Reliable multicast for the Grid: a case study in experimental computer science

In its simplest form, multicast communication is the process of sending data packets from a source to multiple destinations in the same logical multicast group. IP multicast allows the efficient transport of data through wide-area networks, and its potentially great value for the Grid has been highlighted recently by a number of research groups. In this paper, we focus on the use of IP multicast in Grid applications, which require high-throughput reliable multicast. These include Grid-enabled computational steering and collaborative visualization applications, and wide-area distributed computing. We describe the results of our extensive evaluation studies of state-of-the-art reliable-multicast protocols, which were performed on the UK's high-speed academic networks. Based on these studies, we examine the ability of current reliable multicast technology to meet the Grid's requirements and discuss future directions.     

The trench warfare of gender discrimination: evidence from academic promotions to full professor in Italy

In this paper we aim to understand if gender makes a difference in the path to promotion to full professor in Italian universities, drawing on data from 2013 to 2016. The new promotion system pursuant Gelmini Law (210/2010) in Italy implies to go through two steps. First, they have to obtain the national ASN system (fit-for-the-role national filter), based on merit measured via bibliometric and non-bibliometric indicators. This step does not mean to get a position, it only means to be able to apply for it at institutional level. We believe that discrimination based on gender may happen especially at institutional level as in comparison to ASN there is less transparency and more autonomy at institutional level. It is also hypothesised that discrimination based on gender may differ according to the percentage of women already at full professor rank by disciplinary field. We investigate gender inequality using a binary variable (promoted or not promoted along 2013 until 2016) controlling by scientific productivity, normalised number of available vacancies, result of national research evaluation (VQR—department of candidate’s affiliation), age, current rank-and-file position. Multilevel logistic regression demonstrates that among those who obtained the ASN and at parity of other conditions, men have around 24% more probability to be promoted at parity of scientific production, which reveals a relevant gender discrimination. Our findings have implications on theory about inequality regimes and might serve to reflect on how to improve practices at institutional level.     

Correction to: The trench warfare of gender discrimination: evidence from academic promotions to full professor in Italy

Scientometrics - In the original publication of the article, the second sentence of the Abstract and one of the references were incorrectly published. The correct version is given in this Correction.     

Contribution of Chinese publications in computer science: A case study on LNCS

Conference proceedings are one of the key communication channels in computer science. This paper aims to analyze the Chinese outputs in the context of conference papers in computer science through an exploration of the conference proceedings series book-Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) in the period of 1997–2005. Results indicate that: 1. The number of Chinese papers in LNCS keeps growing in the studied period; the share of Chinese papers in LNCS in recent years is much higher than that of Chinese SCI papers in the world; In sharp contrast with remarkable growth of the share of Chinese papers in LNCS, the share of SCI articles in top journals of computer science published by the scientists of mainland China is negligible during the same period. 2. Chinese researchers are more likely to collaborate with domestic fellows; 3. In spite of the increasing amounts of Chinese papers in LNCS, they receive only a few citations; 4. The articles are strikingly more cited by authors themselves and international authors’ citations are more than Chinese authors’ non-self-citations in the first three years after publication; 5. Based on the new indicator Impact Index (II) the authors proposed, the relative impact of Chinese articles in LNCS is increasing although the average impact of Chinese papers in LNCS is obviously less than that of the publications in LNCS in each year during the studied period.     

How many preprints have actually been printed and why: a case study of computer science preprints on arXiv

Scientometrics - The main objective of this study is a detailed analysis of the coverage of blogs and news by three of the most important altmetrics data providers (Altmetric.com, PlumX, and...     

On computer science research and its temporal evolution

Scientometrics - In this article, we study the evolution of the computer science research community over the past 30 years. Analyzing data from the full Scopus database, we investigate how aspects...     

Scientific linkage of science research and technology development: a case of genetic engineering research

In this study, the author tried to demonstrate the linkage between science research and technology development through non-patent citation analysis to reveal that the important knowledge resources from science research had significant impact on technology development. Genetic engineering technology was the field examined in this study. From the references listed in the patents, it was observed that the technology development in genetic engineering was influenced heavily by the research done by public sector. Over 90% of the citations were non-patent literatures, and the majority of non-patent citations were journal articles. Citing preferences, such as country preference and institute preference were observed from the data included in this study.     

Smart bibliometrics: an integrated method of science mapping and bibliometric analysis

Bibliometric techniques and science mapping are widely employed in the research environment to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of scientific knowledge on a given topic. These techniques are essential to assist the researcher's work by guiding the compilation of the bibliography to support the theory discussion. To this objective, the Smart Bibliometrics was developed to facilitate bibliometric analysis and selection of theoretical references, embodied by a system that brings intelligence, dynamism, and agility to the scientific writing process. The innovation of this methodology is the fusion of two relevant criteria applied during the bibliometric analysis process: the application of a representative metric of classification of scientific papers and dynamic visuals strategically developed. The methodology differs for providing the user with dynamic navigation and interaction experience with the data collected, innovating the approach to reaching insights within the universe of discussions of the scientific community. In addition, as an innovation factor, the method is presented in a scalable Business Intelligence (BI) system that features blunt visuals, extensive analysis repertoire, intuitive navigation, and automated updating. The development was carried out in a cutting-edge technological platform to attend information and sharing intents by employing cloud computing resources, another feature that enables interaction among researcher groups also from different institutions. Additionally, it is not necessary to install any software. The output will be available for consultation, at any time and place, just by using one device with an internet connection.

     

A comparative study of research performance in computer science

The paper compares the research performance in computer science of four major Western countries, India and China, based on the data abstracted from INSPEC database during the period 1993–2002. A total of 9,632 computer science papers recorded in INSPEC database were used for the comparison. The findings indicate that, on the one hand, the number of papers produced in China has considerably increased in the past few years. Particularly, in recent years, China occupies a remarkable high position in terms of counts of papers indexed by the INSPEC database. On the other hand, Chinese scientists preferred to publish in domestic journals and proceedings and shares of SCI-papers to the total journal papers for China have still remained the lowest. This indicates that the research activities of Chinese scientists in computer science are still rather “local” and suffer from a low international visibility. Various scientometric indicators, such as Normalized Impact Factor, ratio of papers in high quality journals are further adopted to analyze research performance and diverse finding are obtained. Nevertheless, for these surrogate indicators, China has optimistically achieved great progress, characterized with “low level of beginning and high speed of developing”. The policy implication of the findings lies in that China, as well as other less developed countries in science, can earn relative competitive advantages in some new emerging or younger disciplines such as computer science by properly using catch-up strategy. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Blockmodeling of co-authorship networks in library and information science in Argentina: a case study

The paper introduces the use of blockmodeling in the micro-level study of the internal structure of co-authorship networks over time. Variations in scientific productivity and researcher or research group visibility were determined by observing authors?? role in the core-periphery structure and crossing this information with bibliometric data. Three techniques were applied to represent the structure of collaborative science: (1) the blockmodeling; (2) the Kamada-Kawai algorithm based on the similarities in co-authorships present in the documents analysed; (3) bibliometrics to determine output volume, impact and degree of collaboration from the bibliographic data drawn from publications. The goal was to determine the extent to which the use of these two complementary approaches, in conjunction with bibliometric data, provides greater insight into the structure and characteristics of a given field of scientific endeavour. The paper describes certain features of Pajek software and how it can be used to study research group composition, structure and dynamics. The approach combines bibliometric and social network analysis to explore scientific collaboration networks and monitor individual and group careers from new perspectives. Its application on a small-scale case study is intended as an example and can be used in other disciplines. It may be very useful for the appraisal of scientific developments.     

Application of a systematic design methodology: an engineering case study

The basic steps of a design process have been reviewed and applied to seek an optimum solution for an industrial design problem. The problem was about a mechanical swivel-joint in a sea-current-metering system for underwater marine use. It was expensive ($200) and not functioning properly because of rattling and high friction between parts. The objective was to design another joint of better performance and lower cost, if possible. Ten steps were defined and carefully followed to solve the problem. This led to the design and production of a good quality swivel-joint as far as performance, appearance and other aspects were concerned and the cost reduced by 40%. This design method, in addition to yielding good results, is suitable for the organization of the activities of new designers and design students.     

Exposure to magnetic fields of railway engine drivers: a case study in Italy

A case study of exposure assessment of railway workers to static and extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields is presented. A measurement campaign was conducted in aboard Italian main line trains. All measurements were performed on board during regular service (two engine drivers were simultaneously present), in all places potentially accessible to personnel, considering routes ranging from a few tens of kilometres to hundreds of kilometres. The measurement protocol was mostly based on broadband metres and personal metres were employed to assess individual exposure. Surveys on static and ELF magnetic fields were performed for seven different models of engine or electrified train. Traction motors were fed by alternating current (AC) current, except for two engines, where AC current fed only auxiliary services. The final result is that the average exposure to static magnetic field was a little higher than the background geomagnetic field; occasionally in few areas it could reach levels of the order of millitesla. The average exposure to ELF magnetic fields was in the order of 1-2 μT, with higher levels (few microtesla) only for one engine; occasionally in hot spots, close to wiring or specific equipment, the field values could reach several tens of microtesla.     

On peer review in computer science: analysis of its effectiveness and suggestions for improvement

In this paper we focus on the analysis of peer reviews and reviewers behaviour in a number of different review processes. More specifically, we report on the development, definition and rationale of a theoretical model for peer review processes to support the identification of appropriate metrics to assess the processes main characteristics in order to render peer review more transparent and understandable. Together with known metrics and techniques we introduce new ones to assess the overall quality (i.e. ,reliability, fairness, validity) and efficiency of peer review processes e.g. the robustness of the process, the degree of agreement/disagreement among reviewers, or positive/negative bias in the reviewers’ decision making process. We also check the ability of peer review to assess the impact of papers in subsequent years. We apply the proposed model and analysis framework to a large reviews data set from ten different conferences in computer science for a total of ca. 9,000 reviews on ca. 2,800 submitted contributions. We discuss the implications of the results and their potential use toward improving the analysed peer review processes. A number of interesting results were found, in particular: (1) a low correlation between peer review outcome and impact in time of the accepted contributions; (2) the influence of the assessment scale on the way how reviewers gave marks; (3) the effect and impact of rating bias, i.e. reviewers who constantly give lower/higher marks w.r.t. all other reviewers; (4) the effectiveness of statistical approaches to optimize some process parameters (e.g. ,number of papers per reviewer) to improve the process overall quality while maintaining the overall effort under control. Based on the lessons learned, we suggest ways to improve the overall quality of peer-review through procedures that can be easily implemented in current editorial management systems.     

An integrated method for interdisciplinary topic identification and prediction: a case study on information science and library science

Given that many frontiers and hotspots of science and technology are emerging from interdisciplines, the accurate identification and forecasting of interdisciplinary topics has become increasingly significant. Existing methods of interdisciplinary topic identification have their respective application fields, and each identification result can help researchers acquire partial characteristics of interdisciplinary topics. This paper offers an integrated method for identifying and predicting interdisciplinary topics from scientific literature. It integrates various methods, including co-occurrence networks analysis, high-TI terms analysis and burst detection, and offers an overall perspective into interdisciplinary topic identification. The results of the different methods are mutually confirmed and complemented, further overviewing the characteristics of the interdisciplinary field and highlighting the importance or potential of interdisciplinary topics. In this study, Information Science and Library Science is selected as a case study. The research has clearly shown that more accurate and comprehensive results can be achieved for interdisciplinary topic identification and prediction by employing this integrated method. Further, the integration of different methods has promising potential for application in knowledge discovery and scientific measurement in the future.     

A concise review on the role of author self-citations in information science, bibliometrics and science policy

Summary  The objective of the present study is twofold: (1) to show the aims and means of quantitative interpretation of bibliographic features in bibliometrics and their re-interpretation in research policy, and (2) to summarise the state-of-art in self-citation research. The authors describe three approaches to the role of author self-citations and possible conflicts arising from the different perspectives. From the bibliometric viewpoint we can conclude that that there is no reason for condemning self-citations in general or for removing them from macro or meso statistics; supplementary indicators based on self-citations are, nonetheless, useful to understand communication patterns.     

Teletraffic conferences: Studying a field of engineering science

Titles of 925 conference papers contained in the first ten International Teletraffic Conferences (1955–1983) are analyzed in terms of word distributions. The aim is to determine how information about changing word frequencies and word patterns relates to the kind of information gained through the more traditional approach of intellectual history. Additionally, we consider what each approach can reveal about the information flows involved in the production and utilization of knowledge in teletraffic. In terms of methodology, the goal of this dual approach is to understand how the analysis of word and document structures can be used both as a scientometric tool and as a tool for historical research. We also comment more generally on the significance of conferences as an object for scientometric analysis, particularly with respect to the emergence and growth of the engineering and industrial sciences.     

A bibliometric profile of top-scientists a case study in chemical engineering

We carefully selected a group of chemical engineering scientists internationally recognized as top-scientists in their field. A method has been developed to systematically compare bibliometric characteristics of these top-scientists with an average scientist in chemical engineering. This method also includes citation-analysis of books and proceedings. The results show a very clear bibliometric profile. First, top-scientists references are more numerous and, fourth, they concern more recent literature. Our fifth findings is that the journals used by top-scientists for their publications are representative for the field of chemical engineering as a whole. But they differ in specific aspects significantly from the average journal structure in chemical engineering: the published work of top-scientists is both general as well as more specialistic than the average work in chemical engineering.