Volume 29, Issue 1

Background. Collaborative relationships support the progress of scientific research by providing a collaborator access to resources, skills, information, and technologies. Studies have highlighted the importance of collaborative relationships among scientists. However, less attention has been paid to the characteristics of the relationships.
Objectives. This study identified two key concepts, intellectual and social, as a theoretical approach to investigate collaborative relationships among scientists.
Methods.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 Taiwanese fishery scientists at the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute, the Academia Sinica, the National Taiwan University, the National Taiwan Ocean University, and the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium.
Results. The results reveal that intellectual relationships among fishery scientists involve solving research puzzles collaboratively, giving informal comments on colleagues’ work, and seeking professional recognition. Fishery scientists shape social relationships through academic activities such as collaborating with thesis supervisors as co-authors, selecting research partners according to their professional ability, and contributing to a local or global fish database for building individual professional identity. The fishery scientists considered co-authorship as a core requirement to maintain collaborative relationships. Support from thesis supervisors is important for facilitating collaborative relationships. This support affects the selection of known people as research partners, instead of selecting partners from different countries.

Objectives. Using The Munin Repository at UiT The Arctic University of Norway as a case study, a survey was conducted among the UiT researchers to examine their attitudes and practices towards the repository and towards open access (OA) publications.
Methods. The survey questionnaire was sent to all employees at UiT between August and October 2016, but only academic staff in research positions, including PhD students, were selected for the analysis. 200 researchers responded to the survey.
Results. The study found that researchers are supportive of the principle of OA but are less keen on contributing to their institutional repositories for a range of reasons. These include the process being quite a hassle, academics’ uncertainty over certain legal, copyright and peer review issues, prestige issues, and uncertainty over the appropriate version to deposit or self-archive.
Contribution. The statistical results can be used by readers as benchmarks to compare with their own institution’s figures. Conclusively, the study found that more than 90% of the researchers agreed with the OA principles, but still 54% of UiT researchers did not archive their research documents in The Munin Repository.

Background. Clinical librarians have specialized search skills to search medical databases to provide clinicians with medical research information needed for evidence-based clinical decision making. However, the importance of cooperation between librarians and healthcare teams does not seem to be well-recognized by clinicians.
Objectives. The present study aimed to shed light on the importance of the cooperation between medical librarians and healthcare teams by probing clinicians’ viewpoints and their familiarity with librarians’ service.
Methods. The population comprised 890 clinical residents at teaching hospitals of the Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2016-2017. A questionnaire survey was carried out with 260 respondents.
Results. A majority of the clinical residents did not use services provided by clinical librarians. However, some used the following services: changing treatment behavior based on evidence-based information (3.4%), obtaining evidence-based information (5.0%), accessing clinical guidelines (12.7%), and getting familiar with recent scientific discoveries (6.7%). The residents approved of the presence of librarians who have most of the professional skills necessary for cooperation.
Contributions. The presence of clinical librarians with appropriate skills in the healthcare team can help resolve some problems clinical residents face while searching.

Objectives. This study investigated the influence of information literacy skills on the research productivity of academic staff in Nigeria, with the mediating role of socio-economic factors.
Methods. Out of a total of 782 academic staff in research institutes in South West Nigeria, 610 responded to a questionnaire survey. Descriptive, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data.
Results. A relationship was found between information literacy skills and research productivity (r=0.56, p<0.05). Socio-economic factors (monthly salary, academic status, age, highest educational qualification, work experience and employment nature) have mediating effects on the relationship between information literacy skills and research productivity. Together, they accounted for 47% of the variance in the research productivity of the respondents.
Recommendation. Management of the research institutes should put more effort in increasing the level of information literacy skills, taking into consideration the socio-economic factors identified.