International Journal of Information Science and Management
Volume:21 Issue: 4, Autumn 2023

The dark web is considered an expansion of the deep web, intentionally hidden from the surface web. It can only be accessed with a particular group of browsers that allow the user to stay anonymous while navigating the dark web. With the untraceable hidden layer of the Internet and the anonymity of the users associated with the dark web, several impressive cybercrimes have been reported. This paper aims to examine the impact of the dark web on society. The article systematically reviews relevant academic literature and books to understand how the dark web works and its societal effects. The study has found that the dark web is an enabler of several cybercrimes. Moreover, while governments and regulatory authorities have introduced strategic detection techniques on the dark web, cybercriminals are adaptive towards the strategies and, given time, will usually find ways to bypass such detection techniques. It is recommended that the regulatory authorities and cyber threat intelligence periodically review the detection techniques for effective monitoring. Furthermore, security agencies or forensic analysts should ensure that they are updated with the latest scientific knowledge on the safe management of the dark web by undertaking more training in cyber security. There is also a need for further research to focus on awareness campaigns about the dangers of the dark web.

Influence identification, one of the compelling applications of Social Network Analysis (SNA) is gaining immense attention in scientific literature analytics. Existing influence identification techniques in the scientific domain majorly explore scientific collaborations (co-author and co-citation networks) of researchers. Standard centrality algorithms are widely applied for this purpose. The emergence of digital scholarly platforms allows researchers to build their social community in the scientific environment. Few scholarly platforms maintain social media like follower and following relations apart from co-authorships and co-citations of researchers. This research examines the impact of followers and followings on influence identification in the scientific domain. The real scientific information from widely utilized digital scholarly platforms: ResearchGate (RG) and Academia is extracted. From the collected information, scholarly networks are constructed based on follower-following relations. Standard centrality algorithms are implemented to identify the influence of these networks. The results are compared with i) the researcher’s influence scores provided by RG and Academia ii) three legitimate global ranking lists of researchers. The outcome suggested that, like SNA, social collaborations among researchers in terms of followers and followings significantly impact influence identification in the scientific domain.

The study aims to analyze altmetric indices at the journal level in the field of oncology and also examine the relationship between altmetric indicators and citation-based indicators of the journals. The study includes an analytical approach. Altmetric indices were exported from Altmetric Explorer database, and citation-based indicators of oncology journals were gathered through Scopus in Microsoft Excel. SPSS software was utilized to analyze data inferentially and descriptively. The highest level of altmetric attention score belonged to CA-A CANCER JOURNAL FOR CLINICIANS in 2019. Twitter is the most used social media to share research outputs in oncology. There is a significant, positive, and moderate relationship between Altmetric Coverage and citation-based indicators (SNIP, SJR, and CiteScore). Additionally, a significant, positive, and moderate relationship exists between Mean Altmetric Score and citation-based indicators (SNIP, SJR, and CiteScore). Journals, including high citation-based indicators in the field of oncology, are more likely to get more visibility via various social media. Researchers and policymakers could use altmetric indices via social media (such as Twitter) to improve health knowledge, connect the public and academics, and share clinical guides to enhance public health and reveal non-traditional scientific impact.

Cloud computing (CC) has been a buzzword in recent years. The application of cloud computing has been seen in almost all domains. It has also sparked interest in Libraries and the Information field because it provides new solutions to the emerging problem. The study aims to map LIS's global cloud computing literature between 2010 and 2021. Scientometric methods were employed to gauge the global research performance on cloud computing LIS. The analysis also identifies the leading countries, Institutions, authors, sources, funding agencies, authorship pattern, international collaboration, and most used author keywords on CC literature in LIS. The research data were retrieved from the Scopus database. 808 publications were downloaded and analyzed with the help of bibliometric tools such as Biblioshiny, Bibexcel, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. The study results showed that research on cloud computing in LIS has a mounting trend in publications and citations during the 12-year study period. The highest number of research papers were published in 2020 (n=135), China produced the maximum research in the field with 194 publications, and the top three organizations identified from Taiwan contributed the maximum research. Cloud computing, big data, and Knowledge Management were acknowledged as LIS researchers' most important research area. However, e-learning, library services, systematic reviews, bibliometrics, and blockchain have gained recent research absorption. Two authorship patterns were the most prevalent among the LIS researchers, and the authors from China and the USA preferred to collaborate highest in the field.

For many years now, big data has revolutionized the world. Today, companies know that creating the most value from their data is essential for their growth. However, not all big data projects are successful; in fact, it is fundamental for companies to make the correct assessment of their capabilities and identify the potential problems to address before the starting point, and this is through maturity models. In previous work, we proposed a new Maturity Model and its framework to track companies’ progress toward successful big data implementation. We identified and categorized the factors influencing big data projects into six categories: strategy alignment, data, people, governance, technology, and methodology. The model provided a final score representing the readiness level for an organization to start its big data implementation. In this paper, we focus specifically on the Global Big Data Maturity assessment tool results. We analyze the importance of maturity domains and detail the final score calculation method using the AHP technique. For this research, we reached out to nineteen North African companies’ big data experts to give us input about their ongoing projects, and the steps are: (1) Collect nineteen big data expert’s ranks for each maturity domain using online forms; (2) Use these ranks alongside the Analytic Hierarchy Process method to have the domain’s weights, which were [0.173, 0.278, 0.128; 0.190; 0.064; 0.166], respectively for the domains [strategy alignment, data, people, governance, technology, and methodology]; Then (3) use the domain’s weights alongside assessment inputs, to calculate accurate weighted scores. As a result, AHP ranks show that the data dimension has the most impact on big data projects’ success, followed by strategy, methodology, governance, people, and, last but not least, technology. The framework dashboards show that most interviewed North African companies have great big data maturity levels.

This paper provides a systematic review of scientific resources to determine the components and indicators of the scholarly publication system. The research community includes 1070 documents from Scopus and the Web of Science databases. Another researcher was used to determine the degree of accuracy, reliability, and quality of the final documents, and the agreement between the two researchers was calculated with the Kappa coefficient. Finally, 331 documents were studied in full text. Possible components and indicators were identified from these documents, and their information was entered into Excel software. Based on the frequency and similarity of the contents, the conceptual framework of the scholarly publication system was designed. Research findings show that the main components of this system include infrastructure, technology, management, access, evaluation, support, language, communication, control, education, and ethics. Each of the components also has specific indicators and sub-indicators. Some issues, such as rights, laws, regulations, standards, repositories, scientific players, and centers, are not mentioned among the components because these concepts are integrated into other parts.

The present study elaborated on the impact of online service convenience on the adoption intention and adoption of electronic information resources. Factors of service convenience have been identified as access convenience, search convenience, evaluation convenience, transaction convenience, and possession/ post-possession convenience.  Data were collected from 205 Ph.D. scholars and faculty members from Central Government Institutes in Northern India. The received responses have been analyzed and presented with the help of PLS-SEM using ADANCO 2.2 software. The present study's findings suggested a significant impact of access, search, transaction, and possession/ post-possession convenience. However, evaluation convenience has been found insignificant in arousing adoption intention for electronic information resources. The uniqueness of the present study lies in elaborating on the unexplored area of online service convenience concerning electronic information resources.

Information literacy is an essential skill of the 21st century in pursuing information and knowledge. Incorporating it into the College of Education curriculum should be an integral education component. A survey research approach was used to identify different information literacy skills possessed by 83 Level 200 students in a Ghanaian College of Education. The study's significant findings disclosed that most students are not used to Boolean operators and truncation to retrieve information. It also emerged that students are trained in information literacy skills in research methodology, library instruction, and the use of computers. Challenges faced by the students in learning information literacy skills are overcrowded lecture halls and insufficient learning materials. The study adds to the existing literature on information literacy and indicates the urgency, relevance, and need for all Colleges of Education in Ghana to integrate the course into their curriculum.

Cloud storage technology is attracting more attention due to the increasing implementation of technology in everyday life. The present study aims to assess Iranian iCloud users' richness of information security awareness at the three levels of knowledge, attitude, and behavior, based on six aspects required for adhering to information security policies. Accordingly, in this study, the self-reported data of 384 Iranian users of Apple products (IUAP) were investigated using a questionnaire designed by a researcher. Then, the data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel software. This research showed that the average information security awareness of IUAP is 3.22 out of 5, a slightly higher than average score using a quantitative approach and descriptive statistics,. Almost three-quarters of them use iCloud, mainly because of its easy access to information. It also assesses various aspects and examples of information security awareness and behaviors that indicate compliance with information security policies. Finally, the general knowledge of Iranian iCloud users about the components of information security awareness is estimated to be 73.83, which is relatively low and unsatisfactory, showing that more attention and training are needed. Moreover, this study prioritizes different components of information security awareness.

Today, academic research plays a very influential role in the economic development of countries. These researches are often recorded and disseminated in the form and structure of theses and dissertations in scientific institutes. The better the quality of this data in the systems that collect and distribute it, the more it can be used and exploited by organizations and businesses. Therefore, providing this data requires proper monitoring to put the output of the recording and dissemination process in good condition. This paper offers a framework for evaluating theses and dissertation data quality. In the framework, the data inconsistency coding structure is introduced and presented in Word and PDF files and in the form of metadata (bibliographic information). The approaches presented in data quality methodologies (TDQM and DWQ) are also used to provide solutions to improve data quality in the provisioning phase. At this stage, approaches such as owner attribution to data or process, root cause analysis, process control, and continuous monitoring are considered. The focus group method determines the operational strategies for quality improvement. Finally, process-oriented techniques, such as quality control checklists and image processing, and data-driven approaches, such as data cleansing, are localized and developed in this section to improve the quality of theses/dissertation documents. The provided improvement solutions were categorized into two different groups. Guiding the user in the "Theses/Dissertations" registration process is identified as a process-driven category. On the other hand, introducing a specific format for "Theses/Dissertations" files and resolving the quality issues of PDF files were among the data-driven solutions.

Knowledge Management tools (KMTs) have become the engine oil that lubricates the various library operations carried out on daily basis in university libraries. The librarians rely on the execution of different tasks through the support of KMTs and the application of tacit knowledge. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of knowledge management tools (KMTs) in support of university libraries, with evidence from Nigeria and South Africa. The issue that necessitates this study was the increasing influx of information and knowledge in diverse formats; the complexity of library routines, thus requiring librarians to do more than envisaged, hence the support of KMTs in university library operations. The quantitative research approach rooted in survey research design was applied in this study. A total population of 132 librarians, 77 from Nigeria and 55 from South Africa across the two countries’ university libraries was used as a sample size. The purposive sampling technique was done in two ways. Universities were chosen and then stratified to select participants. Results revealed that different KM tools of search engines, semantic web, information retrieval tools among others, were available and used to support operations of information service delivery and manage databases/institutional repositories in the selected university libraries in Nigeria and South Africa. Several strategies were used to strengthen service delivery in both countries’ university libraries. The study recommends the acquisition of more KMTs such as artificial intelligence, simulation tools among others, which could address specific operations for service delivery and reskilling of librarians on how to use these tools.

This study aims to identify the characteristics of the information literacy learning environment (ILLE) for primary school students in Iran. This research was done by qualitative method and using content analysis. The statistical population was divided into two parts: 1) literature related to the INTE and 2) experts in the field of Information Literacy (IL). A researcher-made checklist was used to collect information in the first part, which was exploratory. The data collection tool from the second part of the community was the Delphi panel questionnaire, which was implemented in two stages. The results showed that ILLE has four dimensions for primary school students in Iran: educator, school library, classroom space, and educational resources. Considering these dimensions, categories, and sub-categories, it can be expected that a suitable environment will be provided for implementing IL programs in primary schools in Iran. Training administrators, curriculum developers, and information literacy educators can use this study's findings to improve ILLE to develop students with information literacy skills. This study is the first comprehensive study conducted in Iran that sought to identify the ILLE for primary school students. The findings are useful in providing a suitable environment for IL within schools in Iran and other countries.

The quantitative research study used scientometrics methods to compare the readership of nursing journal articles shared on Mendeley and the frequency of citations of these articles in Scopus. The sample size included all articles published in 110 nursing journals over two years, and the data was collected using Mendeley Altmetrics, Scopus citation analysis, and SCImago Journal Rank list. The frequency of readership on Mendeley and the frequency of citations in Scopus were analyzed using Spearman's test and SPSS software. The results showed a positive and significant correlation between the frequency of readership in Mendeley and the frequency of citations in Scopus, with a moderate relationship between them. The Spearman's test result was 0.649 for the first year and 0.539 for the second year, at a significance level of 0.001. The study concluded that Mendeley and Scopus can be used to evaluate the quality of articles and ranking journals. However, qualitative evaluation is also needed to determine the appropriate measurement tools and their prioritization. The study suggests that the results can be used by researchers, editors, and publishers to evaluate the impact of their work and to make informed decisions about future publishing strategies.

Managers strive for comprehensive, reliable, and flexible solutions to evaluate their organization's performance. Nonetheless, recognizing practical performance components has always remained relatively unanswered among managers and researchers. Accordingly, the present study aims to identify the elements influencing sustainable performance management processes considering research literature in the contingent field and eventually pinpointing potentially relevant elements. These elements would assist managers, specifically human resource managers, pursue their objectives. Researchers have already identified keywords related to the research topic by employing meta-word analysis and brainstorming methods with the help of Qiqqa software. Afterward, using VOSviewer, they extracted the vocabulary items of the co-occurrence network. This network and the hotspots identified hereafter established a solid foundation for meta-synthesis, taken as a meta-synthesis approach in this study. Then, four contingent keywords, including “sustainable development”, “sustainable development management”, “sustainable performance development”, and “sustainable performance management,” were considered to explore and analyze scholarly global databases such as Emerald, Proquest, SID, and Web of Science, as well as Google Scholar database and the dissertations defended by postgraduate students. Sources initially entering this research included 312 studies in full text, of which 80 were excluded due to lack of inclusion criteria. Eventually, the contents of the remaining 232 articles were surveyed. The number of overarching themes stands at one constructive theme, four primary themes, and seven, and the frequency of extracted codes hit 513. The findings of this research demonstrated that the components of innovation, technology, supply chain, organizational knowledge, economic, social, and environmental factors could cover all aspects of performance evaluation and would introduce a new literature called “Sustainable Performance Management” into the management field. The components of innovation, technology, supply chain, and organizational knowledge fail to be identified except through meta-synthesis and library analysis. This unprecedented aspect of the present study makes it distinguishable from previous studies. Considering this article's findings, managers, researchers, and other related professionals will be able to conceptualize and comprehend performance management issues in an alternative way. Consequently, human resource managers could identify components related to the sustainability of organizational performance management and put them into research and practice.

Defence Science Journal (DSJ) is the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), India's peer-reviewed research journal in defense science and technology research. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of 1855 scholarly communications published in the journal during 1994 and 2020. The publications have been searched, identified, and downloaded from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection Database for 27 years, i.e., from 1994 to 2020. Software such as bibliometrix R-package Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, HistCite, and BibExcel have been successfully used to analyze the collected data. The study covers different features like types of documents, growth patterns, prolific authors, countries and institutions, and most cited sources. The majority of the publications were published in 2017. Researchers from the native country, India contributed the maximum number of articles (1405). The findings further indicate that the most prolific institution is the Indian Institute of Technology, which ranks top with 206 publications. The present study highlights the theoretical and empirical importance of the publications published in the DSJ over the past 27 years.

This research aimed to specify research trends in Library and Information Science (LIS) from 2011 to 2020 and hot papers in this field from July 2020 to July 2021 in the Web of Science (WoS) database. This research was of the type applied, scientometric, and descriptive. The study population was all articles in the field of LIS from 2011 to July 2021. The WoS database was used to collect data. To determine the research trend in the field of LIS, the results were limited to 2011-2020, and to determine the hot papers, this period was limited to July 2020 to July 2021. The obtained data were analyzed using the word co-occurrence technique and social network analysis. UCINET, NetDraw, and VOSviewer software were used to draw scientific maps and identify central subjects and people. "Social media" with 259 and "qualitative" with 53 were the keywords with the highest and lowest frequencies, respectively. Library and emerging technologies (106), citation analysis, scientometrics and webometrics (58), electronic information, information security, and protection (56) were three significant topic clusters in the studied area. The results indicated that the research topics in LIS have changed and evolved in the last ten years despite new and up-to-date topics.

The Liposome is a spherical-shaped vesicle composed of one or more phospholipid bilayers, closely resembling cell membranes' structure. It has a novel drug delivery system (NDDS); the lipid bilayer can fuse with other bilayers, such as the cell membrane, thus delivering the liposome contents. The present study has been conducted to map the research productivity of 'liposomes as drug delivery' between 1980 and 2021. This study employed the scientometric method to analyze 629 research papers indexed in the Web of Science database. Different bibliometrics indicators were used to assess the annual research growth, prolific authors, authorship pattern, funding agencies, productive source, organization, country, author keywords, cited paper and cited references, etc. Biblioshiny, Bibexcel, VOSviewer, and MS Office were used to analyze the 629 published papers. The findings show that 629 publications were published between 1980 and 2001, with 24674 citations. 2018 and 2019 recorded the highest research with 49 publications and 758 and 471 citations, respectively. Journal of Controlled Release was the most relevant source in the field, with 45 publications and 3063 citations. LIU Y was the most productive author, with 15 publications and 342 citations. Northwestern University USA has the highest record with 11 publications, and the USA was the most productive country with 181 publications, while China emerged as a leading collaborator with the USA (19 publications). Liposomes and cationic liposomes were identified as the most important research themes. Permeability, ocular drug delivery, Chemotherapy, Cancer therapy, Hypoxia, Combination therapy, and hyaluronic acid were research topics that had gained recent popularity. At the same time, Vesicles targeted drug delivery, cellular uptake, ultrasound, Chitosan, and Pegylation were identified as the research areas that require further attention in the field of liposomes as drug delivery research.