I am just back from an amazing few days of sea kayaking and sunshine on Georgian Bay. We paddled out from Chikanishing Creek in Killarney Provincial Park and spent a few days on the Fox Islands to get away from jobs, school, and the constant preoccupations of the city. I couldn't resist taking a little information-related reading with me, though. So, here is my short review of a brand new title at the Faculty of Information's library: Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age.
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| The perfect reading spot on Centre Fox Island |
Bugeja, M. & Dimitrova, D. V. (2010). Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age. Duluth, MN: Library Juice Press.
Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age presents readers with a brief, 61-page discussion of the problem of disappearing online references in academic journal articles and books. The authors’ primary argument is that as online citations begin to disappear, the basis for peer review, theory testing, and experiment replication are compromised. As a result, they suggest, the problem of eroding online citations threatens the fundamental foundations of scholarship.
Vanishing Act is based on over seven years of research conducted by authors Bugeja and Dimitrova, both professors at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. The book focuses specifically on data from a four-year period between 2000 and 2003 in which the authors surveyed and monitored the rate of decay of online citations in several prominent journalism and communications journals. Their study shows that within four years, an average of over 50% of online citations in the journals they surveyed had disappeared. This quantitative data is supplemented with the results of interviews conducted with the editors of those same journals surveyed. The survey data, interview data, and presentation of methods used are the main strength of the book. Indeed, Vanishing Act prompts questions about the technical reasons for online citation decay as well as deeper theoretical questions about scholarly practices and information management in the digital age.
However, while Vanishing Act does a good job of drawing our attention to the problem of eroding online citations, the book’s main weakness is that the authors do not provide a strong context for their results and arguments. If we are to accept that the problem is as important for the future of scholarship as the authors suggest it is, a more in-depth analysis and critique are vital. Additionally, the presentation of the results themselves could be expanded. For instance, Chapter 4, The Half-Life of Online Footnotes, would be more compelling if it included more results in the text itself rather than directing readers to Appendices C and D for results and Chapter 5, What, In Fact, Causes Footnotes to Vanish?, would benefit greatly from a more detailed explanation of some of the technical reasons that footnotes vanish and more detailed examples from the authors’ own observations over the course of their research.
Overall, Vanishing Act provides a brief but useful and accessible introduction to an information management problem that should be of interest to information professionals from researchers, professors, librarians, and systems designers alike. The authors conclude by asking who holds responsibility for the vanishing references and ephemeral sources of the Internet age. Certainly, it seems, all information professionals have important roles to play in examining, documenting, explaining, and resolving the issues raised here.
Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age presents readers with a brief, 61-page discussion of the problem of disappearing online references in academic journal articles and books. The authors’ primary argument is that as online citations begin to disappear, the basis for peer review, theory testing, and experiment replication are compromised. As a result, they suggest, the problem of eroding online citations threatens the fundamental foundations of scholarship.
Vanishing Act is based on over seven years of research conducted by authors Bugeja and Dimitrova, both professors at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. The book focuses specifically on data from a four-year period between 2000 and 2003 in which the authors surveyed and monitored the rate of decay of online citations in several prominent journalism and communications journals. Their study shows that within four years, an average of over 50% of online citations in the journals they surveyed had disappeared. This quantitative data is supplemented with the results of interviews conducted with the editors of those same journals surveyed. The survey data, interview data, and presentation of methods used are the main strength of the book. Indeed, Vanishing Act prompts questions about the technical reasons for online citation decay as well as deeper theoretical questions about scholarly practices and information management in the digital age.
However, while Vanishing Act does a good job of drawing our attention to the problem of eroding online citations, the book’s main weakness is that the authors do not provide a strong context for their results and arguments. If we are to accept that the problem is as important for the future of scholarship as the authors suggest it is, a more in-depth analysis and critique are vital. Additionally, the presentation of the results themselves could be expanded. For instance, Chapter 4, The Half-Life of Online Footnotes, would be more compelling if it included more results in the text itself rather than directing readers to Appendices C and D for results and Chapter 5, What, In Fact, Causes Footnotes to Vanish?, would benefit greatly from a more detailed explanation of some of the technical reasons that footnotes vanish and more detailed examples from the authors’ own observations over the course of their research.
Overall, Vanishing Act provides a brief but useful and accessible introduction to an information management problem that should be of interest to information professionals from researchers, professors, librarians, and systems designers alike. The authors conclude by asking who holds responsibility for the vanishing references and ephemeral sources of the Internet age. Certainly, it seems, all information professionals have important roles to play in examining, documenting, explaining, and resolving the issues raised here.
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