Contents
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Project Management of Assignments
Guidelines for the preparation of Dissertations/Project Reports
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Final Project Proposal and Research Methodology
Introduction
The
Bachelor's and/or Diplomat's Project should reflect the participant's
knowledge of methods of conducting applied
business
research, the ability to solve management problems
and the use of practical analytical skills in dealing
with complex problems and the variety of information
available.
Emphasis should be on usefulness of the findings and the extent to which they are actionable.
A major requirement is that the participants should demonstrate a knowledge of theoretical concepts and investigative skills and apply them to practical situations relating to their work environment or a company they know well.
The important qualities to be demonstrated are the ability to:
- Select and organise facts.
- Differentiate between facts and opinions.
- Develop arguments in a logical way.
- Show originality.
- Develop and implement conclusions.
Appropriate techniques, methods of material selection and investigation procedure will have to be followed. See Research Methodology Workshop.
Clarity of argument, proper documentation and effectiveness of the presentation have to be achieved as well as the competent use of research techniques and understanding of relevant concepts in the field of management.
To provide a valuable and useful research study, the participant should take account of work already done on the subject and make sure that the work has comparative value and is of practical application to the respective field of study.
Proper
credit must be given to the sources used in the study. Objective,
reliable reporting of factual information, an analytical approach
and a professional style of presentation are important.
Aim
The Bachelors or Diplomat's project and Dissertation should reflect the Student's knowledge of methods of conducting applied business researchas well as the ability to solve management problems and the use of practical analytical skills in dealing with complex problems and the variety of information available. Emphasis should be placed on generating useful findings that are actionable.
Student's are required to demonstrate a knowledge of theoretical concepts and investigative skills and apply them to practical situations in their work environment. In particular, Students should demonstrate an ability to:
- Select and organise facts.
- Differentiate between facts and opinions
- Develop arguments in a logical way
- Demonstrate originality
- Develop and implement conclusions.
Process
The Dissertation shall be commenced not later than twelve months after the programme commences. It must demonstrate the Student's understanding and use of research methods, of the relevant literature and of report writing for an academic and professional audience. The topic selected must be derived from the environmental challenges faced by the student. The Dissertation/Project Report shall be between 10,000 and 12,000 words in length, including the literature review and shall be accompanied by a 400 word abstract in an acceptable form.
Learning outcomes
On completion of the Bachelors' Dissertation, students will be able to:
1. Explore industry issues and trends using appropriate literature searching, analytical and report writing techniques.
2. Develop a research brief and make decisions as to the appropriateness of different research methods.
3. Apply the practical skills needed to implement research, including the analysis and interpretation of data and the presentation of findings and recommendations.
4. Adopt a constructive, pragmatic and proactive approach to the implementation and management of an organisation-based project.
Project Management of Assignments
Skills resource support for assignments, work-based projects and the Bachelor's or Diplomat's Dissertation.
The
aim of the resource material is to introduce Students
to the basic issues and competences required to undertake
research in a business setting with special reference
to literature searching and review. Further, the aim
is to enable Students to explore a range of tools and
techniques for commencing the research process. Tutor
inputs include: (a) on-line literature searching (b)
techniques for data collection, analysis and interpretation
and (c) preparatory work for the work-based project/dissertation
(defining, researching, writing, evaluating).
The Bachelors or Diplomat's Dissertation/Project Report
By contextualizing learning and extending generic areas of study in the workplace our aim is to optimize the return on investment for the associate and his or her sponsoring organization. In so doing, it is important that the associate is able to draw on the full range of resources deployed in support of the programme of study so that objectives for personal learning and future development, career aspirations and enhanced visibility (via actionable project assignments) are achieved. In essence, this is reflected in the action learning formula (L = P + Q) and the process for managing assignments and the work-based project summarized below.
Relating workplace learning to return on investment: personal and organizational
Students undertaking programmes of study at Bachelors level are required to undertake a major company-based Dissertation. The brief is to relate a detailed review of appropriate literature to the issues that need to be addressed in identifying and actioning solutions to an important organisational development challenge. Target length is 10,000 - 12,000 words (including appendices).
The Dissertation is intended to be an individual piece of work that requires personal initiative and 'breakthrough' style investigation. In keeping with the ethos of action learning, Students should seek to demonstrate their ability to apply concepts, techniques and skills gained from the course and draw from their own experience and the experience and expertise of others. Responsibility for identifying and agreeing a suitable project rests with the Student and his or her sponsoring organisation in consultation with the course team. The Dissertation report should begin with a literature review so as to explore prior work and establish a framework for the organisational study. After this, the methods used in the study itself should be explained and justified in order that information can be collected and analysed in a suitable and meaningful way. Beyond data interpretation, the aim is to draw out the options, recommendations and action lines. The project must be actionable and where possible, an evaluation of action taken during the investigation should be included. The report should conclude with a discussion of the implications and outcomes, with particular reference to personal learning and client deliverables.
As noted above, the Dissertation should seek to address real issues that are of significance to the sponsoring organization. The project should enable the Student to demonstrate that he or she can apply 'P' (programmed knowledge) effectively, in a real setting, which can (and should) yield substantial benefits for the organization and provide a means of evaluating the Student's ability to design and implement an action research project.
Key features of the work-based Dissertation
The project design, implementation and written report should aim to encompass the following:
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An organisational issue that constitutes a key opportunity (improvement, new development) or problem (identify the cause and re-invent the process) in the short to medium term (1 - 5 years). The nature of the 'challenge' might be usefully viewed in the context of four scenarios: 1. Doing a project in an area you know well (familiar situation, familiar task) 2. Doing a familiar project but applying it to a new situation (unfamiliar situation, familiar task) 3. Doing an unfamiliar task project but in a familiar work situation (familiar situation, unfamiliar task) 4. Doing a project in another organizational unit on a new task (unfamiliar situation, unfamiliar task) 5. Careful consideration of the level at which the project is to be conducted - the key factor here is an assessment of the probabilities of success - namely making a significant difference when viewed from 'before' and 'after' perspectives. 6. Careful
consideration of the 'uniqueness' of any given project
- especially where several projects are progressing
in related areas. 7. Responsibility where practicable, for implementing the recommendations of the study. If this is not feasible, Students should identify how relevant others will action the recommendations in consultation with their client and incorporating a statement to this effect from the client in the project report. Regardless of who eventually implements key recommendations, the Student must anticipate outcomes and include an overview of these in his or her project plan. |
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Tutorials
A readiness to do more than data collection, review and recommendation. Ideally this should be demonstrated by taking and evaluating action (as part of the investigation itself) thereby accepting responsibility implementing change and in keeping with the philosophy of action learning, facing and dealing with aspects of risk.
Guidelines for the preparation of Bachelor's or Diplomat's Dissertations/Project Reports
Projects and Dissertations summaries should be submitted in three copies (two hard copies and one on disk) not later than the final Dissertation deadline, which is normally eleven months after commencement of the programme.
The Dissertation/Projects, incorporating the Literature Search and Review, should be 10-12,000 words in length.
The text should be typescript, one and a half spaced on one side of A4 standard white paper. The text should be clean, free of grammatical, stylistic and spelling errors. It should be proof-read for any typing errors before the submission is made.
All copies should be made on good quality paper. Carbon copies are not acceptable. Copies should be clean and the quality of the reproduction should be acceptable.
Margins: leave at least one and a half-inch margins for the top and left-hand edges of the paper to allow for binding. Leave 1-inch margins from the bottom and right edges. Margins must be uniform. Margins apply also to all illustrative material and pages containing tables, charts and figures.
Pagination: all pages should be numbered, except for the title page. The preliminary section has lower case roman numerals (i, ii, iii). All other pages are numbered with arabic pagination at the top right-hand corner.
The title page should consist of:
1. The topic.
2. Name of the author.
3. Identification line - "a Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree o/Advanced Diploma in Business Studies".
4. Organization.
5. Date of submission.
Preface: This should be used by the author to convey to the examiners and, ultimately, the general reader comments and elaborations, which would be made, if the Dissertation was being presented personally, e.g. particular problems encountered but not referred to in the general body of the text, support and collaboration received, and other acknowledgements.
The introductory chapter: should include problem definition, the purpose of the study, study design, scope and limitations. If necessary, a separate glossary of terms should be provided. If not, the definition of the operational terms should be included in this chapter.
Citation and quotation: frequently cause report writers great difficulty. Study carefully the readings "Bibliographical references (1) and (2)". There are two approaches:
- The Harvard method: author plus date.
- The Numerical approach: sequential numbering of citations, with or without author's name.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and either may be used.
Footnotes: may occasionally be desirable. They are used when it is found necessary to elaborate but at the same time not to break the thread of an argument. Any citations in footnotes must be handled as in 8 above.
An appendix may be used when you wish to include material which is not absolutely necessary to the text but is illustrative, explanatory or illuminating, or perhaps rather detailed.
List of references and bibliographies: Again this is an area where confusion can exist. All citations in the text must be referenced, and the list will give an indication of how far you have read around the topic - an aspect which is of particular importance when the Dissertation/Project is being assessed. A good bibliography can be of great value to researchers, who may read the Dissertation/Project after it has passed examination. It will contain, in addition to writings cited in the text, other publications which are of relevance to the topic. Although a list of references is an essential element of the Dissertation/Project, a bibliography is optional.
Three copies of the Dissertation/Project Report, two bound and one on disk should be submitted to the Registry, as advised. You should bind it after revisions have been made.
Dissertation copies are not returned, so, if you wish copies for yourself, you should have extra copies made.
The following characteristics of the Dissertation/Project Report will be observed by the readers:
- Relevance of the problem to the programme.
- Clarity of the problem definition.
- Appropriate research design:
- Have you used proper measurement techniques?
- Is the sampling design adequate and representative of your population?
- Logic and organization of the text.
- Appropriate documentation (references, bibliography).
- Validity and originality.
- Analytical skills.
- Depth of research, reliability of information provided.
- Demonstration of your expertise in the subject area and adequate knowledge of the management theory and practice.
- Relevance of the Dissertation to the field, its value to the organization.
- Conclusiveness of the study:
- Has the problem been answered?
- Are your conclusions appropriate to your research design and do they flow from your research?
- How effective has been the implementation?
- Any
direction for the future indicated?
- Proper format and style.
Bibliographical references
How to link them to the accompanying text?
There are several possible methods of making references in your text and of listing these references at the end of your work. See Choose a Type of Reference for further details.
Tutorials:
- Documenting Sources: Using APA Format
- Cross-referencing: Using MLA Format
- MLA Style
- Checking the format of the text, citations, notes, and bibliography
Citing references in the text
Numeric system
Cited publications are numbered in the order in which they are first referred to in the text. They are identified by a number given:
- In parentheses, e.g. In a recent study, Smith(12) showed...
- In square brackets, e.g. In a recent study, Smith[12] showed...
- As a superscript numeral, e.g. In a recent study, Smith12 showed...
Harvard system
Cited publications are referred to in the text by giving the author's name and year of publication, in either of the forms shown in the examples:
1. In a recent study, Smith, (1958) showed...
2. A recent study (Smith, 1958) showed...
For publication by two authors, both are given:
1. In a recent study (Smith and Jones, 1958) it was shown...
2. Two or more publications by one author in the same year are distinguished by adding lower case letters to the year, in the form:Smith, (1972a) dissented and in a later study (Smith, 1972b) suggested that...
3. Anonymous works may be shown by anon. in place of the author's name: If you wish to refer to individual pages of a particular book or article, the page number(s) should be given after the date, separated from it by a comma or a colon:(Smith and Jones, 1958, p. 210) or (Smith and Jones, 1958: p. 210).
Your punctuation practice should be consistent
Note: The Harvard System is not easy to apply consistently to older works which have no clearly defined publication date, or to manuscripts of uncertain or disputed authorship. There is also a tendency to use footnotes and to provide annotations to the list of references in humanities and social science works. For such reasons the Numeric system is widely used outside science and technology.
Listing references
Bibliographical references sufficient to identify the publications fully are to be listed at the end of the text.
Numeric system
Entries are listed in numerical order to match the sequence of references in the text.
Examples:
1. Meadows, A., Communication in Science, Butterworths, 1974.
2. Allen, T., "Information Needs and Uses", in Cuadra, C.A. (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 4, American Society for Information Science, Washington, 1969, pp. 3-29.
3. Line, M.B., "On the Design of Information Systems for Human Beings", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 22 No. 7, July 1970, pp. 320-35.
4. Allen, T., Managing the Flow of Scientific and Technological Information, PhD thesis, MIT, 1966.
5. Loosjes, Th-P., On Documentation of Scientific Literature, 1957, translated by Dickson, A.J., Butterworths, 1967.
Harvard system
Entries are listed in alphabetical order by author's name and then by date, either as: Smith, J., 1958 or Smith, J. (1958).
Examples:
1. Allen, T. (1966), Managing the Flow of Scientific and Technological Information, PhD thesis, MIT.
2. Allen, T. (1969), "Information Needs and Uses", in Caudra, C.A. (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 4, American Society for Information Science, Washington, pp. 3-29.
3. Line, M.B. (1970), "On the Design of Information Systems for Human Beings", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 22 No. 7, July 1970, pp. 320-35.
4. Loosjes, Th-P. (1957), On Documentation of Scientific Literature, translated by Dickson, A.J., Butterworths, 1974.
5. Meadows,
A. (1974), Communication in Science, Butterworths.
How to give correct citations
Tutorials:
The best way to give adequate references is to use a standardized form of citation, based on British Standard 1629:1979, which recommends a standard sequence for the items in each type of citation. Minimum references contain the essential items and are shown in the examples which follow: |
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Books
(i.e. whole publication)
Author (surname followed by initials). Title of work. Edition number.
Editor and/or translator, etc. Place of publication, surname of publisher, year of publication. Number of volumes, if more than one. Title of series and volume number in such series.
Example:
Hoel, P.G., Elementary Statistics, 3rd ed., New York, Wiley, 1971. (Wiley series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics.)
Parts of books
(e.g. chapters, sections, passages, contributions to a collection.)
Author of contribution (surname followed by initials). Title of contribution.
In: followed by author/editor of whole book. Title of book. Edition of book. Volume number. Publisher, place of publication, year of publication. Pagination, or chapter or section number.
Example:
Ramsbottom, J., "Fungi Pathogenic to Men", in Medical Research Council, A System of Bacteriology in Relation to Medicine, Vol. 8, HMSO, London, 1931, pp. 31-70.
Pagination should include first and last pages of articles, to assist a reader in obtaining a photocopy. Volume and part (or issue) numbers should normally be given in arabic numerals, the part number to be enclosed in parentheses ( ).
Periodical titles may be abbreviated, provided that a recognized system is used (but beware of expanding abbreviated titles, unless certain of the full title). British Standard 4148 provides useful guidance. Part 1 (1970) describes basic principles to be applied when abbreviating titles of periodicals, and Part 2 (1975) gives recommended abbreviations for 7,000 words or word-roots in many languages, together with an abbreviations index showing the full form.
Periodicals, which are organs of a society or institution and include its name in their titles, should be cited with the name of the organization first (e.g. American Chemical Society, Journal).
Note: This does not accord with British Standard 1629:1976 or with usage in the World List of Scientific Periodicals, the current practice of British Union Catalogue of Periodicals and of certain important abstracting journals.
The words and abbreviations "vol.", "part", "pp." may be omitted, and the month may be abbreviated (e.g. Sep.), but the sequence then becomes even more important to maintain, and the comma must be used to separate the components of the reference. According to the British Standard, the volume number should be given in bold type, followed by the part number in ordinary type in parentheses; as bold type cannot conveniently be indicated on a typewriter (single underlining indicates italics), the reference should be given as follows 16 (6), June 1974, 35-41.
Special types of publication
Specialized material needs special treatment, which cannot be outlined in this brief note. Books with no obvious author and Government publications are two examples. But the basic principle still stands - give the reader all the necessary detail and, if you need to abbreviate, use a standard system, the more widely known the better.
Writing a literature review
Tutorials:
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Points to note
When reading through the extracts given below or particularly if you look at the literature review within an existing Dissertation, bear in mind that you do not have to follow the same structure rigidly. Remember that your literature review is unique to the topic which you have studied and the situation within your organization. For example, it may be appropriate for your review to be split into sections, each of which is incorporated into the relevant chapter of the Dissertation.
It would be neither realistic nor helpful to stipulate that a literature review will be "n thousand" words long with a bibliography of x references. Again, it is a question of what is appropriate to your particular topic. Some topics will be associated with an extensive literature; for others there may be relatively little published work; some topics will be interdisciplinary, in which case you will have looked at literature in more than one subject or functional area. Thus not only will one person's review probably be presented differently from another's but also it may be shorter or longer, with fewer or more references in the bibliography.
Let us say, for argument's sake, that you found 35 references to publications relevant to your topic. It may be that you used only 20 of these; the remaining ones could not be applied directly within your organization for various reasons. In the literature review you would point out that a number of references were retrieved, which, though of interest, were not applicable for one or several reasons, outlining briefly what these reasons were. In this way you show that you are aware of the existence of this previous work and that you have critically assessed it for relevance to your organization. In other words, you may dismiss or disagree with previous work carried out by others, as long as you can justify this decision. The bibliography would probably not contain those 15 references, although you could include one or two, which you had "dismissed", in more detail.
- As you are writing the literature review, think back to the objectives of actually searching the literature:
- To show that you are aware of relevant work, which has been done by others.
- To build on the work of others by incorporating, adapting and exploiting this knowledge to the benefit of your organization.
- To avoid duplication of effort.
Your written literature review should show that you have fulfilled these objectives.
Do not describe the method when writing the review. There is no need to state how you found the references, which abstracting journals and databases were used, etc. However, would you please provide a totally separate, brief account of how you carried out the literature search? One page will probably be enough. This account need not be detailed but might show, for example, that you searched certain databases on DIALOG, then, to counteract the American bias, you searched the European, SCIMP database, supplementing both by such-and-such abstracting journals, current awareness services, etc. You could also, for example, state reasons for deciding how far back in time to search and at what point to stop the search.
Extracts from a published literature review
The context
These are extracts from a review of a well-defined core of literature on the subject of electronic publishing. The reviewer used the literature as a basis for an investigation by her organization of the desirability and feasibility of developing a new product line (electronic publications) as an addition to existing, printed publications.
By using relevant, recent literature produced by various experts (researchers, information professionals, other publishers and academics), the reviewer makes recommendations for her own organization - although here the organization is not referred to specifically but recommendations and comments are addressed to "smaller publishers".
The extracts given are those which remark in some detail on certain key publications identified by the reviewer. Arguments from these publications are mixed with her own comments and judgments. In extracts 1 and 5, relevant publications are quoted within the immediate context of important information and considerations for the organization.
Remember, this is only one way of presenting a review - it may not be wholly appropriate to your topic.
Extract 1
Defining electronic publishing
Electronic publishing may be defined as the use of computers and telecommunications systems to carry out all or part(s) of the production and distribution of published material. Hence there is a range of electronic publishing forms, from, for example, computer photocomposition used to produce print-on-paper journals, to a fully electronic journal in which authors' material is input, refereed, edited, revised electronically and disseminated over a telecommunications network.
A report by Information Management Associates states that to succeed in electronic publishing a company must have:
- Information.
- Appropriate data-processing facilities.
- Communication channels.
- Enough financial support to overcome initial low rates of return on investment.
- Clear appreciation of market/user needs.
These can be used to generate four main product categories:
- Broadcast non-interactive services (e.g. Teletext).
- Interactive services (viewdata and other on-line databases or databanks).
- Stand-alones (e.g. videodisks).
- Electronic journals.
Information Management Associates
The IMA report also points out that most electronic publishing systems are a long way from gaining user acceptance. The absence of user studies or a clear market demand in many areas should be a matter for concern. Where such studies do exist, as with a recent agricultural viewdata study, findings have been encouraging, though not necessarily what was anticipated.
New technologies require long-term capital investment and may have very different cash-flow patterns from conventional printed products. The whole revenue base of electronic publishing has yet to be established. Many technological problems of electronic publishing have been answered but some of the marketing and user problems remain. It is not the publisher or the systems designer who will determine success or failure, but the end-user.
These points give a major reason for smaller publishers not to take the risks alone, but to join in some co-operative programme.
Those looking for an excuse to ignore electronic publishing should not rely on the projected refusal of end-users to accept these new products. Some specialist user groups are accustomed to using, for example, microcomputers; they may be more prepared to accept one manifestation of new technology, when they are accustomed to another. Also, with the experience gained from early experiments, particularly those of which "failed" organizations and groups involved in electronic publishing have been made aware, the importance of adopting the "marketing approach" (finding out and satisfying users' wants and needs) instead of the "production approach" (we have a system capable of so-and-so, let's try to sell it) becomes vital. However, Meadows suggests that the marketing of electronic publications may entail quite different capabilities and approaches from traditional publishing. It is by no means clear that all publishers will be able to make the transition to new types of activity (Meadows, 1983).
Extract 2
Subscription costs
Turoff and Hiltz express a view shared by others: as costs of publication rise and the number of articles produced goes up, the number and costs of journals and bibliographic services rise to the point where many libraries, let alone individuals, cannot afford to subscribe to many of the periodicals to which they would like to have access:
(This) economic trend promises to continue, with the hard-copy journal increasing in cost and the electronic alternatives decreasing at a rapid rate ... the current technology is quite cost-competitive with technical journals in the under-10,000 category. (Turoff and Hiltz, 1982)
Extracts from a report by A. J. Meadows on the conference held in Philadelphia, May 1983, entitled "Scholarly Communication around the World", state that in the USA the major firms involved in information technology in general have concluded that there are no fundamental economic or technological constraints on the development of the technology. The real problems are at the system/user interface:
It is widely held that, by the time the system/user interface problems have been reduced to reasonable proportions, the technology will already be cheap and adaptable enough to be capable of reaching a mass audience. (Communication Technology Impact, August 1983) Lerner emphasizes the importance of increasing availability of search tools, which allow easy identification of individual articles:
Perhaps no innovation in the past three decades has had more impact on information behaviour than inexpensive photocopying... Although the use of on-line databases appears to be increasing the demand for articles, the system of supplying them frequently bypasses the primary journal article publisher... Changes in information dissemination and access have had by and large an adverse effect on the publisher by eliminating control over the dissemination system. Since a publisher must recover costs through dissemination and access, these changes are placing increasing economic pressure on the publisher to make a drastic change in pricing policy and/or to move to delivery systems which restore control over these functions. (Lerner, 1980)
Scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishers have been affected far more in this way than publishers in the social science areas such as management. The situation may change; on-line hosts are giving rapidly increasing coverage to, for example, management literature.
The director of Blackwells', Campbell, sums up his reason for involvement in the ADONIS electronic document delivery project:
In 1979 UK publishers distributed about 25,000 million articles to libraries and individual subscribers. Such a huge system must have great inherent strength but it is basically supported at the research end by the library market and, just as research budgets are being cut, so are library budgets. A current financial problem is that at least half the readers of conventional journals use single copies of articles distributed as photocopies and, without copyright protection, no revenue from this use goes back to support the publication. (Campbell, 1982)
Extract 3
A summary of conclusions drawn from the first group of reviewed documents
In summary:
1. Costs of traditional methods of production and dissemination will continue to increase and the costs of electronic methods will decrease.
2. Economics of journal production depends much on libraries. "Holdings" libraries are increasing their business, as other libraries are forced to cut subscriptions and move more towards an "access" policy. This exacerbates loss of income from photocopying procedures as well as endangering subscriptions to more expensive or more specialist journals.
3. Increasing use of on-line bibliographic search tools also leads to increased photocopying of individual articles.
4. Electronic publishing offers publishers a means of maintaining or regaining control over the use and dissemination of their own information.
However, it also offers many opportunities for, for example, electronic corporations and entrepreneurs to engage casually in publishing. As the Publishers' Association has decided:
Electronic systems provide opportunities
for all and a challenge to publishers - if they do not
exploit the new areas, others, for whom it is merely a
spin-off from their major activities, will. (Publishers
Association, 1981)
- For many aspects of electronic publishing, it would be impossible for a small/medium publisher to enter the field alone:
Both on-line publishing costs and user requirements
make it impossible or inappropriate for many publishers
to benefit directly on an individual basis ... Information
packages are being put together by others who are not limited
by the concept of the imprint - equipment manufacturers
and other non-publishers are free to arrange the information
in the manner most suitable for the user, by subject. Without
some form of co-operative input, private-sector publishers'
information will be accessible either from non-publishers
or only on a fragmented basis. (Publishers' Association,
1981)
Extract 4
Impact and acceptance
Meadows states that the immediate impact of "new technology" will be internal. For example, there is a growth in quantity and sophistication of word processors used by publishers. This should produce an appreciable spin-off by the end of the decade in the use of some equipment for external communication. Such communication will probably supplement rather than replace journals, except for specialized, restricted topics.
The 1980s will see some development of electronic journals in specialized research areas but these are likely to remain predominantly experimental and outside the normal publisher/librarian network:
The one reasonable certainty seems to be that the communication channels for journal-type material will be more diversified at the end of the decade than in any earlier period. (Meadows, 1980)
Lancaster et al. in 1980 cited Delphi studies, which indicated that social acceptance of electronic publishing will lag behind economic viability, which lags behind technological feasibility. However, by 1990 electronic publishing systems may be completely acceptable to society. They outline four distinct phases in the application of computers to publishing:
- Computers and photocomposition to produce printed publications, distributed by mail.
- Distribution of databases in two forms - printed and machine-readable.
- Emergence of new databases in machine-readable form only.
- Replacement of existing print publications by machine-readable equivalents.
We are already well into phase (3). These databases (databanks) are really reference books, which have emerged in the electronic era. The authors predict that stage (4) will become very evident in the 1980s and we will then see the disappearance of many printed publications, especially the largest and most costly, as income from on-line use begins to exceed income from subscriptions to the printed form. Lancaster, in particular, is well-known for his 2001 scenarios. The author's predictions for 2001 include the following: most research literature from sciences, social sciences and humanities will be in electronic form only; some journals will be issued on electronic media for use with domestic TVs/home computers, also accessible through a network of on-line service centres; an explosive growth in the home computer market will make a significant contribution to social acceptance of electronic publications; most journal and technical reports, patents, standards, will be accessible on-line only; many secondary databases will have disappeared and those remaining will be in machine-readable form only, accessible through on-line terminals; print textbooks will be virtually eliminated and reference books will rapidly disappear in print, replaced by electrobooks and databases. (Lancaster et al., 1980)
Extract 5
Opportunities and risks from database and databank publishing
The distinction between databases and databanks is not always maintained and "database" is sometimes used generically to cover both terms. Strictly speaking, a database is a collection of bibliographic citations, sometimes with abstracts, created as an index to published material. A databank is a collection of textual or numeric information, often not just a computerized edition of published material but specially produced for on-line publication. On-line services have databanks networked with databases, accessible through the same host. Other types of databank include Prestel's so-called database.
There is also a distinction between full-text databank publishing and the concept of the electronic journal (this distinction being relevant now, but becoming less so). Full-text publishing makes available on-line the full form of, for example, a journal article. Usually this electronic text has its printed counterpart. Also it may have been authored, refereed, edited in conventional print format, with MSS traveling back and forth by post. The true electronic journal, although allowing for hard-copy printout, aims to avoid it. It is fully electronic:
authors' material is input electronically, refereed, edited, revised electronically and disseminated over a telecommunications network. A full-text databank duplicates on the computer traditional print publications; an electronic journal has evolved away from being the analogue of a printed journal.
In a PIRA seminar on database publishing (where "database" is used as a generic term to cover databanks as well) Barlow outlined how small publishers should enter database publishing. They should isolate a single product which has a 30 per cent update ratio and then invest in a simple database generation system, which can be linked to a computer composition system. The firm must be prepared to invest some risk capital and also realize that a learning process is attached, with a need to invest further and upgrade the system, once the fundamentals have been mastered. Pitfalls have been highlighted by a European Community workshop:
- Database production is risky.
- There could be high front-end costs and difficulties in estimating markets.
- There is a proliferation of databases.
- New databases are likely to be a trade-off between needs, commercial return and strengths of the organisation.
- There is a likely trade-off between printed products and electronic products.
- There can be governmental intervention, which may upset normal commercial calculations.
The publishers should establish why they are turning to database production. Is it for increased productivity or to be able to provide a new product, or a combination of both? (Barlow, 1982)
Barlow's outline shows many reasons for not going into database publishing alone. Points (1), (2), (4) and (6) would be "covered" to varying degrees by membership of a consortium, which would seem to be the advisable course for a small publisher. There are other reasons which might be added, such as to benefit from the learning experience and to get a "foot in the door" of electronic publishing.
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