Research on the measurement of academic activeness of scholars in academic conferences
| Date | 07 September 2023 |
| Pages | 70-85 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2023-0073 |
| Published date | 07 September 2023 |
| Author | Rongying Zhao,Ruru Chang |
Research on the measurement
of academic activeness of scholars
in academic conferences
Rongying Zhao and Ruru Chang
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China and
Research Center for Chinese Science Evaluation, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –Academic conferences play a crucial role in fostering scholarly exchanges and discussions among
core members, thereby shaping the core performance of these events. Understanding the contributions of
scholars in academic conferences is essential for advancing the goals and development of such events. This
paper aims to discuss the aforementioned idea.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper proposes a comprehensive measurement method for
measuring scholars’academic activeness in academic conferences. Based on the essence of academic
activeness, a measurement model is constructed, comprising the breadth of academic activeness using the
RFM model and the depth of academic activeness using the ATM model. Additionally, effective categories
of scholars are derived from the model, facilitating the identification of valuable scholars in academic
conferences.
Findings –Empirical evidence from ASIS&T conference records over the past 20 years demonstrates that the
proposed measurement indicators have better coverage compared to traditional evaluation indicators, thus
complementing existing scholar evaluation indictators. Furthermore, the academic activeness measurement
model presented in this paper exhibits good efficacy in identifying important value and active scholars.
Originality/value –This paper pays attention to the activeness of scholars in academic conferences. It
broadens the evaluation of academic conferences and scholars and supplements the evaluation indicators of
academic influence.
Keywords Academic activeness, Academic evaluation, Academic conference, The RFM model,
The ATM model
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Conferences play a vital role in academic research as they provide valuable opportunities for
academic cooperation. Through academic presentations and face-to-face communication,
conferences effectively facilitate the dissemination of research findings, stimulate scholars’
interests and generate new academic inspirations. Given the increasing importance of
scientific and technological activities in economic development, investment in conferences, as
well as their scale and influence, continues to grow. The organization of academic conferences
promotes the production and circulation of knowledge, playing a crucial role in shaping and
establishing academic and professional disciplines across various fields (Jarvis et al., 2020).
To enhance the quality of academic conferences, researchers and sponsors are continuously
exploring methods for evaluating their effectiveness. Currently, the evaluation of academic
conferences primarily focuses on overall quality assessment, often based on the impact
evaluation of conference papers. Indicators such as Attendance Rate (AR), Conference Impact
Factor (CIF), Conference Citation Impact (CCI), Common Conference Factor (CCF), Conference
Factors (c-factors) and Peer Reputation (PR) are commonly used to evaluate conference
quality (Loizides and Koutsakis, 2017;Martins et al., 2010). However, these evaluations often
AJIM
77,1
70
During the foundational research phase, this work was supported by the the National Social Science
Found Major Project of China (18ZDA325).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 2 March 2023
Revised 31 May 2023
Accepted 8 August 2023
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 77 No. 1, 2025
pp. 70-85
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-03-2023-0073
overlook the social attributes of conference participants, such as social activeness and
dynamic interest, which are closely related to users’preferences and choices (Yin et al., 2014).
In academic research, the focus of studying conference papers primarily revolves
around their value and impact, using them as a basis for evaluating scholars. The most
commonly used indicators include the quantity of conference papers published, citation
counts and social media influence of the papers. However, relying solely on the quantity
and quality of scholars’conference paper publications is insufficient to reveal the state and
patterns of their academic involvement in academic activities. When evaluating scholars,
it is crucial to consider not only their academic level and abilities but also their activeness
and enthusiasm in academic exchanges, as well as their contributions in academic events
(Zhou, 2013). An academic conference is a vital platform for scholars to acquire research
information from their peers and distinguish themselves among fellow scholars. For
distinguished experts and scholars in the academic field, participation in academic
conferences is not only an academic necessity but also a responsibility. On one hand,
actively engaging in academic activities with their research achievements allows scholars
to attract the attention and recognition of fellow participants. Excellent papers are more
likely to receive praise and be readily accepted by the conference. On the other hand, when
scholars present at conferences, they can receive feedback from senior or authoritative
experts, which is not only specific and targeted but also facilitates face-to-face discussions
on important and even controversial ideas. The exchange and discussions among the core
members of an academic conference give rise to its central significance. It is evident that
conference participants play a crucial role in realizing the objectives of an academic
conference.
Unfortunately, these aspects are often overlooked in current research. Zhuang et al.
(2007) was the first scholar to consider the participants’role in the quality evaluation of
academic conferences. They focused on the project committee members of a computer
science conference and utilized social network analysis indicators for their research.
Scholar Wang (2018) and others proposed extending the concept of “conference closure”
through closure theory analysis. They suggested describing individual scholars’
participation in terms of cooperative relationships, calculating the ratio of new
collaborators after their participation to the total number of new collaborators for the
scholars, and using this to evaluate the closure value of a conference. Zhang et al. (2015)
proposed a ratio that considers a scholar’s total number of published papers in relation to
the conference’s influence level, which inspired us to pay attention to scholars’activeness
in academic conferences. The aim of this study is to provide a novel perspective on
evaluating scholars, specifically focusing on their activeness of engagement in academic
conferences. The term “activeness”is borrowed from the internet domain. For instance,
“user activeness”refers to the frequency of users’online activities, which can be employed
to assess the operational performance of a website and the value of the target audience in
communication activities. Likewise, “academic activeness”is employed to gauge the level
of enthusiasm scholars exhibit in engaging with their peers during academic conferences.
Similarly, academic activeness is used to measure the enthusiasm of scholars to
communicate with their peers in academic conferences.
Strictly speaking, there are various ways to participate in academic conferences, including
delivering keynotes (without publication), participating in roundtables, serving on
conference committees, and more. These academic speakers, participants and even non-
academic attendees play crucial roles in academic conferences (Zheng et al., 2020).
Specifically, we refer to scholars who submit manuscripts to academic conferences and
present their work as “contributors”. Compared to other participants, contributors
demonstrate a higher level of initiative in engaging with academic conferences, and their
research achievements have undergone peer review and been recognized prior to the
The
measurement
of academic
activeness
71
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