Research

This week it’s been published a very interesting research report entitled Informe de la recerca en Informació, Documentació i Arxivística a Catalunya (2000-2013). Throughout its 49 pages, the report describes and analyses the evolution of this research (developed mainly in academic circles) from three points of view:

• The Catalan institutions investigating this field.
• Human and financial resources available for research.
• The scientific results deriving from the activities executed.

In relation this last point, the report highlights, on an overall basis, that the production is scarce, although justified in part by the late incorporation of these disciplines at Catalan universities (since the eighties of the last century). It also highlights the concentration of production in a small group of active researchers.

Disaggregated by document types, the report shows the following results:

• Thesis: 52.
• Articles in scientific journals indexed in Web of Science (WoS): 186.
• Papers: 237.

About journal articles (the most representative in research), the report exposes some very interesting considerations:

• Two-thirds of all articles (67.2%) has been published in El profesional de la información (EPI).
• 78% of the articles are written in Spanish, while only 22% is in English.
• Chronological distribution of articles is closely related to the entry in 2006 of the magazine EPI, because it is from this date that the presence of article in WoS increases. It isn’t until 2103 that the percentage of articles published in other international titles grows.

In view of these results, the report recommends, among other things, the Catalan research must increase its internationalization. Currently, Catalan researchers participates in only five European projects and only 22% of journal articles indexed in WoS are written in English.

The report is currently in a period of public debate. That is, if you want to make any comment or contribution you can send a message to or@iec.cat.

Enjoy it!

Andreu Sulé

University of Barcelona

This week I want to inform the celebration of the III International Seminar on LIS Education and Research (LIS-ER) in Barcelona (Spain), on 4-5 June 2015.

2015 will be the commemoration of the centenary of the Faculty of Library and Information Science at the University of Barcelona, and this institution wants to celebrate it with a Seminar on the future of Library and Information Science Education and Research.

The Seminar will provide “an opportunity to look back over the achievements and failings of the European LIS Curriculum Project developed in 2005 by EUCLID and to discuss the future of LIS education and research”.

I think this is a very interesting opportunity to see and hear together representatives from leading European LIS schools, and to learn challenges that LIS will have to deal with next years.

Enjoy it!

Andreu Sulé
University of Barcelona