Kapoor, N; Butler, JT; Fouty, GC; Stemper, JA; Konstan, JA Resolvability of references in users' personal collections INFORMATION RESEARCH-AN INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL, 13 (2): Art. No. 13 JUN 2008

[Eugene Garfield]

Email Address: nkapoor at cs.umn.edu

Author(s): Kapoor, N (Kapoor, Nishikant); Butler, JT (Butler, John T.); 
Fouty, GC (Fouty, Gary C.); Stemper, JA (Stemper, James A.); Konstan, JA 
(Konstan, Joseph A.) 

Title: Resolvability of references in users' personal collections 

Source: INFORMATION RESEARCH-AN INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL, 13 (2): 
Art. No. 13 JUN 2008 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Abstract: Introduction. Digital library users collect, enhance and manage 
their online reference collections to facilitate their research tasks. 
These personal collections, therefore, are likely to reflect users' 
interests, and are representative of their profile. Understanding these 
collections offers great opportunities for developing personalized digital 
library services, such as reference recommender systems.

Method. We recruited subjects by individual e-mails to the users of 
RefWorks - a web-based personal reference management tool installed for 
use at the University of Minnesota. To participate, subjects needed to 
give their consent and share their references with us. 96 subjects 
participated, majority ( 65) of who were graduate students, resulting into 
30,336 references. Based on the type of the reference, these were 
stratified into one of the three valid identifying IDs - DOI, ISBN, or 
URL. Multiple reference resolvers (CrossRef, WorldCat) were used to 
enhance the overall resolvability of these collections.

Analysis. Descriptive statistics and simple graphics analysis were used to 
describe the dataset.
Results. Over 90% of the total references in users' personal collections 
could possibly have a valid ID ( DOI, ISBN, URL), and therefore, are 
potentially resolvable. However, only about 17% of the references in these 
collections had a valid ID, and fewer than 11% actually resolved 
successfully. Using a combination of reference resolvers, the total 
resolvability of the references in these collections was enhanced from 
under 11% to over 41%.

Conclusions. Users' personal reference collections have a tremendous 
potential of building, supporting, and enhancing personalized digital 
library services, such as reference recommender systems. 
Addresses: Univ Minnesota, Dept Comp Sci & Engn, Grp Lens Res, 
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA; Univ Minnesota, Univ Lib, Minneapolis, MN 55455 
USA 

Reprint Address: Kapoor, N, Univ Minnesota, Dept Comp Sci & Engn, Grp Lens 
Res, 200 Union St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA. 

Cited Reference Count: 10 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: UNIV SHEFFIELD DEPT INFORMATION STUDIES 

Publisher Address: UNIV SHEFFIELD, WESTERN BANK, SHEFFIELD S10 2TN, S 
YORKS, ENGLAND 

ISSN: 1368-1613 

29-char Source Abbrev.: INF RES 

ISO Source Abbrev.: Inf. Res. 

Source Item Page Count: 9 

Subject Category: Information Science & Library Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 324GO 

CARPENTER MP
CLUSTERING OF SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE 24 : 425 1973 

GARFIELD E
CITATION INDEXES FOR SCIENCE - NEW DIMENSION IN DOCUMENTATION THROUGH 
ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS
SCIENCE 122 : 108 1955 

KESSLER MM
BIBLIOGRAPHIC COUPLING BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
AMERICAN DOCUMENTATION 14 : 10 1963 

MALTZ D
CHI 95 : 202 1995 

MCNEE S
P ACM 2002 C COMP SU : 116 2002 

MCNEE SM
P 2006 ANN C COMP SU : 2006 

MIDDLETON SE
Ontological user profiling in recommender systems 
ACM TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS 22 : 54 2004 

RASHID AM
P INT C INT US INT 7 : 127 2002 

SMALL H
COCITATION IN SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE - NEW MEASURE OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 
2 DOCUMENTS
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE 24 : 265 1973 

TORRES R
P ACM IEEE JOINT C D : 228