Untitled - Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego

in the Emerald Management Xtra 16 database the key word “transport” generates
325 publications, appearing in all the fields 5494 times.
A significant proportion of publications on transport are not readily available.
A major part of research in the field of transport appears in the form of
various papers published in conference proceedings or bulletins of various institutions.
Quite frequently, the results of research ordered by various institutions
are not published at all – at least not in their entirety. These publications are difficult
to obtain, frequently being referred to as “grey literature”. It may be assumed
that grey literature accounts for more than 50% of all publications on
transport, e.g. in 1998 reports alone made up 88% of publications on transport in
Sweden, with the percentage ranging from 30 to 60% in other countries. 17 The
significance of grey literature is further proved by the fact that over 90% of quotations
in the literature of the European countries studied come from such
sources 18 .
2.3. Transport research in Europe
A significant proportion of global research activity in the area of transport concentrates
in Europe. The research inspiring role of the institutions of the European
Union and the research programme of the British Department of Transport
will be presented as examples of such activity. Research done under EU auspices
(mostly framework programmes) have a relatively wide influence and bring together
specialists from various countries. These programmes also represent
a chance for research development in Poland. The UK government programme,
on the other hand, appears to be an interesting example of public support for research
in a liberal economy. This example can serve as an inspiration in Polish
realities – and the heart of the matter here is by no means simply increasing research
spending but rather giving proper direction to the studies and an active
role of the Ministry of Transport in initiating such research and disseminating
the results.
16 The service offers access to electronic versions of 125 scientific journals from the fields of accounting,
finance and legal issues; economics and social policy; education and health care management;
information and knowledge management; innovation and business, international business; human
resources, quality, logistics and productivity management. In addition, the service contains full archives
of 32 journal titles – www.bg.ae.katowice.pl, as of 06.05.2007.
17 B.A.Osif, International transportation literature: an analysis of citation patterns, availability and research
implication to the transportation community, “The International Journal of Grey Literature” 2000, vol. 1,
no 4, pp.149-156.
18 This is probably the reason why only a small percentage of quotations in various reports on
transport come from a different language than the language of the publication – ibid.
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