Glossary

Please, feel free to add your new entry immediately below its initial letter.

#

# (hashtag): Used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by twitter users

@: The @ ('at') sign is used to call out usernames in Tweets, like this: Hello @Twitter! When a username is
preceded by the @ sign, it becomes a link to a Twitter profile.

A

Accessibility: Computers vary by operating systems, processor speed, screen size, etc. Users vary in language,
gender, age, culture, preferences and interests. Other unexpected differences that also need to be addressed by
the software and web development community are skills, ability levels, etc. Designing for diversity increases the
number of people able to access a software or website and increases their level of involvement with it. The
benefits of universal design in websites extend beyond the elderly or disabled populations. It addresses
internationalization, very important in today marketplace, providing for interoperability with many applications,
accessibility to the disabled, and providing customization and localization features for people from different
countries and cultures.


AESLA (Asociacin Espaola de Lingstica Aplicada):

Aggregator (RSS): also called feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply aggregator, is client software or a
Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and video
blogs (vlogs) in one location for easy viewing. (Source: Wikipedia) Examples: Google Reader, RSS Owl, etc.

ANOVA (Analysis of Variance): A statistical analysis tool that separates the total variability found within a data
set into two components: random and systematic factors. The random factors do not have any statistical influence
on the given data set, while the systematic factors do. The ANOVA test is used to determine the impact
independent variables have on the dependent variable in a regression analysis (Source: Investopedia).


B

Bibliographic database: It is a database of bibliographic records, an organized digital collection of references to
published literature, including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and
legal publications, patents, books, etc. In contrast to library catalogue entries, a large proportion of the
bibliographic records in bibliographic databases describe analytics (articles, conference papers, etc.) rather than
complete monographs, and they generally contain very rich subject descriptions in the form of keywords, subject
classification terms, or abstracts (Source: Wikipedia). UNIT 1

Bibliographic management applications (BMA): these are tools that allow creating, managing, organizing and
displaying journal articles or books references easily obtained from a database, journal, web site, etc. apart from
generate bibliographic lists attending to different standards. Examples: Procite, EndNote, Reference Manager.

C

Cite U Like: It is very similar to Mendeley's idea, sharing references is one of its strong points. One of the
possible disadvantages is that it is full of advertising, though all of it related to academic matters.

Connect: In Twitter, the Connect tab lets you view interactions, mentions, recent follows and retweets. Using the
Connect tab you are able to view who has favorited or retweeted your tweets, who has recently followed you, and
all of your @replies and @mentions.

Connotea: It is a completely free and web-based tool with no storage limits to share with other colleagues
youre articles and other sort of references works. You can import and export references, create groups, work with
RSS, and tags, etc. The application runs in different browsers (Explorer, Firefox, Safari and others).

CoP: Community of Practice. - Groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and
learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. They have become virtual in the last two decades.

D

Database: A database is an application that manages data and allows fast storage and retrieval of that data.
Melania Crceles

Dataset: A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data, usually presented in tabular form. Each column represents
a particular variable. Each row corresponds to a given member of the data set in question. It lists values for each
of the variables, such as height and weight of an object (Source: Wikipedia).

Dialnet (UNED): Spanish database developed by the University of La Rioja.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier): it is a number that acts as a permanent identifier for electronic resources
(articles, books, abstracts, images...) It allows the users to track the resource in a database or even in the net in
an easy and fast way, and it is more reliable than the URL of the site in which the document is stored, because
the DOI can be tracked even if the source changes from one server to another. The DOI is also very useful for
scientific publications, because an article can be quoted using this number, even if it hasn't been included in a
publication yet (and therefore lacks the data neccesary for proper quoting)

E

E-book: An e-book is an electronic version of a traditional print book that can be read by using a personal
computer or by using an eBook reader.

End Note: Most complete BM developed by Thomson Reuters.It is possible to create groups to share references,
images, it also has a web-based version with 10.000 references.

ERIC (Education Resources Information Center): It's the most important a comprhensive database about
Education.
F


G



H

Hyperlink: A hyperlink (or simply link) is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed
automatically.A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. A user following
hyperlinks is said to navigate or browse the hypertext.
A hyperlink has an anchor, which is the location within a certain type of a document from which the hyperlink can
be followed only from the homepage; the document containing a hyperlink is known as its source code
document. For example, in an online reference work such as Wikipedia, many words and terms in the text are
hyperlinked to definitions of those terms. Hyperlinks are often used to implement reference mechanisms, such as
tables of contents, footnotes, bibliographies, indexes, letters, and glossaries.
In some hypertext, hyperlinks can be bidirectional: they can be followed in two directions, so both ends act as
anchors and as targets. More complex arrangements exist, such as many-to-many links (Source: Wikipedia).

Hypertext: It is a text with hyperlinks (Source: Wikipedia).

I

Interaction - In statistics, an interaction may arise when considering the relationship among three or more
variables, and describes a situation in which the simultaneous influence of two variables on a third is not additive
(Source: Wikipedia).

J

J-STOR Apart from serving as a database, It provide contents of more than 200 Language and Literature studies,
40 in Applied Linguistics, more than 300 in History and many disciplines more dealing with English Studies.


K

Keyword (related to corpora) is a word whose frequency is unusually high in comparison with some norm.


L



M

Mean: In the case of a discrete probability distribution of a random variable X, the mean is equal to the sum over
every possible value weighted by the probability of that value; that is, it is computed by taking the product of each
possible value x of X and its probability P(x), and then adding all these products together, giving

mu = sum x P(x)
(Source: Wikipedia). Another definition with some examples here
Mendeley: 'Free reference manager and social network that helps you organize your research, collaborate with
others online and discover new research' (Source: Mendeley introductory video). In the same way as Zotero, it
permits to create groups to share reference citations. There are even already created groups, shown in Mendley's
website that you could ask to be accepted as member to go on sharing bibliography on specialized topics.
Mention: Mentioning another user in your tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username is
called a "mention". It also refers to tweets in which your username was included.
MLA (Modern Languages Association): Bibliography International is the most important database dealing with
language Studies. It includes Linguistics, Literature, Culture and Cinema.

Mode: The value that appears most often in a set of data (Source: Wikipedia). The mode is the value that occurs
most often. (Source: here).

N



O

Open access libraries: Kind of libraries open to the whole world of internet under the form of a wiki, to share or
upload. Melania Crceles

P

Password manager: Software that helps a user organize passwords and PIN codes. The software typically has a
local database or a file that holds the encrypted password data for secure logon onto computers, networks, web
sites and application data files. Many password managers also work as a form filler, thus they fill the user and
password data automatically into forms. These are implemented using a browser extension, smart card
application or USB stick application that communicates to the browser or other application (Source: Wikipedia).
Power: The power of a statistical test is the probability that the test will reject the null hypothesis when the null
hypothesis is false. The power is in general a function of the possible distributions, often determined by a
parameter, under the alternative hypothesis. Power analysis can be used to calculate the minimum sample size
required so that one can be reasonably likely to detect an effect of a given size. Power analysis can also be used
to calculate the minimum effect size that is likely to be detected in a study using a given sample size. In addition,
the concept of power is used to make comparisons between different statistical testing procedures: for example,
between a parametric and a nonparametric test of the same hypothesis. (Source: Wikipedia)
ProCite: It works similar to EndNote. The first BMA created by Thomson Reuters.

Q



R

Range: 1. In the descriptive statistics, the range of a set of data is the difference between the largest and
smallest values. It is the size of the smallest interval which contains all the data and provides an indication of
statistical dispersion. It is measured in the same units as the data. Since it only depends on two of the
observations, it is most useful in representing the dispersion of small data sets. (Source: Wikipedia).
2. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a set of numbers. (Source: here).

RefWorks: 'An online research management, writing and collaboration tool -- is designed to help researchers
easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and
bibliographies' (Source: RefWorks).
Nowadays, it is one of the most widely used BMAs (Bibliographic Management Applications) by researchers and
academics after Endnote. Its interface is much more intuitive and friendly that its precursors. It permits the direct
exportation from many databases with several references at the same time, it allows to import citations from last
issues rss coming from some of the most relevant electronic journals. It allows extracting information from any
single reference with visible ISBN on the screen, along with many other functions.

RedIRIS: Spanish academic and research network that provides advanced communication services to the
scientific community and national universities. It is funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and is
included in the Ministry's map of Special Scientific and Technological Facilities (ICTS) (Source: RedIRIS).

Reliability: refers to the extent to which a scale produces consistent results, if the measurements are repeated a
number of times. The analysis on reliability is called reliability analysis. Reliability analysis is determined by
obtaining the proportion of systematic variation in a scale, which can be done by determining the association
between the scores obtained from different administrations of the scale. Thus, if the association in reliability
analysis is high, the scale yields consistent results and is therefore reliable (Source:
http://www.statisticssolutions.com/resources/directory-of-statistical-analyses/reliability-analysis ).

Reply: a tweet posted in reply to another user's message, usually posted by clicking the "reply" button next to
their Tweet in your timeline. Always begins with @username.

Retweet: (noun) a tweet by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow. Often used to spread news or
share valuable findings on Twitter; (verb, regular) the act of forwarding another user's tweet to all of your followers
(Source: Twitter Glossary).

RSS: Rich Site Summary (originally RDF Site Summary, often dubbed Really Simple Syndication) is a family of
web feed formats used to publish frequently updated workssuch as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and
videoin a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes
full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. (Source: Wikipedia).

S

Standard deviation: In statistics standard deviation (represented by the symbol sigma, ) shows how much
variation or "dispersion" exists from the average (mean, or expected value). A low standard deviation indicates
that the data points tend to be very close to the mean; high standard deviation indicates that the data points are
spread out over a large range of values. The standard deviation of a random variable, statistical population, or
data set is the square root of its variance. A useful property of standard deviation is that, unlike variance, it is
expressed in the same units as the data. In addition to expressing the variability of a population, standard
deviation is commonly used to measure confidence in statistical conclusions. For example, the margin of error in
polling data is determined by calculating the expected standard deviation in the results if the same poll were to be
conducted multiple times. (Source: Wikipedia)

Summon: 'Powerful multidisciplinary database that drives the libraries' article search'. By using the subject term
checkboxes, users can significantly narrow their results. Date range and content type tools are useful for
researchers looking for very specific contents. Search platforms such as UNED's Linceo are based on this kind of
software (Source: here).

T

T-test: The t-test assesses whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. This
analysis is appropriate whenever you want to compare the means of two groups. The formula for the t-test is a
ratio. The top part of the ratio is just the difference between the two means or averages. The bottom part is a
measure of the variability or dispersion of the scores. The top part of the formula is easy to compute -- just find
the difference between the means. The bottom part is called the standard error of the difference. To compute it,
we take the variance for each group and divide it by the number of people in that group (Source: here).

Twitter: An information network made up of 140-character messages from all over the world; (noun) a message
posted via Twitter containing 140 characters of fewer; (regular verb) the act of posting a message, often called a
'tweet' on Twitter.


U

Usability: Usability is a measure of the interactive user experience associated with a user interface, such a
website or software application. A user-friendly interface design is easy-to-learn, supports users tasks and goals
efficiently and effectively, and is satisfying and engaging to use.
From the users perspective, usability is important because it can make the difference between performing a task
accurately and completely or not, and enjoying the process or being frustrated. From the developers perspective,
usability is important because it can mean the difference between the success or failure of a system. From a
management point of view, software with poor usability can reduce the productivity of the workforce to a level of
performance worse than without the system. In all cases, lack of usability can cost time and effort and can greatly
determine the success or failure of a system. Given a choice, people tend to buy systems that are more user-
friendly.
Usability is one of the focuses of the fields of Human Factors Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction. As
the name suggests, usability has to do with bridging the gap between people and machines (Source: here).

V

Variable: A variable is any characteristic, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted. A variable may
also be called a data item. Examples: age, sex, business income and expenses, country of birth, etc.

Variance: Statistical variance gives a measure of how the data distributes itself about the mean or expected
value. Unlike range that only looks at the extremes, the variance looks at all the data points and then determines
their distribution. In many cases of statistics and experimentation, it is the variance that gives invaluable
information about the data distribution. Here is how variance (2) is defined: a) Subtract the mean from each
value in the data. This gives you a measure of the distance of each value from the mean. b) Square each of these
distances (so that they are all positive values), and add all of the squares together. c) Divide the sum of the
squares by the number of values in the data set. The standard deviation () is simply the (positive) square root of
the variance (Sources: here and here).


W

Web syndication: is a form of syndication in which website material is made available to multiple other sites.
Most commonly, web syndication refers to making web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people
with a summary or update of the website's recently added content (for example, the latest news or forum posts).
The term can also be used to describe other kinds of licensing website content so that other websites can use it.
(Source: Wikipedia).

Wiki - is a website which allows its users to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser usually using a
simplified markup language or a rich-text editor. Wikis are powered by wiki software. Most are created
collaboratively.Wikis serve many different purposes, such as knowledge management and note taking. Wikis can
be community websites and intranets, for example. Some permit control over different functions (levels of
access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit
access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed for organizing content (Source:
Wikipedia).

Write-N-Cite: 'A RefWorks tool that makes it easy to manage citations and bibliographies in research papers you
are writing in Microsoft Word'. It is a program downloadable directly from the RefWorks application. PC or Mac
friendly (Video tutorials here).


X



Y



Z

Zotero: It is a very complete and widespread open source application adding a mobile version to its standard
version as a Firefox extension. It is has a deep collaborative philosophy sharing even social networking elements.
Once you click on the "Zotero" button a new window will be shown to work at the same time that you are browsing
the web.