[NORSLIS] New PhD thesis: The dynamics of beamline configurations and user communities

[Fredrik Åström]

Dear all,
This is to announce the publication of a new thesis in Information Studies (biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap).

The dynamics of beamline configurations and user communities: Quantitative studies of Big Science publications
by Kristofer Rolf Söderström, 2023, Lund University, Sweden.
Faculty opponent: Rickard Danell, Umeå University

In the evolving landscape of Big Science's user-centric turn, this thesis provides insights into the role of beamlines at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Conceptualising beamlines as unique collaborative spaces, it employs quantitative techniques on scientific publication metadata to reveal how beamline configurations shape access, collaboration, and knowledge production between diverse user communities. Drawing from over 30,000 ESRF publications from 1994-2021, this thesis employs various sample sizes across four research articles to analyse the disciplinary, collaborative, geographical, and informal processes associated with beamlines. The results reveal that beamlines attract specialised and interdisciplinary user communities based on the technological configurations of their scientific instruments. Moreover, continuous upgrades to beamline instrumentation often led to increased collaboration and participation from diverse global user communities. Overall, the thesis emphasises beamlines as cross-disciplinary spaces fostering both specialised and interdisciplinary research. It highlights the significant, yet often overlooked, impact of beamline configurations on shaping user access and collaboration within the ESRF. Methodologically, it enriches the scientometrics toolbox through the novel application of computational techniques to publication metadata. Theoretically, it advances the  understanding of user-oriented big science facilities as interconnected beamline infrastructures that adapt to serve evolving user communities.

Download here: https://portal.research.lu.se/sv/publications/the-dynamics-of-beamline-configurations-and-user-communities-quan

List of Articles
*                          Article I: Söderström, K.R., Åström, F., Hallonsten, O. (2022). Generic instruments in a synchrotron radiation facility. Quantitative Science Studies; 3
(2): 420-442. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00190
*                          Article II: Söderström, K.R. (2023). The structure and dynamics of instrument collaboration networks. Scientometrics; 128: 3581-3600. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04658-w
*                          Article III: Söderström, K.R. (2023). Global reach, regional strength: Spatial patterns of a big science facility. The Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology; 74 (9): 1140-1156. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24811
*                          Article IV: Söderström, K.R. (2023). Who did what? Creating structured data from acknowledgement texts with large language models. Submitted.

Best wishes,
Fredrik
_______________________________________________________
Fredrik Åström, PhD
Docent (Reader/Associate Professor) in Information Studies
Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics specialist

Lund University Library
P.O. Box 3
SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)46-222 7325 (Office), +46 (0)70-494 3346 (Mobile)
E-mail: fredrik.astrom at ub.lu.se
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