Dr Jonathan M Levitt

jlevitt
Dr Jonathan M Levitt
Senior Research Fellow in Obstacles Faced by Disadvantaged People, and project leader
Research Institute of Information and Language Processing, University of Wolverhampton
Tel +44 (0) 1902 321470
Email J.M.Levitt @ wlv.ac.uk

Profile
Current research in the under-representation of disabled people in academia. Previous research in informetrics, scientometrics, citation analysis, scholarly communication, research impact, research policy, and the evaluation of medical and disability research.

Medical and disability research

Levitt, J. M., Thelwall, M. & Moreira, F. (2023). Findings on barriers to academic employment. Presentation at the 16th Nordic Network on Disability Research Conference.
Levitt, J. M. (2022). How we can make academia more disability inclusive. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01447-y
Thelwall, M. & Levitt, J. M. (2020). Retweeting COVID-19 disability issues: Risks, support and outrage. El Profesional de la Información, 29(2), e290216. [Twitter disseminates health information and voices opposition to second class treatment for people with disabilities.]
Levitt, J. M. & Thelwall, M. (2019). Barriers to academic employment. Presentation at the 15th Nordic Network on Disability Research Conference.
Levitt, J. M. (2018). Initiated and chaired the symposium ‘Diverse ways of addressing the challenges of disability: understanding contrasting types of disability’. The 9th Lancaster Disability Studies Conference.
Levitt, J. M. and Thelwall M. (2018). Barriers to obtaining academic employment and conducting research. Presentation at the 9th Lancaster Disability Studies Conference.
Levitt, J. M. (2018). The potential for people associated with disability to learn from gerontology research. Presentation at the 9th Lancaster Disability Studies Conference.
Levitt, M. and Levitt, J.M. (2017). Future of fundamental discovery in US biomedical research. PNAS, 114(25), 6498–6503, doi:10.1073/pnas.1609996114.
- Reported in Chemistry World, Inside Higher Ed, Science, Spotlight Science News, and cited in the American National Institutes of Health Next Generation Researchers Initiative.
Levitt, J. M. (2017). Developing a model of disability that focuses on the actions of disabled people. Disability & Society, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 735–747. [repository version]
Levitt, J. M. (2017). Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated: in response to Mike Oliver. Disability & Society, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 589-594. [repository version]
- Discussed in: Woods, R. (in press). Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated for autism: in response to Jonathan Levitt. Disability & Society.
Levitt, J. M. (2016). Introducing the active model of disability. Presentation at the 8th Lancaster Disability Studies Conference.
Levitt J.M. and Thelwall M. (2015). How often are patients interviewed in health research: An informetric approach. Presentation at the 15th international conference on scientometrics and informetrics in Istanbul.
Levitt J.M. (2014). Adjustment for disability in research assessment. Presentation at the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Equality and Diversity workshop in Sheffield.

Selected publications in scientometrics

Thelwall, M. and Levitt, J.M. (in press). National scientific performance evolution patterns: retrenchment, successful expansion, or overextension. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology.
Levitt, J.M. and Thelwall M. (2016). Long term productivity and collaboration in information science. Scientometrics, Vol. 108, No. 6, pp. 1103-1117.
Levitt J.M. (2015). What is the optimal number of researchers for social science research? Scientometrics, Vol. 102, No. 1, pp. 213-225
Levitt, J.M., and Thelwall, M. (2013). Alphabetization and the skewing of first authorship towards last names early in the alphabet. Journal of Informetrics Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 575– 582. Preprint.
Levitt J.M. (2011). Preliminary findings on whether it is good value for money to fund larger research groups. ISSI Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 57-62.
Levitt J.M., Thelwall M. and Oppenheim C. (2011). Variations between subjects in the extent to which the social sciences have become more interdisciplinary. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 62, No. 6, pp. 1118-1129. Preprint.
Levitt J.M. and Thelwall M. (2011). A combined bibliometric indicator to predict article impact. Information Processing and Management,Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 300-308. Preprint.
Levitt J.M. and Thelwall M. (2010). Does the higher citation of collaborative research differ from region to region? A case study of Economics. Scientometrics, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 171−183.
Levitt J.M. and Thelwall M. (2009). Citation levels and collaboration within Library and Information Science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 60, No. 3, pp. 434−442. Preprint.
Levitt J.M. and Thelwall M. (2008). Is multidisciplinary research more highly cited? A macro-level study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 1973−1984. Preprint. Report in the Times Higher Education.
Levitt J.M. (2007). Developing and applying a metric for estimating trends in databases of articles, Collnet Journal of Scientometrics and Information Management, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 17−21.

External activities

Member of the ESRC Peer Review College (2010-14).
President of an international PHD tribunal at the University of Granada (2016).
Appointed to the Doctoral forum committee of the 13th and 14th conferences of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics.
Appointed a member of the Editorial Board of Disability and Society (2018).
Reviewer of journal articles on barriers to people with disabilities, disability in older people and models of disability for British Medical Journal, Current Psychology, Disability and Society, Disability Studies Quarterly, Research in Developmental Disabilities and Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research.
Reviewer of journal articles on Scientometrics for Aslib Proceedings, Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Information Processing & Management, Journal of Information Science, Journal of Informetrics, Plos One, Research Evaluation, Scientometrics, Social Networks and South African Journal of Science.
Reviewer of conference proposals for American Society for Information Science and Technology, International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, Science and Technology Indicators and International Symposium of Information Science
Member of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics.
Member of the London Forum of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.
Member and Befriender of the Macular Society and Member of Committee of a Macular Society group; Appointed Engagement Lead Member of the Steering Committee of the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (2019).