysis, the authors achieved their objective and found responses to a series of pertinent research questions.

There is no direct relationship between the number of university websites and the number of inlinks. Linking between countries in the MENA zone obeys patterns of vicinity and geopolitics. Arab universities are interlinked following trends governed by territorial proximity. There is a strong endogamic tendency, with universities from a single country citing each other, particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia. The authors present the first ranking of web influence in the MENA zone based on network indicators, namely country and university, and their order is corroborated by comparison with other rankings of a webometric or scientometric nature.

Studies of this type cannot be undertaken again, at least not from the web link perspective, as Yahoo!, Google and Bing have since blocked the webcrawlers that attempt to carry out searches of inlinking or co-inlinking between/among sites. Hence, this work can be considered both a pioneer and the last of its kind. The authors do not know if or when it will be possible to again make queries about URLs in webs or, alternatively, in titles.

This is the first visual report of the web structure underlying the countries and universities of the MENA zone. It is also the first time that a country and university ranking of this geopolitical zone has been carried out using network indicators based on web links.