Research Focus

BIRG research focuses on understanding research performance, factors that enhance productivity, and identifying specific initiatives and the types of funding and resource allocation that best assist a country's research profile. BIRG examines the critical issues of research quality and influence, innovation, and the industrial and scientific capacity of a nation and its institutions. Measuring performance of these important elements of research production illuminates the policy process and provides reliable indicators for tracking growth and quality.

International Conferences on Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI)
This series of conferences are held biennially under the auspices of the International Scoiety for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI). The first conference, held in 1987 in Belgium, was Chaired by Leo Egghe and Ronald Rousseau at Limburgs University. Since that time, these Conferences have been held in the following countries: 1989 in Canada; 1991 in India; 1993 in Germany; 1995 in USA; 1997 in Israel; 1999 in Mexico; 2001 in Australia; 2003 in China; 2005 in Sweden; and 2007 in Spain. Papers for these Conferences are peer-reviewed and published as separate edited volumes.

In 2001, the BIRG group was responsible for organizing the ISSI Conference held during 16-20th July 2001 at The University of New South Wales. The ISSI-2001 Conference Chairs were Drs Mari Davis and Concepcíon S. Wilson. In all, 98 papers were presented over the five-day Conference. In addition, 38 Posters were presented. Delegates came from over 30 countries for this event. The Proceedings are published by BIRG. Copies of the Proceedings volume for ISSI-2001 are available for AUD$95.00, plus extra for packing & postage.

Research Topics

The thematic strands of BIRG's research include:

• Scientific collaboration and its effects on research performance.
• Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and disciplinarity.
• Core and periphery activity in disciplines and designated research fields.
• Use of web information, its flow and influence in research fields.
• Scholarly publication activity among institutions and national groups.
• Mapping of growth, structure and composition of large domains, disciplines, specialties or fields.
• Author characteristics and research careers of elite research groups.
• Journal characteristics and impact.
• History and foundations of bibliometrics.
• Journal citation impact and its relation to measured and perceived journal quality.
• Impact of scholarly work in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Relevance to Policy Development

BIRG research is concerned with informing policy development and policy makers in the scientific and higher education spheres. It aims to deliver and to develop useful, policy-relevant information to monitor effects and impact of particular policy initiatives on the scholarly communication processes of nations, institutions and research groups. A useful policy dimension of BIRG research is being able to compare research performance and impact across institutions, nations, research groups or agencies, and by industry sector.

Methodology

BIRG uses both quantitative and qualitative research methodology to examine social and economic processes of research and the structures of science from economic and other standpoints. Informetrics, a wider term than bibliometrics, covers quantitative and qualitative research on academic and scholarly productivity, research communication activity and publishing of all forms of research including print, electronic and web-based publications. Bibliometric techniques include using a variety of counts and correlation of variables of productivity and influence (impact) to measure research performance, growth, and changes or shifts in subject emphasis of, for example, research groups or institutions, or of disciplines or fields. BIRG uses the latest searching and retrieval techniques and the most relevant research databases covering the literature of the sciences, the social sciences and the arts and humanities. A variety of literature visualization packages are used to map authors, journals and documents in specific domains.

Staff Expertise

The Bibliometric and Informetric Research Group brings together academics whose expertise is in objective investigation and measurement of research growth, disciplinary and interdisciplinary productivity and performance. BIRG researchers use well-known and reliable measures of publication productivity, of scholarly impact or influence, of journal indicators, as well as developing or extending the reliability of these and other measures.

Visiting Research Fellows

The John Metcalfe Visiting Research Grant provided funds for research on a range of issues and themes in the general field of information management including: (but not limited to) informetrics, scientometrics, economics of information, webometrics, communication. Since 2001, a number of international visitors have been funded as Visiting Fellows from the John Metcalfe Memorial Fund (JMMF).

• Isidro F. Aguillo Cano, CINDOC, Department of Technological Innovation in Scientific Inquiry, National Science Council, Madrid, Spain.
• Professor Wynne Chin, University of Houston, Houston Texas, United States.
• Dr. Rahmatollah Fattahi, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
• Robert M. Hayes, Emeritus Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States.
• Dr Hildrun Kretschmer, Berlin, Germany.
• Dr Linda Marion, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
• Dr Valentina A. Markusova, VINITI, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
• Dr. Mehri Parirokh, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
• Professor Ronald E. Rice, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States.
• Professor Ronald Rousseau, KHBO - Catholic School for Higher Education Bruges-Ostend, Belgium.
• Professor Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
• Professor Howard D. White,  Emeritus, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
• Dr Alesia Zuccala, The Rathenau Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.

A number of eminent scholars have been funded by JMMF to give seminars and to visit in the School of Information Systems, Technology and Management.

• Dr Theresa Anderson, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
• Professor José-Marie Griffith, Dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States.
• Professor Joyce Kirk, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Students, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia.
• Professor Carol C. Kuhlthau, Emeritus Professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States.
• Professor Gary Marchioni, School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States.

Consultancy and Enquiries

BIRG welcomes enquiries about research work on a consultancy basis. Enquiries from scholars wishing to visit our School or to collaborate with the BIRG members on projects are welcomed. The John Metcalfe Memorial Fund can provide a modest grant for researchers wishing to spend a length of time on study leave in order to collaborate with BIRG members on research projects of various kinds.

All enquiries should be addressed to Dr Concepción S. Wilson, Co-Director of BIRG and Information Management Program, School of Information Systems, Technology and Management, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.