Assignments and Evaluation

There will be no exams in this course. You will be assessed on your participation in class activities and on your practical application of the content covered. Below is a list of the specific assignments and their weights. Due dates of these assignments are listed in the Tentative Schedule. Other details will be distributed in class.

Class contribution (10 marks)
Review of applications of citation analysis in a chosen area (20 marks)
Citation analysis for reference questions or for collection management (20 marks)
Major paper (50 marks)

All assignments are due by 1:00pm on the due date and must be submitted to the instructor’s mailbox. Extensions will only be granted in special situations in advance of an assignment’s due date. Late assignments will be assessed a penalty of 10% of the assignment value per day (i.e., if the assignment value is 20 marks, the late penalty is 2 marks per day).

* Marks are raw scores that are totaled at the end of the course and converted to the University of Alberta’s letter grading scale.

Class contribution

This represents individual contribution for the benefit of the entire class, and is intended to encourage all students to actively participate in the learning process. This includes (but is not limited to): class discussion, small-group interaction, preparatory reading, attendance, attitude, etc. Comments, criticism, and questions are expected to be relevant to the topic, to reflect preparatory reading on the topic, and are expected to be respectful of other students and the instructor. Anticipated absence from class must be communicated to the instructor prior to the class.

At the end of the course, you will be given the opportunity to submit a brief self-assessment of class contribution which will be considered when I assign your class contribution marks.

Review of applications of citation analysis in a chosen area

A critical review of major studies that apply citation analysis in a chosen area, such as patent citation analysis, citation analysis for assessing library resources, and analysis of the social Web.

Citation analysis for reference questions or for collection management

Help a library user get an objective overview of the intellectual structure of a research field, or help a faculty member assess his research for the purpose of application for research funding, or assess the resources for a specialty as part of library collection development.

Major paper

A 15-20 page research paper reporting a small case study you conduct that applies citation analysis theory, methods and techniques to solve a real world problem, whether it is a problem in research, policy or information services.