How academic librarians involve and contribute in research activities of universities? A systematic demonstration in practice through comparative studies of research productivities and research impacts

Abstract

Participating in research and teaching activities of universities, and then providing valuable information and policy suggestions are an important task of academic librarians. This paper demonstrates systematically in practice that how academic librarians can involve and contribute in the research activities of universities. Our demonstration is launched through comparative studies of research productivities and research impacts among universities. These universities are divided into two counterparts. One is the Chinese universities which aim to construct the world-class mathematics discipline, and the other is the university which already owns the world-class mathematics discipline. During these comparative studies, we demonstrate in practice that how to seek the research question, how to collect and process the data, how to design the research methods, how to analyze the data, and how to propose policy suggestions. Contributions of this paper are twofold. The first aspect is a systematic demonstration in practice. This demonstration shows to academic librarians that how to involve and contribute in the research activities of universities. The academic librarianship thus can be strengthened, as it provides a way for us academic librarians to promote our roles in teaching and research activities of universities. The second aspect is to gain insights in the research productivities and research impacts of Chinese universities which aim to construct the world-class mathematics discipline. During this process, we design a bibliometric indicator for evaluating the research impacts of universities based on academic papers, launch comparative studies with the university that already owns the world-class mathematics discipline, and propose policy suggestions for China to scientifically achieve its goal. This also provides references for other countries to launch similar studies.