PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore recent trends in the application of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 features as exemplified through university library web sites around the world.Design/methodology/approachThe top 100 universities from the ranked list of 200 provided on the Times Higher Education web site were considered for collection of data and from this list a selection was made of 57 of these universities. This selection was based on whether the site was in English and whether it had at least one Web 2.0 feature. For each of these universities their web sites were visited and data on their Web 2.0 features (such as Blogs, RSS, Instant Messaging, Wikis and the like) were collected and analyzed.FindingsResults reveal that 37 university libraries use RSS feeds for dissemination of library news, events and announcements and 15 university libraries provide blog space for users. Whereas wiki is the least applied Web 2.0 technology, with only one university using it, Instant Messaging is another most widely applied feature with 37 libraries already providing reference service through it. Podcast (used in three libraries) and Vidcast (used in six libraries) are yet to become popular facilities to be offered in university library web sites.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on the university ranking for 2007, as the World Top 200 Universities 2008 was not published until October 2008 when this article was being finalized. However, this does not affect the outcome of the Web 2.0 features being utilized by the universities.Originality/valueMost of the earlier studies on the subject deal with Web 2.0 tools and how they could be used in the library context. The present paper, however, provides concrete evidence of the application of Web 2.0 in university libraries. As such it should prove of interest to all types of libraries, even though its context is university libraries.

Nowadays, the whole World is under threat of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many fatalities and forced scientific communities to foster their Research and Development (R & D) activities. As a result, there is an enormous growth of scholarly literature on the subject. In order to combat this novel coronavirus, the open access to scientific literature is essential. On this line, many reputed academic institutions and publication firms have made their literature on COVID-19 accessible to all. By maintaining the database of updated information on global literature on Coronavirus disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) is playing a pivotal role. The present study analyzed 89 Indian publications on SARS-CoV-2 accessible through WHO COVID-19 database. The research data was restricted for the period of 2/3/2020 to 12/5/2020. The analysis was carried out in light of the objectives of the study. The study found the considerable and constant growth of Indian publications on COVID-19 from mid-April. It is interesting to note that the prolific authors belong to either AIIMS or ICMR institutes. Majority of the COVID-19 articles were found to be collaborative publications. The study noticed that no research publications on COVID-19 have appeared from North Eastern region. Regarding the research output on COVID-19, the performance of largest states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar was found to be poor. Delhi state contributed highest publications on COVID-19. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi was the most productive institution in terms of publications. It is also important to note that the central government undertakings like AIIMS and ICMR, New Delhi and its affiliated institutions shared largest proportion of publications on COVID-19. The Indian Journal of Medical Research has emerged as the productive journal contributing highest number of the publications. The highest contribution in COVID-19 research takes the form of journal articles. In terms of research area, the majority of the publications were related to Epidemiology. The study reported covid, coronavirus, India, pandemic, sars etc. as the frequently occurred keywords in the COVID-19 publications. The highly cited publications were of evidenced based studies. It is observed that the studies pertaining to virology, diagnosis and treatment, clinical features etc. have received highest citations than general studies on epidemiology or pandemic

The 21 authors of this study, 19 of whom are non-native English speakers, reflect on the barriers to publishing academic journal articles in top international journals. Each author responded to the same set of questions pertaining to educational (PhD) opportunities for emerging scholars, financial conditions for researchers, and challenges in publishing their work. Limited English language skills, lack of research funding, and different research topics were identified as the most significant barriers to publish in the journals. Recruiting volunteers or using electronic translations for accepted articles for journals, reducing software and subscription to academic journals costs, expanding journal scope, and providing guidance and collaboration across borders are possible measures to reduce the negative impact of the barriers.

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 has impacted the world in an unprecedented way. More than 200 countries have been affected because of this novel coronavirus. Global public health, economy and society have all faced near breakdown. There is a surge for identifying vaccine or repurposing existing drugs for this virus. OBJECTIVE An attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive overview on clinical trials that are being conducted in India on COVID-19. Type of clinical trials, study designs, DCGI approval status of trials, allopathic and Ayurvedic interventions and other characteristics of COVID-19 clinical trials have been analyzed in this study METHODS Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI) was used as the data source for the study. COVID-19 Clinical trials registered up to 14th July 2020 was collected using following keywords “SARS-CoV-2, Novel Coronavirus or Corona Virus, or Coronavirus and COVID or COVID-19. After excluding repeated or trials registered by non-Indian countries 312 clinical trials were considered for the final analysis. RESULTS Interventional studies were more compared to observations studies, most of the clinical trials were investigating AYUSH related interventions as an effective therapeutics compared evidence based allopathic interventional drugs or medicines. There were six vaccine candidates under clinical trials in India. Four trials were examining the safety and efficacy of BCG as a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Of the 312 trials 12.50% of the trials have obtained DCGI approval. Most of the studies were phase 2 & 3 trials, 82% trials were yet to start recruiting participants for their clinical trials. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a detailed overview of ongoing Indian clinical trials on COVID-19. This study is useful for researchers, policymakers for prioritizing research on COVID-19 and for general public to understand and aware about the Indian efforts in clinical research on COVID-19.

Publications without authorship information have been indexed as anonymous in the Web of Science database over the years. However, discussions on this subject have not been sufficiently addressed in the scholarly literature. Since bibliometrics studies are widely used for bibliometricians, scientific disciplines, science policy, and management, missing significant data as authorship metadata characterizes a gray zone that directly impacts these three components, and by extension, for bibliometrics and scientometrics. With a data collection performed at Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), 1,420,842 documents under "anonymous" authorship from 1900 to 2021 were retrieved, which accounted for 1.5% of the total documents indexed in the WoSCC. The publication data such as yearly growth of research publications, document type, language, productive research areas, and other bibliometric indicators were analyzed. The findings showed that in absolute numbers, a considerable growth of anonymous publications between 1996 and 2009, and there was a downward trend after that. However, this increase has not been proportional to the growth in the total number of publications indexed in the WoSCC. Articles, editorial materials, and news items were the top three document types among the WoSCC-indexed publications as anonymous. This study also finds two main scenarios of indexing publications as anonymous. The first is associated with the historical context of scholarly communication and practices that persist. The second is characterized by indexing persistent problems. This study suggests minimizing the error in databases, enabling an error-free indexing system and accurate bibliometrics studies.

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Distance learning has become a permeating and growing phenomenon. The increased demand for education showed that there is a greater need among working adults to continue their education. However, most adult workers are not able to continue their studies using the conventional means due to their work and family commitments. Distance education provides the flexibility for them to continue their studies. Moreover, the distance education is mainly intended for the people who can’t be able continue their education due to the geographical distance, economical status, cultural and traditional reasons, still there exist a large DISTANCE between the these people and the distance learning institutes in making aware of the programs, courses and in bringing effective outcomes. This paper attempts to screen out the distance between people and the distance learning institutes. Also evolution, statistics and various programs of distance learning education (DLE) have been critically reviewed. Finally, the history, opportunities, issues and challenges of DLE have been analyzed and some recommendations have been proposed in order to make the program effective. This paper brings out the positive suggestion to enhance the pass out ratio by implementing the proposed model.