Introduction

While the world seems in turmoil, with climate change disasters everywhere, war in Ukraine, mass shootings in the USA what talents have been lost to us, I wonder, with the deaths of those nineteen children in Uvalde?, and racist emotions stirred up by right-wing, populist politicians around the globe, it sometimes seems rather pointless to continue to publish a scholarly journal. But that school will have further intakes, some of the pupils will ultimately pursue an academic career, and perhaps one or two will enter the world of information research, and even contribute to the journal. More importantly, some of them may research climate change and discover the "silver bullet" that saves the planet from destruction. So, we'll carry on.

This issue

This issue is something of a bumper one, with eleven papers. This is partly the result of closing down the Lund University server and moving files to Borås, while encouraging authors with files in the old system to finish revising and get the papers published. I would guess that the September issue will have rather fewer papers.

The geographical diversity of the papers is as wide as ever, with authors from ten countries: Australia, Canada, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Turkey, and Zambia. I haven't done any serious analysis of the country of authors, but my impression is that, over the past few years, we have seen a decline in contributions from the USA and the UK, and to a degree from other European countries, and an increase in contributions from Africa, the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia, and the Far East. The lack of contributions from the UK is understandable, given the loss of so many information schools in recent years, and it may be that the technological shift that is taking place makes it harder for scholars in the USA to get funding for projects. Whatever the truth of the situation, something is happening to he information field, and the former distinctive character of librarianship and information science departments is steadily being eroded as other disciplines discover the centrality of information in their work.

The geographical distribution of readers of the journal over the past 12 months (as reported by Google Analytics) reflects these changes. Ten years ago, the UK was second, and its present position no doubt reflects the significant reduction in the number of information studies departments, as well as the increased difficulty in attracting research funds:

CountryNo. usersPer cent
United States18,82717.37%
Philippines12,78111.79%
India11,48110.59%
United Kingdom7,3296.76%
South Africa3,8483.55%
China3,6853.40%
Australia3,2072.96%
Canada2,8932.67%
Nigeria2,4302.24%
Kenya2,1531.99%

The subject of the papers is as diverse as the geographical distribution: the largest group relates, in one way or another, to health-related information. Reijo Savolainen, explores the preference some people have for misinformation on health related matters, using motivated reasoning as a framework; Marco Copocasa and his colleagues discuss a related theme—open access to the medical literature on the Covid-19 pandemic; Murat Konca and colleagues explore helath information seeking in Turkey; and Tami Oliphant and her colleagues investigate the information seeking behaviour on heart issues in Canada.

The remaining papers are all concerned with different issues from the information literacy of scientists in Pakistan, through personal information management, and information retrieval, to data sharing, and the open-access policies of Australian universities.

This diversity is all to the good, since Information Research was given such a general title specifically to encourage interaction among disciplines on information-related issues.

Book reviews

We have the usual crop of book reviews, which also cover a wide range or topics, from the history of the book, to the possibilities of a more equal society in the digital age.

Finally

Our thanks, as usual, to the regional editors who see the papers through the review process, our copy-editors who try to ensure the readability of the texts, to the many reviewers and members of the Editorial Board who help to maintain the quality of the papers published. Without their dedication to the open access ideal, the journal would not exist.

And, really finally, our congratulations to Regional Editor, Javier Martinez Mendez, of the University of Murcia, for his promotion to Profesor Catedrático. My understanding is that these positions are determined by a national committee, of the Ministry of Education, rather than by the individual university, so the award has national rather than simply local significance.


Professor T.D. Wilson
Editor-in-chief
June, 2021.