An editorial in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science (PNSIS) calls for a debate about the role of citizen science in environmental initiatives in Canada (Wells & Richardson, 2015). “Citizen science” refers to the collection and analysis of data by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. Environmental monitoring programs initiated […]
Suzuette Soomai, Interdisciplinary PhD student with the EIUI research program, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on 30 October 2015. Her research focused on the role of fisheries scientific information in policy- and decision-making for fisheries management. She studied the information pathways – production, communication, and use of scientific information – at the operational level in […]
In collaboration with our research partner, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), the EIUI co-hosted the annual meeting of the international Advisory Board of the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) held in Halifax on 5-9 October, 2015. ASFA is an international cooperative information system for the collection and dissemination of information covering the science, […]
The EIUI was pleased to invite Mr. Marc Taconet of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to participate in the Dalhousie University Information Management Public Lectures series on 8 October 2015. Mr. Taconet is the Chief of the Statistics and Information Branch of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of FAO and […]
Suzuette Soomai, PhD Candidate and a member of the EIUI research program, participated in the 41st International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) Annual Conference, “Blue Growth: Motivating innovations in aquatic information management,” hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome, Italy, on September […]
Two members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research team, James Ross and Bertrum MacDonald, presented the paper “The Generation and Regeneration of Scientific Literature: The Case of State of the Environment Reports” at the 23rd international conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing in Montreal on 9 July. Presented in […]
James Ross, a graduate student who completed his Master’s thesis within the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program, received the 2015 Research Prize awarded by the School of Information Management. This prize is awarded to a graduating student who has demonstrated significant success in research and was announced at the Spring Convocation on 26 […]
Over forty years ago, the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment proclaimed that decision-makers require access to the best available scientific information to achieve effective environmental management (United Nations, 1972). To fill this need, various governments and inter-governmental partnerships have produced many state of the environment reports (SOEs), which present current scientific understanding […]
A new paper published by members of the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research team emphasizes that simply advocating the use of information without understanding the contexts of its use will likely be ineffective in closing the gap between research and policy-making. As the growing number of studies on the science-policy interface demonstrate, the […]
Research based information is important in decision and policy making, and problem management. Understanding how information is used offers an opportunity to improve these aspects of decision making and the inclusion of different networks. Models, framing, structure, and knowledge systems are all components that influence how research-based information is used and are explored below. Considering […]