CALL FOR PAPERS *********************************** JASIST Special Issue on Webometrics *********************************** Submission deadline June 30, 2003 The next Special Topics Issue of Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST) is scheduled to come out in late 2004 on the topic of webometrics. The guest editors for this special issue will be Mike Thelwall of The University of Wolverhampton, UK, and Liwen Vaughan of The University of Western Ontario, Canada. Webometrics, the quantitative study of web phenomena, encompasses a variety of types of research, some of which date back to the early years of the Web although the widespread adoption of the term itself is relatively new. The dynamic, diversified and far-reaching nature of the Web provides a fertile ground for knowledge discovery. Frequencies and patterns of word and phrase usage on web pages can provide valuable information for search algorithms. The selective coverage of web sites by search engines reflects favour toward certain communities and bias against others. Use of query terms reflects issues of interest and concern to people. The size and structure of web sites around the world can provide extensive social, cultural, economic and political information. Web links, although individually less reliable sources of information than bibliographic citations, may reveal significant trends when aggregated over large areas of the Web. This issue will provide a forum for a broad spectrum of scholars to compile a body of research that begins to cement these emerging areas into a coherent field. It will also serve as a tribute to Tomas Almind who originated the term webometrics with Peter Ingwersen and who died in an accident before he could see the influence of his ideas. It is envisaged that future progress of webometrics will prove the Web to be one of the most valuable mainstream data sources for information science. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: * Structures, patterns and topologies of hyperlinks on the Web * Methodological issues pertaining to the use of search engines, crawlers, and other online tools for data collection * Motives for the creation of hyperlinks * Categorization of web page types and content. * Social, cultural, and linguistic factors in Web use * Frequency distributions of web query terms * The application of webometrics to information retrieval research * Web impact measurements * Mapping web communities and relationships * Applying and extending bibliometric and scientometric techniques onto the study of the Web The guest editors seek papers that address these and related topics. The quantitative orientation of Webometrics does not preclude the use of qualitative methods when appropriate. Inquires can be made to Mike Thelwall (m.thelwall@wlv.ac.uk) or Liwen Vaughan (lvaughan@uwo.ca). Manuscripts can be submitted in electronic form (Word or PDF) to either guest editor or in print form (four copies of full articles) to: Dr. Liwen Vaughan Faculty of Information and Media Studies University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, N6A 5B7 Canada Phone: (519) 661-2111 ext. 88499 Fax: (519) 661-3506 E-mail: lvaughan@uwo.ca The deadline for accepting manuscripts for consideration for publication in this special issue is June 30, 2003. Authors are requested to notify the guest editors of their intent to submit prior to submitting a paper. The guest editors will be happy to provide advice on the suitability of topics if needed. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a select panel of referees, and those accepted will be published in a special issue of JASIST. Original artwork and a signed copy of the copyright release form will be required for all accepted papers. A copy of the call for papers will be available on the World Wide Web as is further information about JASIST, at http://www.asis.org/.