Muhammad Ramzan’s research while affiliated with Fico and other places

This study aimed to explore the determinants of quality, quantity, impact, and excellence of the research produced by the most productive and the highly cited researchers of Pakistan. The study also presented the profile of these impactful and the most prolific researchers of Pakistan. 134 highly cited and the most productive researchers constitute a group of PERs (Pakistani elite researchers). This group of elite researchers produced one-fourth of the country’s scholarly research and received 40% citations’ share over the period of study, from 2009 to 2018. Based on its findings the study provided multiple policy recommendations for researchers, research institutes, policy-makers, the government of Pakistan, and the administrators of universities. The study recommended the researchers to collaborate internationally and publish their research in good quality and open access journals for greater visibility and impact. The study further recommended enhancing the academic-corporate collaboration for user insight-based research. The study found that Islamabad based academic institutions have employed almost half of the elite researchers while the rest half of these researchers are affiliated with the institutions of the rest of the whole country. The majority of the journals publishing scholarly output of Pakistani elite researchers are based in the USA and European countries. Only 12 (0.32%) journals belonged to Pakistan. Besides international collaboration, industry collaboration was in place for this group of elite researchers. The key determinants of research quantity/quality, impact, and excellence were publications published in 1st and 2nd journals quartiles, journals having impact factor/citescore, open access publications, and international collaborations.

Social Media (SM) provides a range of possibilities for libraries to provide services out from traditional ways and means as modern life has been influenced greatly and massively by the internet. Owing to the amazing advancement of services given through the internet, libraries and information centers have to change and perform efficiently to convene the information needs of modern users. Libraries must use the modern SM tools to enhance and thrive in this age of the internet. Currently, libraries are adopting these tools in their services to satisfy the information and research needs of the users. SM applications in libraries drive to convene the growing and varying prospects of library clients. This paper aims to investigate the use of SM to enhance library effectiveness in Pakistani libraries. The study is based on a survey that was administered through survey monkey. The data of 71 filled questionnaires were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results show that 73.2% of respondents started using social media after 2008, and the top users are university libraries (53.52%). 76.1 % using Facebook, but 56.3 % believe in the usefulness of blogs/blogging. Professional networking (74.6%) is the main purpose of using SM, followed by the promotion of library services (69%). Three main challenges in using SM at libraries are 1) technical problems, 2) restrictions on using social media at the office; and 3) low internet connection.

Introduction. This study investigated librarians’ attitudes towards application of information technology in academic libraries and interrelationship between their attitudes and different factors of their professional and personal traits. Method. Primary data was collected from 288 academic librarians working across Pakistan. Analysis. Answers from 219 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis through frequency runs, cross-tabulation, Pearson correlation coefficient, and t-test.. Results. The findings revealed, overall, that respondents showed slightly positive attitudes towards information technology. However, several librarians were confused over the ownership of information technology applications in libraries. A significant relationship was determined between librarians’ information technology attitudes and availability and usage of information technology in libraries, expenditure on information technology, librarians’ expertise in information technology, their awareness about new technologies, experience in computer usage, information technology training, academic qualifications, and experience as librarians. No significant relationship was found between librarians’ information technology attitudes and library budget, size of libraries, type of libraries, location and librarians’ gender. Conclusions. One of the outcomes of this study is that the information technologyattitudes of librarians have been found to be positively associated with the libraries’ information technologyavailability level and librarians’ expertise in information technology. Therefore, a significant effort is needed to enhance the librarians’ positivity towards application of information technologyin libraries. This requires librarians’ exposure to, and experience of latest technologies. Librarians’ role in information technology-related decision making needs to be enhanced.