Iranian Journal of Information Processing & Management
Year:2010 | Volume:25 | Issue:2 (60)|Papers Count:9

  Graphic User interface serves as a bridge between man and databases. Its primary purpose is to assist uses by establishing interaction with computer systems. Database user interface designers have seldom focused on the impact of user information seeking behaviors on the database user interface structures. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate the user information seeking behavior within database software design as well as analyzing their impact on upgrade and optimization of user interface environment. The present study intends to determine the degree of correspondence of database interface with information seeking behavioral components of Ellis’ model. The component studied starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring and extracting. Investigators employed direct observation method, using a checklist, in order to see how much the database interfaces support these components. Results indicated that the information seeking behavior components outlined by Ellis Model are not fully considered in database user interface design. Some of the components such as starting, chaining and differentiation were to some extent supported by some of database user interfaces studied. However elements such as browsing, monitoring and extracting have not been incorporated within the user interface structures of these databases. On the whole, the degree of correspondence and correlation of database user interfaces with Ellis information seeking components is about average. Therefore incorporating these elements in design and evaluation of user interface environment could have high impact on better optimization of database interface environment and consequently the very process of search and retrieval.

The present study investigate the correlation between journal citations with impact factor in the humanities scientific journals published for the 2001-2007 period based on the Persian journal citation reports generated by Islamic Science Citation (ISC) database. Citation analysis method was used. Findings demonstrated that there is a significant link between impact factor and journal self-citation (r=0.606, s=0.0000). In other words, journals with low impact factors have fewer self-citations, i.e. self-citation has a positive impact on the journal impact factor. There is a negative correlation between impact factor and number of articles in humanities in the period studied. The impact factor does not increase with increase in the number of articles. There is significant correlation between the number of article published and number of self-citation. The higher the number of articles, the higher would be the number of self-citation in the journal. Findings indicated that the rate of journal self-citation in humanities had been downward for the period studied. When screening journals for self-citations, 108 journals had their ranks reduced while 204 journals had their ranking increased. The ranking in 32 journals remained unchanged.

The present paper examines the links between self-citation and authors’ co-incidence with impact factors of economic journals indexed in ISC. It is essentially a scientometric research employing citation analysis and literature survey. Data was collected by querying ISC and leafing through the journals studied. Self-citation, authors’ co-incidence and impact factor of the journal studied formed the variables. Correlation analysis indicated that there is significance between authors’ self-citations and co-incidence with impact factor of the journals studied. Significance was also found between authors’ co-incidence and self-citation of the journals studied.

The present study seeks to examine the status of research methods employed in dissertations submitted by graduates of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The study also examined the impact factors. Using content analysis, the research methods were divided into four groups: historical, descriptive, empirical and literature review. The distributions for each method were calculated on the basis of gender, graduate level, citations, time frame and fields of study. Samples were chosen randomly from among the dissertations available at faculty libraries at TUMS. 390 dissertations were selected. Findings demonstrated that gender did not influence the choice of research method. With exception of nursing faculty, graduate level proved to be a prominent factor when choosing research method. All types of citations (books, journals, online and non-printed sources) were identified as another significant factor impacting pushing towards any given research method. With exception of Hygiene and Food Faculty, the time factor affected the research method selection process as well. Finally, given their different research characteristics, the field of studies investigated also contributed to both the scope and direction of research methods chosen.

The present investigation concerns evaluation, comparison and analysis of search options existing within web-based meta-search engines. 64 meta-search engines were identified. 19 meta-search engines that were free, accessible and compatible with the objectives of the present study were selected. An author’s constructed check list was used for data collection. Findings indicated that all meta-search engines studied used the AND operator, phrase search, number of results displayed setting, previous search query storage and help tutorials. Nevertheless, none of them demonstrated any search options for hypertext searching and displaying the size of the pages searched. 94.7% support features such as truncation, keywords in title and URL search and text summary display. The checklist used in the study could serve as a model for investigating search options in search engines, digital libraries and other internet search tools.

Organizational blockout is the ability to remove obsolescence and inefficient knowledge and is considered to comprise an important part of knowledge dynamics within organizations. Organization Blockout is closely linked with knowledge dynamics. For keeping pace with present environment, organizational learning needs to adopt new programs and standard procedures. To this end, focus on organizational blockout could have impact on the success of organizational learning programs. Following a brief discourse on concepts such as organizational knowledge and learning organizations, the paper discusses organizational blockout and its role in organizations.

The present study investigates the software used in scientific journals for content management and peer review, in order to identify the essential features. These softwares are analyzed and presented in tabular format. A questionnaire was prepared and submitted to a panel composed of 15 referees, editor in chief, software designers and researchers. The essential features for software managing the review process were divided into three groups with populations of 10-15, 5-10 and 0-5 respectively. The majority of peer review process software features, in view of panelists, fell into a group of features with a population of 10-15. Finally it should be said that the features represented by the first group must be taken into account when designing or purchasing a peer review software. The second tier features (with population of 5-10) are recommended given journal's status and capabilities. The third tier features were altogether discounted due to low population.