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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of community service in academic librarianship in the USA and models for developing local community service programs that encourage participation from academic librarians.

After providing a review of literature related to academic librarianship and community service in the USA, a description of community service opportunities for librarians at Mississippi State University is presented. Suggestions are made regarding development of similar opportunities at other institutions.

Community service is an important element of academic librarianship, and the service opportunities available to Mississippi State University librarians offer a variety of long‐ and short‐term projects that allow for active participation.

It is hoped that this case study – dealing with community service opportunities for academic librarians – will be used as a model by other librarians who wish to develop service options in their own communities.

The issue of gender inequality in the Italian universities and academic context does not seem to be particularly debated and is really rare. Starting from this “lack of interest”, the paper aims to inquire into the “state-of-the-art” of existing inequality in the scientific and academic path of Italian female scholars and academia, answering the following research question: Is discrimination between women and men linked to the number of scientific contributions in periodicals and their presence within academic boards of scientific accounting associations and journals in Italy?

The methodology is primarily developed through a deductive analysis of the literature strands concerning gender accounting, accounting in academia and the role of women in universities and academia. Second, within the inductive perspective, the authors have chosen to inquire into the scientific publications of women on the oldest Italian journal in the accounting field – the Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria e di Economia Aziendale (RIREA). Subsequently, the position and career of women were analysed in academia investigating their presence and role within the boards of a sample of Italian journals and the main Italian accounting scientific associations

Accordingly, this paper concentrates on gender inequalities in university and academia in Italy and on eventual obstacles that get in the way of the existence of scientific contributions in journals and of career progress of those women who carry on scholarly work in accounting.

The analysis confirms the need to open more space for women at the summits of political, economic and cultural institutions, including accounting academia and scientific journals. The paper has some limitations concerning the consideration of only Italian journals and academic associations. Then, we will develop the analysis in comparative terms, as attention will be addressed on the participation in scientific committees and boards of some of the major international scientific associations of accounting. Moreover, we will consider the narrative approach describing the stories of Italian women and accounting scholars to carefully investigate the reasons for this persistent discrimination.

The innovative contribution of the paper is due to the fact that the authors are unaware of previous studies aimed at investigating if female accounting scholars are under-represented compared to their male colleagues within the top positions of the most prestigious Italian accounting associations and scientific journals. Previous research also did not investigate the existence of correlation between Italian women’s scientific productivity, their under-representation within academia and scientific career.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors in the under‐representation of female Rectors/Vice‐Chancellors (VCs), Vice‐Rectors/Deputy Vice‐Chancellors (DVCs), and Pro‐Rectors/Pro Vice‐Chancellors (PVCs) – collectively described as the University Executive or senior management – in Turkey and Australia. This includes support and mentoring, recruitment and selection processes, and the role of Rectors/VCs.

Qualitative interviews are conducted with both male and female senior managers in old and new and metropolitan and regional universities in Turkey and Australia.

It is found that some women have difficulty getting into senior management, and generally their support or mentoring came from further down the organization than for men. In both countries male and female managers consider that Rectors/VCs are particularly influential in senior management appointments, with women perceiving this as a barrier. The particularly low representation of women in senior management in Turkey reflects the absence of equity frameworks, but also role conflict which is more likely to impact on women in relation to senior management rather than academic appointments.

This research indicates that it is still difficult for women in both countries to be appointed to senior management roles in Universities and that support, networks and the role of Rectors/VCs in the appointment process are important factors. Awareness about gender in senior management links back to legislative frameworks or lack of them. Universities in Australia – unlike Turkey – are required to report annually on their commitment to addressing under representation of women in their workforce. The impact of legislative compliance has been to sensitise both men and women in universities to gender issues. Turkey, by contrast, continues to have low representation of women in senior management and no legislative imperative to address this inequality. And because many women in Turkey decide not to apply for senior management positions due to conflict between work and family responsibilities, their representation remains low and fails to challenge the prevalent view that gender is not an issue in senior management.

The paper demonstrates that equity frameworks –or lack of them – may have an impact on the representation of women in higher education (HE) senior management in Turkey and Australia but that cultural factors such as role conflict may also prevent women in Turkey from applying for senior management positions.

Outlines an institutional framework for identifying and rewarding excellence in teaching, drawing on an initiative developed at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside. Describes the strategies adopted by the excellence in teaching working group, the outcomes of the project, and identifies how these have been implemented in the university’s promotions policy. Case study offers a framework for practitioners involved in raising the quality and profile of teaching in higher education through a recognition of the achievement of excellence.

This research investigates the impact of nonlinear career trajectories on female staff in the academy. It argues that assessment of “achievement relative to opportunity” is essential to the equitable positioning of women in the academy.

This qualitative study is based on extended structured interviews with 43 staff.

Men and women can experience career interruptions, deviations, and hijacks, but, in general, women experience more interruption, and the cumulative effect on their careers is greater.

The authors point to ways in which the assessment of achievement relative to opportunity can be implemented in universities to improve retention and career outcomes for female academic and professional staff.

Embedding the principles of achievement relative to opportunity in evaluative decision making, supports people (particularly women) who have spent time away from the workforce in becoming more competitive in assessments of suitability for leadership and advancement. Changing traditional methods of evaluating merit has the potential to allow people from diverse backgrounds to be fairly evaluated, and shift the dominance of people who have experienced little or no career interruption.

The originality is the measurement of impact of nonlinear careers within the academy. The contribution is in the applicability of the findings and practical suggestions for implementation.

The purpose of this study comprises the following three: (1) to ascertain the purpose of university module evaluation questionnaires (MEQs) and its reliability; (2) to evaluate University X's MEQ; and (3) to offer how Universities may be able to support their teaching staff with scholarship activities using the MEQ project.

University MEQ purposes and its reliability were investigated using literature reviews. The University X's MEQ seven statements were evaluated by three university academic staff. The study was conducted at a British university in South East of England. The duration of this interdisciplinary project was for two months which was a university interdisciplinary project between 14/07/20 and 13/10/20.

The purpose for MEQs includes (1) students’ satisfaction; (2) accountability for university authority and (3) teaching feedback and academic promotions for teaching staff. The evaluation of University X's MEQ indicated that MEQ questions were unclear which do not serve reliable student evaluation results. This topic may be of interest to University MEQ designers, lecturers, University Student Experience team, University Executive Board, University administrators and University HR senior management teams.

The following three points are considered original to this study: (1) MEQ purposes are summarised by students, university authority and teaching staff; (2) the evaluation of a British University MEQ; (3) provides suggestions on how lecturers' scholarship activities can be supported by the university-wide initiative and umbrella network. These are practical knowledge for the faculty and administrators of higher education institutions which may be of use.

The purpose of this study is to examine research on academic libraries and the social web published from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2023.

The article search and filtering procedures mirrored those of Choi and Harper (2020) and Carlsson (2015), resulting in a total sample size of 93 articles. These articles underwent examination based on the same eight variables (i.e. journal outlet, research theme, publication year, social web type, method, keyword, study participant type and study country) as employed by Choi and Harper (2020) and Carlsson (2015), with the addition of two new variables (i.e. research purpose and the impact of COVID-19).

The research article volume has consistently maintained a stable trend. A notable difference from Choi and Harper (2020) and Carlsson (2015) is the rise of “user perspectives” as the second most prevalent theme. Unlike Choi and Harper (2020), the “survey” method is predominant. Many research purposes, excluding “marketing and promotion,” lack attention. Additionally, there’s a dearth of studies on the impact of COVID-19.

The findings from the study not only offer a snapshot of the current research landscape on academic libraries and their engagement with the social web but also offer insights for future scholarly endeavors.

There is a limited effort in exploring the recent literature regarding the role of the social web in academic libraries. This study serves as a valuable guide for contributing to this dynamic research stream and provides various up-to-date implications.

The purpose of this paper is to explore relative deprivation and implicit bias in library and information science research publications of Africa and other continents.

Research design used for this study is descriptive survey research. Specifically, the study will adopt both web content analysis and survey to collect data. The content analysis covers the whole continents of the world: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Northern America, Pacific Region and Western Europe; using the Webometrics World Ranking of Universities and the SCImago/Scopus Journal Ranking. Library and information science was used as the search and control parameter. The scopes covered by the research are: 1. Ascertaining the visible publishing and assessment standards of top library and information science (LIS) journals, which was evaluated using Kleinert and Wager (2010)'s study.

It was found out among others that editors making fair and unbiased decisions as policy is seen in 33% of the journals, which is very poor. All the structural disparities, such as presence ranking, impact ranking, excellence ranking, etc. were favouring Europe and the Americas mainly. As much as rejection is getting to these respondents, research generally is also suffering by missing out on some untapped knowledge and ideas from these deprived populations. Many authors are losing faith in their capabilities and are now afraid of venturing into tedious research exercises because it will most likely be rejected either ways.

It is an established fact that social media gains research impact and attracts international collaborations. In support, studies such as Hassan et al. (2019) reported the fact that tweet mentions of articles with positive sentiment to more visibility and citations. They claim that cited articles in either positive or neutral tweets have a more significant impact than those not cited at all or cited in negative tweets. In addition, Hassan et al. (2020) equally highlighted tweet coupling as a social media methodology useful for clustering scientific publications. Despite the fact that social media have these influences on research and publications visibility and presence, the context of the present research did cover this scope of study. The study focused mainly on sources from Scopus as well as results from responses. Further studies can be carried out on this area.

Research studies linking “Black Articles Matter” to relative deprivation and implicit bias in research publications, especially in library and information discipline, are very rare. Also, the scope of approach of the study is quite different and interesting.

I worked as an academic in Malaysia prior to taking on a similar position at a research-intensive university in New Zealand. In this chapter, I discuss challenges I faced in the early stages of my career. I provide insights into my academic mobility strategies, adapting to a research-focused environment, understanding academic standards, becoming a prolific researcher/writer, transitioning to be a ‘slow’ academic and finally the pursuit of striving for work-life balance. I also share my success stories with a view that these would be of benefit to aspiring international academics.