MicroVeille

La production scientifique des chercheurs de la faculté de médecine et de pharmacie de Casablanca : mesures, cartographie et enjeux du libre accès

At 15:16 14/07/2018

Auteur/Author : Hanae Lrhoul

Notre travail de thèse vise à établir un diagnostic des potentialités scientifiques marocaines et à concevoir de nouveaux dispositifs pour la mesure, la cartographie et l’open access à la science locale.Pour bâtir des systèmes nationaux de recherche et garantir le développement socioéconomique du Maroc, les décideurs des universités ont besoin d’indicateurs d’analyse et d’évaluation de leur patrimoine scientifique.

Les principales sources utilisées pour effectuer cette analyse sont les bases de données internationales « Scopus » et « Web of Science », en dépit de leurs biais d’indexation et de couverture de la science des pays du Sud.

Cela induit un questionnement quant au manque hypothétique de la visibilité de la science marocaine. Ce manque de visibilité serait-il dû à la faible présence des revues nationales dans les bases de données internationales ? Ou relèverait-il de la faible qualité des publications marocaines ?

La science marocaine est-elle une science à visée locale, abordant des thèmes qui ne figurent pas dans l’agenda de la science universelle ? Les apports de l’open access quant à l’augmentation de la visibilité et de l’impact de la recherche sont-ils méconnus des universitaires marocains ?

La réponse à ces questions est accomplie à travers l’étude de cas de la Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Casablanca (FMPC). Elle s’articule autour de trois objectifs spécifiques : 1/ Recenser la production scientifique ; 2/ cartographier la production scientifique et explorer l’existence d’une relation entre l’indexation des publications dans les bases de données internationales et leur visibilité 3/ évaluer les comportements et les usages de l’open access par les chercheurs.

Les principaux résultats de l’analyse et de la cartographie de la production scientifique de la FMPC, attestent que celle-ci jouit d’une grande visibilité à l’échelle internationale. La juxtaposition des publications nationales et internationales permet de confirmer que 70% des publications scientifiques de la FMPC sont intégrées dans les bases de données internationales et que 74.21 % de l’ensemble des articles sont publiés en anglais.

Par ailleurs, on ne pourrait exclure 30% des publications nationales de l’évaluation bibliométrique au risque de biaiser les politiques scientifiques du pays.D’autres résultats de la thèse sont constitués par la mise en place du dépôt institutionnel de l’Université et du portail de revues médicales, créés afin d’assurer une large diffusion de la production des chercheurs de la FMPC et d’augmenter sa visibilité et son impact.

Néanmoins, les résultats de l’enquête menée auprès des chercheurs ont montré que la principale barrière à l’adoption de l’open access est la méconnaissance des avantages des dispositifs de libre accès à l’IST quant à l’augmentation de leur impact et de leur visibilité.

Les résultats de la cartographie de la FMPC et de l’étude des comportements des chercheurs à l’égard de l’open access, nous ont permis de proposer des fondements pour l’édification d’indicateurs adaptés au contexte marocain.

URL : https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01815122

Quelle place pour le prêt d’objets en bibliothèque ?

At 16:19 14/07/2018

Auteur/Author : Justine Le Montagner

En France, les bibliothèques, territoriales comme universitaires, sont de plus en plus nombreuses à proposer des services de prêt d’objets, qui peuvent se définir, en opposition aux livres et aux documents audio-visuels, par leur valeur d’usage.

Ces services innovants, encore souvent expérimentaux, interrogent l’identité d’une institution en crise, et participent à la définition de la bibliothèque comme un lieu de vie et de création.

En légitimant le prêt d’objets qui favorisent l’accès des citoyens à des pratiques et à des savoirs et savoir-faire, la bibliothèque fait évoluer son image et poursuit des enjeux sociétaux, renforçant ainsi sa place au sein d’une communauté.

URL : Quelle place pour le prêt d’objets en bibliothèque ?

Alternative location : http://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/notices/68274-quelle-place-pour-le-pret-d-objets-en-bibliotheque

‘The Internet is all around us’: How children come to understand the Internet

At 17:22 14/07/2018

Authors : Tina Murray, Rachel Buchanan

While children are living more of their lives online, little is known about what they understand about the implications of their online participation. Here we report on the Best Footprint Forward project which explored how children come to understand the internet.

Thirty-three children (ranging in age from 10 to 12 years old) from three primary schools in regional Australia participated in focus groups and created a work sample depicting the internet.

Analysis of the focus group transcripts and work samples revealed that while the children’s understanding of the internet was not technical, their knowledge was developed through the social activities that they engaged in online, and influenced by the interactions they have in their ‘real life’ with parents, teachers and friends.

The children in the study demonstrated an ambivalence about the internet; they regularly went online for a variety of purposes but these positive experiences were tempered by concerns and fears.

This research presents a nuanced perspective of children’s knowledge of the internet; by rejecting the notion that children are naïve, passive consumers of digital culture, analysis of their understanding reveals it to be balanced and sophisticated.

URL : ‘The Internet is all around us’: How children come to understand the Internet

Alternative location : http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/uncategorized/murray-buchanan-html/

Scholarship as an Open Conversation: Utilizing Open Peer Review in Information Literacy Instruction

At 18:24 14/07/2018

Author : Emily Ford

This article explores the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy’s frame, Scholarship as a Conversation. This frame asserts that information literate students have the disposition, skills, and knowledge to recognize and participate in disciplinary scholarly conversations.

By investigating the peer-review process as part of scholarly conversations, this article provides a brief literature review on peer review in information literacy instruction, and argues that by using open peer review (OPR) models for teaching, library workers can allow students to gain a deeper understanding of scholarly conversations.

OPR affords students the ability to begin dismantling the systemic oppression that blinded peer review and the traditional scholarly publishing system reinforce. Finally, the article offers an example classroom activity using OPR to help students enter scholarly conversations, and recognize power and oppression in scholarly publishing.

URL : http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/open-conversation/

The weakest link – workflows in open access agreements: the experience of the Vienna University Library and recommendations for future negotiations

At 19:28 14/07/2018

Authors : Rita Pinhasi, Guido Blechl, Brigitte Kromp, Bernhard Schubert

In recent years open access (OA) publishing agreements have left a lasting impact on several aspects of the research life cycle, and on the manner in which institutions work with publishers and researchers to support the transition to OA.

Apart from the immediate financial implications, one significant challenge libraries are facing is the sub-optimal level of workflow infrastructure that could determine the success or failure of otherwise innovative approaches.

This article will examine the Vienna University Library’s hands-on experience with OA agreements and the implementation of relevant workflows. It will describe existing workflows, review the benefits of the various systems in place and identify areas for improvement.

The paper will also propose items for discussion for organizations when negotiating OA agreements with publishers and will highlight potential pitfalls to be avoided.

URL : The weakest link – workflows in open access agreements: the experience of the Vienna University Library and recommendations for future negotiations

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.419

The UK Scholarly Communication Licence: Attempting to Cut through the Gordian Knot of the Complexities of Funder Mandates, Publisher Embargoes and Researcher Caution in Achieving Open Access

At 20:30 14/07/2018

Authors : Julie Baldwin, Stephen Pinfield

Whilst take-up of open access (OA) in the UK is growing rapidly due partly to a number of funder mandates, managing the complexities of balancing compliance with these mandates against restrictive publisher policies and ingrained academic priorities, has resulted in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) often struggling with confused researchers, complex workflows, and rising costs.

In order to try to address this situation, the UK Scholarly Communication Licence (UK-SCL) was formulated to bypass the root causes of many of these challenges by implementing a licensing mechanism for multiple-mandate compliance in one single policy.

This is the first empirical study to focus on the genesis of the UK-SCL and how its implementation has been conceived thus far. A qualitative research method was used, taking the form of 14 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from the initiative across the UK.

The results indicate that those working within UK HEIs are concerned with the complexity of the current OA policy landscape and are frustrated with the inertia within the current system, which has resulted in higher costs, further publisher restrictions, and has not addressed the underlying tensions in academic culture.

The UK-SCL is seen by its initiators as a way to achieve further transition towards OA and take back some element of control of the content produced at their institutions.

The study concludes by modelling the ways in which the UK-SCL is intended to impact relationships between key stakeholders, and discussing possible implementation futures.

URL : The UK Scholarly Communication Licence: Attempting to Cut through the Gordian Knot of the Complexities of Funder Mandates, Publisher Embargoes and Researcher Caution in Achieving Open Access

Alternative location : http://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/6/3/31

Disentangling Gold Open Access

At 21:32 14/07/2018

Authors : Daniel Torres-Salinas, Nicolas Robinson-Garcia, Henk F. Moed

This chapter focuses on the analysis of current publication trends in gold Open Access (OA). The purpose of the chapter is to develop a full understanding on country patterns, OA journals characteristics and citation differences between gold OA and non-gold OA publications.

For this, we will first review current literature regarding Open Access and its relation with its so-called citation advantage. Starting with a chronological perspective we will describe its development, how different countries are promoting OA publishing, and its effects on the journal publishing industry.

We will deepen the analysis by investigating the research output produced by different units of analysis. First, we will focus on the production of countries with a special emphasis on citation and disciplinary differences. A point of interest will be identification of national idiosyncrasies and the relation between OA publication and research of local interest.

This will lead to our second unit of analysis, OA journals indexed in Web of Science. Here we will deepen on journals characteristics and publisher types to clearly identify factors which may affect citation differences between OA and traditional journals which may not necessarily be derived from the OA factor.

Gold OA publishing is being encouraged in many countries as opposed to Green OA. This chapter aims at fully understanding how it affects researchers' publication patterns and whether it ensures an alleged citation advantage as opposed to non-gold OA publications.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.04535

Understanding Open Knowledge in China: A Chinese Approach to Openness?

At 12:27 17/07/2018

Authors: Lucy Montgomery, Xiang Ren

This paper examines the development of open knowledge in China through two case studies: the development of Chinese open access (OA) journals, and national-level OA repositories.

Open access and open knowledge are emerging as a site of both grass-roots activism, and top-down intervention in the practices of scholarship and scholarly publishing in China. Although the language, vision and strategies of the global open knowledge movement are undoubtedly present, so too are the messy realities of open access and open knowledge innovation in a local context.

In attempting to position open access developments in China within a diverse and contested global landscape of open knowledge innovation we draw on Moore’s (2017) conception of open access as a boundary object: an object that is understood differently within individual communities but which maintains enough structure to be understood between communities (Moore 2017; Star and Griesemer 1989).

Viewed as a boundary object, the concept of open knowledge is making it possible for China to engage with the global open knowledge movement, as a beneficiary of the innovation of others, and as an open knowledge innovator in its own right.

URL : Understanding Open Knowledge in China: A Chinese Approach to Openness?

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/csci.106

Health science libraries in Sweden: new directions, expanding roles

At 13:31 17/07/2018

Authors : Lotta Haglund, Annikki Roos, Petra Wallgren-Björk

Librarians in Sweden are facing huge challenges in meeting the demands of their organisations and users. This article looks at four key areas: coping with open science/open access initiatives; increasing demands from researchers for support doing systematic reviews; understanding user experiences in Swedish health science libraries; and the consequences of expanding roles for recruitment and continuing professional development.

With regard to changing roles, there is an increasing shift from the generalist towards the expert role. The authors raise the issue as to how to prepare those new to the profession to the changing environment of health science libraries.

URL : Health science libraries in Sweden: new directions, expanding roles

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12229

Do altmetrics assess societal impact in the same way as case studies? An empirical analysis testing the convergent validity of altmetrics based on data from the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF)

At 14:34 17/07/2018

Authors : Lutz Bornmann, Robin Haunschild, Jonathan Adams

Altmetrics have been proposed as a way to assess the societal impact of research. Although altmetrics are already in use as impact or attention metrics in different contexts, it is still not clear whether they really capture or reflect societal impact.

This study is based on altmetrics, citation counts, research output and case study data from the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), and peers' REF assessments of research output and societal impact. We investigated the convergent validity of altmetrics by using two REF datasets: publications submitted as research output (PRO) to the REF and publications referenced in case studies (PCS).

Case studies, which are intended to demonstrate societal impact, should cite the most relevant research papers. We used the MHq' indicator for assessing impact - an indicator which has been introduced for count data with many zeros.

The results of the first part of the analysis show that news media as well as mentions on Facebook, in blogs, in Wikipedia, and in policy-related documents have higher MHq' values for PCS than for PRO.

Thus, the altmetric indicators seem to have convergent validity for these data. In the second part of the analysis, altmetrics have been correlated with REF reviewers' average scores on PCS. The negative or close to zero correlations question the convergent validity of altmetrics in that context.

We suggest that they may capture a different aspect of societal impact (which can be called unknown attention) to that seen by reviewers (who are interested in the causal link between research and action in society).

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.03977

Calenge par Bertrand, parcours de lecture dans le Carnet d’un bibliothécaire : Du blog au book

At 17:54 19/07/2018

Auteur/Author : Jérôme pouchol

Nous sommes tous redevables à Bertrand Calenge, bibliothécaire de renom, théoricien et praticien des bibliothèques, disparu en 2016.

Un collectif de bibliothécaires fait revivre cet auteur, en proposant un parcours de lecture à travers son blog Carnet de notes.

Ces parcours thématiques et transversaux recontextualisent les billets selon les principaux sujets traités par l’auteur – collections, médiation, évaluation, métier, numérique, etc. – autant dire toutes les questions vives des bibliothèques.

Ce livre expérimente une mise en book du blog d’un professionnel, pour nous inviter, comme l'écrit Martine Poulain dans sa préface, « à penser, échanger, proposer ».

URL : Calenge par Bertrand, parcours de lecture dans le Carnet d’un bibliothécaire : Du blog au book

Alternative location : http://www.enssib.fr/presses/catalogue/calenge-par-bertrand-parcours-de-lecture-dans-le-carnet-dun-bibliothecaire

Interoperability and FAIRness through a novel combination of Web technologies

At 18:56 19/07/2018

Authors : Mark D. Wilkinson, Ruben Verborgh, Luiz Olavo Bonino da Silva Santos, Tim Clark, Morris A. Swertz, Fleur D.L. Kelpin, Alasdair J.G. Gray, Erik A. Schultes, Erik M. van Mulligen, Paolo Ciccarese, Arnold Kuzniar, Anand Gavai, Mark Thompson, Rajaram Kaliyaperumal, Jerven T. Bolleman, Michel Dumontier

Data in the life sciences are extremely diverse and are stored in a broad spectrum of repositories ranging from those designed for particular data types (such as KEGG for pathway data or UniProt for protein data) to those that are general-purpose (such as FigShare, Zenodo, Dataverse or EUDAT).

These data have widely different levels of sensitivity and security considerations. For example, clinical observations about genetic mutations in patients are highly sensitive, while observations of species diversity are generally not.

The lack of uniformity in data models from one repository to another, and in the richness and availability of metadata descriptions, makes integration and analysis of these data a manual, time-consuming task with no scalability.

Here we explore a set of resource-oriented Web design patterns for data discovery, accessibility, transformation, and integration that can be implemented by any general- or special-purpose repository as a means to assist users in finding and reusing their data holdings.

We show that by using off-the-shelf technologies, interoperability can be achieved atthe level of an individual spreadsheet cell. We note that the behaviours of this architecture compare favourably to the desiderata defined by the FAIR Data Principles, and can therefore represent an exemplar implementation of those principles.

The proposed interoperability design patterns may be used to improve discovery and integration of both new and legacy data, maximizing the utility of all scholarly outputs.

URL : Interoperability and FAIRness through a novel combination of Web technologies

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.110

The Modern Research Data Portal: a design pattern for networked, data-intensive science

At 20:00 19/07/2018

Authors : Kyle Chard, Eli Dart, Ian Foster , David Shifflett, Steven Tuecke, Jason Williams

We describe best practices for providing convenient, high-speed, secure access to large data via research data portals. We capture these best practices in a new design pattern, the Modern Research Data Portal, that disaggregates the traditional monolithic web-based data portal to achieve orders-of-magnitude increases in data transfer performance, support new deployment architectures that decouple control logic from data storage, and reduce development and operations costs.

We introduce the design pattern; explain how it leverages high-performance data enclaves and cloud-based data management services; review representative examples at research laboratories and universities, including both experimental facilities and supercomputer sites; describe how to leverage Python APIs for authentication, authorization, data transfer, and data sharing; and use coding examples to demonstrate how these APIs can be used to implement a range of research data portal capabilities.

Sample code at a companion web site, https://docs.globus.org/mrdp, provides application skeletons that readers can adapt to realize their own research data portals.

URL : The Modern Research Data Portal: a design pattern for networked, data-intensive science

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.144

Challenges and opportunities in the evolving digital preservation landscape: reflections from Portico

At 21:04 19/07/2018

Authors: Kate Wittenberg, Sarah Glasser, Amy Kirchhoff, Sheila Morrissey, Stephanie Orphan

There has been tremendous growth in the amount of digital content created by libraries, publishers, cultural institutions and the general public. While there are great benefits to having content available in digital form, digital objects can be extremely short-lived unless proper attention is paid to preservation.

Reflecting on our experience with the digital preservation service Portico, we provide background on Portico’s history and evolving practice of sustainable preservation of the digital artifacts of scholarly communications.

We also provide an overview of the digital preservation landscape as we see it now, with some thoughts on current requirements for preservation, and thoughts on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

URL : Challenges and opportunities in the evolving digital preservation landscape: reflections from Portico

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.421

Challenges of Adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) in Kenyan Secondary Schools: The Case of Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT)

At 22:08 19/07/2018

Authors : Daniel Ochieng Orwenjo, Fridah Kanana Erastus

Kenya, like many African countries, has faced enormous challenges in the production of and access to quality relevant teaching and learning materials and resources in her primary and secondary school classrooms.

This has been occasioned by a plethora of factors which include, but are not limited to a lack of finances, tradition, competence, and experience to develop such resources. Such a situation has persisted despite the existence and availability of many Open Educational Resources (OERs) that have been developed by many education stakeholders at enormous costs.

Such freely available resources could potentially improve the quality of existing resources or help to develop new courses. Yet, their uptake and reuse in secondary and primary schools in Kenya continues to be very low. This paper reports the findings of a study in which Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT) developed by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada, were piloted in sampled fifty (50) Kenyan secondary schools.

The study applied the Model 1 – Distance and Dependence (Zhao et al 2002) model to investigate the challenges that hinder instructors to adopt and use ORELT materials. The study reported that poor infrastructure, negative attitudes, lack of ICT competencies, and other skill gaps among teachers and lack of administrative support are some of the implementation challenges that have continued to dog the implementation, adoption and use of OERs in Kenyan schools.

The findings of the present study will go a long way in providing useful insights to the developers of OERs and Kenyan education stakeholders in devising strategies of maximum utilisation of OERs in the Kenyan school system.

URL : Challenges of Adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) in Kenyan Secondary Schools: The Case of Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT)

Alternative location : http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/282

Scholarly Communication Librarians’ Relationship with Research Impact Indicators: An Analysis of a National Survey of Academic Librarians in the United States

At 23:11 19/07/2018

Authors: Rachel Ann Miles, Stacy Konkiel, Sarah Sutton

INTRODUCTION

Academic librarians, especially in the field of scholarly communication, are often expected to understand and engage with research impact indicators. However, much of the current literature speculates about how academic librarians are using and implementing research impact indicators in their practice.

METHODS

This study analyzed the results from a 2015 survey administered to over 13,000 academic librarians at Carnegie-classified R1 institutions in the United States. The survey concentrated on academic librarians’ familiarity with and usage of research impact indicators.

RESULTS

This study uncovered findings related to academic librarians’ various levels of familiarity with research impact indicators and how they implement and use research impact indicators in their professional development and in their library job duties.

DISCUSSION

In general, academic librarians with regular scholarly communication support duties tend to have higher levels of familiarity of research impact indicators. In general, academic librarians are most familiar with the citation counts and usage statistics and least familiar with altmetrics.

During consultations with faculty, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and citation counts are more likely to be addressed than the author h-index, altmetrics, qualitative measures, and expert peer reviews.

The survey results also hint towards a growing interest in altmetrics among academic librarians for their professional advancement.

CONCLUSION

Academic librarians are continually challenged to keep pace with the changing landscape of research impact metrics and research assessment models. By keeping pace and implementing research impact indicators in their own practices, academic librarians can provide a crucial service to the wider academic community.

URL : Scholarly Communication Librarians’ Relationship with Research Impact Indicators: An Analysis of a National Survey of Academic Librarians in the United States

DOI : http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2212

Open Education Science

At 00:14 20/07/2018

Authors : Tim van der Zee, Justin Reich

Scientific progress is built on research that is reliable, accurate, and verifiable. The methods and evidentiary reasoning that underlie scientific claims must be available for scrutiny.

Like other fields, the education sciences suffer from problems such as failure to replicate, validity and generalization issues, publication bias, and high costs of access to publications­all of which are symptoms of a nontransparent approach to research. Each aspect of the scientific cycle­research design, data collection, analysis, and publication­can and should be made more transparent and accessible.

Open Education Science is a set of practices designed to increase the transparency of evidentiary reasoning and access to scientific research in a domain characterized by diverse disciplinary traditions and a commitment to impact in policy and practice.

Transparency and accessibility are functional imperatives that come with many benefits for the individual researcher, scientific community, and society at large­Open Education Science is the way forward.

URL : Open Education Science

Alternative location : http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2332858418787466

Unveiling Scholarly Communities over Knowledge Graphs

At 01:16 20/07/2018

Authors : Sahar Vahdati, Guillermo Palma, Rahul Jyoti Nath, Christoph Lange, Sören Auer, Maria-Esther Vidal

Knowledge graphs represent the meaning of properties of real-world entities and relationships among them in a natural way. Exploiting semantics encoded in knowledge graphs enables the implementation of knowledge-driven tasks such as semantic retrieval, query processing, and question answering, as well as solutions to knowledge discovery tasks including pattern discovery and link prediction.

In this paper, we tackle the problem of knowledge discovery in scholarly knowledge graphs, i.e., graphs that integrate scholarly data, and present Korona, a knowledge-driven framework able to unveil scholarly communities for the prediction of scholarly networks.

Korona implements a graph partition approach and relies on semantic similarity measures to determine relatedness between scholarly entities. As a proof of concept, we built a scholarly knowledge graph with data from researchers, conferences, and papers of the Semantic Web area, and apply Korona to uncover co-authorship networks.

Results observed from our empirical evaluation suggest that exploiting semantics in scholarly knowledge graphs enables the identification of previously unknown relations between researchers.

By extending the ontology, these observations can be generalized to other scholarly entities, e.g., articles or institutions, for the prediction of other scholarly patterns, e.g., co-citations or academic collaboration.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.06816

Data management and sharing in neuroimaging: Practices and perceptions of MRI researchers

At 11:52 23/07/2018

Authors : John A. Borghi, Ana E. Van Gulick

Neuroimaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) involve complex data collection and analysis protocols, which necessitate the establishment of good research data management (RDM). Despite efforts within the field to address issues related to rigor and reproducibility, information about the RDM-related practices and perceptions of neuroimaging researchers remains largely anecdotal.

To inform such efforts, we conducted an online survey of active MRI researchers that covered a range of RDM-related topics. Survey questions addressed the type(s) of data collected, tools used for data storage, organization, and analysis, and the degree to which practices are defined and standardized within a research group.

Our results demonstrate that neuroimaging data is acquired in multifarious forms, transformed and analyzed using a wide variety of software tools, and that RDM practices and perceptions vary considerably both within and between research groups, with trainees reporting less consistency than faculty.

Ratings of the maturity of RDM practices from ad-hoc to refined were relatively high during the data collection and analysis phases of a project and significantly lower during the data sharing phase.

Perceptions of emerging practices including open access publishing and preregistration were largely positive, but demonstrated little adoption into current practice.

URL : Data management and sharing in neuroimaging: Practices and perceptions of MRI researchers

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200562

Clinical Trial Participants’ Views of the Risks and Benefits of Data Sharing

At 12:56 23/07/2018

Authors : Michelle M. Mello, Van Lieou, Steven N. Goodman

Background

Sharing of participant-level clinical trial data has potential benefits, but concerns about potential harms to research participants have led some pharmaceutical sponsors and investigators to urge caution. Little is known about clinical trial participants’ perceptions of the risks of data sharing.

Methods

We conducted a structured survey of 771 current and recent participants from a diverse sample of clinical trials at three academic medical centers in the United States. Surveys were distributed by mail (350 completed surveys) and in clinic waiting rooms (421 completed surveys) (overall response rate, 79%).

Results

Less than 8% of respondents felt that the potential negative consequences of data sharing outweighed the benefits. A total of 93% were very or somewhat likely to allow their own data to be shared with university scientists, and 82% were very or somewhat likely to share with scientists in for-profit companies.

Willingness to share data did not vary appreciably with the purpose for which the data would be used, with the exception that fewer participants were willing to share their data for use in litigation.

The respondents’ greatest concerns were that data sharing might make others less willing to enroll in clinical trials (37% very or somewhat concerned), that data would be used for marketing purposes (34%), or that data could be stolen (30%). Less concern was expressed about discrimination (22%) and exploitation of data for profit (20%).

Conclusions

In our study, few clinical trial participants had strong concerns about the risks of data sharing. Provided that adequate security safeguards were in place, most participants were willing to share their data for a wide range of uses. (Funded by the Greenwall Foundation.)

URL : https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1713258

What Can a Knowledge Complexity Approach Reveal About Big Data and Archival Practice?

At 13:59 23/07/2018

Author : Nicola Horsley

As one of the major technological concepts driving ICT development today, big data has been touted as offering new forms of analysis of research data. Its application has reached out across disciplines but some research sources and archival practices do not sit comfortably within the computational turn and this has sparked concerns that cultural heritage collections that cannot be structured, represented, or, indeed, digitised accordingly may be excluded and marginalised by this new paradigm.

This work-in-progress paper reports on the contribution of the KPLEX project's knowledge complexity approach to understanding the relationship between big data and archival practice.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01831129

Health Sciences Libraries Advancing Collaborative Clinical Research Data Management in Universities

At 15:01 23/07/2018

Authors : Tania P. Bardyn, Emily F. Patridge, Michael T. Moore, Jane J. Koh

Purpose

Medical libraries need to actively review their service models and explore partnerships with other campus entities to provide better-coordinated clinical research management services to faculty and researchers. TRAIL (Translational Research and Information Lab), a five-partner initiative at the University of Washington (UW), explores how best to leverage existing expertise and space to deliver clinical research data management (CRDM) services and emerging technology support to clinical researchers at UW and collaborating institutions in the Pacific Northwest.

Methods

The initiative offers 14 services and a technology-enhanced innovation lab located in the Health Sciences Library (HSL) to support the University of Washington clinical and research enterprise.

Sharing of staff and resources merges library and non-library workflows, better coordinating data and innovation services to clinical researchers. Librarians have adopted new roles in CRDM, such as providing user support and training for UW’s Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) instance.

Results

TRAIL staff are quickly adapting to changing workflows and shared services, including teaching classes on tools used to manage clinical research data. Researcher interest in TRAIL has sparked new collaborative initiatives and service offerings. Marketing and promotion will be important for raising researchers’ awareness of available services.

Conclusions

Medical librarians are developing new skills by supporting and teaching CRDM. Clinical and data librarians better understand the information needs of clinical and translational researchers by being involved in the earlier stages of the research cycle and identifying technologies that can improve healthcare outcomes.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2018.1130 At health sciences libraries, leveraging existing resources and bringing services together is central to how university medical librarians will operate in the future.

Annotation sémantique pour une interrogation experte des Bulletins de Santé du Végétal

At 16:03 23/07/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Catherine Roussey, Tayeb Ghorfi

Le corpus des Bulletins de Santé du Végétal est actuellement disponible sur le Web de données. Les annotations associées à chaque bulletin sont organisées par des propriétés issues du vocabulaire du Dublin Core. Ces annotations répondent à un besoin de recherche documentaire basé sur trois composants : régions françaises, période de publication et types de cultures.

Nous avons appliqué une des méthodes de construction d’ontologies de Neon pour faire évoluer le modèle d’annotation des bulletins. Ce modèle contient une ontologie des observations des parcelles et un modèle d’annotation liant le contenu textuel à une entité définie dans l’ontologie précédente. Ces nouveaux modèles répondent à des besoins d’information exprimés par les agronomes.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01839545

Universalizing science: alternative indices to direct research

At 17:05 23/07/2018

Authors : Ari Melo Mariano, Maíra Rocha Santos

Measurement is a complicated but very necessary task. Many indices have been created in an effort to define the quality of knowledge produced but they have attracted strong criticism, having become synonymous with individualism, competition and mere productivity and, furthermore, they fail to head science towards addressing local demands or towards producing international knowledge by means of collaboration.

Institutions, countries, publishers, governments and authors have a latent need to create quality and productivity indices because they can serve as filters that influence far-reaching decision making and even decisions on the professional promotion of university teachers.

Even so, in the present-day context, the very creators of those indices admit that they were not designed for that purpose, given that different research areas, the age of the researcher, the country and the language spoken all have an influence on the index calculations.

Accordingly, this research sets out three indices designed to head science towards its universal objective by valuing collaboration and the dissemination of knowledge.

It is hoped that the proposed indices may provoke new discussions and the proposal of new, more assertive indicators for the analysis of scientific research quality.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07595

Vers une culture de la donnée en SHS : Une étude à l'Université de Lille

At 14:58 24/07/2018

Auteur/Author : Joachim Schöpfel

La science ouverte figure parmi les priorités de l’Etat français. Dans la continuité des chantiers engagés par le gouvernement français sur la transformation numérique de l’Etat et sa modernisation, le deuxième plan d’action national 2018-2020 "Pour une action publique transparente et collaborative" précise que la France « soutient la mise en œuvre des principes du gouvernement ouvert pour renforcer (…) l’accès aux matériaux et résultats de la recherche ».

Le plan national pour la science ouverte, présenté début juillet 2018, a confirmé cette ambition. L’objectif est que les données produites par la recherche publique soient progressivement structurées en conformité avec les principes FAIR, préservées et, quand cela est possible, ouvertes.

Notre étude "Vers une culture de la donnée en SHS" souhaite contribuer à la mise en œuvre de l’écosystème de la science ouverte sur le terrain d’un campus universitaire.

L’étude a été réalisée dans le cadre du projet structurant D4Humanities, avec un financement de la MESHS et du Conseil Régional Hauts-de-France, et elle fait suite à des travaux de recherche menés depuis 2013 par le laboratoire GERiiCO.

Conduite sous forme d’entretiens avec 51 chercheurs, doctorants, responsables de laboratoires, chefs de projets et ingénieurs en charge de données, l’étude poursuit trois objectifs :

• (Re)Mettre les enseignants-chercheurs au cœur de la mise en œuvre de l’écosystème de la science ouverte sur le campus, avec leurs besoins, priorités et interrogations.

• Identifier des opportunités et verrous pour une politique de données.

• Recommander dix actions à mettre en place pour développer la culture de données sur le campus.

Menée comme un audit sur un terrain particulier et dans le domaine des sciences humaines et sociales, l'étude a une portée pragmatique: dégager les éléments indispensables pour une politique cohérente de la production, gestion et réutilisation des données de la recherche sur un campus en sciences humaines et sociales, et contribuer ainsi à l’appropriation du concept de la science ouverte par une « mise en culture de la donnée, qui effectue une mise en sens d’usages disséminés et spécialisés de données ouvertes ».

Une première partie (« Constats préalables ») s’appuie sur deux études (Rennes 2, Lille 3) pour mieux cerner le concept de la donnée de recherche et son caractère de « longue traîne » ; cette partie synthétise les pratiques, motivations et attentes des enseignants-chercheurs dans ce domaine, en SHS.

Elle aborde également d’une manière générale la question des services et dispositifs de données. Une deuxième partie (« Observations ») décrit un paysage contrasté à partir des entretiens menés en 2017 et 2018 sur le campus SHS de l’Université de Lille.

Les besoins prioritaires des chercheurs sont la sécurité des données et systèmes, et la communication au sein des projets. L’image qui se dégage est un continuum de pratiques plus ou moins efficaces, formalisées et adéquates, avec une gouvernance parfois incertaine, au niveau des projets aussi bien qu’au niveau des structures.

Ces pratiques sont liées aux communautés disciplinaires mais plus encore, aux méthodes, équipements et thématiques scientifiques. La troisième partie (« Vers une culture de la donnée ») liste d’une manière succincte dix recommandations qui, ensemble, définissent un cadre de référence pour la mise en œuvre d’une politique de données sur un campus SHS :

• Mettre en place un pilotage scientifique

• Investir d’une manière ciblée

• Viser les projets, pas les laboratoires

• Utiliser les plans de gestion comme levier

• Apporter des réponses aux contraintes de sécurité

• Apporter des réponses aux besoins de communication

• Apporter des réponses aux besoins de curation

• Proposer plusieurs solutions pour la conservation des données

• Institutionnaliser le lien avec la TGIR Huma-Num

• Soutenir les bonnes pratiques

URL : Vers une culture de la donnée en SHS : Une étude à l'Université de Lille

Alternative location : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/GERIICO/hal-01846849v1

Use of Twitter in Spanish Communication Journals

At 12:50 25/07/2018

Authors : Victoria Tur-Viñes, Jesús Segarra-Saavedra, Tatiana Hidalgo-Marí

This is an exploratory study on the Twitter profiles managed by 30 Spanish Communication journals. The aim is to analyse the profile management, to identify the features of the most interactive content, and to propose effective practices motivating strategic management.

The management variables considered were the following: the launch date of the journal and launch of the Twitter profile; published content and frequency of publication; number of publications in 2016; number of Twitter followers.

The identification of the features of the most interactive tweets was performed in a 150-unit sample, taking into consideration the following factors: the number of retweets, likes, type of content (motivation), components forming the content, the date and time of publication, and origin of the publication (internal or unrelated).

The results reveal notable practices and certain deficiencies in the strategic management of social profiles. Twitter represents an innovative opportunity in scientific dissemination, and it establishes an inalienable strategy for creating and maintaining the brand-journal while retaining the need to strengthen followers’ reciprocity. Other potential uses are suggested.

URL : Use of Twitter in Spanish Communication Journals

Alternative location : http://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/6/3/34

Reviewing the review process: Investigation of researchers' opinions on different methods of peer review

At 11:38 28/07/2018

Author : Carolin Anna Rebernig

Peer review is considered the gold standard of scientific publishing. Trust in the traditional system of editor – blind-reviewer – author is still high, but it’s authority is in decline and alternative methods are on the rise.

The current study investigates opinions of alternative peer review methods, the arguments for and against, and the reasons why academics are searching for new approaches. The opinions were analysed by applying qualitative content analysis to online discussions.

The findings were interpreted using two different sociological theories: the Mertonian sociology of science and social constructivism.

The results of the study show that the most discussed method was also the most traditional one: closed pre-publication peer review comprised of single blind, double-blind and open peer review (non blinded).

Discussions of open peer review (both open publishing of reports and open discussions) were also common. All other alternative methods were discussed much less. But the discussions were lively and each method was discussed in both positive and negative terms.

The reasons for preferring certain methods were also manifold, but dominant topics were bias and fairness, quality issues (regarding reviews and publications), issues concerning human resources and communication and exchange among people.

The results of this study demonstrate that while ethical norms seems to be a scientific ideal, human nature makes it impossible to accomplish this goal.

URN : http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Ahb%3Adiva-14607

The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics

At 10:28 31/07/2018

Authors : Nicholas Colvard, C. Edward Watson, Hyojin Park

There are multiple indicators which suggest that completion, quality, and affordability are the three greatest challenges for higher education today in terms of students, student learning, and student success.

Many colleges, universities, and state systems are seeking to adopt a portfolio of solutions that address these challenges. This article reports the results of a large-scale study (21,822 students) regarding the impact of course-level faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER).

Results indicate that OER adoption does much more than simply save students money and address student debt concerns. OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students.

They also improve course grades at greater rates and decrease DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education.

OER address affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning. These findings contribute to a broadening perception of the value of OERs and their relevance to the great challenges facing higher education today.

URL : The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics

Alternative location : http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/abstract.cfm?mid=3386

The Open Revolution : Rewriting the rules of the information age

At 15:39 02/08/2018

Author : Rufus Pollock

Forget everything you think you know about the digital age. It’s not about privacy, surveillance, AI or blockchain­it’s about ownership. Because, in a digital age, who owns information controls the future.

In this urgent and provocative book, Rufus Pollock shows how today’s "Closed" digital economy is the source of problems ranging from growing inequality, to unaffordable medicines, to the power of a handful of tech monopolies to control how we think and vote.

He proposes a solution that charts a path to a more equitable, innovative and profitable future for all.

URL : The Open Revolution : Rewriting the rules of the information age

Alternative location : https://openrevolution.net/

Post-publication peer review in biomedical journals: overcoming obstacles and disincentives to knowledge sharing

At 11:08 08/08/2018

Authors : Valerie Matarese, Karen Shashok

The importance of post-publication peer review (PPPR) as a type of knowledge exchange has been emphasized by several authorities in research publishing, yet biomedical journals do not always facilitate this type of publication.

Here we report our experience publishing a commentary intended to offer constructive feedback on a previously published article. We found that publishing our comment required more time and effort than foreseen, because of obstacles encountered at some journals.

Using our professional experience as authors’ editors and our knowledge of publication policies as a starting point, we reflect on the probable reasons behind these obstacles, and suggest ways in which journals could make PPPR easier. In addition, we argue that PPPR should be more explicitly valued and rewarded in biomedical disciplines, and suggest how these publications could be included in research evaluations.

Eliminating obstacles and disincentives to PPPR is essential in light of the key roles of post-publication analysis and commentary in drawing attention to shortcomings in published articles that were overlooked during pre-publication peer review.

URL : Post-publication peer review in biomedical journals: overcoming obstacles and disincentives to knowledge sharing

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.31229/osf.io/8kxyz

Les Sciences Humaines et Sociales, moteurs de l’accès ouvert : la preuve par Cybergeo

At 12:11 08/08/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Christine Kosmopoulos, Denise Pumain

En mai 2016 Cybergeo : Revue européenne de géographie fêtait à l’Auditorium Marie Curie (CNRS, Paris) ses 20 années d’existence. Première revue nativement numérique en sciences sociales, Cybergeo s’inscrit en pionnière de la diffusion scientifique en libre accès.

Forte de ses 20 ans d’expérience, elle apporte la preuve qu’un modèle alternatif de diffusion de l’information scientifique est possible, ouvert et contrôlé par la communauté scientifique mondiale. Elle témoigne également du très fort impact de l’accès ouvert en sciences lorsqu’il s’accompagne d’une attention soutenue à l’innovation.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/29209

Science created by crowds: a case study of science crowdfunding in Japan

At 13:13 08/08/2018

Authors : Yuko Ikkatai, Euan McKay, Hiromi M. Yokoyama

“Science crowdfunding” is a research funding system in which members of the public make small financial contributions towards a research project via the Internet. We compared the more common research process involving public research funding with science crowdfunding.

In the former, academic-peer communities review the research carried out whereas the Crowd Community, an aggregation of backers, carries out this function in the latter. In this paper, we propose that science crowdfunding can be successfully used to generate “crowd-supported science” by means of this Crowd Community.

URL : Science created by crowds: a case study of science crowdfunding in Japan

Alternative location : https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/17/03/JCOM_1703_2018_A06

How are we Measuring Up? Evaluating Research Data Services in Academic Libraries

At 14:15 08/08/2018

Authors : Heather L. Coates, Jake Carlson, Ryan Clement, Margaret Henderson, Lisa R Johnston, Yasmeen Shorish

INTRODUCTION

In the years since the emergence of federal funding agency data management and sharing requirements (http://datasharing.sparcopen.org/data), research data services (RDS) have expanded to dozens of academic libraries in the United States.

As these services have matured, service providers have begun to assess them. Given a lack of practical guidance in the literature, we seek to begin the discussion with several case studies and an exploration of four approaches suitable to assessing these emerging services.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

This article examines five case studies that vary by staffing, drivers, and institutional context in order to begin a practice-oriented conversation about how to evaluate and assess research data services in academic libraries.

The case studies highlight some commonly discussed challenges, including insufficient training and resources, competing demands for evaluation efforts, and the tension between evidence that can be easily gathered and that which addresses our most important questions.

We explore reflective practice, formative evaluation, developmental evaluation, and evidence-based library and information practice for ideas to advance practice.

NEXT STEPS

Data specialists engaged in providing research data services need strategies and tools with which to make decisions about their services. These range from identifying stakeholder needs to refining existing services to determining when to extend and discontinue declining services.

While the landscape of research data services is broad and diverse, there are common needs that we can address as a community. To that end, we have created a community-owned space to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and existing resources.

URL : How are we Measuring Up? Evaluating Research Data Services in Academic Libraries

DOI : http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2226

The Cost of Astronomy Publishing fees in astronomy: Is something rotten in the case of Denmark?

At 11:14 15/08/2018

Author : Bertil F. Dorch

Using Scopus and national sources, I have investigated the evolution of the cost of publishing in Danish astronomy on a fine scale over a number of years.

I find that the number of publications per year from Danish astronomers increased by a factor of four during 15 years: naturally, the corresponding potential cost of publishing must have increased similarly.

The actual realized cost of publishing in core journals are investigated for a high profile Danish astronomy research institutions. I argue that the situation is highly unstable if the current cost scenario continues, and I speculate that Danish astronomy is risking a scholarly communication collapse due to the combination of increasing subscription cost, increased research output, and increased direct publishing costs related to Open Access and other page charges.

URL : The Cost of Astronomy Publishing fees in astronomy: Is something rotten in the case of Denmark?

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201818612005

Open Access E-Books in the Field of Health Sciences: A Scientometric Study

At 12:20 15/08/2018

Authors : Fayaz Ahmad Loan, Ufaira Yaseen Shah

The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a discovery service for open access e-books. It provides a searchable index to peer-reviewed e-books published under an open access business model.

The present study aims to assess the scientometric trends of the open access e-books in the field of the Health Sciences available through the Directory of Open Access Books. In order to fulfil the set objectives, the relevant details of the Health Sciences e-books were collected.

The results reveal that 916 e-books are available in the field of the Health Sciences through the Directory of Open Access. The highest number of e-books is contributed in General Medicine (40.61%, 372) and in the English language (83.84%, 768). These e-books also contain current information as the majority (88.32%, 809) of these are published from 2011 onwards by the reputed publishers like Frontiers Media, SciELO, Springer, Palgrave Macmillan, and Oxford University Press etc.

The Directory of Open Access Books was selected as a source for data collection whereas the Health Sciences was selected as the field of study. Therefore, the finding can’t be generalised across directories and subjects.

URL : Open Access E-Books in the Field of Health Sciences: A Scientometric Study

Alternative location : https://ijism.ricest.ac.ir/index.php/ijism/article/view/1272

A Reflection on the Applicability of Google Scholar as a Tool for Comprehensive Retrieval in Bibliometric Research and Systematic Reviews

At 13:21 15/08/2018

Authors : Mojgan Houshyar, Hajar Sotudeh

Google Scholar has recently attracted great attentions as an open access multidisciplinary citation database, and a tool for retrieving scientific works for scientometricians and researchers.

The present research intended to highlight the limitations brought about by efficiency policies of the search engine and its impact on the results available to users. To do so, it examined the accessibility of the retrieval results, through conducting 54 searches in this database.

The results showed that the estimation of the results on the top of the first page returned by Google Scholar did not match that of the accessible results. Therefore, these statistics could not be accounted for to precisely determine the number of documents on a topic.

Moreover, the results showed that although the subjects selected for the searches were very specific, the number of results for each search was very wide and exceeded the upper limit of 1,000 records authorized in Google Scholar for display.

By limiting the searches to the title field, the number of the results was dramatically reduced. Since title is one of the most important representations of document contents in scientific and technical fields, this strategy can increase the precision of the results and thus the effectiveness of the retrievals.

The investigation of the accessibility of the search results for the title field also showed that some documents, though scarce in number, were still inaccessible despite the fact that they were within the 1000-record limits.

In addition, in title field search, some rare cases of duplicate records, incompatibilities between queries and documents were observed regarding the language of the documents and exact phrase search.

The lack of automatic truncation in field searches was one of the most important issues necessitating the use of sophisticated search strategies.

URL : A Reflection on the Applicability of Google Scholar as a Tool for Comprehensive Retrieval in Bibliometric Research and Systematic Reviews

Alternative location : https://ijism.ricest.ac.ir/index.php/ijism/article/view/1267

Open access monitoring and business model in Latin America and Middle East: a comparative study based on DOAJ data and criteria

At 14:23 15/08/2018

Authors : Ivonne Lujano, Mahmoud Khalifa

This research will focus on analyzing the state of open access journals in two regions of developing countries (Latin America and Middle East) according to two main aspects: a) business models and b) monitoring policies that journals implement to ensure the quality.

DOAJ alongside to other institutions has performed great efforts in order to enrich the movement of open access in developing countries. DOAJ is the largest database of peer reviewed open access journals. As March 2018 it has 11.250 journals, and more than 2.900.000 indexed articles from 123 countries.

Using the DOAJ database first, we identified the journals published in countries from the Latin America and Middle East. Then we extracted the data on APCs and submission charges to analyze the business models comparing this data with some other official documents.

We also analyzed some of the DOAJ’s data on monitoring policies, i.e. the review process for papers and the policy of screening for plagiarism. According to initial survey of business models implemented in open access journals in Latin America we found that only 5% of journals charge author fees (APCs and submission charges) being Brazil the country with the highest number of journals that adopt this policy.

Open access is the predominant business model in the majority of countries and it is mostly public funded. Regarding the Middle East region, we can list variant models depending on the economic conditions of each country. APCs and submission charges is growing trend in low economic countries, for example: Egypt, Sudan, North Africa States, however in high economic countries like Gulf States the authors get paid when publish a paper in a journal.

Most of the journals from Latin America (LATAM) implement double or simple blind peer review process and only four journals (published in Brazil and Argentina) carry out some kind of open peer review system. Concerning the policy of screening for plagiarism only 20% of journals state to use any type of software (open source, proprietary, free, etc.).

For journals in the Middle East (MENA), depending on DOAJ experience the types of peer-review are not quite clear for all journals’ editors. Some countries initiated to have policy for plagiarism.

Through the Higher Supreme of Universities in Egypt, screening for plagiarism checked for theses and faculty staff researches, however journals still not familiar with plagiarism detection software, and it requires high cost.

The research will find out deeper results about the two areas depending on DOAJ data analysis and other resources regarding the business model and journal monitoring.

URL : Open access monitoring and business model in Latin America and Middle East: a comparative study based on DOAJ data and criteria

Alternative location : http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2126

Scholarly Communication at the Crossroad: From subscription to Open Access?

At 15:26 15/08/2018

Author : Gayle R.Y.C. Chan

Recent developments in the scholarly communication ecosystem toward open access (OA) have become highly complex in how researchers discover and use information, create, and select publication venues to disseminate their research. Institution policy makers, grant funders, publishers, researchers and libraries are coming to grips with the flux in OA publishing.

What is expected is that OA will secure a growing market share, with major funders pushing OA mandates with timelines and publishers launching new OA versus traditional journals. Libraries have a critical role to play in resolving the complexities resulting from the impending 'flip' of journals from subscription to OA.

The University of Hong Kong (HKU), being the foremost research institution in Asia, has experienced YOY double digit growth in gold open access publications in recent years. From the collection development perspective, there is an urgent need to understand the trend in research output in order to reassess the resources budget allocation and expenditures to accommodate the needed funding support for OA publishing.

This paper presents the strategies adopted by HKU in preparing the budget transition toward OA publishing and to strengthen the library's negotiating power in securing sustainable big deals that factor in support for researchers to go the OA route.

The value for money, challenge and risk of committing in multiyear big deals without accounting for publishing expenditures in OA contents will be discussed. Analytics on research output, journal subscription and article publishing expenditures will be used to inform the bigger picture of funding access to scholarly contents.

URL : Scholarly Communication at the Crossroad: From subscription to Open Access?

Alternative location : http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2192

Open Access Books: an international collaboration to explore the practical implications for librarians of increasing access to scholarly research outputs

At 12:18 17/08/2018

Authors : Elsie Zhou, Leon Errelin, Sam Oakley, Neil Smyth

Open access advocacy and partnership is an established role for libraries across the world: books continue to be a challenge. Books and book chapters remain a vital output for many research areas. Open access policies have focused primarily on journal articles and serial publications, potentially creating an imbalance in the research literature freely available, and possibly having a negative impact on book publications in terms of readership and citations.

Publisher permissions for journal articles can usually be accessed from Sherpa RoMEO, but book contracts continue to be a mostly hidden agreement between publisher and researcher, inaccessible to librarians who are supporting and driving the open access agenda within an institution.

What are the current challenges for librarians in making academics books openly available? To what extent will this limit the mediating role of librarians in scholarly communication? Is this role sustainable?

A global perspective is provided with a comparison of distinctive experiences at two leading international universities: Swansea University; and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Swansea University is seeking to create more open access book content in line with the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Funding Council for Education Research Excellence Framework Open Access policy.

The University of Nottingham Ningbo China is seeking to maximize the dissemination and visibility of research to a global audience through open access.

This paper focusses on the issues and challenges for librarians who wish to increase the number of books and book chapters available open access, including: relationships with global publishing partners; the complexity of publisher policies for books; challenging existing researcher practices; and, reskilling librarians for advocacy and influencing roles in scholarly communication.

A set of recommendations is drawn from this in order to improve the library and information service roles in supporting research, publishing process and improving open access to book content.

URL : Open Access Books: an international collaboration to explore the practical implications for librarians of increasing access to scholarly research outputs

Alternative location : http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2193

Enhancing scholarly communication through institutional repositories: salient issues and strategies by libraries in Nigeria

At 13:19 17/08/2018

Author : Ngozi B. Ukachi

The place of institutional repositories in enhancing scholarly communication is becoming obvious as academic institutions are embracing this activity which among many other key roles, enables wider circulation of research outputs of institutions.

This study is concentrated on establishing the strategies and models adopted by libraries in Nigeria in ensuring that their institutional repositories effectively enhance scholarly communication. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study while the purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting libraries that have institutional repositories.

Questionnaire complemented with oral interview were the instruments used for data collection. Data collected was analysed using SPSS software. The outcome revealed that the two most prevailing activities carried out by the libraries in modelling their institutional repositories for enhanced scholarly communication are; digitization of scholarly contents in printed format and allowing self- archiving of research outputs of members of staff.

Announcing and publicizing their contents through the library website is the main strategy adopted by the libraries in promoting their institutional repositories for enhanced scholarly communication revealed.

Challenges encountered include; issues with legal framework/ intellectual property right, difficulty in content recruitment, etc.

The study concluded by recommending among others that the library management should expose members of staff in-charge of content upload to trainings in the area of copyright law, put in place a submission policy that will compel members of staff to submit their research outputs to the repository and, establish a reward system to academic members of staff who submit their works to the institutional repository.

URL : Enhancing scholarly communication through institutional repositories: salient issues and strategies by libraries in Nigeria

Alternative location : http://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2268

Réflexions documentaires et archivistiques sur les données d’opération archéologique et leur exploitation à l’échelle des territoires. Structuration des données numériques à l’Inrap Centre-Val de Loire

At 14:23 17/08/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Emilie Trébuchet, Philippe Salé, Isabelle Gidelle

Le diagnostic archéologique produit une documentation scientifique croissante depuis 30 ans, comme en témoignent les rapports d’opération. Les archéologues la réutilisent de plus en plus systématiquement dans le cadre de projets de recherche ou de synthèses sur des territoires.

Cet article met en avant une proposition d’organisation des données numériques d’opération, élaborée à l’Inrap Centre-Val de Loire entre 2012 et 2017, dans une perspective de gestion, d’archivage et de mise à disposition facilités.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01853131

How to reach a wider audience with open access publishing: what research universities can learn from universities of applied sciences

At 15:27 17/08/2018

Authors : Saskia Woutersen-Windhouwer, Jaroen Kuijper

In Amsterdam, the libraries of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) cooperate closely. In this cooperation, the differences between a research university (i.c. UvA) and a university of applied sciences (i.c. AUAS) become particularly clear when we look at the aim and implementation of open access policies.

The open access plan of the AUAS removes not only financial and legal barriers, but also language barriers.

This makes the research output FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) to the primary target group of the product, and more importantly, it enables interaction between the AUAS and a wide audience, consisting of researchers from other disciplines, and a wide range of professionals, enterprises, civil servants, schools and citizens.

In the search for co-financing by enterprises and other stakeholders, and to fulfil their valorisation requirements, these target groups are currently becoming more important for research universities as well. Here, we show what research universities can learn from the open access policy of the AUAS.

URL : How to reach a wider audience with open access publishing: what research universities can learn from universities of applied sciences

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10237

Ethical Concerns in the Rise of Co-Authorship and Its Role as a Proxy of Research Collaborations

At 16:29 17/08/2018

Author : Sameer Kumar

Increasing specialization, changes in the institutional incentives for publication, and a host of other reasons have brought about a marked trend towards co-authored articles among researchers.

These changes have impacted Science and Technology (S&T) policies worldwide. Co-authorship is often considered to be a reliable proxy for assessing research collaborations at micro, meso, and macro levels.

Although co-authorship in a scholarly publication brings numerous benefits to the participating authors, it has also given rise to issues of publication integrity, such as ghost authorships and honorary authorships.

The code of conduct of bodies such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) make it clear that only those who have significantly contributed to the study should be on the authorship list.

Those who have contributed little have to be appropriately “acknowledged” in footnotes or in the acknowledgement section. However, these principles are sometimes transgressed, and a complete solution still remains elusive.

URL : Ethical Concerns in the Rise of Co-Authorship and Its Role as a Proxy of Research Collaborations

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/publications6030037

Systematic analysis of agreement between metrics and peer review in the UK REF

At 17:31 17/08/2018

Authors : Vincent Traag, Ludo Waltman

When performing a national research assessment, some countries rely on citation metrics whereas others, such as the UK, primarily use peer review. In the influential Metric Tide report, a low agreement between metrics and peer review in the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) was found.

However, earlier studies observed much higher agreement between metrics and peer review in the REF and argued in favour of using metrics. This shows that there is considerable ambiguity in the discussion on agreement between metrics and peer review.

We provide clarity in this discussion by considering four important points: (1) the level of aggregation of the analysis; (2) the use of either a size-dependent or a size-independent perspective; (3) the suitability of different measures of agreement; and (4) the uncertainty in peer review.

In the context of the REF, we argue that agreement between metrics and peer review should be assessed at the institutional level rather than at the publication level. Both a size-dependent and a size-independent perspective are relevant in the REF.

The interpretation of correlations may be problematic and as an alternative we therefore use measures of agreement that are based on the absolute or relative differences between metrics and peer review.

To get an idea of the uncertainty in peer review, we rely on a model to bootstrap peer review outcomes. We conclude that particularly in Physics, Clinical Medicine, and Public Health, metrics agree quite well with peer review and may offer an alternative to peer review.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.03491

Statistics on Open Access Books Available through the Directory of Open Access Books

At 18:33 17/08/2018

Author : Keita Tsuji

Open Access (OA) books available through the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) are investigated and the number of titles, the distribution of subjects, languages, publishers, publication years, licensing patterns, etc., are clarified.

Their chronological changes are also shown. The sample comprised 10,866 OA books, which were available through the DOAB as of February 24, 2018.

The results show that OA books are increasing in number at an accelerating rate. As for distribution of subjects, Social Sciences ("H" in the Library of Congress Classification codes), Science ("Q" in LCC) and World History and History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. ("D" in LCC) are the most popular.

As for languages, English, French, and German are the most popular. As for publishers, Frontiers Media SA, Presses universitaires de Rennes, and ANU Press are the most popular.

Many books are newly published ones, but older books, published in or before 1999, also began to be available recently. As for the licensing patterns, "CC by-nc-nd" and "CC by" are the most popular. Considering these tendencies, libraries should begin to utilize OA books.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.01541

Vanishing industries and the rising monopoly of universities in published research

At 13:06 21/08/2018

Authors : Vincent Larivière, Benoit Macaluso, Philippe Mongeon, Kyle Siler, Cassidy R. Sugimoto

Anecdotes abound regarding the decline of basic research in industrial and governmental settings, but very little empirical evidence exists about the phenomenon. This article provides a systematic and historical analysis of the contribution of various institutional sectors to knowledge production at the world and country levels across the past four decades.

It highlights a dramatic decline in the diffusion of basic research by industrial and governmental sectors across all countries­with a corresponding increase in the share from universities­as well as an increase of partnerships between universities and other sectors.

Results also shows an increase in the relative share of industries in applied research, as measured through patents. Such divergence in university and industry research activities may hinder industries’ ability to translate basic knowledge into technological innovation, and could lead to a growing misalignment between doctoral training and future job expectations.

Industries and universities must rethink strategies for partnerships and publishing to maximize scientific progress and to ensure the greatest gains for society.

URL : Vanishing industries and the rising monopoly of universities in published research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202120

How open is open access research in Library and Information Science?

At 15:22 26/08/2018

Authors : Wanyenda Leonard Chilimo, Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

The study investigates Library and Information Science (LIS) journals that published research articles between 2003 and 2013, which were about open access (OA) and were indexed in LIS databases.

The purpose was to investigate the journals’ OA policies, ascertain the degree to which these policies facilitate OA to publications, and investigate whether such texts are also available as OA. The results show that literature growth in the domain has been significant, with a total of 1,402 articles produced during the eleven years under study.

The OA policies of the fifty-six journals that published the highest number of articles were analysed. The results show that most articles (404; 41%) were published in hybrid journals, whereas 272 (29.7%) appeared in OA journals.

Some 143 (53%) of the articles published in hybrid journals were available as green OA copies. In total, 602 (66%) of all the articles published were available as OA.

The results show that the adoption of OA for research articles on that very subject is somewhat higher than in other fields. The study calls on LIS professionals to be conversant with the OA policies of the various journals that may publish their research.

URL : How open is open access research in Library and Information Science?

Alternative location : http://sajlis.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1710

Towards a culture of open science and data sharing in health and medical research

At 16:24 26/08/2018

Author : Anisa Rowhani-Farid

This thesis investigated the factors that contribute to the cultural shift towards open science and data sharing in health and medical research, with a focus on the role health and medical journals play.

The findings of this research demonstrate that journal data sharing policies are not effective and that journals do not currently provide incentives for sharing.

This study contributed to the movement towards more reproducible research by providing empirical evidence for the strengthening of journal data sharing policies and the adoption of an incentive for open research.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5204/thesis.eprints.119697

The rent's too high: Self-archive for fair online publication costs

At 17:27 26/08/2018

Authors : Robert T. Thibault, Amanda MacPherson, Stevan Harnad, Amir Raz

The main contributors of scientific knowledge, researchers, generally aim to disseminate their findings far and wide. And yet, publishing companies have largely kept these findings behind a paywall.

With digital publication technology markedly reducing cost, this enduring wall seems disproportionate and unjustified; moreover, it has sparked a topical exchange concerning how to modernize academic publishing.

This discussion, however, seems to focus on how to compensate major publishers for providing open access through a "pay to publish" model, in turn transferring financial burdens from libraries to authors and their funders.

Large publishing companies, including Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, PLoS, and Frontiers, continue to earn exorbitant revenues each year, hundreds of millions of dollars of which now come from processing charges for open-access articles.

A less expensive and equally accessible alternative exists: widespread self-archiving of peer-reviewed articles. All we need is awareness of this alternative and the will to employ it.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.06130

Reproducible data citations for computational research

At 18:29 26/08/2018

Author : Christian Schulz

The general purpose of a scientific publication is the exchange and spread of knowledge. A publication usually reports a scientific result and tries to convince the reader that it is valid.

With an ever-growing number of papers relying on computational methods that make use of large quantities of data and sophisticated statistical modeling techniques, a textual description of the result is often not enough for a publication to be transparent and reproducible.

While there are efforts to encourage sharing of code and data, we currently lack conventions for linking data sources to a computational result that is stated in the main publication text or used to generate a figure or table.

Thus, here I propose a data citation format that allows for an automatic reproduction of all computations. A data citation consists of a descriptor that refers to the functional program code and the input that generated the result.

The input itself may be a set of other data citations, such that all data transformations, from the original data sources to the final result, are transparently expressed by a directed graph.

Functions can be implemented in a variety of programming languages since data sources are expected to be stored in open and standardized text-based file formats.

A publication is then an online file repository consisting of a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document and additional data and code source files, together with a summarization of all data sources, similar to a list of references in a bibliography.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.07541

Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015

At 16:39 31/08/2018

Authors : Colin F. Camerer, Anna Dreber, Felix Holzmeister, Teck-Hua Ho, Jürgen Huber, Magnus Johannesson, Michael Kirchler, Gideon Nave, Brian Nosek, Thomas Pfeiffer, Adam Altmejd, Nick Buttrick, Taizan Chan, Yiling Chen, Eskil Forsell, Anup Gampa, Emma Heikensten, Lily Hummer, Taisuke Imai, Siri Isaksson, Dylan Manfredi, Julia Rose, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Hang Wu

Being able to replicate scientific findings is crucial for scientific progress. We replicate 21 systematically selected experimental studies in the social sciences published in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015.

The replications follow analysis plans reviewed by the original authors and pre-registered prior to the replications. The replications are high powered, with sample sizes on average about five times higher than in the original studies.

We find a significant effect in the same direction as the original study for 13 (62%) studies, and the effect size of the replications is on average about 50% of the original effect size. Replicability varies between 12 (57%) and 14 (67%) studies for complementary replicability indicators.

Consistent with these results, the estimated true positive rate is 67% in a Bayesian analysis. The relative effect size of true positives is estimated to be 71%, suggesting that both false positives and inflated effect sizes of true positives contribute to imperfect reproducibility.

Furthermore, we find that peer beliefs of replicability are strongly related to replicability, suggesting that the research community could predict which results would replicate and that failures to replicate were not the result of chance alone.

URL : Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0399-z

Une introduction aux communs de la connaissance

At 17:41 31/08/2018

Auteur/Author : Hervé Le Crosnier

Nous proposons une introduction aux communs de la connaissance qui s’appuie sur une tentative de définir les communs eux-mêmes, pour évaluer ensuite ce qui s’y rapporte dans les domaines intangibles du savoir et du numérique.

Il apparaît difficile d’avoir une définition canonique des communs. Malgré un corpus scientifique en augmentation rapide, il subsiste des approches différentes selon les pays, les régions, les cultures...

Mais cela est certainement un bienfait : les communs sont avant tout le résultat d’une expérience vécue. L’article présente différentes approches des communs, à la fois dans les débats théoriques et dans les pratiques des mouvements associés au partage de ressources.

Il documente le passage d’une théorie appliquée à des ressources localisées vers des pratiques coopératives élargies grâce au numérique.

URL : Une introduction aux communs de la connaissance

Alternative location : http://journals.openedition.org/ticetsociete/2481

Le partage de quels savoirs ? Les articles Wikipédia comme objets-frontières

At 18:44 31/08/2018

Auteurs : Maude Gauthier, Kim Sawchuk

Wikipédia se présente comme un projet d’encyclopédie collective, un espace auquel chacun peut contribuer dans la mesure où ses principes fondateurs et ses règles sont respectés.

Dans cet article, nous réfléchissons à notre intégration et à notre contribution aux communautés éditoriales de Wikipédia. Nous avons modifié et créé une série d’articles Wikipédia reliés à la thématique du vieillissement afin qu’ils incluent les études critiques et culturelles du vieillissement.

Le partage en ligne de ce type de connaissances nous semble important, voire nécessaire, puisque ces études restent souvent sous-représentées en dehors des milieux universitaires. Remarquant de telles lacunes dans Wikipédia, nous avons saisi l’occasion de contribuer à ce commun des connaissances et d’étudier les questions de gouvernance qui ont émergé au fil de nos contributions.

Au-delà d’un exercice de vulgarisation, notre excursion dans le monde de Wikipédia nous a permis de constater que certaines entrées agissent comme des objets-frontières, des lieux de contestation entre différentes communautés de pratiques.

Pour élaborer notre propos, nous nous concentrons sur deux cas, celui du Centre for Women, Ageing and Media dans Wikipédia en anglais et celui de Technologies et vieillissementdans Wikipédia en français.

URL : Le partage de quels savoirs ? Les articles Wikipédia comme objets-frontières

Alternative location : http://journals.openedition.org/ticetsociete/2408

La gouvernance de Wikipédia : élaboration de règles et théorie d’Ostrom

At 19:46 31/08/2018

Auteur/Author : Gilles Sahut

La réussite de Wikipédia est fréquemment attribuée à la pertinence de sa gouvernance. Toutefois, il n’existe pas de consensus scientifique pour la caractériser.

Dans cette étude empirique, nous nous penchons sur une facette de cette gouvernance au sein de la Wikipédia francophone : les modalités de construction de deux règles liées à la citation des sources.

Elles sont étudiées au travers de la théorie d’Ostrom sur les communs. Nous montrons que ces règles sont discutées et écrites par une minorité de contributeurs particulièrement impliqués. Ainsi, il n’y a pas, dans Wikipédia, de « classe politique » coupée du terrain.

Nous soulignons également l’influence du dispositif communicationnel interne sur ce processus ainsi que celle de la Wikipédia anglophone.

URL : La gouvernance de Wikipédia : élaboration de règles et théorie d’Ostrom

Alternative location : http://journals.openedition.org/ticetsociete/2426

L’ouverture des données publiques : un bien commun en devenir ?

At 20:48 31/08/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Valérie Larroche, Marie-France Peyrelong, Philippe Beaune

Cet article interroge les données ouvertes en tant que bien commun. Le traitement préalable effectué sur les données à mettre à disposition permet de créer une ressource partagée et, à première vue, possède le potentiel pour être un bien commun. L’article relève plusieurs points d’achoppement qui nuancent cette affirmation.

Le premier argument provient des licences qui n’exigent pas du fournisseur de données en temps réel une continuité du service.

Le deuxième argument pointe le rôle du ré-utilisateur de la donnée qui ne participe pas à la gouvernance de la donnée.

Enfin, le dernier argument souligne le fait que les collectivités impliquées dans les communs urbains ne présentent pas l’open data comme tel.

Nos justifications sont le fruit d’analyses de portails de villes et d’entretiens menés auprès de ré-utilisateurs de données ouvertes.

URL : L’ouverture des données publiques : un bien commun en devenir ?

Alternative location : http://journals.openedition.org/ticetsociete/2466

Liberation through Cooperation: How Library Publishing Can Save Scholarly Journals from Neoliberalism

At 14:48 03/09/2018

Author : Dave S. Ghamandi

This commentary examines political and economic aspects of open access (OA) and scholarly journal publishing. Through a discourse of critique, neoliberalism is analyzed as an ideology causing many problems in the scholarly journal publishing industry, including the serials crisis.

Two major efforts in the open access movement that promote an increase in OA funded by article-processing charges (APC)­the Open Access 2020 (OA2020) and Pay It Forward (PIF) initiatives­are critiqued as neoliberal frameworks that would perpetuate existing systems of domination and exploitation.

In a discourse of possibility, ways of building a post-neoliberal system of journal publishing using new tactics and strategies, merging theory and praxis, and grounding in solidarity and cooperation are presented.

This includes organizing journal publishing democratically using cooperatives, which could decommodify knowledge and provide greater open access.

The article concludes with a vision for a New Fair Deal, which would revolutionize the system of scholarly journal publishing by transitioning journals to library publishing cooperatives.

URL : Liberation through Cooperation: How Library Publishing Can Save Scholarly Journals from Neoliberalism

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2223

L'obsession de la productivité et la fabrique du chercheur publiant

At 12:45 05/09/2018

Auteur/Author : Franck Aggeri

À quoi rêvent les jeunes doctorants en gestion lorsqu'ils débutent leur thèse ? Leurs aspirations ne diffèrent pas fondamentalement de celles des doctorants d'autres disciplines : ils valorisent l'autonomie supposée du métier, la réflexion et les discussions intellectuelles, la lecture, la création, l'écriture, la pédagogie.

Cette vision romantique du métier est souvent renforcée par la rencontre avec des enseignants-chercheurs qui leur ont donné le goût de la réflexion, leur ont fait découvrir l'esthétique de l'écriture et de l'argumentation, des textes marquants ou des recherches de terrain originales.

Bref, ils rêvent souvent de devenir des enseignants-chercheurs singuliers. Modèle des singularités vs modèle productif Le modèle des singularités dans la recherche, rappelle Lucien Karpik, est celui auquel se réfèrent traditionnellement les chercheurs.

Il repose sur une orientation symbolique « autour d'un ensemble de normes et de valeurs classiques : la découverte comme finalité, l'importance de l'originalité, de l'ambition et du plaisir intellectuel, un imaginaire enraciné dans l'histoire de la science, la position centrale du jugement des pairs, le pouvoir collégial ou semi-collégial, une conception du métier organisée autour de l'indépendance individuelle, une compétition animée par la volonté d'être le premier à découvrir et le premier à publier, le premier reconnu et le premier primé » (Karpik, 2012, p. 119).

À rebours du modèle des singularités, se développe depuis quelques années, notamment en économie et en sciences de gestion, un modèle productif qui repose sur une performance « objective » mesurée à partir d'une métrique simple : le nombre de publications de rang A.

URL : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01368023

Open Access Policy in the UK: From Neoliberalism to the Commons

At 18:58 05/09/2018

Author : Stuart Andrew Lawson

This thesis makes a contribution to the knowledge of open access through a historically and theoretically informed account of contemporary open access policy in the UK (2010–15).

It critiques existing policy by revealing the influence of neoliberal ideology on its creation, and proposes a commons-based approach as an alternative. The historical context in Chapters 2 and 3 shows that access to knowledge has undergone numerous changes over the centuries and the current push to increase access to research, and political controversies around this idea, are part of a long tradition.

The exploration of the origins and meanings of ‘openness’ in Chapter 4 enriches the understanding of open access as a concept and makes possible a more nuanced critique of specific instantiations of open access in later chapters.

The theoretical heart of the thesis is Chapter 5, in which neoliberalism is analysed with a particular focus on neoliberal conceptions of liberty and openness. The subsequent examination of neoliberal higher education in Chapter 6 is therefore informed by a thorough grounding in the ideology that underlies policymaking in the neoliberal era.

This understanding then acts as invaluable context for the analysis of the UK’s open access policy in Chapter 7. By highlighting the neoliberal aspects of open access policy, the political tensions within open access advocacy are shown to have real effects on the way that open access is unfolding.

Finally, Chapter 8 proposes the commons as a useful theoretical model for conceptualising a future scholarly publishing ecosystem that is free from neoliberal ideology. An argument is made that a commons-based open access policy is possible, though must be carefully constructed with close attention paid to the power relations that exist between different scholarly communities.

URL : Open Access Policy in the UK: From Neoliberalism to the Commons

Alternative location : http://stuartlawson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-09-03-Lawson-thesis.pdf

Rémediatisations du livre dans les applications hypermédiatiques de littérature pour la jeunesse

At 19:59 05/09/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Brigitte Louichon, Eleonora Acerra

Cette contribution interroge les liens entre le livre et l’hypermédia véhiculés par les applications de littérature pour la jeunesse.

Analysés au prisme de la remédiatisation et de l’hybridation médiatique, on peut dégager quatre formes d’interaction : l’adaptation, menant du texte imprimé à l’œuvre hypermédiatique (le livre avant) ; le mouvement inverse, (re)conduisant de l’œuvre hypermédiatique à l’objet imprimé (le livre après) ; la co-construction, impliquant le concours d’un livre imprimé et d’une application pour l’élaboration d’une œuvre commune (le livre avec) ; la figuration interne, intégrant des représentations de livres et de lecteurs dans la diégèse (le livre dedans).

Deux hypothèses sont notamment interrogées : le lien des hybridations livresques de l’œuvre hypermédiatique à la double destination de toute œuvre pour la jeunesse ; le façonnement d’un imaginaire stéréotypé et rassurant de la lecture, visant à introduire le jeune destinataire, via le numérique, dans l’univers symbolique du livre.

URL : Rémediatisations du livre dans les applications hypermédiatiques de littérature pour la jeunesse

Alternative location : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01860120

Identifiers for Digital Objects: the Case of Software Source Code Preservation

At 21:01 05/09/2018

Authors : Roberto Di Cosmo, Morane Gruenpeter, Stefano Zacchiroli

In the very broad scope addressed by digital preservation initiatives, a special place belongs to the scientific and technical artifacts that we need to properly archive to enable scientific reproducibility.

For these artifacts we need identifiers that are not only unique and persistent, but also support integrity in an intrinsic way. They must provide strong guarantees that the object denoted by a given identifier will always be the same, without relying on third parties and external administrative processes.

In this article, we report on our quest for this identifiers for digital objects (IDOs), whose properties are different from, and complementary to, those of the various digital identifiers of objects (DIOs) that are in widespread use today.

We argue that both kinds of identifiers are needed and present the framework for intrinsic persistent identifiers that we have adopted in Software Heritage for preserving billions of software artifacts.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01865790

Enquête Archives Ouvertes COUPERIN 2017 : résultats de l’enquête

At 22:04 05/09/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Emmanuelle Ashta, Louise Béraud, Christelle Caillet, Mathilde Gallet, Marine Laffont, Diane Le Henaff, Léa Maubon, Christine Okret, Nicolas Pinet, Anne Slomovici, Sandrine Girod

Les archives ouvertes s’inscrivent de plus en plus solidement et durablement dans le paysage documentaire de l’enseignement supérieur. Si les organismes de recherche ont été précurseurs pour la création d’archives ouvertes, les grandes écoles, mais surtout les universités ont désormais massivement rejoint le mouvement.

Signe de cette progression notable, 82 % des répondants disposent en 2017 d’une archive en production ou en cours de mise en œuvre, contre 62 % en 2014. L’adoption majoritaire de la plate-forme HAL (qui représente 79 % des archives en production et 84 % des archives des universités parmi les répondants) se renforce encore depuis 2014.

La structuration d’un réseau des utilisateurs de HAL au sein du club utilisateur CasuHal, même si elle est relativement récente (septembre 2016), semble portée par une vraie dynamique puisque 68 % des établissements ayant une archive ouverte adhèrent ou projettent d’y adhérer.

L’intégration des archives ouvertes à leur environnement technique progresse globalement mais toujours partiellement depuis 2014. L’intégration aux sites web institutionnels ainsi qu’aux catalogues de bibliothèques est désormais majoritairement effective, mais elle reste insuffisante vers les systèmes d’information des établissements, ENT, SI Recherche et outils de gestion RH.

La place des archives ouvertes dans le contexte global d’un marché de la publication scientifique en plein questionnement (conflits ouverts avec les éditeurs, généralisation du Gold Open Access, questionnements autour de nouveaux modèles possibles de publication et d’évaluation, Open Science) progresse depuis 2014 mais semble encore insuffisamment prise en compte par les établissements porteurs, seule une petite majorité d’entre eux (53 %, contre 30,6 % en 2014) ayant inscrit en 2017 leur Archive Ouverte dans une politique globale d’établissement.

D’où des freins récurrents au développement des projets, que l’on observe d’une part via des politiques de dépôt encore majoritairement, et notamment pour les universités, peu contraignantes et peu efficaces, mais aussi par la constance des obstacles identifiés pour la réussite des projets qui restent les mêmes depuis 10 ans : manque d’implication politique, communication institutionnelle insuffisante, faiblesse des moyens humains dédiés mais surtout et structurellement une trop faible implication des chercheurs dans la démarche.

Resserrer toujours plus les liens entre les acteurs les plus actifs du développement des archives ouvertes que sont les bibliothèques et services de documentation (72 % des répondants 2017 ne travaillent qu’en bibliothèque) et les organes scientifiques, politiques et décisionnels des établissements semble donc plus que jamais de mise pour que ce mouvement se pérennise et continue durablement de croître.

URL : https://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01858348

Mesurer la science

At 23:05 05/09/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Vincent Larivière, Cassidy R. Sugimoto

L’ensemble de la communauté scientifique réclame depuis plusieurs années des indicateurs fiables permettant de mesurer les répercussions de la recherche. La ferveur inégalée autour de la mesure de l’influence de la recherche, combinée avec les nouveaux modes de diffusion des connaissances à l’ère numérique, a révolu­tionné le domaine de la scientométrie.

Il s’agit là d’une discipline qui comprend toutes les façons dont nous collectons les documents savants et analysons quantitativement leur production ainsi que leurs usages, des citations aux tweets. Les données et les indicateurs ainsi recueillis sont utilisés pour comprendre la science, stimuler la recherche ou distribuer les ressources.

Curieusement, il n’existe aucun ouvrage qui explique les fonde­ments historiques, les concepts et les sources de la scientométrie, ou qui en fournirait une critique éclairée ou même qui formulerait des recommandations pour un usage optimal. D’où l’importance de celui-ci.

À sa façon, chacun est un acteur de la société du savoir et devrait se soucier des outils qui aident à guider son évolution : c’est pourquoi ce livre s’adresse à tous, savants comme profanes.

URL : https://pum.umontreal.ca/catalogue/mesurer-la-science/

The Scientific Prize Network Predicts Who Pushes the Boundaries of Science

At 00:09 06/09/2018

Authors : Yifang Ma, Brian Uzzi

Scientific prizes are among the greatest recognition a scientist receives from their peers and arguably shape the direction of a field by conferring credibility to persons, ideas, and disciplines, providing financial rewards, and promoting rituals that reinforce scientific communities.

The proliferation of prizes and links among prizes suggest that the prize network embodies information about scientists and ideas poised to grow in acclaim. Using comprehensive new data on prizes and prizewinners worldwide and across disciplines, we examine the growth dynamics and interlocking relationships found in the worldwide scientific prize network.

We focus on understanding how the knowledge linkages among prizes and scientists' propensities for prizewinning are related to knowledge pathways across disciplines and stratification within disciplines.

We find several key links between prizes and scientific advances.

First, despite a proliferation of diverse prizes over time and across the globe, prizes are more concentrated within a relatively small group of scientific elites, and ties within the elites are more clustered, suggesting that a relatively constrained number of ideas and scholars lead science.

Second, we find that certain prizes are strongly interlocked within and between disciplines by scientists who win multiple prizes, revealing the key pathways by which knowledge systematically gains credit and spreads through the network.

Third, we find that genealogical and co authorship networks strongly predict who wins one or more prizes and explains the high level of interconnections among acclaimed scientists and their path breaking ideas.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.09412

‘Publication favela’ or bibliodiversity? Open access publishing viewed from a European perspective

At 17:38 07/09/2018

Author : Pierre Mounier

A number of initiatives exist in European countries to support open scholarly communication in humanities and social sciences.

This article looks at the work of Open Access in the European Research Area through Scholarly Communication (OPERAS), a consortium of 36 partners from all over Europe, including many university presses, that is working to build a future European infrastructure to address the challenges in open access publishing.

Their initial study, OPERAS D, revealed a variety of models among the partners influenced by national cultures. Although the partners’ activities were found to be fragmented, they also reflect the ‘bibliodiversity’ that exists in European societies.

To address the challenge of fragmentation, it is argued that, by following a cooperative model, European actors can benefit by sharing expertise, resources, and costs of development for the good of all.

As a future infrastructure to support open scholarly communication across Europe, OPERAS aims to coordinate a range of publishers and service providers to offer researchers and societies a fully functional web of services to cover the entire research lifecycle.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1194

Dynamics of co-authorship and productivity across different fields of scientific research

At 18:41 07/09/2018

Authors : Austin J. Parish, Kevin W. Boyack, John P. A. Ioannidis

We aimed to assess which factors correlate with collaborative behavior and whether such behavior associates with scientific impact (citations and becoming a principal investigator). We used the R index which is defined for each author as log(Np)/log(I1), where I1 is the number of co-authors who appear in at least I1 papers written by that author and Np are his/her total papers.

Higher R means lower collaborative behavior, i.e. not working much with others, or not collaborating repeatedly with the same co-authors. Across 249,054 researchers who had published 30 papers in 2000–2015 but had not published anything before 2000, R varied across scientific fields. Lower values of R (more collaboration) were seen in physics, medicine, infectious disease and brain sciences and higher values of R were seen for social science, computer science and engineering.

Among the 9,314 most productive researchers already reaching Np 30 and I1 4 by the end of 2006, R mostly remained stable for most fields from 2006 to 2015 with small increases seen in physics, chemistry, and medicine.

Both US-based authorship and male gender were associated with higher values of R (lower collaboration), although the effect was small. Lower values of R (more collaboration) were associated with higher citation impact (h-index), and the effect was stronger in certain fields (physics, medicine, engineering, health sciences) than in others (brain sciences, computer science, infectious disease, chemistry).

Finally, for a subset of 400 U.S. researchers in medicine, infectious disease and brain sciences, higher R (lower collaboration) was associated with a higher chance of being a principal investigator by 2016. Our analysis maps the patterns and evolution of collaborative behavior across scientific disciplines.

URL : Dynamics of co-authorship and productivity across different fields of scientific research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189742

A statistical analysis of French teachers’ blogs: beyond institutional perspectives : Some changes in the teaching profession made visible by the study of their blogs

At 15:56 08/09/2018

Authors : Muriel Epstein, Nicolas Bourgeois

Our search for new sources of analysis has led us to build a quantitative inductive method based on the analysis of lexical fields (topic models) to study teachers’ blogs.

This approach generates new insights about teachers’ concerns in expected areas, such as their discipline or their own use of digital technology, but also in unexpected areas, such as dress code issues, or terrorist attacks.

This article presents our method, and explains how and why it provides us with new opportunities for the analysis of a relatively new type of written source, namely blogs.

URL : http://frenchjournalformediaresearch.com/lodel/index.php?id=1642

Is together better? Examining scientific collaborations across multiple authors, institutions, and departments

At 17:15 15/09/2018

Authors : Lovenoor Aulck, Kishore Vasan, Jevin West

Collaborations are an integral part of scientific research and publishing. In the past, access to large-scale corpora has limited the ways in which questions about collaborations could be investigated. However, with improvements in data/metadata quality and access, it is possible to explore the idea of research collaboration in ways beyond the traditional definition of multiple authorship.

In this paper, we examine scientific works through three different lenses of collaboration: across multiple authors, multiple institutions, and multiple departments. We believe this to be a first look at multiple departmental collaborations as we employ extensive data curation to disambiguate authors' departmental affiliations for nearly 70,000 scientific papers.

We then compare citation metrics across the different definitions of collaboration and find that papers defined as being collaborative were more frequently cited than their non-collaborative counterparts, regardless of the definition of collaboration used.

We also share preliminary results from examining the relationship between co-citation and co-authorship by analyzing the extent to which similar fields (as determined by co-citation) are collaborating on works (as determined by co-authorship).

These preliminary results reveal trends of compartmentalization with respect to intra-institutional collaboration and show promise in being expanded.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.04093

Altmetrics of the Open Access Institutional Repositories: A Webometrics Approach

At 15:29 19/09/2018

Author : Isidro F. Aguillo

Self-archiving in Institutional Repositories (IRs) is playing a central role in the success of the Open Access initiatives. Deposited documents are more visible and probably they get more downloads and citations, but making them freely available in a local repository is not enough.

Social tools, both public and academic targeting, networking or silo oriented, should be taken into account for reaching larger audiences and increase not only the scholarly but also the social impact.

This communication explores the presence of IRs contents in 28 social tools (Academia, Bibsonomy, CiteUlike, CrossRef, Datadryad, Facebook, Figshare, Google+, GitHub, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, RenRen, ResearchGate, Scribd, SlideShare, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, VKontakte, Weibo, Wikipedia All Languages, Wikipedia English, Wikia, Wikimedia, YouTube and Zenodo) using a webometric approach.

The link mentions of 2185 IRs in the cited tools were collected during July 2017 from Google selected data centers. The results showed that most of the IRs have no strong presence in the most specializes tools and even for the most popular services the figures are not high enough too.

Lack of strategies and bad practices are suggested as possible explanations for the low altmetrics figures.

URL : Altmetrics of the Open Access Institutional Repositories: A Webometrics Approach

Alternative location : https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/65298/STI2018_paper_37.pdf

Relationship between Online Journal Usage and their Citations in the Academic Publications: A Case Study

At 13:59 24/09/2018

Authors : Jessy Abdul, Mahabaleshwara Rao, Amitha Puranik

The advancement of science and technology has impacted functioning of the libraries of higher educational institutions, and the mode of providing resources for various academic activities.

For many years, libraries attached to educational institutions have been labouring with the question of how to determine the value of journals in their specific library collection. The Health Sciences Library of Manipal Academy of Higher Education at Manipal, subscribed a vast number of online journals for their users.

A relation between the usage and citations of subscribed online journals might provide a basis for the collection management in the libraries of academic and research institutions.

The current study resolved to identify whether relationship exists between usage of subscribed online journals and their citations in the academic publications of the health science professionals from 2010 to 2015.

The study found a statistically significant relationship between subscribed online journal usage and their citations in the publications through the inferential test of Spearman’s rank-order correlation.

For collection development of online journals, libraries can utilise the usage or citation data of journals as a decision making tool.

URL : Relationship between Online Journal Usage and their Citations in the Academic Publications: A Case Study

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/13114

Agriculture Journals Covered by Directory of Open Access Journals: An Analytical Study

At 15:01 24/09/2018

Author : Muruli Acharya

With the advent of open access movement, open access journals (OAJs) being the prodigious source of academic and research information have been gaining significant magnitude.

The electronic age has made it easier and more convenient than ever to break barriers to research information. The present study aims to study and analyse the status of 497 OAJs in Agriculture indexed in Directory of Open Access Journals.

Specified traits such as Geographic and language wise distribution, coverage of Indexing/Abstracting databases, ranking of journals according to Impact Factor (IF), OA licensing model adopted, policy of plagiarism, visibility on social media and related issues of the OAJs in Agriculture are evaluated in the paper.

Results indicated the dominance of De Gruyter Open as a publisher with highest number of OAJs, English as a content language, Indonesia with highest number of OAJs, Google scholar with highest journals indexed.

The study observes the increasing migration of journals from commercial practice to OA. Frontiers in Plant Science found with highest Impact Factor among OAJs in Agriculture.

URL : Agriculture Journals Covered by Directory of Open Access Journals: An Analytical Study

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/13114

Nanopublications: A Growing Resource of Provenance-Centric Scientific Linked Data

At 16:03 24/09/2018

Authors : Tobias Kuhn, Albert Meroño-Peñuela, Alexander Malic, Jorrit H. Poelen, Allen H. Hurlbert, Emilio Centeno Ortiz, Laura I. Furlong, Núria Queralt-Rosinach, Christine Chichester, Juan M. Banda, Egon Willighagen, Friederike Ehrhart, Chris Evelo, Tareq B. Malas, Michel Dumontier

Nanopublications are a Linked Data format for scholarly data publishing that has received considerable uptake in the last few years. In contrast to the common Linked Data publishing practice, nanopublications work at the granular level of atomic information snippets and provide a consistent container format to attach provenance and metadata at this atomic level.

While the nanopublications format is domain-independent, the datasets that have become available in this format are mostly from Life Science domains, including data about diseases, genes, proteins, drugs, biological pathways, and biotic interactions.

More than 10 million such nanopublications have been published, which now form a valuable resource for studies on the domain level of the given Life Science domains as well as on the more technical levels of provenance modeling and heterogeneous Linked Data.

We provide here an overview of this combined nanopublication dataset, show the results of some overarching analyses, and describe how it can be accessed and queried.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06532

Do all citations value the same? Valuing citations by the value of the citing items

At 17:07 24/09/2018

Authors : Cristiano Giuffrida, Giovanni Abramo, Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo

Bibliometricians have long recurred to citation counts to measure the impact of publications on the advancement of science. However, since the earliest days of the field, some scholars have questioned whether all citations should value the same, and have gone on to weight them by a variety of factors.

However sophisticated the operationalization of the measures, the methodologies used in weighting citations still present limits in their underlying assumptions. This work takes an alternate approach to resolving the underlying problem: the proposal is to value citations by the impact of the citing articles.

As well as conceptualizing a new indicator of impact, the work illustrates its application to the 2004-2012 Italian scientific production indexed in the WoS.

The new indicator appears highly correlated to traditional field normalized citations, however the shifts observed between the two measures are frequent and the number of outliers not at all negligible. Moreover, the new indicator seems to show greater "sensitivity" when used in identification of the top-cited papers.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06088

What increases (social) media attention: Research impact, author prominence or title attractiveness?

At 18:08 24/09/2018

Authors : Olga Zagovora, Katrin Weller, Milan Janosov, Claudia Wagner, Isabella Peters

Do only major scientific breakthroughs hit the news and social media, or does a 'catchy' title help to attract public attention? How strong is the connection between the importance of a scientific paper and the (social) media attention it receives?

In this study we investigate these questions by analysing the relationship between the observed attention and certain characteristics of scientific papers from two major multidisciplinary journals: Nature Communication (NC) and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

We describe papers by features based on the linguistic properties of their titles and centrality measures of their authors in their co-authorship network.

We identify linguistic features and collaboration patterns that might be indicators for future attention, and are characteristic to different journals, research disciplines, and media sources.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06299

Research cafés: how libraries can build communities through research and engagement

At 19:12 24/09/2018

Author : Katherine Stephan

The Research Support Team at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) runs events called research cafés throughout the academic year.

During these cafés, we bring together PhD students, early career researchers and more established academics over lunch to give them an opportunity to talk about their work to a lay audience of their peers and the public.

From its inception in 2013 we have maintained the overall format of the research café, based as it is on promoting interdisciplinary dialogue in an informal setting, while also making a few small but significant changes.

These changes have in turn increased the visibility and reach of research promotion within the Library. Against that backdrop, this article – which is based on a lightning talk and poster session presented at the 41st UKSG Annual Conference, Glasgow, in April 2018 – will outline why the library is ideally placed to facilitate this type of scholarship sharing and why research and community engagement should be viewed as an integral part of a university library’s agenda.

It will also discuss how its success has allowed our Team to work in partnership with colleagues from across the University in new and exciting ways. Finally, it will address what further developments we can make to continue to improve and help the research community at LJMU and beyond.

URL : Research cafés: how libraries can build communities through research and engagement

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.436

APCs - Mirroring the impact factor or legacy of the subscription-based model?

At 19:52 27/09/2018

Author : Nina Schönfelder

With the ongoing open-access transformation, article processing charges (APCs) are gaining importance as the dominant business model for scientific open-access journals. This paper analyzes which factors determine the level of an APC by means of multivariate linear regression.

With data from OpenAPC, APCs actually paid are explained by the following variables: (1) the "source normalized impact per paper" (SNIP), (2) whether the journal is open access or hybrid, (3) the publisher of the journal, (4) the subject area of the journal, and (5) the year.

The results show that the journal's impact and the hybrid status are the most important factors for the level of APCs. However, the relationship between APC and SNIP is different for open-access journals and hybrid journals.

The journal's impact is crucial for the level of APCs in open-access journals, whereas it little alters APCs for publications in hybrid-journals. This paper contributes to the emerging literature initiated by the "Pay It Forward"-study conducted at the University of California Libraries.

It sets the foundations for the assessment whether the large-scale open-access transformation of scientific journals is a financially viable way for each research institution in general and universities in particular.

URL : APCs - Mirroring the impact factor or legacy of the subscription-based model?

DOI : http://doi.org/10.4119/unibi/2931061

Facilitating and Improving Environmental Research Data Repository Interoperability

At 14:47 29/09/2018

Authors : Corinna Gries, Amber Budden, Christine Laney, Margaret O'Brien, Mark Servilla, Wade Sheldon, Kristin Vanderbilt, David Vieglais

Environmental research data repositories provide much needed services for data preservation and data dissemination to diverse communities with domain specific or programmatic data needs and standards.

Due to independent development these repositories serve their communities well, but were developed with different technologies, data models and using different ontologies. Hence, the effectiveness and efficiency of these services can be vastly improved if repositories work together adhering to a shared community platform that focuses on the implementation of agreed upon standards and best practices for curation and dissemination of data.

Such a community platform drives forward the convergence of technologies and practices that will advance cross-domain interoperability. It will also facilitate contributions from investigators through standardized and streamlined workflows and provide increased visibility for the role of data managers and the curation services provided by data repositories, beyond preservation infrastructure.

Ten specific suggestions for such standardizations are outlined without any suggestions for priority or technical implementation. Although the recommendations are for repositories to implement, they have been chosen specifically with the data provider/data curator and synthesis scientist in mind.

URL : Facilitating and Improving Environmental Research Data Repository Interoperability

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2018-022

Curating Scientific Information in Knowledge Infrastructures

At 15:49 29/09/2018

Authors : Markus Stocker, Pauli Paasonen, Markus Fiebig, Martha A. Zaidan, Alex Hardisty

Interpreting observational data is a fundamental task in the sciences, specifically in earth and environmental science where observational data are increasingly acquired, curated, and published systematically by environmental research infrastructures.

Typically subject to substantial processing, observational data are used by research communities, their research groups and individual scientists, who interpret such primary data for their meaning in the context of research investigations.

The result of interpretation is information­meaningful secondary or derived data­about the observed environment. Research infrastructures and research communities are thus essential to evolving uninterpreted observational data to information. In digital form, the classical bearer of information are the commonly known “(elaborated) data products,” for instance maps.

In such form, meaning is generally implicit e.g., in map colour coding, and thus largely inaccessible to machines. The systematic acquisition, curation, possible publishing and further processing of information gained in observational data interpretation­as machine readable data and their machine readable meaning­is not common practice among environmental research infrastructures.

For a use case in aerosol science, we elucidate these problems and present a Jupyter based prototype infrastructure that exploits a machine learning approach to interpretation and could support a research community in interpreting observational data and, more importantly, in curating and further using resulting information about a studied natural phenomenon.

URL : Curating Scientific Information in Knowledge Infrastructures

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2018-021

Reading in a post-textual era

At 19:02 01/10/2018

Authors : Miha Kova , Adriaan van der Weel

This paper analyses major social shifts in reading by comparing publishing statistics with results of empirical research on reading. As media statistics suggest, the last five decades have seen two shifts: from textual to visual media, and with the advent of digital screens also from long-form to short-form texts.

This was accompanied by new media-adequate reading modes: while long-form content invokes immersed and/or deep reading, we predominantly skim online social media. Empirical research on reading indicates that the reading substrate plays an important role in reading processes.

For example, comprehension suffers when complex texts are read from screens. This paper argues that media and reading trends in recent decades indicate broader social and cultural changes in which long-form deep reading traditionally associated with the printed book will be marginalised by prevailing media trends and the reading modes they inspire. As these trends persist, it may be necessary to find new approaches to vocabulary and knowledge building.

URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9416

Why digital natives need books: The myth of the digital native

At 20:04 01/10/2018

Author : Hildegunn Støle

This article is concerned with children’s reading development in the important years from when they begin learning to read to the age when the child reaches adequate reading comprehension to read to learn from a variety of texts on diverse subjects. Like any skill, reading skill requires relevant and extensive training.

We have tended to think that children growing up in the digital era get plenty reading training from digital devices and that this is as efficient as reading books was for earlier generations.

Due to this optimism, we have paid too little attention to whether extensive use of digital devices actually provide children with relevant reading training during the important years that efficient reading is developed. The author holds that book reading still has its place in education.

URL : http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9422

Plurality in multi-disciplinary research: multiple institutional affiliations are associated with increased citations

At 21:07 01/10/2018

Authors : Paul Sanfilippo , Alex W. Hewitt, David A. Mackey

Background

The institutional affiliations and associated collaborative networks that scientists foster during their research careers are salient in the production of high-quality science. The phenomenon of multiple institutional affiliations and its relationship to research output remains relatively unexplored in the literature.

Methods

We examined 27,612 scientific articles, modelling the normalized citation counts received against the number of authors and affiliations held.

Results

In agreement with previous research, we found that teamwork is an important factor in high impact papers, with average citations received increasing concordant with the number of co-authors listed.

For articles with more than five co-authors, we noted an increase in average citations received when authors with more than one institutional affiliation contributed to the research.

Discussion

Multiple author affiliations may play a positive role in the production of high-impact science. This increased researcher mobility should be viewed by institutional boards as meritorious in the pursuit of scientific discovery.

URL : Plurality in multi-disciplinary research: multiple institutional affiliations are associated with increased citations

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5664

Gender and international diversity improves equity in peer review

At 22:12 01/10/2018

Authors : Dakota Murray, Kyle Siler, Vincent Lariviére, Wei Mun Chan, Andrew M. Collings, Jennifer Raymond, Cassidy R Sugimoto

The robustness of scholarly peer review has been challenged by evidence of disparities in publication outcomes based on author's gender and nationality. To address this, we examine the peer review outcomes of 23,873 initial submissions and 7,192 full submissions that were submitted to the biosciences journal eLife between 2012 and 2017.

Women and authors from nations outside of North America and Europe were underrepresented both as gatekeepers (editors and peer reviewers) and last authors. We found a homophilic interaction between the demographics of the gatekeepers and authors in determining the outcome of peer review; that is, gatekeepers favor manuscripts from authors of the same gender and from the same country.

The acceptance rate for manuscripts with male last authors was significantly higher than for female last authors, and this gender inequity was greatest when the team of reviewers was all male; mixed-gender gatekeeper teams lead to more equitable peer review outcomes.

Similarly, manuscripts were more likely to be accepted when reviewed by at least one gatekeeper with the same national affiliation as the corresponding author. Our results indicated that homogeneity between author and gatekeeper gender and nationality is associated with the outcomes of scientific peer review.

We conclude with a discussion of mechanisms that could contribute to this effect, directions for future research, and policy implications. Code and anonymized data have been made available at https://github.com/murrayds/elife-analysis

URL : Gender and international diversity improves equity in peer review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1101/400515

Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era

At 23:15 01/10/2018

Authors : Fei Shu, Philippe Mongeon, Stefanie Haustein, Kyle Siler, Juan Pablo Alperin, Vincent Larivière

Commercial scholarly publishers promote and sell bundles of journals­known as big deals­that provide access to entire collections rather than individual journals. Following this new model, size of serial collections in academic libraries increased almost fivefold from 1986 to 2011.

Using data on library subscriptions and references made for a sample of North American universities, this study provides evidence that, while big deal bundles do decrease the mean price per subscribed journal, academic libraries receive less value for their investment.

We find that university researchers cite only a fraction of journals purchased by their libraries, that this fraction is decreasing, and that the cost per cited journal has increased.

These findings reveal how academic publishers use product differentiation and price strategies to increase sales and profits in the digital era, often at the expense of university and scientific stakeholders.

URL : Is It Such a Big Deal? On the Cost of Journal Use in the Digital Era

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.6.785

Vers un système modulaire de publication : éditer avec le numérique

At 22:15 02/10/2018

Auteur/Author : Antoine Fauchié

Le domaine du livre, et plus particulièrement l’édition, connaît des mutations profondes au contact du numérique. Après des phases successives d’informatisation, l’une des manifestations les plus visibles de ces bouleversements est probablement l’ebook.

Si le livre numérique est une approche inédite de l’écrit tant dans sa diffusion que dans sa réception, il y a en filigrane des transformations plus essentielles dans la manière de faire des livres.

Des structures d’édition imaginent des nouvelles chaînes de publication originales et non conventionnelles pour générer des versions imprimée et numériques d’ouvrages et de documents, remplaçant les traditionnels traitements de texte et logiciels de publication par des méthodes et des technologies issues du développement web.

Ainsi un système modulaire de publication peut se substituer à des chaînes linéaires, repositionnant l’humain au cœur des machines ou des programmes.

À travers des commentaires de textes et des analyses de cas nous étudions les évolutions du livre avec un regard plus global sur notre rapport à la technique, et nous exposons les principes fondateurs d’un nouveau modèle.

URL : Vers un système modulaire de publication : éditer avec le numérique

Alternative location : https://memoire.quaternum.net/

Measuring Open Access Policy Compliance: Results of a Survey

At 17:16 07/10/2018

Authors : Shannon Kipphut-Smith, Michael Boock, Kimberly Chapman, Michaela Willi Hooper

INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, a significant number of institutions have adopted open access (OA) policies. Many of those working with OA policies are tasked with measuring policy compliance.

This article reports on a survey of Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) members designed to better understand the methods currently used for measuring and communicating OA policy success.

METHODS

This electronic survey was distributed to the COAPI member listserv, inviting both institutions who have passed an implemented policies and those who are still developing policies to participate.

RESULTS

The results to a number of questions related to topics such as policy workflows, quantitative and qualitative measurement activities and related tools, and challenges showed a wide range of responses, which are shared here.

DISCUSSION

It is clear that a number of COAPI members struggle with identifying what should be measured and what tools and methods are appropriate. The survey illustrates how each institution measures compliance differently, making it difficult to benchmark against peer institutions.

CONCLUSION

As a result of this survey, we recommend that institutions working with OA policies be as transparent as possible about their data sources and methods when calculating deposit rates and other quantitative measures.

It is hoped that this transparency will result in the development of a set of qualitative and quantitative best practices for assessing OA policies that standardizes assessment terminology and articulates why institutions may want to measure policies.

URL : Measuring Open Access Policy Compliance: Results of a Survey

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2247

Evaluation of a novel cloud-based software platform for structured experiment design and linked data analytics

At 18:18 07/10/2018

Authors : Hannes Juergens, Matthijs Niemeijer, Laura D. Jennings-Antipov, Robert Mans, Jack More, Antonius J. A. van Maris, Jack T. Pronk, Timothy S. Gardner

Open data in science requires precise definition of experimental procedures used in data generation, but traditional practices for sharing protocols and data cannot provide the required data contextualization.

Here, we explore implementation, in an academic research setting, of a novel cloud-based software system designed to address this challenge. The software supports systematic definition of experimental procedures as visual processes, acquisition and analysis of primary data, and linking of data and procedures in machine-computable form.

The software was tested on a set of quantitative microbial-physiology experiments. Though time-intensive, definition of experimental procedures in the software enabled much more precise, unambiguous definitions of experiments than conventional protocols.

Once defined, processes were easily reusable and composable into more complex experimental flows. Automatic coupling of process definitions to experimental data enables immediate identification of correlations between procedural details, intended and unintended experimental perturbations, and experimental outcomes.

Software-based experiment descriptions could ultimately replace terse and ambiguous ‘Materials and Methods’ sections in scientific journals, thus promoting reproducibility and reusability of published studies.

URL : Evaluation of a novel cloud-based software platform for structured experiment design and linked data analytics

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.195

How significant are the public dimensions of faculty work in review, promotion, and tenure documents?

At 19:20 07/10/2018

Authors : Juan Pablo Alperin, Gustavo E. Fischman, Erin C. McKiernan, Carol Muñoz Nieves, Meredith T. Niles, Lesley Schimanski

Much of the work of universities, even private institutions, has significant public dimensions. Faculty work in particular is often funded by public funds, is aimed at serving the public good, and is subject to public evaluation.

To understand how the public dimensions of faculty work are valued, we analyzed review, tenure and promotion documents from a representative sample of 129 Canadian and American universities.

We found terms and concepts related to public and community are mentioned in a large portion of documents, but mostly in ways that relate to service­an undervalued aspect of academic careers.

Moreover, we find significant mentions of traditional research outputs and citation-based metrics. Such outputs and metrics reward faculty work targeted to academics, and mostly disregard the public dimensions.

We conclude that institutions that want to live up to their public mission need to work towards systemic change in how faculty work is assessed and incentivized.

URL : How significant are the public dimensions of faculty work in review, promotion, and tenure documents?

DOI : https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:21015

The use and perceptions of open Access resources by legal academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa

At 20:24 07/10/2018

Author : Elizabeth Moll-Willard

Although access to primary legal materials in South Africa is now easily accessible as a result of the Free Access to Law movement, access to legal scholarship is not as easy.

Through using the University of Cape Town (UCT) as a case study, due to its research intensive nature, it is possible to see how academics are publishing their legal scholarship through the use of bibliometrics and data mining.

After the success of a Research Visibility month, law librarians were able to attest to the perceptions of legal academics around the importance of the openness and visibility of their research.

The author contrasts these two to see if the perception of legal academics around the visibility of their resources reflects their publishing practices. It is seen that although academics at UCT publish mostly in closed journals, the publishing in open and hybrid journals has slowly increased during the period 2011-2015.

Further it is evidenced that legal academics are exploring other avenues, including that of self-archiving, to boost the visibility of their work. Law Librarians are able to assist in boosting at least the visibility, if not the openness of legal academics’ work.

URL : The use and perceptions of open Access resources by legal academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa

Alternative location : https://ojs.law.cornell.edu/index.php/joal/article/view/78

Towards a Decentralized Process for Scientific Publication and Peer Review using Blockchain and IPFS

At 21:26 07/10/2018

Authors : Antonio Tenorio-Fornés, Viktor Jacynycz, David Llop, Antonio A. Sanchez-Ruiz, Samer Hassan

The current processes of scientific publication and peer review raise concerns around fairness, quality, performance, cost, and accuracy. The Open Access movement has been unable to fulfill all its promises, and a few middlemen publishers can still impose policies and concentrate profits.

This paper, using emerging distributed technologies such as Blockchain and IPFS, proposes a decentralized publication system for open science.

The proposed system would provide (1) a distributed reviewer reputation system, (2) an Open Access by-design infrastructure, and (3) transparent governance processes.

A survey is used to evaluate the problems, proposed solutions and possible adoption resistances, while a working prototype serves as a proof-of-concept.

Additionally, the paper discusses the implementation, in a distributed context, of different privacy settings for both open peer review and reputation systems, introducing a novel approach supporting both anonymous and accountable reviews. The paper concludes reviewing the open challenges of this ambitious proposal.

URL : Towards a Decentralized Process for Scientific Publication and Peer Review using Blockchain and IPFS

Leveraging Elsevier’s Creative Commons License Requirement to Undermine Embargo

At 22:29 07/10/2018

Author : Josh Bolick

In the last round of author-sharing policy revisions, Elsevier created a labyrinthine title-by-title embargo structure requiring embargoes from 12 to 48 months for authors sharing via institutional repository (IR), while permitting immediate sharing via an author’s personal website or blog. At the same time, all prepublication versions are to bear a Creative Commons-Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license.

To wit, authors may post an appropriately licensed copy on their personal site or blog, at which point the author’s host institution may deposit without an embargo in the IR, not through the license granted in the publication agreement, but through the CC license on the author’s version, which the sharing policy mandates. At the time this policy was announced, it was criticized by many in the scholarly communication community as overly complicated and restrictive. However, this CC licensing requirement creates an avenue for subverting an embargo in the IR to achieve quicker and wider open distribution of the author’s accepted manuscript (AAM).

This article outlines the background and rationale of the issue and discusses the benefits, workflows, and remaining questions.

URL : Leveraging Elsevier’s Creative Commons License Requirement to Undermine Embargo

DOI : https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v2i2.7415

A guideline for reporting experimental protocols in life sciences

At 23:31 07/10/2018

Authors : Olga Giraldo , Alexander Garcia, Oscar Corcho

Experimental protocols are key when planning, performing and publishing research in many disciplines, especially in relation to the reporting of materials and methods. However, they vary in their content, structure and associated data elements.

This article presents a guideline for describing key content for reporting experimental protocols in the domain of life sciences, together with the methodology followed in order to develop such guideline.

As part of our work, we propose a checklist that contains 17 data elements that we consider fundamental to facilitate the execution of the protocol. These data elements are formally described in the SMART Protocols ontology.

By providing guidance for the key content to be reported, we aim (1) to make it easier for authors to report experimental protocols with necessary and sufficient information that allow others to reproduce an experiment, (2) to promote consistency across laboratories by delivering an adaptable set of data elements, and (3) to make it easier for reviewers and editors to measure the quality of submitted manuscripts against an established criteria.

Our checklist focuses on the content, what should be included. Rather than advocating a specific format for protocols in life sciences, the checklist includes a full description of the key data elements that facilitate the execution of the protocol.

URL : A guideline for reporting experimental protocols in life sciences

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4795

La tension entre la pratique de recherche et l’intégrité scientifique : l’exemple de l’activité bibliographique

At 18:18 08/10/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Sophie Kennel, Elsa Poupardin

L’activité bibliographique des chercheurs va de la constitution d’une culture savante à l’enrichissement de la connaissance scientifique par la publication. Notre étude interroge le lien entre l’intégrité scientifique et les constituants de cette production scientifique.

Elle permet de situer les connaissances et les positionnements des chercheurs sur la question de l’intégrité scientifique et montre les tensions entre l’activité prescrite, induite et l’activité réelle de lecture et de citation des chercheurs souvent déterminée par les normes d’évaluation.

URL : https://lesenjeux.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/2018/04-Kennel-Poupardin/

On the role of openness in education: A historical reconstruction

At 17:59 09/10/2018

Authors : Sandra Peter, Markus Deimann

In the context of education, "open(ness)" has become the watermark for a fast growing number of learning materials and associated platforms and practices from a variety of institutions and individuals. Open Educational Resources (OER), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and more recently, initiatives such as Coursera are just some of the forms this movement has embraced under the "open" banner.

Yet, ongoing calls to discuss and elucidate the "meaning" and particularities of openness in education point to a lack of clarity around the concept. "Open" in education is currently mostly debated in the context of the technological developments that allowed it to emerge in its current forms.

More in-depth explorations of the philosophical underpinnings are moved to the backstage. Therefore, this paper proposes a historical approach to bring clarity to the concept and unmask the tensions that have played out in the past.

It will then show how this knowledge can inform current debates around different open initiatives.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/dms/2491

Predatory Open Access Journals Publishing: What, Why and How?

At 19:00 09/10/2018

Author : Shamprasad M. Pujar

The Internet has transformed scholarly publishing and made the availability of online resources possible, both in subscription and open access models. Open access, has enabled wider access to the scholarly literature, thus reducing the digital divide among the haves and have-nots.

In the case of journal articles, even though its ‘Gold’ (author pays model) and ‘Green’ access models have risen to the occasion, but some publishers of journals have turned its ‘Gold’ model to their advantage to earn a profit by charging fees for publication and adopting certain unethical practices of publishing.

An effort has been made here to explore what is ‘Predatory’ open access journals publishing, why this kind of publishing is flourishing and how this model works.

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/32032

OpenAPC: a contribution to a transparent and reproducible monitoring of fee-based open access publishing across institutions and nations

At 18:47 11/10/2018

Authors : Dirk Pieper, Christoph Broschinski

The OpenAPC initiative releases data sets on fees paid for open access (OA) journal articles by universities, funders and research institutions under an open database licence.

OpenAPC is part of the INTACT project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation and located at Bielefeld University Library.

This article provides insight into OpenAPC’s technical and organizational background and shows how transparent and reproducible reporting on fee-based open access can be conducted across institutions and publishers to draw conclusions on the state of the OA transformation process.

As part of the INTACT subproject, ESAC, the article also shows how OpenAPC workflows can be used to analyse offsetting deals, using the example of Springer Compact agreements.

URL : OpenAPC: a contribution to a transparent and reproducible monitoring of fee-based open access publishing across institutions and nations

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.439

Using ORCID, DOI, and Other Open Identifiers in Research Evaluation

At 19:49 11/10/2018

Authors : Laurel L. Haak, Alice Meadows, Josh Brown

An evaluator’s task is to connect the dots between program goals and its outcomes. This can be accomplished through surveys, research, and interviews, and is frequently performed post hoc.

Research evaluation is hampered by a lack of data that clearly connect a research program with its outcomes and, in particular, by ambiguity about who has participated in the program and what contributions they have made. Manually making these connections is very labor-intensive, and algorithmic matching introduces errors and assumptions that can distort results.

In this paper, we discuss the use of identifiers in research evaluation­for individuals, their contributions, and the organizations that sponsor them and fund their work. Global identifier systems are uniquely positioned to capture global mobility and collaboration.

By leveraging connections between local infrastructures and global information resources, evaluators can map data sources that were previously either unavailable or prohibitively labor-intensive.

We describe how identifiers, such as ORCID iDs and DOIs, are being embedded in research workflows across science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics; how this is affecting data availability for evaluation purposes: and provide examples of evaluations that are leveraging identifiers.

We also discuss the importance of provenance and preservation in establishing confidence in the reliability and trustworthiness of data and relationships, and in the long-term availability of metadata describing objects and their inter-relationships.

We conclude with a discussion on opportunities and risks for the use of identifiers in evaluation processes.

URL : Using ORCID, DOI, and Other Open Identifiers in Research Evaluation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2018.00028

Consistency of interdisciplinarity measures

At 20:50 11/10/2018

Authors : Qi Wang, Jesper Wiborg Schneider

Assessing interdisciplinarity is an important and challenging work in bibliometric studies. Previous studies tend to emphasize that the nature and concept of interdisciplinary is ambiguous and uncertain (e.g. Leydesdorff & Rafols 2010, Rafols & Meyer, 2010, Sugimoto & Weingart, 2014).

As a consequence, various different measures of interdisciplinarity have been proposed. However, few studies have examined the relations between these measures. In this context, this paper aims to systematically review these interdisciplinarity measures, and explore their inherent relations.

We examine these measures in relation to the Web of Science (WoS) journal subject categories (SCs), and also an interdisciplinary research center at Aarhus University.

In line with the conclusion of Digital Science (2016), our results reveal that the current situation of interdisciplinarity measurement in science studies is confusing and unsatisfying. We obtained surprisingly dissimilar results with measures that supposedly should measure similar features.

We suggest that interdisciplinarity as a measurement construct should be used and interpreted with caution in future research evaluation and research policies.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.00577

Evaluating research and researchers by the journal impact factor: is it better than coin flipping?

At 21:51 11/10/2018

Authors : Ricardo Brito, Alonso Rodríguez-Navarro

The journal impact factor (JIF) is the average of the number of citations of the papers published in a journal, calculated according to a specific formula; it is extensively used for the evaluation of research and researchers.

The method assumes that all papers in a journal have the same scientific merit, which is measured by the JIF of the publishing journal. This implies that the number of citations measures scientific merits but the JIF does not evaluate each individual paper by its own number of citations.

Therefore, in the comparative evaluation of two papers, the use of the JIF implies a risk of failure, which occurs when a paper in the journal with the lower JIF is compared to another with fewer citations in the journal with the higher JIF.

To quantify this risk of failure, this study calculates the failure probabilities, taking advantage of the lognormal distribution of citations. In two journals whose JIFs are ten-fold different, the failure probability is low.

However, in most cases when two papers are compared, the JIFs of the journals are not so different. Then, the failure probability can be close to 0.5, which is equivalent to evaluating by coin flipping.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10999

Commons-Based Peer Production in the Work of Yochai Benkler

At 16:04 14/10/2018

Author : Vangelis Papadimitropoulos

Yochai Benkler defines commons-based peer production as a non-market sector of information, knowledge and cultural production, which is not treated as private property but as an ethic of open sharing and co-operation, and is largely enhanced by the Internet and free/open source software.

This paper makes the case that there is a tension between Benkler’s liberal commitments and his anarchistic vision of the commons. Benkler limits the scope of commons-based peer production to the immaterial production of the digital commons, while paradoxically envisaging the control of the world economy by the commons.

This paradox reflects a deeper lacuna in his work, revealing the absence of a concrete strategy as to how the immaterial production of the digital commons can connect to material production and control the world economy.

The paper concludes with an enquiry into some of the latest efforts in the literature to fill this gap.

URL : Commons-Based Peer Production in the Work of Yochai Benkler

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v16i2.1009

Sharing health research data – the role of funders in improving the impact

At 18:42 17/10/2018

Authors : Robert F. Terry, Katherine Littler, Piero L. Olliaro

Recent public health emergencies with outbreaks of influenza, Ebola and Zika revealed that the mechanisms for sharing research data are neither being used, or adequate for the purpose, particularly where data needs to be shared rapidly.

A review of research papers, including completed clinical trials related to priority pathogens, found only 31% (98 out of 319 published papers, excluding case studies) provided access to all the data underlying the paper - 65% of these papers give no information on how to find or access the data.

Only two clinical trials out of 58 on interventions for WHO priority pathogens provided any link in their registry entry to the background data.

Interviews with researchers revealed a reluctance to share data included a lack of confidence in the utility of the data; an absence of academic-incentives for rapid dissemination that prevents subsequent publication and a disconnect between those who are collecting the data and those who wish to use it quickly.

The role of the funders of research needs to change to address this. Funders need to engage early with the researchers and related stakeholders to understand their concerns and work harder to define the more explicitly the benefits to all stakeholders.

Secondly, there needs to be a direct benefit to sharing data that is directly relevant to those people that collect and curate the data.

Thirdly more work needs to be done to realise the intent of making data sharing resources more equitable, ethical and efficient.

Finally, a checklist of the issues that need to be addressed when designing new or revising existing data sharing resources should be created. This checklist would highlight the technical, cultural and ethical issues that need to be considered and point to examples of emerging good practice that can be used to address them.

URL : Sharing health research data – the role of funders in improving the impact

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.16523.1

Do funding applications where peer reviewers disagree have higher citations? A cross-sectional study

At 19:43 17/10/2018

Authors : Adrian G Barnett, Scott R. Glisson, Stephen Gallo

Background

Decisions about which applications to fund are generally based on the mean scores of a panel of peer reviewers. As well as the mean, a large disagreement between peer reviewers may also be worth considering, as it may indicate a high-risk application with a high return.

Methods

We examined the peer reviewers' scores for 227 funded applications submitted to the American Institute of Biological Sciences between 1999 and 2006. We examined the mean score and two measures of reviewer disagreement: the standard deviation and range.

The outcome variable was the relative citation ratio, which is the number of citations from all publications associated with the application, standardised by field and publication year.

Results

There was a clear increase in relative citations for applications with a better mean. There was no association between relative citations and either of the two measures of disagreement.

Conclusions

We found no evidence that reviewer disagreement was able to identify applications with a higher than average return. However, this is the first study to empirically examine this association, and it would be useful to examine whether reviewer disagreement is associated with research impact in other funding schemes and in larger sample sizes.

URL : Do funding applications where peer reviewers disagree have higher citations? A cross-sectional study

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.15479.2

Opening Science with Institutional Repository: A Case Study of Vilnius University Library

At 20:45 17/10/2018

Authors : J rat Kuprien , ibut Petrauskien

The future strategies for opening science have become important to libraries which serve scientific institutions by providing institutional repository infrastructures and services.

Vilnius University Library provides such an infrastructure for Vilnius University, which is the biggest higher education institution in Lithuania (with more than 20,200 students, 1,330 academic staff members, and 450 researchers ), and manages services and infrastructure of the national open access repository eLABa and the national open access data archive MIDAS.

As the new platforms of these repositories began operating in the beginning of 2015, new policies and routines for organizing work with scientific publications and data had to be implemented.

This meant new roles for the Library and librarians, too. The University Senate approved the new Regulations of the Library on 13 June 2017 with the task to develop the scholarly communication tools dedicated to sustaining open access to information and open science.

Thus, Vilnius University Library performs the leading role in opening science by providing strategic insights and solutions for development of services dedicated to researchers, students and the public in Lithuania.

As it was not presented properly at the international level before, this article presents the case of Vilnius University Library which actively cooperates with other Lithuanian academic institutions, works in creating and coordinating policies, conducts research on the improvements and services of eLABa and MIDAS, and suggests and implements the integral solutions for opening science.

URL : Opening Science with Institutional Repository: A Case Study of Vilnius University Library

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10217

==
Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy At 21:47 17/10/2018

Edited by Susanne Hecker, Muki Haklay, Anne Bowser, Zen Makuch, Johannes Vogel and Aletta Bonn

Citizen science, the active participation of the public in scientific research projects, is a rapidly expanding field in open science and open innovation. It provides an integrated model of public knowledge production and engagement with science.

As a growing worldwide phenomenon, it is invigorated by evolving new technologies that connect people easily and effectively with the scientific community.

Catalysed by citizens’ wishes to be actively involved in scientific processes, as a result of recent societal trends, it also offers contributions to the rise in tertiary education. In addition, citizen science provides a valuable tool for citizens to play a more active role in sustainable development.

Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy identifies and explains the role of citizen science within innovation in science and society, and as a vibrant and productive science-policy interface.

The scope of this volume is global, geared towards identifying solutions and lessons to be applied across science, practice and policy.

The chapters consider the role of citizen science in the context of the wider agenda of open science and open innovation, and discusses progress towards responsible research and innovation, two of the most critical aspects of science today.

URL : Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy

Alternative location : https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/citizen-science

The History, Advocacy and Efficacy of Data Management Plans

At 17:49 22/10/2018

Authors : Nicholas Smale, Kathryn Unsworth, Gareth Denyer, Daniel Barr

Data management plans (DMPs) have increasingly been encouraged as a key component of institutional and funding body policy. Although DMPs necessarily place administrative burden on researchers, proponents claim that DMPs have myriad benefits, including enhanced research data quality, increased rates of data sharing, and institutional planning and compliance benefits.

In this manuscript, we explore the international history of DMPs and describe institutional and funding body DMP policy. We find that economic and societal benefits from presumed increased rates of data sharing was the original driver of mandating DMPs by funding bodies.

Today, 86% of UK Research Councils and 63% of US funding bodies require submission of a DMP with funding applications. Given that no major Australian funding bodies require DMP submission, it is of note that 37% of Australian universities have taken the initiative to internally mandate DMPs.

Institutions both within Australia and internationally frequently promote the professional benefits of DMP use, and endorse DMPs as 'best practice'. We analyse one such typical DMP implementation at a major Australian institution, finding that DMPs have low levels of apparent translational value.

Indeed, an extensive literature review suggests there is very limited published systematic evidence that DMP use has any tangible benefit for researchers, institutions or funding bodies.

We are therefore led to question why DMPs have become the go-to tool for research data professionals and advocates of good data practice. By delineating multiple use-cases and highlighting the need for DMPs to be fit for intended purpose, we question the view that a good DMP is necessarily that which encompasses the entire data lifecycle of a project.

Finally, we summarise recent developments in the DMP landscape, and note a positive shift towards evidence-based research management through more researcher-centric, educative, and integrated DMP services.

URL : The History, Advocacy and Efficacy of Data Management Plans

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1101/443499

Identifying the challenges in implementing open science

At 18:52 22/10/2018

Authors : Sarah E. Ali-Khan, Antoine Jean, E. Richard Gold

Areas of open science (OS) policy and practice are already relatively well-advanced in several countries and sectors through the initiatives of some governments, funders, philanthropy, researchers and the community. Nevertheless, the current research and innovation system, including in the focus of this report, the life sciences, remains weighted against OS.

In October 2017, thought-leaders from across the world gathered at an Open Science Leadership Forum in the Washington DC office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to share their views on what successful OS looks like.

We focused on OS partnerships as this is an emerging model that aims to accelerate science and innovation. These outcomes are captured in a first meeting report: Defining Success in Open Science.

On several occasions, these conversations turned to the challenges that must be addressed and new policies required to effectively and sustainably advance OS practice.

Thereupon, in this report, we describe the concerns raised and what is needed to address them supplemented by our review of the literature, and suggest the stakeholder groups that may be best placed to begin to take action.

It emerges that to be successful, OS will require the active engagement of all stakeholders: while the research community must develop research questions, identify partners and networks, policy communities need to create an environment that is supportive of experimentation by removing barriers.

This report aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about OS and its implementation. It is also part of a step-wise process to develop and mobilize a toolkit of quantitative and qualitative indicators to assist global stakeholders in implementing high value OS collaborations.

Currently in co-development through an open and international process, this set of measures will allow the generation of needed evidence on the influence of OS partnerships on research, innovation, and critical social and economic goals.

URL : Identifying the challenges in implementing open science

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/mniopenres.12805.1

The future of global research: A case study on the use of scenario planning in the publishing industry

At 19:54 22/10/2018

Authors : Samira Rhoods, Anca Babor

Key points

• Scenario planning is fun and engaging and is a good opportunity to revisit your company's core strengths and competitive advantage!

• Scenario planning should drive long term thinking in organizations.

• It will change the nature of the strategic conversation and can be used to help validate business innovation.

• Scenarios can help to engage with other organizations in the industry and help people work together to create preferred future outcomes.

• The complexity of scenario planning should not be underestimated and shortcuts do not work.

Sustainable open access for scholarly journals in 6 years – the incubator model at Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals

At 20:56 22/10/2018

Authors : Jeroen Sondervan, Fleur Stigter

Key points

• Humanities and the social science journals need flexible funding models.

• Pragmatism and collaboration are key to transforming traditional publishing initiatives.

• The Uopen Journals model sets a 6 year development target for developing sustainable journals.

• Actively involved editors are key to a journal's success.

Leveraging Concepts in Open Access Publications

At 13:30 28/10/2018

Authors : Andrea Bertino, Luca Foppiano, Laurent Romary, Pierre Mounier

Aim

This paper addresses the integration of a Named Entity Recognition and Disambiguation (NERD) service within a group of open access (OA) publishing digital platforms and considers its potential impact on both research and scholarly publishing.

This application, called entity-fishing, was initially developed by Inria in the context of the EU FP7 project CENDARI (Lopez et al., 2014) and provides automatic entity recognition and disambiguation against Wikipedia and Wikidata. Distributed with an open-source licence, it was deployed as a web service in the DARIAH infrastructure hosted at the French HumaNum.

Methods

In this paper, we focus on the specific issues related to its integration on five OA platforms specialized in the publication of scholarly monographs in social sciences and humanities as part of the work carried out within the EU H2020 project HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science infrastructure).

Results and Discussion

In the following sections, we give a brief overview of the current status and evolution of OA publications and how HIRMEOS aims to contribute to this.

We then give a comprehensive description of the entity-fishing service, focusing on its concrete applications in real use cases together with some further possible ideas on how to exploit the generated annotations.

Conclusions

We show that entity-fishing annotations can improve both research and publishing process. Entity-fishing annotations can be used to achieve a better and quicker understanding of the specific and disciplinary language of certain monographs and so encourage non-specialists to use them.

In addition, a systematic implementation of the entity-fishing service can be used by publishers to generate thematic indexes within book collections to allow better cross-linking and query functions.

URL : https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01900303/

What Value Do Journal Whitelists and Blacklists Have in Academia?

At 14:31 28/10/2018

Authors : Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, Panagiotis Tsigaris

This paper aims to address the issue of predatory publishing, sensu lato. To achieve this, we offer our perspectives, starting initially with some background surrounding the birth of the concept, even though the phenomenon may have already existed long before the popularization of the term “predatory publishing”.

The issue of predation or “predatory” behavior in academic publishing is no longer limited to open access (OA). Many of the mainstream publishers that were exclusively subscription-based are now evolving towards a state of complete OA.

Academics seeking reliable sources of journals to publish their work tend to rely on a journal's metrics such as citations and indexing, and on whether it is blacklisted or whitelisted.

Jeffrey Beall raised awareness of the risks of “predatory” OA publishing, and his blacklists of “predatory” OA journals and publishers began to be used for official purposes to distinguish valid from perceived invalid publishing venues.

We initially reflect on why we believe the blacklists created by Beall were flawed, primarily due to the weak set of criteria confusing non-predatory with true predatory journals leading to false positives and missing out on blacklisting true predatory journals due to false negatives.

Historically, most critiques of “predatory publishing” have relied excessively on Beall's blacklists to base their assumptions and conclusions but there is a need to look beyond these.

There are currently a number of blacklists and whitelists circulating in academia, but they all have imperfections, such as the resurrected Beall blacklists, Crawford's OA gray list based on Beall's lists, Cabell's new blacklist with about 11,000 journals, the DOAJ with about 11,700 OA journals, and UGC, with over 32,600 journals prior to its recent (May 2018) purge of 4305 journals.

The reader is led into a discussion about blacklists' lack of reliability, using the scientific framework of conducting research to assess whether a journal could be predatory at the pre- and post-study levels. We close our discussion by offering arguments why we believe blacklists are academically invalid.

URL : What Value Do Journal Whitelists and Blacklists Have in Academia?

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.09.017

==
Open Science by Design At 14:36 28/10/2018

Contributors : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Policy and Global Affairs; Board on Research Data and Information; Committee on Toward an Open Science Enterprise

Openness and sharing of information are fundamental to the progress of science and to the effective functioning of the research enterprise. The advent of scientific journals in the 17th century helped power the Scientific Revolution by allowing researchers to communicate across time and space, using the technologies of that era to generate reliable knowledge more quickly and efficiently.

Harnessing today’s stunning, ongoing advances in information technologies, the global research enterprise and its stakeholders are moving toward a new open science ecosystem.

Open science aims to ensure the free availability and usability of scholarly publications, the data that result from scholarly research, and the methodologies, including code or algorithms, that were used to generate those data.

Open Science by Design is aimed at overcoming barriers and moving toward open science as the default approach across the research enterprise.

This report explores specific examples of open science and discusses a range of challenges, focusing on stakeholder perspectives. It is meant to provide guidance to the research enterprise and its stakeholders as they build strategies for achieving open science and take the next steps.

URL : https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25116/open-science-by-design-realizing-a-vision-for-21st-century

A “basket of metrics”­the best support for understanding journal merit

At 15:39 28/10/2018

Authors : Lisa Colledge, Chris James

Aim

To survey opinion of the assertion that useful metricbased input requires a “basket of metrics” to allow more varied and nuanced insights into merit than is possible by using one metric alone.

Methods

A poll was conducted to survey opinions (N=204; average response rate=61%) within the international research community on using usage metrics in merit systems.

Results

“Research is best quantified using multiple criteria” was selected by most (40%) respondents as the reason that usage metrics are valuable, and 95% of respondents indicated that they would be likely or very likely to use usage metrics in their assessments of research merit, if they had access to them.

There was a similar degree of preference for simple and sophisticated usage metrics confirming that one size does not fit all, and that a one-metric approach to merit is insufficient.

Conclusion

This survey demonstrates a clear willingness and a real appetite to use a “basket of metrics” to broaden the ways in which research merit can be detected and demonstrated.

URL : http://europeanscienceediting.eu/articles/a-basket-of-metrics-the-best-support-for-understanding-journal-merit/

Software Curation in Research Libraries: Practice and Promise

At 15:25 29/10/2018

Authors : Alexandra Chassanoff, Yasmin AlNoamany, Katherine Thornton, John Borghi

INTRODUCTION

Research software plays an increasingly vital role in the scholarly record. Academic research libraries are in the early stages of exploring strategies for curating and preserving research software, aiming to facilitate support and services for long-term access and use.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

In 2016, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) began offering postdoctoral fellowships in software curation. Four institutions hosted the initial cohort of software curation fellows.

This article describes the work activities and research program of the cohort, highlighting the challenges and benefits of doing this exploratory work in research libraries.

NEXT STEPS

Academic research libraries are poised to play an important role in research and development around robust services for software curation. The next cohort of CLIR fellows is set to begin in fall 2018 and will likely shape and contribute substantially to an emergent research agenda.

URL : Software Curation in Research Libraries: Practice and Promise

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2239

Les humanités numériques

At 16:26 29/10/2018

Auteur/Author : Pierre Mounier

Quel avenir faut-il prédire aux humanités ? Les signes d'une désaffection pour la culture humaniste se sont multipliés au cours des dernières années en France et ailleurs. Dans ce contexte morose et déprimé, le développement des humanités numériques apparaît à certains comme une planche de salut pour des disciplines autrement condamnées à disparaître.

Toutefois, réinventer les humanités par le numérique suppose de relever trois défis de taille : leur rapport à la technique, leur relation au politique et enfin à la science elle-même. Les humanités numériques sont très critiquées : pour certains elles relèvent de la poudre aux yeux, pour d'autres, elles constituent une menace extraordinaire.

Mais s'il y a bien quelque chose que l'on ne peut contester, c'est leur capacité à poser de bonnes questions aux différentes disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales.

Penser la place que les humanités doivent tenir dans notre monde implique d'en redéfinir le contrat social et épistémique. Elles sont riches d'opportunités de ce point de vue : à condition de ne pas dénaturer la spécificité humanistique des pratiques de recherche auxquelles elles s'appliquent.

URL : https://books.openedition.org/editionsmsh/12006

Developing a Business Plan for a Library Publishing Program

At 17:27 29/10/2018

Authors : Kate McCready, Emma Molls

Over the last twenty years, library publishing has emerged in higher education as a new class of publisher. Conceived as a response to commercial publishing practices that have strained library budgets and prevented scholars from openly licensing and sharing their works, library publishing is both a local service program and a broader movement to disrupt the current scholarly publishing arena.

It is growing both in numbers of publishers and numbers of works produced. The commercial publishing framework which determines the viability of monetizing a product is not necessarily applicable for library publishers who exist as a common good to address the needs of their academic communities.

Like any business venture, however, library publishers must develop a clear service model and business plan in order to create shared expectations for funding streams, quality markers, as well as technical and staff capacity.

As the field is maturing from experimental projects to full programs, library publishers are formalizing their offerings and limitations.

The anatomy of a library publishing business plan is presented and includes the principles of the program, scope of services, and staffing requirements. Other aspects include production policies, financial structures, and measures of success.

URL : Developing a Business Plan for a Library Publishing Program

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications6040042

Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, and Open Innovation in Icelandic SMEs

At 18:27 29/10/2018

Authors : Elsa Grimsdottir, Ingi Runar Edvardsson

The aim of this article is to present findings on knowledge management (KM) and knowledge creation, as well as open innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Iceland. Two SME company case studies are presented in the form of a case study involving semistructured interviews with managers and selected employees and in-field observation.

Company Alpha is a software company, whereas Company Beta is a family company which produces drinks and snacks. Knowledge creation and innovation is a learning process in both companies.

The two companies show very different open-innovation models in practice. The findings regarding the two companies are in accordance with the arguments of Chiaroni et al., where they state that high-tech companies tend to prefer inside-out strategies of open innovation, whereas low-tech companies prefer outside-in strategies.

Company Alpha relates to customers late in the process, whereas Company Beta relies on knowledge from customers and suppliers and for new knowledge early on in the process.

URL : Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, and Open Innovation in Icelandic SMEs

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2158244018807320

Dimensions of open research: critical reflections on openness in the ROER4D project

At 19:28 29/10/2018

Authors : Thomas William King, Cheryl-Ann Hodgkinson-Williams, Michelle Willmers, Sukaina Walji

Open Research has the potential to advance the scientific process by improving the transparency, rigour, scope and reach of research, but choosing to experiment with Open Research carries with it a set of ideological, legal, technical and operational considerations.

Researchers, especially those in resource-constrained situations, may not be aware of the complex interrelations between these different domains of open practice, the additional resources required, or how Open Research can support traditional research practices.

Using the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project as an example, this paper attempts to demonstrate the interrelation between ideological, legal, technical and operational openness; the resources that conducting Open Research requires; and the benefits of an iterative, strategic approach to one’s own Open Research practice.

In this paper we discuss the value of a critical approach towards Open Research to ensure better coherence between ‘open’ ideology (embodied in strategic intention) and ‘open’ practice (the everyday operationalisation of open principles).

URL : Dimensions of open research: critical reflections on openness in the ROER4D project

Alternative location : https://www.openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/285

Publish-and-Flourish: decentralized co-creation and curation of scholarly content

At 20:30 29/10/2018

Authors : Emilija Stojmenova Duh, Andrej Duh, Uroš Droftina, Tim Kos, Urban Duh, Tanja Simoni Korošak, Dean Korošak

Scholarly communication is today immersed in publish or perish culture that propels noncooperative behaviour in the sense of strategic games played by researchers.

Here we introduce and describe a blockchain based platform for decentralized scholarly communication. The design of the platform rests on community driven publishing reviewing processes and implements incentives that promote cooperative user behaviour.

Key to achieve cooperation in blockchain based scholarly communication is to transform a static research paper into a modifiable research paper under continuous peer review process.

We describe and discuss the implementation of a modifiable research paper as a smart contract on the blockchain.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.10263

On the Heterogeneous Distributions in Paper Citations

At 21:33 29/10/2018

Authors : Jinhyuk Yun, Sejung Ahn, June Young Lee

Academic papers have been the protagonists in disseminating expertise. Naturally, paper citation pattern analysis is an efficient and essential way of investigating the knowledge structure of science and technology.

For decades, it has been observed that citation of scientific literature follows a heterogeneous and heavy-tailed distribution, and many of them suggest a power-law distribution, log-normal distribution, and related distributions.

However, many studies are limited to small-scale approaches; therefore, it is hard to generalize. To overcome this problem, we investigate 21 years of citation evolution through a systematic analysis of the entire citation history of 42,423,644 scientific literatures published from 1996 to 2016 and contained in SCOPUS.

We tested six candidate distributions for the scientific literature in three distinct levels of Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) classification scheme. First, we observe that the raw number of annual citation acquisitions tends to follow the log-normal distribution for all disciplines, except for the first year of the publication.

We also find significant disparity between the yearly acquired citation number among the journals, which suggests that it is essential to remove the citation surplus inherited from the prestige of the journals.

Our simple method for separating the citation preference of an individual article from the inherited citation of the journals reveals an unexpected regularity in the normalized annual acquisitions of citations across the entire field of science.

Specifically, the normalized annual citation acquisitions have power-law probability distributions with an exponential cut-off of the exponents around 2.3, regardless of its publication and citation year.

Our results imply that journal reputation has a substantial long-term impact on the citation.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.08809

The insoluble problems of books: What does Altmetric.com have to offer?

At 17:47 03/11/2018

Authors : Daniel Torres-Salinas, Juan Gorraiz, Nicolas Robinson-Garcia

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the capabilities, functionalities and appropriateness of Altmetric.com as a data source for the bibliometric analysis of books in comparison to PlumX.

We perform an exploratory analysis on the metrics the Altmetric Explorer for Institutions platform offers for books. We use two distinct datasets of books: the Book Collection included in Altmetric.com and the Clarivate's Master Book List, to analyze Altmetric.com's capabilities to download and merge data with external databases.

Finally, we compare our findings with those obtained in a previous study performed in PlumX. Altmetric.com combines and orderly tracks a set of data sources combined by DOI identifiers to retrieve metadata from books, being Google Books its main provider. It also retrieves information from commercial publishers and from some Open Access initiatives, including those led by university libraries such as Harvard Library.

We find issues with linkages between records and mentions or ISBN discrepancies. Furthermore, we find that automatic bots affect greatly Wikipedia mentions to books. Our comparison with PlumX suggests that none of these tools provide a complete picture of the social attention generated by books and are rather complementary than comparable tools.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10128

Scholars’ temporal participation on, temporary disengagement from, and return to Twitter

At 18:48 03/11/2018

Authors : George Veletsianos, Royce Kimmons, Olga Belikov, Nicole Johnson

Even though the extant literature investigates how and why academics use social media, much less is known about academics’ temporal patterns of social media use.

This mixed methods study provides a first-of-its-kind investigation into temporal social media use. In particular, we study how academics’ use of Twitter varies over time and examine the reasons why academics temporarily disengage and return to the social media platform.

We employ data mining methods to identify a sample of academics on Twitter (n = 3,996) and retrieve the tweets they posted (n = 9,025,127). We analyze quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative data using the constant comparative approach.

Results show that Twitter use is predominantly connected to traditional work hours and is well-integrated into academics’ professional endeavors, suggesting that professional use of Twitter has become “ordinary.”

Though scholars rarely announce their departure from or return to Twitter, approximately half of this study’s participants took some kind of a break from Twitter.

Although users returned to Twitter for both professional and personal reasons, conferences and workshops were found to be significant events stimulating the return of academic users.

URL : https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/8346

Unethical aspects of open access

At 04:09 04/11/2018

Authors : David Shaw, Bernice Elger

In this article we identify and discuss several ethical problematic aspects of open access scientific publishing.

We conclude that, despite some positive effects, open access is unethical for at least three reasons: it discriminates against researchers, creates an editorial conflict of interest and diverts funding from the actual conduct of research. To be truly open access, all researchers must be able to access its benefits.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2018.1537789

The Evolution of the Concept of Semantic Web in the Context of Wikipedia: An Exploratory Approach to Study the Collective Conceptualization in a Digital Collaborative Environment

At 19:44 09/11/2018

Authors : Luís Miguel Machado, Maria Manuel Borges, Renato Rocha Souza

Wikipedia, as a “social machine”, is a privileged place to observe the collective construction of concepts without central control. Based on Dahlberg’s theory of concept, and anchored in the pragmatism of Hjørland­in which the concepts are socially negotiated meanings­the evolution of the concept of semantic web (SW) was analyzed in the English version of Wikipedia.

An exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative study was designed and we identified 26 different definitions (between 12 July 2001 and 31 December 2017), of which eight are of particular relevance for their duration, with the latter being the two recorded at the end of the analyzed period.

According to them, SW: “is an extension of the web” and “is a Web of Data”; the latter, used as a complementary definition, links to Berners-Lee’s publications. In Wikipedia, the evolution of the SW concept appears to be based on the search for the use of non-technical vocabulary and the control of authority carried out by the debate.

As a space for collective bargaining of meanings, the Wikipedia study may bring relevant contributions to a community’s understanding of a particular concept and how it evolves over time.

URL : The Evolution of the Concept of Semantic Web in the Context of Wikipedia: An Exploratory Approach to Study the Collective Conceptualization in a Digital Collaborative Environment

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications6040044

A Very Long Embargo: Journal Choice Reveals Active Non-Compliance with Funder Open Access Policies by Australian and Canadian Neuroscientists

At 02:59 10/11/2018

Authors: Shaun Yon-Seng Khoo, Belinda Po Pyn Lay

Research funders around the world have implemented open access policies that require funded research to be made open access, usually by self-archiving, within 12 months of publication.

Elsevier is unique among major science publishers because it produces several journals with non-compliant self-archiving embargoes of more than 12 months. We used Elsevier’s Scopus database to study the rate at which Australian and Canadian neuroscientists publish in Elsevier’s non-compliant (embargoes > 12 months) and compliant journals (embargoes 12 months).

We also examined publications in immediate open access neuroscience journals that had the DOAJ Seal and neuroscience publications in open access mega-journals. We found that the implementation of Australian and Canadian funder open access policies in 2012/2013 and 2015 did not reduce the number of publications in non-compliant journals.

Instead, scientific output in all publication types increased with the greatest growth in immediate open access journals. This data suggests that funder open access policies that are similar to the Australian and Canadian policies are likely to have little effect beyond an association with a general cultural trend towards open access.

URL : A Very Long Embargo: Journal Choice Reveals Active Non-Compliance with Funder Open Access Policies by Australian and Canadian Neuroscientists

DOI: http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10252

Supporting FAIR Data Principles with Fedora

At 19:07 14/11/2018

Author: David Wilcox

Making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable is an important but challenging goal. From an infrastructure perspective, repository technologies play a key role in supporting FAIR data principles.

Fedora is a flexible, extensible, open source repository platform for managing, preserving, and providing access to digital content. Fedora is used in a wide variety of institutions including libraries, museums, archives, and government organizations.

Fedora provides native linked data capabilities and a modular architecture based on well-documented APIs and ease of integration with existing applications. As both a project and a community, Fedora has been increasingly focused on research data management, making it well-suited to supporting FAIR data principles as a repository platform.

Fedora provides strong support for persistent identifiers, both by minting HTTP URIs for each resource and by allowing any number of additional identifiers to be associated with resources as RDF properties.

Fedora also supports rich metadata in any schema that can be indexed and disseminated using a variety of protocols and services. As a linked data server, Fedora allows resources to be semantically linked both within the repository and on the broader web.

Along with these and other features supporting research data management, the Fedora community has been actively participating in related initiatives, most notably the Research Data Alliance.

Fedora representatives participate in a number of interest and working groups focused on requirements and interoperability for research data repository platforms.

This participation allows the Fedora project to both influence and be influenced by an international group of Research Data Alliance stakeholders. This paper will describe how Fedora supports FAIR data principles, both in terms of relevant features and community participation in related initiatives.

URL : Supporting FAIR Data Principles with Fedora

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10247

Negative Effects of “Predatory” Journals on Global Health Research

At 19:32 18/11/2018

Authors : Diego A. Forero, Marilyn H. Oermann, Andrea Manca, Franca Deriu, Hugo Mendieta-Zerón, Mehdi Dadkhah, Roshan Bhad, Smita N. Deshpande, Wei Wang, Myriam Patricia Cifuentes

Predatory journals (PJ) exploit the open-access model promising high acceptance rate and fast track publishing without proper peer review. At minimum, PJ are eroding the credibility of the scientific literature in the health sciences as they actually boost the propagation of errors.

In this article, we identify issues with PJ and provide several responses, from international and interdisciplinary perspectives in health sciences.==

Authors, particularly researchers with limited previous experience with international publications, need to be careful when considering potential journals for submission, due to the current existence of large numbers of PJ.

Universities around the world, particularly in developing countries, might develop strategies to discourage their researchers from submitting manuscripts to PJ or serving as members of their editorial committees.

URL : Negative Effects of “Predatory” Journals on Global Health Research

DOI : http://doi.org/10.29024/aogh.2389

Évolution de la diversité consommée sur le marché du livre, 2007-2016

At 20:14 19/11/2018

Auteur/Author : Olivier Donnat

Comment les consommations culturelles évoluent-elles sous l’angle de la diversité à l’ère de l’abondance de l’offre ? Dans quelle mesure les données de marché confirment-elles les promesses qui ont accompagné l’essor des technologies numériques ?

Valident-elles notamment l’hypothèse de la longue traîne formulée par Chris Anderson au début des années 2000 selon laquelle les marchés de niche sont appelés à se développer et à réduire le niveau global de concentration des ventes ?

Ces questions, qui étaient au cœur des travaux publiés par le DEPS au tournant des années 2010, demeurent plus que jamais d’actualité car les consommations en ligne de contenus dématérialisés mais aussi de biens physiques ont considérablement progressé au cours de la dernière décennie, et la proportion d’acheteurs en ligne dans la population française est passée de 33 % à 60 % entre 2007 et 2016.

Aussi a-t-il paru nécessaire de réexaminer la question de l’évolution de la diversité des consommations culturelles en ayant recours à la même source de données (le panel de la société GfK qui recense l’ensemble des achats des consommateurs à partir d’un échantillon représentatif des points de vente) et en mobilisant à nouveau l’approche tridimensionnelle de la diversité développée dans le modèle de Stirling autour des notions de variété, d’équilibre et de disparité.

Les principaux résultats du travail mené pour la période 2007-2016 sont réunis dans la présente publication pour le marché du livre, et dans un autre numéro de la collection « Culture études » pour celui de la musique enregistrée.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3917/cule.183.0001

Les enjeux éthiques et juridiques du dépôts des travaux scientifiques dans une archive ouverte

At 13:43 24/11/2018

Auteur/Author : Isabelle Gras

Cette contribution vise à analyser comment la structuration du marché numérique de l'édition scientifique a induit de nouveaux enjeux éthiques et juridiques en matière de diffusion du savoir. Le secteur de l’édition numérique des publications scientifiques se caractérise par une concurrence imparfaite qui menace la circulation des connaissances scientifiques.

Si ce phénomène s’observe tout particulièrement dans le champ des sciences et techniques, il ne faut pas en négliger les conséquences dans le domaine des sciences humaines et sociales.

Le transfert des droits d’auteur en faveur des éditeurs tout comme le diktat du « publish or perish » pèsent sur l’ensemble de la communauté scientifique. Face à cette situation, les chercheurs se tournent vers la voie verte de l’Open Access afin de diffuser leurs travaux scientifiques dans une archive ouverte.

Ils se trouvent alors confrontés à des questions juridiques et éthiques que nous nous proposerons d’analyser afin de dégager des bonnes pratiques. Dans cette optique, cette contribution propose de préciser les nouvelles opportunités offertes par l’article 30 de la loi pour une République numérique.

Enfin, dans la mesure où ils constituent des dispositifs opérants pour repenser les logiques traditionnelles du droit d’auteur, les spécificités des licences creative commons et des epi-revues, étroitement liées aux archives ouvertes, seront soulignées.

URL : Les enjeux éthiques et juridiques du dépôts des travaux scientifiques dans une archive ouverte

Alternative location : https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01929557

“No comment”?: A study of commenting on PLOS articles

At 14:44 24/11/2018

Authors : Simon Wakeling, Peter Willett, Claire Creaser, Jenny Fry, Stephen Pinfield, Valerie Spezi, Marc Bonne, Christina Founti, Itzelle Medina Perea

Article commenting functionality allows users to add publically visible comments to an article on a publisher’s website. As well as facilitating forms of post-publication peer review, for publishers of open-access mega-journals (large, broad scope, OA journals that seek to publish all technically or scientifically sound research) comments are also thought to serve as a means for the community to discuss and communicate the significance and novelty of the research, factors which are not assessed during peer review.

In this paper we present the results of an analysis of commenting on articles published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), publisher of the first and best-known mega-journal PLOS ONE, between 2003 and 2016.

We find that while overall commenting rates are low, and have declined since 2010, there is substantial variation across different PLOS titles. Using a typology of comments developed for this research we also find that only around half of comments engage in an academic discussion of the article, and that these discussions are most likely to focus on the paper’s technical soundness.

Our results suggest that publishers have yet to encourage significant numbers of readers to leave comments, with implications for the effectiveness of commenting as a means of collecting and communicating community perceptions of an article’s importance.

URL : http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/138717/

Reproducible research practices, transparency, and open access data in the biomedical literature, 2015–2017

At 15:48 24/11/2018

Authors : Joshua D. Wallach, Kevin W. Boyack, John P. A. Ioannidis

Currently, there is a growing interest in ensuring the transparency and reproducibility of the published scientific literature. According to a previous evaluation of 441 biomedical journals articles published in 2000–2014, the biomedical literature largely lacked transparency in important dimensions.

Here, we surveyed a random sample of 149 biomedical articles published between 2015 and 2017 and determined the proportion reporting sources of public and/or private funding and conflicts of interests, sharing protocols and raw data, and undergoing rigorous independent replication and reproducibility checks.

We also investigated what can be learned about reproducibility and transparency indicators from open access data provided on PubMed. The majority of the 149 studies disclosed some information regarding funding (103, 69.1% ) or conflicts of interest (97, 65.1% ).

Among the 104 articles with empirical data in which protocols or data sharing would be pertinent, 19 (18.3% ) discussed publicly available data; only one (1.0% ) included a link to a full study protocol. Among the 97 articles in which replication in studies with different data would be pertinent, there were five replication efforts (5.2% ).

Although clinical trial identification numbers and funding details were often provided on PubMed, only two of the articles without a full text article in PubMed Central that discussed publicly available data at the full text level also contained information related to data sharing on PubMed; none had a conflicts of interest statement on PubMed.

Our evaluation suggests that although there have been improvements over the last few years in certain key indicators of reproducibility and transparency, opportunities exist to improve reproducible research practices across the biomedical literature and to make features related to reproducibility more readily visible in PubMed.

URL : Reproducible research practices, transparency, and open access data in the biomedical literature, 2015–2017

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006930

Returning Individual Research Results to Participants

At 15:53 24/11/2018

Authors : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Committee on the Return of Individual-Specific Research Results Generated in Research Laboratories. Editors: Autumn S. Downey, Emily R. Busta, Michelle Mancher, and Jeffrey R. Botkin

When is it appropriate to return individual research results to participants? The immense interest in this question has been fostered by the growing movement toward greater transparency and participant engagement in the research enterprise.

Yet, the risks of returning individual research results­such as results with unknown validity­and the associated burdens on the research enterprise are competing considerations.

Returning Individual Research Results to Participants reviews the current evidence on the benefits, harms, and costs of returning individual research results, while also considering the ethical, social, operational, and regulatory aspects of the practice.

This report includes 12 recommendations directed to various stakeholders­investigators, sponsors, research institutions, institutional review boards (IRBs), regulators, and participants­and are designed to help (1) support decision making regarding the return of results on a study-by-study basis, (2) promote high-quality individual research results, (3) foster participant understanding of individual research results, and (4) revise and harmonize current regulations.

URL : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513173/

L’accompagnement juridique des chercheurs en bibliothèque universitaire et de recherche : une évolution naturelle des services ?

At 18:59 24/11/2018

Auteur/Author : Aricia Bassinet

Au contact des services aux chercheurs, les bibliothèques ont développé, dans le cadre de leur mission de service public, de nouvelles compétences juridiques. La profession peine toutefois à valoriser des connaissances spécialisées qui s’éloignent de notre cœur de métier.

Dans la définition d’un service aux chercheurs d’accompagnement juridique, les bibliothèques universitaires peuvent espérer apporter une réponse aux besoins de conseil juridique des enseignants-chercheurs.

URL : L’accompagnement juridique des chercheurs en bibliothèque universitaire et de recherche : une évolution naturelle des services ?

Alternative location : https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/notices/68357-l-accompagnement-juridique-des-chercheurs-en-bibliotheque-universitaire-et-de-recherche-une-evolution-naturelle-des-services

Wikipedia: an opportunity to rethink the links between sources’ credibility, trust and authority

At 20:01 24/11/2018

Authors : Gilles Sahut, André Tricot

The Web and its main tools (Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter) deeply raise and renew fundamental questions, that everyone asks almost every day: Is this information or content true? Can I trust this author or source?

These questions are not new, they have been the same with books, newspapers, broadcasting and television, and, more fundamentally, in every human interpersonal communication.

This paper is focused on two scientific problems on this issue. The first one is theoretical: to address this issue, many concepts have been used in library and information sciences, communication and psychology.

The links between these concepts are not clear: sometimes two concepts are considered as synonymous, sometimes as very different. The second one is historical: sources like Wikipedia deeply challenge the epistemic evaluation of information sources, compared to previous modes of information production.

This paper proposes an integrated and simple model considering the relation between a user, a document and an author as human communication. It reduces the problem to three concepts: credibility as a characteristic granted to information depending on its truth-value; trust as the ability to produce credible information; authority when the power to influence of an author is accepted, i.e., when readers accept that the source can modify their opinion, knowledge and decisions.

The model describes also two kinds of relationships between the three concepts: an upward link and a downward link. The model is confronted with findings of empirical research on Wikipedia in particular.

URL : https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/7108/6555

From Open Access to Open Data: collaborative work in the university libraries of Catalonia

At 21:04 24/11/2018

Authors: Mireia Alcalá Ponce de León, Lluís Anglada i de Ferrer

In the last years, the scientific community and funding bodies have paid attention to collected, generated or used data throughout different research activities. The dissemination of these data becomes one of the constituent elements of Open Science.

For this reason, many funders are requiring or promoting the development of Data Management Plans, and depositing open data following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).

Libraries and research offices of Catalan universities –which coordinately work within the Open Science Area of CSUC– offer support services to research data management. The different works carried out at the Consortium level will be presented, as well the implementation of the service in each university.

URL : From Open Access to Open Data: collaborative work in the university libraries of Catalonia

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10253

Replication studies in economics­How many and which papers are chosen for replication, and why?

At 10:47 01/12/2018

Authors : Frank Mueller-Langer, Benedikt Fecher, Dietmar Harhoff, Gert G.Wagner

We investigate how often replication studies are published in empirical economics and what types of journal articles are replicated. We find that between 1974 and 2014 0.1% of publications in the top 50 economics journals were replication studies.

We consider the results of published formal replication studies (whether they are negating or reinforcing) and their extent: Narrow replication studies are typically devoted to mere replication of prior work, while scientific replication studies provide a broader analysis.

We find evidence that higher-impact articles and articles by authors from leading institutions are more likely to be replicated, whereas the replication probability is lower for articles that appeared in top 5 economics journals.

Our analysis also suggests that mandatory data disclosure policies may have a positive effect on the incidence of replication.

URL : Replication studies in economics­How many and which papers are chosen for replication, and why?

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2018.07.019

Les enjeux de l’interopérabilité dans la diffusion et la valorisation des données archéologiques

At 11:48 01/12/2018

Auteur/Author : Pauline Vignaud

Discipline historique et scientifique, l’archéologie a vu ses pratiques évoluées depuis l’arrivée du numérique. Dès lors, plusieurs problématiques se sont imposées aux archéologues notamment dans leur manière de diffuser et de valoriser leurs données.

Dans ce contexte-là, des questions autour de l’interopérabilité ont émergé notamment les outils à développer (plateformes, applications, projets) et à mettre en place pour permettre le partage et la mise en valeur des données archéologiques.

Ce mémoire propose d’explorer toutes les thématiques (jeux de données, réutilisation…) où l’interopérabilité intervient dans cet environnement scientifique comme un facteur favorisant - ou problématique dans la diffusion et la valorisation.

URL : Les enjeux de l’interopérabilité dans la diffusion et la valorisation des données archéologiques

Alternative location : https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/notices/68376-les-enjeux-de-l-interoperabilite-dans-la-diffusion-et-la-valorisation-des-donnees-archeologiques

Numérique et régime français des savoirs en~action : l'open en sciences. Le cas de la consultation République numérique (2015)

At 12:49 01/12/2018

Auteur/Author : Célya Gruson-Daniel

Cette recherche prend la forme d’une enquête au sein des milieux de production des savoirs français contemporains et vise à comprendre les différentes significations du terme open en sciences. J’ai considéré le qualificatif open comme une formule.

L’analyse de ses traductions en français (ouvert, libre, gratuit), tout autant que des noms qui lui sont associés (science, data, access), constitue le fil directeur de mon étude. Cette enquête, qui a débuté en 2013, s’est surtout centrée sur un évènement particulier, la consultation sur le projet de loi pour une République numérique (septembre octobre 2015), en particulier l’article 9 sur « le libre accès aux publications scientifiques de la recherche publique ».

Cette consultation en ligne a donné une envergure nationale et publique aux problématiques d’accès aux savoirs. En tant qu’épreuve de réalité « équipée » d’un dispositif numérique participatif, elle a été l’occasion d’observer presque « en direct » la défense de différentes conceptions de « ce que devrait être » le régime contemporain des savoirs en France.

M’inscrivant dans une démarche par théorisation ancrée, j’ai constitué progressivement, à propos de ce moment particulier de cristallisation des débats sur l’open en sciences, un corpus de documents reflétant le déploiement des échanges sur des espaces/dispositifs numériques distincts : site web de la consultation, blogs scientifiques, revues académiques, médias « grand public », rapports.

Les mouvements itératifs de cette enquête, alliant méthodes numériques (réalisation d’une cartographie de similarité des votes) et analyse qualitative du corpus, tout autant que les concepts théoriques mobilisés à la croisée entre sciences de l’information et de la communication et sociologie pragmatique de la critique, ont donné lieu à une modélisation.

Cette dernière expose les perspectives argumentatives et les stratégies dans l’épreuve mises en oeuvre par diverses parties prenantes pour faire valoir leurs conceptions. Elle montre qu’elles sont sous-tendues par des logiques que j’ai rattachées à des esprits successifs du régime français des savoirs.

Par la suite, en passant de la modélisation à une théorisation transposable à d’autres terrains de recherche, je montre comment, derrière les discours sur l’open, la distinction entre deux logiques (technoindustrielle ou processuelle) peut être pertinente pour analyser les reconfigurations actuelles d’autres agencements sociétaux.

Les stratégies dans l’épreuve employées lors de la consultation illustrent dans ce sens la coexistence de deux conceptions « numériques » de la démocratie (représentative étendue ou contributive), présentes dans le design même de la plateforme consultative.

Dans la dernière partie, je propose d’expliquer les dynamiques de reconfiguration d’un esprit et d’un agencement sociétal dans une interprétation énactive en considérant les couplages permanents entre cognition, actions médiées par les technologies et environnement sociotechnique.

L’expérience même du doctorat narrée tout au long de ce récit constitue aussi l’exemple d’un processus d’énaction sur mes propres conceptions de l’open. En ce sens, elle ouvre une piste de réflexion sur la nature située et incarnée de toute production de savoirs, qui n'échappe pas aux limites tout autant qu’aux potentialités de la métacognition.

URL : Numérique et régime français des savoirs en~action : l'open en sciences. Le cas de la consultation République numérique (2015)

Alternative location : https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01926040

A bibliometric study of directory of open access journal: Special reference to philosophy

At 13:51 01/12/2018

Authors : Sanjay Karak, Shiuli Kower

The aims of the present study are to be decided the number of free e-journal in the field of Philosophy available on DOAJ. For this study the author has adopted bibliometric method and analyzed by country-wise distribution, language-wise distribution and review-wise distribution, 126 open access journals published from 33 different countries in 26 different languages all over the world and Brazil is the leading publishing country in this way. Moreover, English has been found as the most popular language of OA journals.

URL : A bibliometric study of directory of open access journal: Special reference to philosophy

Alternative location : http://ijidt.com/index.php/ijidt/article/view/753

On the value of preprints: an early career researcher perspective

At 18:17 04/12/2018

Authors : Sarvenaz Sarabipour , Humberto J Debat, Edward Emmott, Steven Burgess, Benjamin Schwessinger, Zach Hensel

Peer-reviewed journal publication is the main means for academic researchers in the life sciences to create a permanent, public record of their work. These publications are also the de facto currency for career progress, with a strong link between journal brand recognition and perceived value.

The current peer-review process can lead to long delays between submission and publication, with cycles of rejection, revision and resubmission causing redundant peer review.

This situation creates unique challenges for early career researchers (ECRs), who rely heavily on timely publication of their work to gain recognition for their efforts. ECRs face changes in the academic landscape including the increased interdisciplinarity of life sciences research, expansion of the researcher population and consequent shifts in employer and funding demands.

The publication of preprints, publicly available scientific manuscripts posted on dedicated preprint servers prior to journal managed peer-review, can play a key role in addressing these ECR challenges.

Preprinting benefits include rapid dissemination of academic work, open access, establishing priority or concurrence, receiving feedback and facilitating collaborations. While there is a growing appreciation for and adoption of preprints, a minority of all articles in life sciences and medicine are preprinted.

The current low rate of preprint submissions in life sciences and ECR concerns regarding preprinting needs to be addressed.

We provide a perspective from an interdisciplinary group of early career researchers on the value of preprints and advocate the wide adoption of preprints to advance knowledge and facilitate career development.

URL : On the value of preprints: an early career researcher perspective

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27400v1

Barriers, incentives, and benefits of the open educational resources (OER) movement: An exploration into instructor perspectives

At 19:18 04/12/2018

Authors : Serena Henderson, Nathaniel Ostashewski

Open educational resource (OER) barriers, incentives, and benefits are at the forefront of educator and institution interests as global use of OER evolves. Research into OER use, perceptions, costs, and outcomes is becoming more prevalent; however, it is still in its infancy.

Understanding barriers to full adoption, administration, and acceptance of OER is paramount to fully supporting its growth and success in education worldwide.

The purpose of this research was to replicate and extend Kursun, Cagiltay, and Can’s (2014) Turkish study to include international participants. Kursun, et al. surveyed OpenCourseWare (OCW) faculty on their perceptions of OER barriers, incentives, and benefits.

Through replication, these findings provide a glimpse into the reality of the international educators’ perceptions of barriers, incentives, and benefits of OER use to assist in the creation of practical solutions and actions for both policy makers and educators alike.

The results of this replication study indicate that barriers to OER include institutional policy, lack of incentives, and a need for more support and education in the creating, using, and sharing of instructional materials.

A major benefit to OER identified by educators is the continued collegial atmosphere of sharing and lifelong learning.

URL : https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9172

Résultats de l’enquête sur l’accès aux revues scientifiques et l’Open Access

At 20:21 04/12/2018

Authors : Nathalie Duchange, Aïda Karniguian, Michel Pohl

La volonté affichée aux plans national, européen et mondial de faire de la science ouverte une priorité annonce un changement profond des pratiques actuelles de publication et d’accès à la littérature scientifique.

L’information scientifique de l’Inserm (IST Inserm), en charge notamment de l’application de la politique de l’institut en matière d’Open Access ainsi que des négociations avec les éditeurs, a proposé la présente enquête de juillet à septembre 2018 afin d’établir un état des lieux et d’adapter son offre au plus près de besoins recueillis.

Un questionnaire en ligne a été adressé à l’ensemble des personnes travaillant dans des structures Inserm.

URL : https://intranet.inserm.fr/Documents/181109_enquete-open-access.pdf

Marketing via Email Solicitation by Predatory (and Legitimate) Journals: An Evaluation of Quality, Frequency and Relevance

At 21:22 04/12/2018

Authors: Warren Burggren, Dilip K. Madasu, Kevin S. Hawkins, Martin Halbert

INTRODUCTION

Open access (OA) journals have proliferated in recent years. Many journals are highly reputable, delivering on the promise of open access to research as an alternative to traditional, subscriptionbased journals.

Yet some OA journals border on, or clearly fall within, the realm of so-called “predatory journals.” Most discussion of such journals has focused on the quality of articles published within them.

Considerably less attention has been paid to the marketing practices of predatory journals­primarily their mass e-mailing­and to the impact that this practice may have on recipients’ perception of OA journals as a whole.

METHODS

This study analyzed a subset of the 1,816 e-mails received by a single university biology faculty member during a 24-month period (2015 and 2016) with an update from December 2017 and January 2018.

RESULTS

Of those e-mails sent in 2015, approximately 37% were copies or near-copies of previous e-mail messages sent to the recipient, less than 25% of e-mails from predatory journals mentioned publication fees, only about 30% of soliciting journals were listed in DOAJ, and only about 4% had an identifiable impact factor.

While most e-mails indicated a purported familiarity with, and respect for, the recipient, more than two thirds of the e-mails did not, implying use of mass-e-mailing methodologies.

Almost 80% of the e-mail solicitations had grammar and/or spelling mistakes. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, only a staggeringly small 4% of e-mails were judged highly relevant to the recipient’s area of expertise.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In light of the marketing practices of many predatory journals, we advocate specific instructions for librarians, faculty mentors, and administrators of legitimate OA journals as they interact with new researchers, junior faculty, and other professionals learning how to discern the quality of journals that send direct e-mail solicitations.

URL : Marketing via Email Solicitation by Predatory (and Legitimate) Journals: An Evaluation of Quality, Frequency and Relevance

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2246

Confused about copyright? Assessing Researchers’ Comprehension of Copyright Transfer Agreements

At 22:23 04/12/2018

Authors: Alexandra Kohn, Jessica Lange

INTRODUCTION

Academic authors’ confusion about copyright and publisher policy is often cited as a challenge to their effective sharing of their own published research, from having a chilling effect on selfarchiving in institutional and subject repositories, to leading to the posting of versions of articles on social networking sites in contravention of publisher policy and beyond.

This study seeks to determine the extent to which authors understand the terms of these policies as expressed in publishers’ copyright transfer agreements (CTAs), taking into account such factors as the authors’ disciplines and publishing experience, as well as the wording and structure of these agreements.

METHODS

We distributed an online survey experiment to corresponding authors of academic research articles indexed in the Scopus database. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of two copyright transfer agreements and were subsequently asked to answer a series of questions about these agreements to determine their level of comprehension.

The survey was sent to 3,154 participants, with 122 responding, representing a 4% response rate. Basic demographic information as well as information about participants’ previous publishing experience was also collected. We analyzed the survey data using Ordinary Least Squared (OLS) regressions and probit regressions.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Participants demonstrated a low rate of understanding of the terms of the CTAs they were asked to read. Participants averaged a score of 33% on the survey, indicating a low comprehension level of author rights.

This figure did not vary significantly, regardless of the respondents’ discipline, time in academia, level of experience with publishing, or whether or not they had published previously with the publisher whose CTA they were administered. Results also indicated that participants did equally poorly on the survey regardless of which of the two CTAs they received.

However, academic authors do appear to have a greater chance of understanding a CTA when a specific activity is explicitly outlined in the text of the agreement.

URL : Confused about copyright? Assessing Researchers’ Comprehension of Copyright Transfer Agreements

DOI : http://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2253

Journals that Rise from the Fourth Quartile to the First Quartile in Six Years or Less: Mechanisms of Change and the Role of Journal Self-Citations

At 23:25 04/12/2018

Author : Juan Miguel Campanario

Journal self-citations may be increased artificially to inflate a journal’s scientometric indicators. The aim of this study was to identify possible mechanisms of change in a cohort of journals that rose from the fourth (Q4) to the first quartile (Q1) over six years or less in Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and the role of journal self-citations in these changes.

A total of 51 different journals sampled from all JCR Science Citation Index (SCI) subject categories improved their rank position from Q4 in 2009 to Q1 in any year from 2010 to 2015. I identified changes in the numerator or denominator of the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) that were involved in each year-to-year transition.

The main mechanism of change was the increase in the number of citations used to compute the JIF. The effect of journal self-citations in the increase of the JIF was studied. The main conclusion is that there was no evidence of widespread JIF manipulation through the overuse of journal self-citations.

URL : Journals that Rise from the Fourth Quartile to the First Quartile in Six Years or Less: Mechanisms of Change and the Role of Journal Self-Citations

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications6040047

Biomedical authors’ awareness of publication ethics: an international survey

At 21:00 05/12/2018

Authors : Sara Schroter, Jason Roberts, Elizabeth Loder, Donald B Penzien, Sarah Mahadeo, Timothy T Houle

Objective

The extent to which biomedical authors have received training in publication ethics, and their attitudes and opinions about the ethical aspects of specific behaviours, have been understudied. We sought to characterise the knowledge and attitudes of biomedical authors about common issues in publication ethics.

Design

Cross-sectional online survey.

Setting and participants

Corresponding authors of research submissions to 20 journals.

Main outcome measure(s)

Perceived level of unethical behaviour (rated 0 to 10) presented in five vignettes containing key variables that were experimentally manipulated on entry to the survey and perceived level of knowledge of seven ethical topics related to publishing (prior publication, author omission, self-plagiarism, honorary authorship, conflicts of interest, image manipulation and plagiarism).

Results

4043/10 582 (38%) researchers responded. Respondents worked in 100 countries and reported varying levels of publishing experience. 67% (n=2700) had received some publication ethics training from a mentor, 41% (n=1677) a partial course, 28% (n=1130) a full course and 55% (n=2206) an online course; only a small proportion rated training received as excellent.

There was a full range (0 to 10 points) in ratings of the extent of unethical behaviour within each vignette, illustrating a broad range of opinion about the ethical acceptability of the behaviours evaluated, but these opinions were little altered by the context in which it occurred.

Participants reported substantial variability in their perceived knowledge of seven publication ethics topics; one-third perceived their knowledge to be less than ‘some knowledge’ for the sum of the seven ethical topics and only 9% perceived ‘substantial knowledge’ of all topics.

Conclusions

We found a large degree of variability in espoused training and perceived knowledge, and variability in views about how ethical or unethical scenarios were. Ethical standards need to be better articulated and taught to improve consistency of training across institutions and countries.

URL : Biomedical authors’ awareness of publication ethics: an international survey

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021282

Analyse de l’offre des objets pédagogiques numériques dans les archives ouvertes

At 11:45 08/12/2018

Authors : Mohamed Ben Romdhane, Rachid Zghibi

Ce travail de recherche s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une étude exploratoire relative à l’analyse de l’offre des objets pédagogiques dans les archives ouvertes à l’échelle internationale en nous basant sur le répertoire OpenDOAR comme source d’information principale. Parmi les 545 dépôts recensés, 177 ont été sélectionnés formant, ainsi, le corpus de l’étude.

Pour l’analyse du contenu des dépôts retenus, nous nous sommes fondés sur un ensemble des critères tels que l’origine géographique, le logiciel utilisé, la ou les langue(s) des ressources et de l’interface, le schéma des métadonnées adopté, le nombre d’objets pédagogiques, les licences et droits d’auteurs, etc. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que cette offre reste.

URL : https://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01944237

Analyse de l’offre des objets pédagogiques numériques dans les archives ouvertes

At 11:45 08/12/2018

Authors : Mohamed Ben Romdhane, Rachid Zghibi

Ce travail de recherche s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une étude exploratoire relative à l’analyse de l’offre des objets pédagogiques dans les archives ouvertes à l’échelle internationale en nous basant sur le répertoire OpenDOAR comme source d’information principale. Parmi les 545 dépôts recensés, 177 ont été sélectionnés formant, ainsi, le corpus de l’étude.

Pour l’analyse du contenu des dépôts retenus, nous nous sommes fondés sur un ensemble des critères tels que l’origine géographique, le logiciel utilisé, la ou les langue(s) des ressources et de l’interface, le schéma des métadonnées adopté, le nombre d’objets pédagogiques, les licences et droits d’auteurs, etc. Les résultats de cette étude montrent que cette offre reste.

URL : https://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01944237

What about ODTs? Are they grey?

At 12:46 08/12/2018

Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Snjezana Cirkovic, Hélène Prost

The term of grey literature is sometimes applied for older material and special collections, especially in the field of digitization projects of scientific heritage.

The following paper will analyse this term of “grey scientific heritage” and, based on empirical and conceptual elements, contribute to a better understanding of grey literature. Special attention will be paid on older theses and dissertations (OTDs), as a main part of scientific heritage especially from universities.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01916964

What about ODTs? Are they grey?

At 12:46 08/12/2018

Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Snjezana Cirkovic, Hélène Prost

The term of grey literature is sometimes applied for older material and special collections, especially in the field of digitization projects of scientific heritage.

The following paper will analyse this term of “grey scientific heritage” and, based on empirical and conceptual elements, contribute to a better understanding of grey literature. Special attention will be paid on older theses and dissertations (OTDs), as a main part of scientific heritage especially from universities.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01916964

Valoriser les publications d’un laboratoire universitaire dans l’environnement de la science ouverte : Retour d’expérience de la collection GERiiCO sur HAL

At 13:48 08/12/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost, Amel Fraisse, Stéphane Chaudiron

La question de la diffusion des résultats de la recherche et, en particulier, le libre accès aux publications des chercheurs est au cœur de la politique pour la science ouverte. Comment peut se positionner un laboratoire de recherche universitaire ? Comment peut se traduire la politique pour la science ouverte sur le terrain d’un campus universitaire ?

Sous forme d’un retour d’expérience, notre étude analyse la mise en place de la collection du laboratoire GERiiCO de l’Université de Lille sur l’archive ouverte nationale HAL.

L’objectif de l’initiative est double : d’une part, assurer une visibilité maximale et un impact au-delà de la communauté disciplinaire, à travers des médias sociaux et le référencement des moteurs de recherche ; d’autre part, contribuer à l’évaluation de la production scientifique du laboratoire.

Nous présentons les ressources mobilisées et les actions mises en oeuvre, analysons les résultats en termes de dépôts, d’usage et de services, et évoquons les facteurs de succès, les problèmes rencontrés et quelques perspectives pour le futur développement.

En particulier, nous comparons le contenu de la collection HAL avec les résultats de la base de données scientométrique d’Elsevier (Scopus) et du moteur de recherche Google Scholar, et nous montrons le potentiel de la collection pour visualiser les relations au sein du laboratoire (analyse de réseaux) et son rayonnement international.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01940352

Valoriser les publications d’un laboratoire universitaire dans l’environnement de la science ouverte : Retour d’expérience de la collection GERiiCO sur HAL

At 13:48 08/12/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost, Amel Fraisse, Stéphane Chaudiron

La question de la diffusion des résultats de la recherche et, en particulier, le libre accès aux publications des chercheurs est au cœur de la politique pour la science ouverte. Comment peut se positionner un laboratoire de recherche universitaire ? Comment peut se traduire la politique pour la science ouverte sur le terrain d’un campus universitaire ?

Sous forme d’un retour d’expérience, notre étude analyse la mise en place de la collection du laboratoire GERiiCO de l’Université de Lille sur l’archive ouverte nationale HAL.

L’objectif de l’initiative est double : d’une part, assurer une visibilité maximale et un impact au-delà de la communauté disciplinaire, à travers des médias sociaux et le référencement des moteurs de recherche ; d’autre part, contribuer à l’évaluation de la production scientifique du laboratoire.

Nous présentons les ressources mobilisées et les actions mises en oeuvre, analysons les résultats en termes de dépôts, d’usage et de services, et évoquons les facteurs de succès, les problèmes rencontrés et quelques perspectives pour le futur développement.

En particulier, nous comparons le contenu de la collection HAL avec les résultats de la base de données scientométrique d’Elsevier (Scopus) et du moteur de recherche Google Scholar, et nous montrons le potentiel de la collection pour visualiser les relations au sein du laboratoire (analyse de réseaux) et son rayonnement international.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01940352

Automatically Annotating Articles Towards Opening and Reusing Transparent Peer Reviews

At 14:49 08/12/2018

Authors : Afshin Sadeghi, Sarven Capadisli, Johannes Wilm, Christoph Lange, Philipp Mayr

An increasing number of scientific publications are created in open and transparent peer review models: a submission is published first, and then reviewers are invited, or a submission is reviewed in a closed environment but then these reviews are published with the final article, or combinations of these.

Reasons for open peer review include giving better credit to reviewers and enabling readers to better appraise the quality of a publication. In most cases, the full, unstructured text of an open review is published next to the full, unstructured text of the article reviewed.

This approach prevents human readers from getting a quick impression of the quality of parts of an article, and it does not easily support secondary exploitation, e.g., for scientometrics on reviews.

While document formats have been proposed for publishing structured articles including reviews, integrated tool support for entire open peer review workflows resulting in such documents is still scarce.

We present AR-Annotator, the Automatic Article and Review Annotator which employs a semantic information model of an article and its reviews, using semantic markup and unique identifiers for all entities of interest.

The fine-grained article structure is not only exposed to authors and reviewers but also preserved in the published version. We publish articles and their reviews in a Linked Data representation and thus maximize their reusability by third-party applications.

We demonstrate this reusability by running quality-related queries against the structured representation of articles and their reviews.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.01027

Automatically Annotating Articles Towards Opening and Reusing Transparent Peer Reviews

At 14:49 08/12/2018

Authors : Afshin Sadeghi, Sarven Capadisli, Johannes Wilm, Christoph Lange, Philipp Mayr

An increasing number of scientific publications are created in open and transparent peer review models: a submission is published first, and then reviewers are invited, or a submission is reviewed in a closed environment but then these reviews are published with the final article, or combinations of these.

Reasons for open peer review include giving better credit to reviewers and enabling readers to better appraise the quality of a publication. In most cases, the full, unstructured text of an open review is published next to the full, unstructured text of the article reviewed.

This approach prevents human readers from getting a quick impression of the quality of parts of an article, and it does not easily support secondary exploitation, e.g., for scientometrics on reviews.

While document formats have been proposed for publishing structured articles including reviews, integrated tool support for entire open peer review workflows resulting in such documents is still scarce.

We present AR-Annotator, the Automatic Article and Review Annotator which employs a semantic information model of an article and its reviews, using semantic markup and unique identifiers for all entities of interest.

The fine-grained article structure is not only exposed to authors and reviewers but also preserved in the published version. We publish articles and their reviews in a Linked Data representation and thus maximize their reusability by third-party applications.

We demonstrate this reusability by running quality-related queries against the structured representation of articles and their reviews.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.01027

Géopolitique de l'open access

At 13:37 09/12/2018

Auteur/Author : Ghislaine Chartron

Cette communication commence par rappeler des repères de contextualisation du développement de l’open access. Elle insiste sur le brouillage qui s’est progressivement installé concernant les finalités du mouvement.

La dimension internationale est ensuite considérée comme une entrée majeure, à la fois pour la consolidation de l’open access, pour analyser les déséquilibres potentiels et pour comprendre les stratégies de pouvoir sous-jacentes.

Le texte appuie un renouveau du pilotage par les communautés scientifiques afin de redonner du sens au mouvement. Les principaux enjeux pour la recherche régionale des pays du Sud sont également débattus.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01930281/

Perception of postgraduate students towards open access publication in some selected institutions in Malaysia

At 16:43 09/12/2018

Author : James Oluwaseyi Hodonu-Wusu

This article investigates perception of postgraduate students towards open access publication in two research institutions in Malaysia. A descriptive survey was used in the study which involves 121 respondents from 500 sample population sent instrument to from both Universities.

A simple random techniques was used for the study. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation, independent sample t-test and One-way analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) was employed to determine if there is a statistically significant mean differences in perceived usefulness and perceived effectiveness of OA publications between ages of postgraduate students.

The findings revealed why postgraduate scholars should embrace Open Access publication for wider visibility and reproducibility of academic research and development.

The results also shows that majority of the respondents were of mean age of 2.67 and highest age bracket was between 26-35 years. However, the sample size of the survey was quite small and further research is needed to determine if similar findings are obtained when other researchers are included in the sample.

URL : Perception of postgraduate students towards open access publication in some selected institutions in Malaysia

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/a4mjz

Factors Influencing Cities’ Publishing Efficiency

At 17:46 09/12/2018

Author : Csomós György

Purpose

Recently, a vast number of scientific publications have been produced in cities in emerging countries. It has long been observed that the publication output of Beijing has exceeded that of any other city in the world, including such leading centres of science as Boston, New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo.

Researchers have suggested that, instead of focusing on cities’ total publication output, the quality of the output in terms of the number of highly cited papers should be examined. However, in the period from 2014 to 2016, Beijing produced as many highly cited papers as Boston, London, or New York.

In this paper, another method is proposed to measure cities’ publishing performance by focusing on cities’ publishing efficiency (i.e., the ratio of highly cited articles to all articles produced in that city).

Design/methodology/approach

First, 554 cities are ranked based on their publishing efficiency, then some general factors influencing cities’ publishing efficiency are revealed. The general factors examined in this paper are as follows: the linguistic environment of cities, cities’ economic development level, the location of excellent organisations, cities’ international collaboration patterns, and their scientific field profile.

Furthermore, the paper examines the fundamental differences between the general factors influencing the publishing efficiency of the top 100 most efficient cities and the bottom 100 least efficient cities.

Findings

Based on the research results, the conclusion can be drawn that a city’s publishing efficiency will be high if meets the following general conditions: it is in a country in the Anglosphere–Core; it is in a high-income country; it is home to top-ranked universities and/or world-renowned research institutions; researchers affiliated with that city most intensely collaborate with researchers affiliated with cities in the United States, Germany, England, France, Canada, Australia, and Italy; and the most productive scientific disciplines of highly cited articles are published in high-impact multidisciplinary journals, disciplines in health sciences (especially general internal medicine and oncology), and disciplines in natural sciences (especially physics, astronomy, and astrophysics).

Research limitations

It is always problematic to demarcate the boundaries of cities (e.g., New York City vs. Greater New York), and regarding this issue there is no consensus among researchers.

The Web of Science presents the name of cities in the addresses reported by the authors of publications. In this paper cities correspond to the spatial units between the country/state level and the institution level as indicated in the Web of Science.

Furthermore, it is necessary to highlight that the Web of Science is biased towards English-language journals and journals published in the field of biomedicine. These facts may influence the outcome of the research.

Practical implications

Publishing efficiency, as an indicator, shows how successful a city is at the production of science. Naturally, cities have limited opportunities to compete for components of the science establishment (e.g., universities, hospitals).

However, cities can compete to attract innovation-oriented companies, high tech firms, and R&D facilities of multinational companies by for example establishing science parks. The positive effect of this process on the city’s performance in science can be observed in the example of Beijing, which publishing efficiency has been increased rapidly.

Originality/value

Previous scientometric studies have examined cities’ publication output in terms of the number of papers, or the number of highly cited papers, which are largely size dependent indicators; however this paper attempts to present a more quality-based approach.

URL : Factors Influencing Cities’ Publishing Efficiency

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2018-0014

Access to academic libraries: an indicator of openness?

At 13:59 11/12/2018

Authors  : Chun-Kai (Karl) Huang, Lucy Montgomery, Cameron Neylon, Katie Wilson

Introduction

Open access to digital research output is increasing, but academic library policies can place restrictions on public access to libraries. This paper reports on a preliminary study to investigate the correlation between academic library access policies and institutional positions of openness to knowledge.

Method

This primarily qualitative study used document and data analysis to examine the content of library access/use policies of 12 academic institutions in eight countries. The outcomes were statistically correlated with institutional open access publication policies and practices.

Analysis

We used an automated search tool together with manual searching to retrieve web-based library access policies, then categorised and counted the levels and conditions of public access. We compared scores for institutional library access features, open access features and percentages of open access publications.

Results

Academic library policies may suggest open public access but multi-layered user categories, privileges and fees charged can inhibit access, with disparities in openness emerging between library policies and institutional open access policies.

Conclusion. As open access publishing options and mandates expand, physical entry and access to print and electronic resources in academic libraries is contracting. This conflicts with global library and information commitments to open access to knowledge.

DOI : https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:21881/

The principles of tomorrow's university

At 19:37 13/12/2018

Authors : Daniel S. Katz, Gabrielle Allen, Lorena A. Barba, Devin R. Berg, Holly Bik, Carl Boettiger, Christine L. Borgman, C. Titus Brown, Stuart Buck, Randy Burd, Anita de Waard, Martin Paul Eve, Brian E. Granger, Josh Greenberg, Adina Howe, Bill Howe, May Khanna, Timothy L. Killeen, Matthew Mayernik, Erin McKiernan, Chris Mentzel, Nirav Merchant, Kyle E. Niemeyer, Laura Noren, Sarah M. Nusser, Daniel A. Reed, Edward Seidel, MacKenzie Smith, Jeffrey R. Spies, Matt Turk, John D. Van Horn, Jay Walsh

In the 21st Century, research is increasingly data- and computation-driven. Researchers, funders, and the larger community today emphasize the traits of openness and reproducibility.

In March 2017, 13 mostly early-career research leaders who are building their careers around these traits came together with ten university leaders (presidents, vice presidents, and vice provosts), representatives from four funding agencies, and eleven organizers and other stakeholders in an NIH- and NSF-funded one-day, invitation-only workshop titled "Imagining Tomorrow's University."

Workshop attendees were charged with launching a new dialog around open research – the current status, opportunities for advancement, and challenges that limit sharing.

The workshop examined how the internet-enabled research world has changed, and how universities need to change to adapt commensurately, aiming to understand how universities can and should make themselves competitive and attract the best students, staff, and faculty in this new world.

During the workshop, the participants re-imagined scholarship, education, and institutions for an open, networked era, to uncover new opportunities for universities to create value and serve society.

They expressed the results of these deliberations as a set of 22 principles of tomorrow's university across six areas: credit and attribution, communities, outreach and engagement, education, preservation and reproducibility, and technologies.

Activities that follow on from workshop results take one of three forms. First, since the workshop, a number of workshop authors have further developed and published their white papers to make their reflections and recommendations more concrete.

These authors are also conducting efforts to implement these ideas, and to make changes in the university system.

Second, we plan to organise a follow-up workshop that focuses on how these principles could be implemented.

Third, we believe that the outcomes of this workshop support and are connected with recent theoretical work on the position and future of open knowledge institutions.

URL : The principles of tomorrow's university

DOI : https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17425.1

Creating Structured Linked Data to Generate Scholarly Profiles: A Pilot Project using Wikidata and Scholia

At 20:40 13/12/2018

Authors : Mairelys Lemus-Rojas, Jere D. Odell

INTRODUCTION

Wikidata, a knowledge base for structured linked data, provides an open platform for curating scholarly communication data. Because all elements in a Wikidata entry are linked to defining elements and metadata, other web systems can harvest and display the data in meaningful ways.

Thus, Wikidata has the capacity to serve as the data source for faculty profiles. Scholia is an example of how third-party tools can leverage the power of Wikidata to provisde faculty profiles and bibliographic, data-driven visualizations.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

In this article, we share our methods for contributing to Wikidata and displaying the data with Scholia.

We deployed these methods as part of a pilot project in which we contributed data about a small but unique school on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus, the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

NEXT STEPS

Following the completion of our pilot project, we aim to find additional methods for contributing large data collections to Wikidata. Specifically, we seek to contribute scholarly communication data that the library already maintains in other systems.

We are also facilitating Wikidata edit-a-thons to increase the library’s familiarity with the knowledge base and our capacity to contribute to the site.

URL : Creating Structured Linked Data to Generate Scholarly Profiles: A Pilot Project using Wikidata and Scholia

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2272

Being a deliberate prey of a predator: Researchers’ thoughts after having published in predatory journal

At 21:43 13/12/2018

Authors: Najmeh Shaghaei, Charlotte Wien, Jakob Pavl Holck, Anita L. Thiesen, Ole Ellegaard, Evgenios Vlachos, Thea Marie Drachen

A central question concerning scientific publishing is how researchers select journals to which they submit their work, since the choice of publication channel can make or break researchers.

The gold-digger mentality developed by some publishers created the so-called predatory journals that accept manuscripts for a fee with little peer review. The literature claims that mainly researchers from low-ranked universities in developing countries publish in predatory journals.

We decided to challenge this claim using the University of Southern Denmark as a case. We ran the Beall’s List against our research registration database and identified 31 possibly predatory publications from a set of 6,851 publications within 2015-2016.

A qualitative research interview revealed that experienced researchers from the developed world publish in predatory journals mainly for the same reasons as do researchers from developing countries: lack of awareness, speed and ease of the publication process, and a chance to get elsewhere rejected work published.

However, our findings indicate that the Open Access potential and a larger readership outreach were also motives for publishing in open access journals with quick acceptance rates.

URL : Being a deliberate prey of a predator: Researchers’ thoughts after having published in predatory journal

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10259

Equipping the Next Generation for Responsible Research and Innovation with Open Educational Resources, Open Courses, Open Communities and Open Schooling: An Impact Case Study in Brazil

At 12:59 15/12/2018

Authors : Alexandra Okada, Tony Sherborne

There has been an increasing number of projects and institutions promoting open education at scale through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) to broaden learning opportunities for all. However, there are still many challenges in relation to sustainability, effective implementation and evidence-based impact to support educational policies.

To explore this gap, this paper focuses on an integrated model that combines OER, MOOC, Communities of Practice (CoP) and Open Schooling to promote open education and foster inquiry skills for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), a key approach coined by the European Commission.

This study focuses on the ENGAGE Project, with 14 partners in Europe who produced more than 300 OER, 60 MOOC in ten languages and supported 27 CoP with more than 17,000 members in the world including more than 2,000 from Brazil.

Through a novel framework on impact assessment of OER for RRI underpinned by a mixed method approach, this study examines the influence of open education on academic and non-academic groups and the correlation between the outputs developed in the project with the outcomes reported by the Brazilian communities.

Qualitative and quantitative data from the ENGAGE platform, journal articles produced by the Brazilian participants and interviews with authors were analysed.

Findings report the different ways that the community developed open schooling projects, the changes in their practices to foster digital scientific literacy, and outcomes with implications for society.

URL : Equipping the Next Generation for Responsible Research and Innovation with Open Educational Resources, Open Courses, Open Communities and Open Schooling: An Impact Case Study in Brazil

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.482

Exploring Initiatives for Open Educational Practices at an Australian and a Brazilian University

At 14:01 15/12/2018

Authors : Carina Bossu, Marineli Meier

This paper explores some key developments in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in higher education in Australia and in Brazil. More specifically, it focuses on the analysis of two individual universities: the University of Tasmania, in Australia; and the Federal University of Paraná, in Brazil.

They are both public and mostly face-to-face universities trying to engage with OEP to enhance their blended learning offerings, and more generally learning and teaching.

However, these institutions are distinctive in terms of their student numbers, their blended learning approaches, their role within their own communities, and their OEP strategies and initiatives.

We will present some of the key policies and strategies adopted by these universities to support OEP, as well as the impact and the opportunities at present.

The discussion in this paper will then attempt to make some recommendations for future directions of OEP adoption not only in these two countries, but also elsewhere.

URL : Exploring Initiatives for Open Educational Practices at an Australian and a Brazilian University

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.475

Text data mining and data quality management for research information systems in the context of open data and open science

At 15:03 15/12/2018

Authors : Otmane Azeroual, Gunter Saake, Mohammad Abuosba, Joachim Schöpfel

In the implementation and use of research information systems (RIS) in scientific institutions, text data mining and semantic technologies are a key technology for the meaningful use of large amounts of data.

It is not the collection of data that is difficult, but the further processing and integration of the data in RIS. Data is usually not uniformly formatted and structured, such as texts and tables that cannot be linked.

These include various source systems with their different data formats such as project and publication databases, CERIF and RCD data model, etc. Internal and external data sources continue to develop.

On the one hand, they must be constantly synchronized and the results of the data links checked. On the other hand, the texts must be processed in natural language and certain information extracted.

Using text data mining, the quality of the metadata is analyzed and this identifies the entities and general keywords. So that the user is supported in the search for interesting research information.

The information age makes it easier to store huge amounts of data and increase the number of documents on the internet, in institutions' intranets, in newswires and blogs is overwhelming.

Search engines should help to specifically open up these sources of information and make them usable for administrative and research purposes. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview of text data mining techniques and the management of successful data quality for RIS in the context of open data and open science in scientific institutions and libraries, as well as to provide ideas for their application. In particular, solutions for the RIS will be presented.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04298

Discipline-specific open access publishing practices and barriers to change: an evidence-based review

At 15:53 17/12/2018

Authors : Anna Severin, Matthias Egger, Martin Paul Eve, Daniel Hürlimann

Background

Many of the discussions surrounding Open Access (OA) revolve around how it affects publishing practices across different academic disciplines. It was a long-held view that it would be only a matter of time for all disciplines to fully and relatively homogeneously implement OA.

Recent large-scale bibliometric studies show however that the uptake of OA differs substantially across disciplines. This study investigates the underlying mechanisms that cause disciplines to vary in their OA publishing practices.

We aimed to answer two questions: First, how do different disciplines adopt and shape OA publishing practices? Second, what discipline-specific barriers to and potentials for OA can be identified?

Methods

In a first step, we identified and synthesized relevant bibliometric studies that assessed OA prevalence and publishing patterns across disciplines. In a second step, and adopting a social shaping of technology perspective, we studied evidence on the socio-technical forces that shape OA publishing practices.

We examined a variety of data sources, including, but not limited to, publisher policies and guidelines, OA mandates and policies and author surveys.

Results

Over the last three decades, scholarly publishing has experienced a shift from “closed” access to OA as the proportion of scholarly literature that is openly accessible has increased continuously.

The shift towards OA is however uneven across disciplines in two respects: first, the growth of OA has been uneven across disciplines, which manifests itself in varying OA prevalence levels. Second, disciplines use different OA publishing channels to make research outputs OA.

Conclusions

We conclude that historically grown publishing practices differ in terms of their compatibility with OA, which is the reason why OA can be assumed to be a natural continuation of publishing cultures in some disciplines, whereas in other disciplines, the implementation of OA faces major barriers and would require a change of research culture.

URL : Discipline-specific open access publishing practices and barriers to change: an evidence-based review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17328.1

Scholarly journals in building and civil engineering – the big picture and current impact of open access

At 16:54 17/12/2018

Author : Bo-Christer Björk

The publishing of scholarly peer reviewed journals has in the past 20 years moved from print to primarily digital publishing, but the subscription-based revenue model is still dominant.

This means that the additional benefits of open access to all scholarly articles still remains a vision, despite some progress. A selection of 72 leading journals in building & construction was studied, in order to determine the current status in this subfield of engineering. Of the approximately 9,500 articles published yearly in these, only some 5,6 % are in the 11 full OA journals included, and a couple of percentage more are paid OA articles in hybrid journals.

In most of the OA journals publishing is free for the authors. In terms of OA maturity, the field lags far behind the situation across all sciences, where at least 15 % of articles are in full OA journals.

If OA is to become more important in our field, the growth is likely to come from major publishers starting new journals funded by author payments (APCs) or converting existing hybrid journals once they have reached a critical share of paid OA articles.

URL : Scholarly journals in building and civil engineering – the big picture and current impact of open access

Alternative location : https://itcon.org/paper/2018/19

Authorship Distribution and Collaboration in LIS Open Access Journals: A Scopus based analysis during 2001 to 2015

At 14:42 20/12/2018

Authors : Barik Nilaranjan, Jena Puspanjali

The present study is a bibliometric analysis of some selected open access Library and Information Science (LIS) journals indexed in Scopus database during the period 2001 to 2015. The study has covered 10 LIS open access journals with 5208 publications to establish an idea about the pattern of authorship, research collaboration, collaboration index, degree of collaboration, collaboration coefficient, author’s productivity, ranking of prolific authors etc. of said journals.

Lotkas’s inverse square law has been applied to know the scientific productivity of authors. Results show that, the covered LIS open access journals are dominant with single authorship pattern.

The value of Collaborative Index (0.73), Degree of Collaboration (0.72), and Collaboration Coefficient (0.29) do not show the trend of collaboration. Lotka’s law of author’s productivity is fitting to the present data set.

The country wise distribution of authorship based on the country of origin of the corresponding author shows that 83 countries across the Globe are active in publication of their research in LIS open access journals. United States of America (USA) is the leader country producing of 2822 (54.19%) authors alone.

URL : https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2033/

The Rutgers Open Access Policy goes into effect: Faculty reaction and implementation lessons learned

At 15:45 20/12/2018

Authors : Jane Otto, Laura Bowering Mullen

From laying the groundwork for the successful passage of a university-wide Open Access policy, through the development and planning that goes into a successful implementation, to “Day One” when the official university policy goes into effect, there is a long list of factors that affect faculty interest, participation and compliance.

The authors, Mullen and Otto, having detailed earlier aspects of the Rutgers University Open Access Policy passage and implementation planning, analyze and share the specifics that followed the rollout of the Policy and that continue to affect participation.

This case study presents some strategies and systems used to enhance author self-archiving in the newly minted SOAR (Scholarly Open Access at Rutgers) portal of the Rutgers institutional repository, including involvement of departmental liaison librarians, effective presentation of metrics, and a focus on targeted communication with faculty.

Roadblocks encountered as faculty began to deposit their scholarship and lessons learned are a focus. Early reaction from faculty and graduate students (doctoral students and postdocs) to various aspects of the Policy as well as the use of SOAR for depositing their work are included.

DOI : https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3D50QDM

La Blockchain : une nouvelle infrastructure numérique pour l’édition ?

At 16:47 20/12/2018

Auteur/Author : Camille Pichon

Au cours de cette étude, nous nous interrogerons sur la notion de blockchain et d’édition, nous nous interrogerons sur la possibilité que cette technologie puisse constituer une nouvelle infrastructure d’internet pour l’édition.

En mettant en lumière les grands principes de la technologie blockchain, nous nous interrogerons sur sa capacité à émerger dans un secteur culturel en pleine mutation.

A la fois complexe et très politisée, la technologie blockchain rentre peu à peu dans nos systèmes de pensées. La blockchain constituera-t-elle l’avenir du secteur éditorial ?

URL : La Blockchain : une nouvelle infrastructure numérique pour l’édition ?

Alternative location : https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/notices/68580-la-blockchain-une-nouvelle-infrastructure-numerique-pour-l-edition

Academic E-book Usability from the Student’s Perspective

At 17:48 20/12/2018

Authors : Esta Tovstiadi, Natalia Tingle, Gabrielle Wiersma

Objective

This article describes how librarians systematically compared different e-book platforms to identify which features and design impact usability and user satisfaction.

Methods

This study employed task-based usability testing, including the “think-aloud protocol.” Students at the University of Colorado Boulder completed a series of typical tasks to compare the usability and measure user satisfaction with academic e-books.

For each title, five students completed the tasks on three e-book platforms: the publisher platform and two aggregators. Thirty-five students evaluated seven titles on nine academic e-book platforms.

Results

This study identified each platform’s strengths and weaknesses based on students’ experiences and preferences. The usability tests indicated that students preferred Ebook Central over EBSCO and strongly preferred the aggregators over publisher platforms.

Conclusions

Librarians can use student expectations and preferences to guide e-book purchasing decisions. Preferences may vary by institution, but variations in e-book layout and functionality impact students’ ability to successfully complete tasks and influences their affinity for or satisfaction with any given platform.

Usability testing is a useful tool for gauging user expectations and identifying preferences for features, functionality, and layout.

URL : Academic E-book Usability from the Student’s Perspective

DOI : https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip29457

Research collaboration and productivity: is there correlation?

At 18:50 20/12/2018

Authors : Giovanni Abramo, Ciriaco Andrea D'Angelo, Flavia Di Costa

The incidence of extramural collaboration in academic research activities is increasing as a result of various factors. These factors include policy measures aimed at fostering partnership and networking among the various components of the research system, policies which are in turn justified by the idea that knowledge sharing could increase the effectiveness of the system.

Over the last two decades, the scientific community has also stepped up activities to assess the actual impact of collaboration intensity on the performance of research systems.

This study draws on a number of empirical analyses, with the intention of measuring the effects of extramural collaboration on research performance and, indirectly, verifying the legitimacy of policies that support this type of collaboration.

The analysis focuses on the Italian academic research system. The aim of the work is to assess the level of correlation, at institutional level, between scientific productivity and collaboration intensity as a whole, both internationally and with private organizations.

This will be carried out using a bibliometric type of approach, which equates collaboration with the co-authorship of scientific publications.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.07847

Open Access Information Service for Researchers in Theology

At 13:17 23/12/2018

Author : Marianne Dörr

Tübingen University Library offers a continuously improved next generation bibliographic database for theology and religious studies. The “Index theologicus” database is available worldwide in open access.

It is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) in the funding program “specialised information services”. This paper informs about the background of the project and the steps the Library took in order to transform a legacy online content database system into one of the most important international bibliographies in theology without increasing the number of staff involved.

URL : Open Access Information Service for Researchers in Theology

DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10245

Toward a Better Data Management Plan: The Impact of DMPs on Grant Funded Research Practices

At 14:20 23/12/2018

Author : Sara Mannheimer

Data Management Plans (DMPs) are often required for grant applications. But do strong DMPs lead to better data management and sharing practices? Several recent research projects in the Library and Information Science field have investigated data management planning and practice through DMP content analysis and data-management-related interviews.

However, research hasn’t yet shown how DMPs ultimately affect data management and data sharing practices during grant-funded research. The research described in this article contributes to the existing literature by examining the impact of DMPs on grant awards and on Principal Investigators’ (PIs) data management and sharing practices.

The results of this research suggest the following key takeaways:

(1) Most PIs practice internal data management in order to prevent data loss, to facilitate sharing within the research team, and to seamlessly continue their research during personnel turnover;

(2) PIs still have room to grow in understanding specialized concepts such as metadata and policies for use and reuse;

(3) PIs may need guidance on practices that facilitate FAIR data, such as using metadata standards, assigning licenses to their data, and publishing in data repositories.

Ultimately, the results of this research can inform academic library services and support stronger, more actionable DMPs. The substance of this article is based upon a lightning talk presentation at RDAP Summit 2018.

URL : Toward a Better Data Management Plan: The Impact of DMPs on Grant Funded Research Practices

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2018.1155

Integrating Data Science Tools into a Graduate Level Data Management Course

At 15:24 23/12/2018

Authors: Pete E. Pascuzzi, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Objective

This paper describes a project to revise an existing research data management (RDM) course to include instruction in computer skills with robust data science tools.

Setting

A Carnegie R1 university.

Brief Description

Graduate student researchers need training in the basic concepts of RDM. However, they generally lack experience with robust data science tools to implement these concepts holistically. Two library instructors fundamentally redesigned an existing research RDM course to include instruction with such tools.

The course was divided into lecture and lab sections to facilitate the increased instructional burden. Learning objectives and assessments were designed at a higher order to allow students to demonstrate that they not only understood course concepts but could use their computer skills to implement these concepts.

Results

Twelve students completed the first iteration of the course. Feedback from these students was very positive, and they appreciated the combination of theoretical concepts, computer skills and hands-on activities. Based on student feedback, future iterations of the course will include more “flipped” content including video lectures and interactive computer tutorials to maximize active learning time in both lecture and lab.

The substance of this article is based upon poster presentations at RDAP Summit 2018.

URL : Integrating Data Science Tools into a Graduate Level Data Management Course

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2018.1152

Des ebooks dans sa poche : projet de valorisation de la collection numérique de la Bibliothèque de l’UNIGE

At 16:17 24/12/2018

Auteurs/Authors : Pablo Iriarte, Aurélie Vieux, Marc Meury

La valorisation des ressources en ligne, coûteuses et invisibles dans les rayons des bibliothèques, se fait souvent manuellement avec un grand nombre d’étapes chronophages nécessitant des compétences techniques.

En 2017, la Bibliothèque de l’Université de Genève a mis sur pied un groupe de travail dont l’objectif est d’harmoniser les pratiques de promotion de leurs collections numériques, notamment les ebooks.

Ce projet a abouti à la création de l’Application de valorisation numérique “Avalon”, qui simplifie le processus de création des supports de valorisation (collecte de métadonnées et d’images de couverture, création des URLs raccourcis et QR-codes) tout en respectant la charte graphique institutionnelle.

L’accès aux ebooks est simplifié grâce à la lecture des QR-codes, fonctionnalité intégrée à l’application UNIGE mobile, et l’affichage des informations sur une page Web intermédiaire. L’usager peut ainsi littéralement “mettre un ebook dans sa poche”.

Cet article a pour objectif de présenter le contexte du projet, la méthodologie employée, le fonctionnement d’Avalon et de proposer un retour d’expérience sur ce projet.

URL : http://www.ressi.ch/num19/article_151

Peer Review of Reviewers: The Author’s Perspective

At 17:19 24/12/2018

Authors : Ivana Drvenica, Giangiacomo Bravo, Lucija Vejmelka, Aleksandar Dekanski, Olgica Nedi

The aim of this study was to investigate the opinion of authors on the overall quality and effectiveness of reviewers’ contributions to reviewed papers. We employed an on-line survey of thirteen journals which publish articles in the field of life, social or technological sciences.

Responses received from 193 authors were analysed using a mixed-effects model in order to determine factors deemed the most important in the authors’ evaluation of the reviewers. Qualitative content analysis of the responses to open questions was performed as well.

The mixed-effects model revealed that the authors’ assessment of the competence of referees strongly depended on the final editorial decision and that the speed of the review process was influential as well.

In Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) analysis on seven questions detailing authors’ opinions, perception of review speed remained a significant predictor of the assessment. In addition, both the perceived competence and helpfulness of the reviewers significantly and positively affected the authors’ evaluation.

New models were used to re-check the value of these two factors and it was confirmed that the assessment of the competence of reviewers strongly depended on the final editorial decision.

URL : Peer Review of Reviewers: The Author’s Perspective

Alternative location : https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/1/1

Wikipedia Text Reuse: Within and Without

At 18:21 24/12/2018

Authors : Milad Alshomary, Michael Völske, Tristan Licht, Henning Wachsmuth, Benno Stein, Matthias Hagen, Martin Potthast

We study text reuse related to Wikipedia at scale by compiling the first corpus of text reuse cases within Wikipedia as well as without (i.e., reuse of Wikipedia text in a sample of the Common Crawl).

To discover reuse beyond verbatim copy and paste, we employ state-of-the-art text reuse detection technology, scaling it for the first time to process the entire Wikipedia as part of a distributed retrieval pipeline.

We further report on a pilot analysis of the 100 million reuse cases inside, and the 1.6 million reuse cases outside Wikipedia that we discovered. Text reuse inside Wikipedia gives rise to new tasks such as article template induction, fixing quality flaws due to inconsistencies arising from asynchronous editing of reused passages, or complementing Wikipedia's ontology.

Text reuse outside Wikipedia yields a tangible metric for the emerging field of quantifying Wikipedia's influence on the web. To foster future research into these tasks, and for reproducibility's sake, the Wikipedia text reuse corpus and the retrieval pipeline are made freely available.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.09221

Open science and codes of conduct on research integrity

At 18:06 06/01/2019

Author : Heidi Laine

The purpose of this article is to examine the conceptual alignment between the ethical principles of research integrity and open science. Research integrity is represented in this study by four general codes of conduct on responsible conduct of research (RCR), three of them international in scope, and one national.

A representative list of ethical principles associated with open science is compiled in order to create categories for assessing the content of the codes. According to the analysis, the current understanding of RCR is too focused on traditional publications and the so called FFP definition of research misconduct to fully support open science.

The main gaps include recognising citizen science and societal outreach and supporting open collaboration both among the research community and beyond its traditional borders.

Updates for both the content of CoCs as well as the processes of creating such guidelines are suggested.

URL : Open science and codes of conduct on research integrity

DOI : https://doi.org/10.23978/inf.77414

Research data management in the French National Research Center (CNRS)

At 19:07 06/01/2019

Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Coline Ferrant, Francis Andre, Renaud Fabre

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present empirical evidence on the opinion and behaviour of French scientists (senior management level) regarding research data management (RDM).

Design/methodology/approach

The results are part of a nationwide survey on scientific information and documentation with 432 directors of French public research laboratories conducted by the French Research Center CNRS in 2014.

Findings

The paper presents empirical results about data production (types), management (human resources, IT, funding, and standards), data sharing and related needs, and highlights significant disciplinary differences.

Also, it appears that RDM and data sharing is not directly correlated with the commitment to open access. Regarding the FAIR data principles, the paper reveals that 68 per cent of all laboratory directors affirm that their data production and management is compliant with at least one of the FAIR principles.

But only 26 per cent are compliant with at least three principles, and less than 7 per cent are compliant with all four FAIR criteria, with laboratories in nuclear physics, SSH and earth sciences and astronomy being in advance of other disciplines, especially concerning the findability and the availability of their data output.

The paper concludes with comments about research data service development and recommendations for an institutional RDM policy.

Originality/value

For the first time, a nationwide survey was conducted with the senior research management level from all scientific disciplines. Surveys on RDM usually assess individual data behaviours, skills and needs. This survey is different insofar as it addresses institutional and collective data practice.

The respondents did not report on their own data behaviours and attitudes but were asked to provide information about their laboratory. The response rate was high (>30 per cent), and the results provide good insight into the real support and uptake of RDM by senior research managers who provide both models (examples for good practice) and opinion leadership.

URL : https://hal.univ-lille3.fr/hal-01728541/

Someone has to pay: The global sustainability coalition for open science services (SCOSS)

At 20:09 06/01/2019

Authors : Martin Borchert, Vanessa Proudman

The Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) movement is gaining momentum with an increasing number of scholarly outputs openly and freely available to researchers and the community. OA and OS cannot however, be free for everyone.

Someone has to pay for the infrastructure and there has to be a supporting economy. While many commercial publishers are charging for OA, there are many OA and OS infrastructure providers baring the cost of providing infrastructure. Without funding, essential services that many are dependent upon to implement government and funder OA policies worldwide, are at risk of service degradation, reduced availability and even survival. Something had to be done.

In response, the Global Sustainable Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) was formed in 2017 as a result of collaborations between key global stakeholders, with SPARC Europe as the co-ordinator.

It aims to develop and apply a rigorous proposal and assessment process to provide guidance to the OA and OS community on what to fund.

It uses a new financial crowdfunding contribution model seeking a three-year commitment for funding for the services it recommends. This will help improve the financial position, resilience and sustainability of these OA / OS infrastructure services and will help them on their way to find a mid to long-term sustainable solution for years to come.

The first open science services to receive assistance were Sherpa RoMEO which is operated by the Joint Information Steering Committee (Jisc, UK) and provides summary information of journal and publisher OA polices; and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) which provides a list of over 10,000 peer-reviewed open access journals.

Since launching in November 2017, a growing number of university libraries from across the globe are committing to fund Sherpa/Romeo and DOAJ for the next there years.

This paper will provide an introduction to SCOSS and its purpose, governance, processes, and challenges and will give an update on institutional financial commitments to date.

URL : https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2229&context=iatul

Incorporating Software Curation into Research Data Management Services

At 20:41 08/01/2019

Author : Fernando Rios

Many large research universities provide research data management (RDM) support services for researchers. These may include support for data management planning, best practices (e.g., organization, support, and storage), archiving, sharing, and publication.

However, these data-focused services may under-emphasize the importance of the software that is created to analyse said data. This is problematic for several reasons.

First, because software is an integral part of research across all disciplines, it undermines the ability of said research to be understood, verified, and reused by others (and perhaps even the researcher themselves).

Second, it may result in less visibility and credit for those involved in creating the software.

A third reason is related to stewardship: if there is no clear process for how, when, and where the software associated with research can be accessed and who will be responsible for maintaining such access, important details of the research may be lost over time.

This article presents the process by which the RDM services unit of a large research university addressed the lack of emphasis on software and source code in their existing service offerings.

The greatest challenges were related to the need to incorporate software into existing data-oriented service workflows while minimizing additional resources required, and the nascent state of software curation and archiving in a data management context.

The problem was addressed from four directions: building an understanding of software curation and preservation from various viewpoints (e.g., video games, software engineering), building a conceptual model of software preservation to guide service decisions, implementing software-related services, and documenting and evaluating the work to build expertise and establish a standard service level.

URL : Incorporating Software Curation into Research Data Management Services

Alternative location : http://www.ijdc.net/article/view/608/529

Disciplinary data publication guides

At 21:44 08/01/2019

Authors : Zosia Beckles, Stephen Gray, Debra Hiom, Kirsty Merrett, Kellie Snow, Damian Steer

Many academic disciplines have very comprehensive standard for data publication and clear guidance from funding bodies and academic publishers. In other cases, whilst much good-quality general guidance exists, there is a lack of information available to researchers to help them decide which specific data elements should be shared.

This is a particular issue for disciplines with very varied data types, such as engineering, and presents an unnecessary barrier to researchers wishing to meet funder expectations on data sharing.

This article outlines a project to provide simple, visual, discipline-specific guidance on data publication, undertaken at the University of Bristol at the request of the Faculty of Engineering.

URL : Disciplinary data publication guides

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v13i1.603

Does bibliometric research confer legitimacy to research assessment practice? A sociological study of reputational control, 1972-2016

At 20:13 10/01/2019

Authors : Arlette Jappe, David Pithan, Thomas Heinze

The use of bibliometric measures in the evaluation of research has increased considerably based on expertise from the growing research field of evaluative citation analysis (ECA).

However, mounting criticism of such metrics suggests that the professionalization of bibliometric expertise remains contested. This paper investigates why impact metrics, such as the journal impact factor and the h-index, proliferate even though their legitimacy as a means of professional research assessment is questioned.

Our analysis is informed by two relevant sociological theories: Andrew Abbott’s theory of professions and Richard Whitley’s theory of scientific work. These complementary concepts are connected in order to demonstrate that ECA has failed so far to provide scientific authority for professional research assessment.

This argument is based on an empirical investigation of the extent of reputational control in the relevant research area. Using three measures of reputational control that are computed from longitudinal inter-organizational networks in ECA (1972–2016), we show that peripheral and isolated actors contribute the same number of novel bibliometric indicators as central actors. In addition, the share of newcomers to the academic sector has remained high.

These findings demonstrate that recent methodological debates in ECA have not been accompanied by the formation of an intellectual field in the sociological sense of a reputational organization.

Therefore, we conclude that a growing gap exists between an academic sector with little capacity for collective action and increasing demand for routine performance assessment by research organizations and funding agencies.

This gap has been filled by database providers. By selecting and distributing research metrics, these commercial providers have gained a powerful role in defining de-facto standards of research excellence without being challenged by expert authority.

URL : Does bibliometric research confer legitimacy to research assessment practice? A sociological study of reputational control, 1972-2016

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199031

Exploring PubMed as a reliable resource for scholarly communications services

At 21:14 10/01/2019

Authors : Peace Ossom Williamson, Christian I. J. Minter

Objective

PubMed’s provision of MEDLINE and other National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources has made it one of the most widely accessible biomedical resources globally. The growth of PubMed Central (PMC) and public access mandates have affected PubMed’s composition.

The authors tested recent claims that content in PMC is of low quality and affects PubMed’s reliability, while exploring PubMed’s role in the current scholarly communications landscape.

Methods

The percentage of MEDLINE-indexed records was assessed in PubMed and various subsets of records from PMC. Data were retrieved via the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) interface, and follow-up interviews with a PMC external reviewer and staff at NLM were conducted.

Results

Almost all PubMed content (91%) is indexed in MEDLINE; however, since the launch of PMC, the percentage of PubMed records indexed in MEDLINE has slowly decreased.

This trend is the result of an increase in PMC content from journals that are not indexed in MEDLINE and not a result of author manuscripts submitted to PMC in compliance with public access policies. Author manuscripts in PMC continue to be published in MEDLINE-indexed journals at a high rate (85%).

The interviewees clarified the difference between the sources, with MEDLINE serving as a highly selective index of journals in biomedical literature and PMC serving as an open archive of quality biomedical and life sciences literature and a repository of funded research.

Conclusion

The differing scopes of PMC and MEDLINE will likely continue to affect their overlap; however, quality control exists in the maintenance and facilitation of both resources, and funding from major grantors is a major component of quality assurance in PMC.

URL : Exploring PubMed as a reliable resource for scholarly communications services

DOI : dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.433

Open access medical journals: Benefits and challenges

At 22:16 10/01/2019

Authors : Jenny Z.Wang, Aunna Pourang, Barbara Burrall

The world of medical science literature is ever increasingly accessible via the Internet. Open access online medical journals, in particular, offer access to a wide variety of useful information at no cost.

In addition, they provide avenues for publishing that are available to health care providers of all levels of training and practice. Whereas costs are less with the publishing of online open access journals, fewer resources for funding and technical support also exist.

A recent rise in predatory journals, which solicit authors but charge high fees per paper published and provide low oversight, pose other challenges to ensuring the credibility of accessible scientific literature.

Recognizing the value and efforts of legitimate open access online medical journals can help the reader navigate the over 11,000 open access journals that are available to date.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clindermatol.2018.09.010

Do altmetrics work for assessing research quality?

At 23:18 10/01/2019

Authors : Andrea Giovanni Nuzzolese, Paolo Ciancarini, Aldo Gangemi, Silvio Peroni, Francesco Poggi, Valentina Presutti

Alternative metrics (aka altmetrics) are gaining increasing interest in the scientometrics community as they can capture both the volume and quality of attention that a research work receives online.

Nevertheless, there is limited knowledge about their effectiveness as a mean for measuring the impact of research if compared to traditional citation-based indicators.

This work aims at rigorously investigating if any correlation exists among indicators, either traditional (i.e. citation count and h-index) or alternative (i.e. altmetrics) and which of them may be effective for evaluating scholars.

The study is based on the analysis of real data coming from the National Scientific Qualification procedure held in Italy by committees of peers on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.11813

Data Discovery Paradigms: User Requirements and Recommendations for Data Repositories

At 13:21 12/01/2019

Authors: Mingfang Wu, Fotis Psomopoulos, Siri Jodha Khalsa, Anita de Waard

As data repositories make more data openly available it becomes challenging for researchers to find what they need either from a repository or through web search engines.

This study attempts to investigate data users’ requirements and the role that data repositories can play in supporting data discoverability by meeting those requirements.

We collected 79 data discovery use cases (or data search scenarios), from which we derived nine functional requirements for data repositories through qualitative analysis.

We then applied usability heuristic evaluation and expert review methods to identify best practices that data repositories can implement to meet each functional requirement.

We propose the following ten recommendations for data repository operators to consider for improving data discoverability and user’s data search experience:

1. Provide a range of query interfaces to accommodate various data search behaviours.

2. Provide multiple access points to find data.

3. Make it easier for researchers to judge relevance, accessibility and reusability of a data collection from a search summary.

4. Make individual metadata records readable and analysable.

5. Enable sharing and downloading of bibliographic references.

6. Expose data usage statistics.

7. Strive for consistency with other repositories.

8. Identify and aggregate metadata records that describe the same data object.

9. Make metadata records easily indexed and searchable by major web search engines.

10. Follow API search standards and community adopted vocabularies for interoperability.

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-003

Creating a Library Publishing Program for Scholarly Books: Your Options Are Limited

At 14:22 12/01/2019

Author : Kevin Scott Hawkins

Publishing programs in academic libraries vary in their scope, offerings, and business models. Despite the many forms that these programs take, I have argued in the past that various factors constrain the design of a start-up publishing operation.

In this commentary, I discuss in greater depth the key questions to be addressed before establishing a library publishing program for scholarly books, arguing that the viable options are in fact quite limited.

URL : Creating a Library Publishing Program for Scholarly Books: Your Options Are Limited

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2262

Scholarly Communication Practices in Humanities and Social Sciences: A Study of Researchers’ Attitudes and Awareness of Open Access

At 20:05 16/01/2019

Authors: Bhuva Narayan, Edward J. Luca, Belinda Tiffen, Ashley England, Mal Booth, Henry Boateng

This paper examines issues relating to the perceptions and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories. Using a survey research design, we collected data from academics and other researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) at a university in Australia.

We looked at factors influencing choice of publishers and journal outlets, as well as the use of social media and nontraditional channels for scholarly communication.

We used an online questionnaire to collect data and used descriptive statistics to analyse the data. Our findings suggest that researchers are highly influenced by traditional measures of quality, such as journal impact factor, and are less concerned with making their work more findable and promoting it through social media.

This highlights a disconnect between researchers’ desired outcomes and the efforts that they put in toward the same. Our findings also suggest that institutional policies have the potential to increase OA awareness and adoption.

This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication by offering evidence from the HASS field, where limited studies have been conducted.

Based on the findings, we recommend that academic librarians engage with faculty through outreach and workshops to change perceptions of OA and the institutional repository.

URL : Scholarly Communication Practices in Humanities and Social Sciences: A Study of Researchers’ Attitudes and Awareness of Open Access

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2018-0013

Tracking the popularity and outcomes of all bioRxiv preprints

At 21:06 16/01/2019

Authors : Richard J. Abdill, Ran Blekhman

Researchers in the life sciences are posting their work to preprint servers at an unprecedented and increasing rate, sharing papers online before (or instead of) publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Though the popularity and practical benefits of preprints are driving policy changes at journals and funding organizations, there is little bibliometric data available to measure trends in their usage.

Here, we collected and analyzed data on all 37,648 preprints that were uploaded to bioRxiv.org, the largest biology-focused preprint server, in its first five years. We find that preprints on bioRxiv are being read more than ever before (1.1 million downloads in October 2018 alone) and that the rate of preprints being posted has increased to a recent high of more than 2,100 per month.

We also find that two-thirds of bioRxiv preprints posted in 2016 or earlier were later published in peer-reviewed journals, and that the majority of published preprints appeared in a journal less than six months after being posted.

We evaluate which journals have published the most preprints, and find that preprints with more downloads are likely to be published in journals with a higher impact factor. Lastly, we developed Rxivist.org, a website for downloading and interacting programmatically with indexed metadata on bioRxiv preprints.

URL : Tracking the popularity and outcomes of all bioRxiv preprints

Alternative location : https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/01/13/515643

Preprints in Scholarly Communication: Re-Imagining Metrics and Infrastructures

At 14:05 19/01/2019

Authors : B. Preedip Balaji, M. Dhanamjaya

Digital scholarship and electronic publishing among the scholarly communities are changing when metrics and open infrastructures take centre stage for measuring research impact. In scholarly communication, the growth of preprint repositories over the last three decades as a new model of scholarly publishing has emerged as one of the major developments.

As it unfolds, the landscape of scholarly communication is transitioning, as much is being privatized as it is being made open and towards alternative metrics, such as social media attention, author-level, and article-level metrics. Moreover, the granularity of evaluating research impact through new metrics and social media change the objective standards of evaluating research performance.

Using preprint repositories as a case study, this article situates them in a scholarly web, examining their salient features, benefits, and futures. Towards scholarly web development and publishing on semantic and social web with open infrastructures, citations, and alternative metrics­how preprints advance building web as data is discussed.

We examine that this will viably demonstrate new metrics and in enhancing research publishing tools in scholarly commons facilitating various communities of practice.

However, for the preprint repositories to sustain, scholarly communities and funding agencies should support continued investment in open knowledge, alternative metrics development, and open infrastructures in scholarly publishing.

URL : Preprints in Scholarly Communication: Re-Imagining Metrics and Infrastructures

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010006

Access to Scholarly Publications through Consortium in Sri Lanka A Case Study

At 12:41 20/01/2019

Author : Pradeepa Wijetunge

This paper illustrates the complicated process of formulating a library consortium in Sri Lanka, and the process of preliminary activities, selection of databases, awareness raising and training and the later developments are presented as a case study, using appropriate Tables, Figures and textual discussions.

Insights are provided to the factors that contributed to the slow but steady establishment and development including the support of the top management of the University Grants Commission, participation of as many academics as possible and the collaborative nature of the implementation process.

This is the first ever paper written on the formulation of the Sri Lankan consortium and the publishing will help many researchers to gain firsthand information about its beginnings.

Also, the library leaders from other countries where the socio-economic and attitudinal conditions are similar can use the lessons learnt from this initiative for their benefit.

URL : Access to Scholarly Publications through Consortium in Sri Lanka A Case Study

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/13718

Monitoring open access publishing costs at Stockholm University

At 13:43 20/01/2019

Author : Lisa Lovén

Stockholm University Library (SUB) has been tracking the University’s open access (OA) publishing costs within the local accounting system since 2016. The objective is to gain an overview of the costs and to use this as a basis for decisions about how to proceed in order to support the transition to OA at Stockholm University.

This article explains the reasons behind using the accounting system as the primary source of information and describes the workflow of tracking costs and how additional data are retrieved.

Basic findings from the 2017 cost compilation are outlined, and the steps taken in 2018, with consequences for both the current workflow and the costs at SUB, are briefly discussed. A breakout session on this topic was presented at the UKSG Annual Conference in Glasgow in 2018.

URL : Monitoring open access publishing costs at Stockholm University

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.451

Online Safety and Academic Scholarship: Exploring Researchers’ Concerns from Ghana

At 14:44 20/01/2019

Authors: Kodjo Atiso, Jenna Kammer

INTRODUCTION

This paper investigates factors, including fears of cybercrime, that may affect researchers’ willingness to share research in institutional repositories in Ghana.

METHODS

Qualitative research was conducted to understand more about the experiences of Ghanaian researchers when sharing research in institutional repositories. Interviews were conducted with 25 participants, documents related to policy and infrastructure in Ghana were examined, and observations were held in meetings of information technology committees.

FINDINGS

The findings indicate that researchers are specifically concerned about three areas when sharing research online: fraud, plagiarism, and identity theft.

DISCUSSION

This paper adds to research that examines barriers toward using institutional repositories, and highlights the lack of basic preventative strategies in Ghana­such as training, security, and infrastructure that are commonplace in developed countries.

CONCLUSION

This study draws on findings from Bossaller and Atiso (2015) that identified fears of cybercrime as one of the major barriers to sharing research online for Ghanaian researchers.

While several other studies have found that fear of identity theft or plagiarism are barriers toward sharing work in the institutional repository, this is the first study that looks specifically at the experiences researchers have had with cybercrime to understand this barrier more fully.

URL : Online Safety and Academic Scholarship: Exploring Researchers’ Concerns from Ghana

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2263

Market research report: What has become of new entrants in research workflows and scholarly communication?

At 20:05 23/01/2019

Author : Yvonne Campfens

Over the years, many names of new entrants in research workflows and scholarly communication have appeared. These players aim to provide improvements on solutions for existing needs, or address new requirements or unarticulated needs in all areas of the research cycle.

What has become of these hopeful new entrants and their products, services, and tools? This Fall, market research was conducted to investigate various questions in this respect:

1. Did they still exist (independently) in 2018?

2. If so, how were they funded and how were they doing?

3. If acquired by 2018, by whom and when were they taken over?

This white paper describes the approach and results of the market research. The underlying data are available from Zenodo.

URL : Market research report: What has become of new entrants in research workflows and scholarly communication?

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/a78zj

Predatory publications in evidence syntheses

At 21:07 23/01/2019

Authors : Amanda Ross-White, Christina M. Godfrey, Kimberley A. Sears, Rosemary Wilson

Objectives

The number of predatory journals is increasing in the scholarly communication realm. These journals use questionable business practices, minimal or no peer review, or limited editorial oversight and, thus, publish articles below a minimally accepted standard of quality.

These publications have the potential to alter the results of knowledge syntheses. The objective of this study was to determine the degree to which articles published by a major predatory publisher in the health and biomedical sciences are cited in systematic reviews.

Methods

The authors downloaded citations of articles published by a known predatory publisher. Using forward reference searching in Google Scholar, we examined whether these publications were cited in systematic reviews.

Results

The selected predatory publisher published 459 journals in the health and biomedical sciences. Sixty-two of these journal titles had published a total of 120 articles that were cited by at least 1 systematic review, with a total of 157 systematic reviews citing an article from 1 of these predatory journals.

Discussion Systematic review authors should be vigilant for predatory journals that can appear to be legitimate. To reduce the risk of including articles from predatory journals in knowledge syntheses, systematic reviewers should use a checklist to ensure a measure of quality control for included papers and be aware that Google Scholar and PubMed do not provide the same level of quality control as other bibliographic databases.

URL : Predatory publications in evidence syntheses

Alternative location  : http://jmla.mlanet.org/ojs/jmla/article/view/491

Open science, reproducibility, and transparency in ecology

At 22:08 23/01/2019

Authors : Stephen M. Powers, Stephanie E. Hampton

Reproducibility is a key tenet of the scientific process that dictates the reliability and generality of results and methods. The complexities of ecological observations and data present novel challenges in satisfying needs for reproducibility and also transparency.

Ecological systems are dynamic and heterogeneous, interacting with numerous factors that sculpt natural history and that investigators cannot completely control. Observations may be highly dependent on spatial and temporal context, making them very difficult to reproduce, but computational reproducibility can still be achieved.

Computational reproducibility often refers to the ability to produce equivalent analytical outcomes from the same data set using the same code and software as the original study.

When coded workflows are shared, authors and editors provide transparency for readers and allow other researchers to build directly and efficiently on primary work. These qualities may be especially important in ecological applications that have important or controversial implications for science, management, and policy.

Expectations for computational reproducibility and transparency are shifting rapidly in the sciences.

In this work, we highlight many of the unique challenges for ecology along with practical guidelines for reproducibility and transparency, as ecologists continue to participate in the stewardship of critical environmental information and ensure that research methods demonstrate integrity.

URL : Open science, reproducibility, and transparency in ecology

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1822

Models of Research and the Dissemination of Research Results: the Influences of E-Science, Open Access and Social Networking

At 17:16 28/01/2019

Authors : Rae A. Earnshaw, Mohan de Silva, Peter S. Excell

In contrast with practice in recent times past, computational and data intensive processes are increasingly driving collaborative research in science and technology.

Large amounts of data are being generated in experiments or simulations and these require real-time, or near real-time, analysis and visualisation. The results of these evaluations need to be validated and then published quickly and openly in order to facilitate the overall progress of research on a national and international basis.

Research is increasingly undertaken in large teams and is also increasingly interdisciplinary as many of the major research challenges lie at the boundaries between existing disciplines.

The move to open access for peer reviewed publications is rapidly becoming a required option in the sector. At the same time, communication and dissemination procedures are also utilising non-traditional forms facilitated by burgeoning developments in social networking.

It is proposed that these elements, when combined, constitute a paradigm shift in the model of research and the dissemination of research results.

URL : Models of Research and the Dissemination of Research Results: the Influences of E-Science, Open Access and Social Networking

Alternative location : http://aetic.theiaer.org/archive/v3/v3n1/p1.html

Open science precision medicine in Canada: Points to consider

At 18:18 28/01/2019

Authors : Palmira Granados Moreno, Sarah E. Ali-Khan, Benjamin Capps, Timothy Caulfield, Damien Chalaud, Aled Edwards, E. Richard Gold, Vasiliki Rahimzadeh, Adrian Thorogood, Daniel Auld, Gabrielle Bertier, Felix Breden, Roxanne Caron, Priscilla M.D.G. César, Robert Cook-Deegan, Megan Doerr, Ross Duncan, Amalia M. Issa, Jerome Reichman, Jacques Simard, Derek So, Sandeep Vanamala, Yann Joly

Open science can significantly influence the development and translational process of precision medicine in Canada. Precision medicine presents a unique opportunity to improve disease prevention and healthcare, as well as to reduce health-related expenditures.

However, the development of precision medicine also brings about economic challenges, such as costly development, high failure rates, and reduced market size in comparison with the traditional blockbuster drug development model.

Open science, characterized by principles of open data sharing, fast dissemination of knowledge, cumulative research, and cooperation, presents a unique opportunity to address these economic challenges while also promoting the public good.

The Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University organized a stakeholders’ workshop in Montreal in March 2018. The workshop entitled “Could Open be the Yellow Brick Road to Precision Medicine?” provided a forum for stakeholders to share experiences and identify common objectives, challenges, and needs to be addressed to promote open science initiatives in precision medicine.

The rich presentations and exchanges that took place during the meeting resulted in this consensus paper containing key considerations for open science precision medicine in Canada.

Stakeholders would benefit from addressing these considerations as to promote a more coherent and dynamic open science ecosystem for precision medicine.

URL : Open science precision medicine in Canada: Points to consider

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2018-0034

Public Scholarship in Practice and Philosophy

At 19:20 28/01/2019

Authors : Erin Glass, Micah Vandegrift

This piece offers several threads that bind an ideal together: there are practical actions to increase the public-ness of scholarship, increasingly compelling reasons to adopt an outward-orientation, as well as many challenges to performing public scholarship in higher education.

We propose that a more public scholarly practice can be sought through the dissemination of research products, the processes by which research and scholarship are conducted, opening pedagogy beyond the classroom, developing soft skills as a public intellectual, and increasing visibility with/in communities.

URL : https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:22279/

Readership Data and Research Impact

At 20:21 28/01/2019

Authors : Ehsan Mohammadi, Mike Thelwall

Reading academic publications is a key scholarly activity. Scholars accessing and recording academic publications online are producing new types of readership data. These include publisher, repository, and academic social network download statistics as well as online reference manager records.

This chapter discusses the use of download and reference manager data for research evaluation and library collection development. The focus is on the validity and application of readership data as an impact indicator for academic publications across different disciplines.

Mendeley is particularly promising in this regard, although all data sources are not subjected to rigorous quality control and can be manipulated.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.08593

Open access mythbusting: Testing two prevailing assumptions about the effects of open access adoption

At 12:55 29/01/2019

Authors : Dan Pollock, Ann Michael

This article looks at whether there is evidence to support two prevailing assumptions about open access (OA). These assumptions are: (1) fully OA journals are inherently of poorer quality than journals supported by other business models and (2) the OA business model, that is, paying for publication, is more ‘competitive’ than the subscription journal access business model.

The assumptions have been discussed in contemporary industry venues, and we have encountered them in the course of their work advising scholarly communications organizations.

Our objective was to apply data analytics techniques to see if these assumptions bore scrutiny. By combining citation based impact scores with data from publishers’ price lists, we were able to look for relationships between business model, price, and ‘quality’ across several thousands of journals.

We found no evidence suggesting that OA journals suffer significant quality issues compared with non OA journals. Furthermore, authors do not appear to ‘shop around’ based on OA price.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1209

Do we need to move from communication technology to user community? A new economic model of the journal as a club

At 20:35 31/01/2019

Authors : John Hartley, Jason Potts, Lucy Montgomery, Ellie Rennie, Cameron Neylon

Much of the argument around reforming, remaking, or preserving the traditions of scholarly publishing is built on economic principles, explicit or implicit. Can we afford open access (OA)?

How do we pay for high quality services? Why does it cost so much? In this article, we argue that the sterility of much of this debate is a result of failure to tackle the question of what a journal is in economic terms.

We offer a way through by demonstrating that a journal is a club and discuss the implications for the scholarly publishing industry.

We use examples, ranging from OA to prestige journals, to explain why congestion is a problem for club based publications, and to discuss the importance of creative destruction for the maintenance of knowledge generating communities in publishing.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1228

Adapting data management education to support clinical research projects in an academic medical center

At 17:09 01/02/2019

Author : Kevin B. Read

Background

Librarians and researchers alike have long identified research data management (RDM) training as a need in biomedical research. Despite the wealth of libraries offering RDM education to their communities, clinical research is an area that has not been targeted.

Clinical RDM (CRDM) is seen by its community as an essential part of the research process where established guidelines exist, yet educational initiatives in this area are unknown.

Case Presentation

Leveraging my academic library’s experience supporting CRDM through informationist grants and REDCap training in our medical center, I developed a 1.5 hour CRDM workshop.

This workshop was designed to use established CRDM guidelines in clinical research and address common questions asked by our community through the library’s existing data support program.

The workshop was offered to the entire medical center 4 times between November 2017 and July 2018. This case study describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of this workshop.

Conclusions

The 4 workshops were well attended and well received by the medical center community, with 99% stating that they would recommend the class to others and 98% stating that they would use what they learned in their work.

Attendees also articulated how they would implement the main competencies they learned from the workshop into their work.

For the library, the effort to support CRDM has led to the coordination of a larger institutional collaborative training series to educate researchers on best practices with data, as well as the formation of institution-wide policy groups to address researcher challenges with CRDM, data transfer, and data sharing.

URL : Adapting data management education to support clinical research projects in an academic medical center

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.5195%2Fjmla.2019.580

Open Science challenges, benefits and tips in early career and beyond

At 18:12 01/02/2019

Authors : Christopher Allen, David Mehler

The movement towards open science is an unavoidable consequence of seemingly pervasive failures to replicate previous research. This transition comes with great benefits but also significant challenges that are likely to afflict those who carry out the research, usually Early Career Researchers (ECRs).

Here, we describe key benefits including reputational gains, increased chances of publication and a broader increase in the reliability of research. These are balanced by challenges that we have encountered, and which involve increased costs in terms of flexibility, time and issues with the current incentive structure, all of which seem to affect ECRs acutely.

Although there are major obstacles to the early adoption of open science, overall open science practices should benefit both the ECR and improve the quality and plausibility of research.

We review three benefits, three challenges and provide suggestions from the perspective of ECRs for moving towards open science practices.

URL : Open Science challenges, benefits and tips in early career and beyond

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3czyt

Open laboratory notebooks: good for science, good for society, good for scientists

At 18:56 02/02/2019

Authors : Matthieu Schapira, The Open Lab Notebook Consortium, Rachel J. Harding

The fundamental goal of the growing open science movement is to increase the efficiency of the global scientific community and accelerate progress and discoveries for the common good. Central to this principle is the rapid disclosure of research outputs in open-access peer-reviewed journals and on pre-print servers.

The next bold step in this direction is open laboratory notebooks, where research scientists share their research ­ including detailed protocols, negative and positive results ­ online and in near-real-time to synergize with their peers. Here, we highlight the benefits of open lab notebooks to science, society and scientists, and discuss the challenges that this nascent movement is facing.

We also present the implementation and progress of our own initiative at openlabnotebooks.org, with more than 20 active contributors after one year of operation.

URL : Open laboratory notebooks: good for science, good for society, good for scientists

DOI : https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17710.1

Hors norme ? Une approche normative des données de la recherche

At 19:57 02/02/2019

Auteur : Joachim Schöpfel

Nous proposons une réflexion sur le rôle des normes et standards dans la gestion des données de la recherche, dans l’environnement de la politique de la science ouverte.

A partir d’une définition générale des données de la recherche, nous analysons la place et la fonction des normes et standards dans les différentes dimensions du concept des données. En particulier, nous nous intéressons à trois aspects faisant le lien entre le processus scientifique, l’environnement réglementaire et les données de la recherche : les protocoles éthiques, les systèmes d’information recherche et les plans de gestion des données.

A l’échelle internationale, nous décrivons l’effet normatif des principes FAIR qui, par la mobilisation d’autres normes et standards, créent une sorte de « cascade de standards » autour des plateformes et entrepôts, avec un impact direct sur les pratiques scientifiques.

URL : https://revue-cossi.info/numeros/n-5-2018-processus-normalisation-durabilite-information/730-5-2018-schopfel

La recherche interventionnelle en santé : divers engagements dans la production collaborative de connaissances

At 12:24 03/02/2019

Auteur/Author : Philippe Terral

En prenant pour terrain d’enquête un domaine de recherche interdisciplinaire et collaboratif émergeant dans le secteur de la santé, les Recherches Interventionnelles en Santé des Populations (RISP), cette contribution se propose de considérer les diverses formes d’engagement dans la production de ce type de connaissances.

Sont ainsi repérées quatre figures d’engagement (afficher, éprouver, persévérer et figer) qui rendent compte de modes de coordination plus ou moins maximalistes entre les acteurs de ces recherches, en lien avec différentes conceptions et pratiques de la diffusion et de la circulation des connaissances.

L’enquête se base sur trois grands types de données : des observations ethnographiques de RISP ainsi que des congrès et réunions de groupes d’experts produisant des réflexions sur ce type de recherches, des analyses d’écrits (articles, rapports, lettres d’information…) sur les RISP et des entretiens (12) avec les principaux experts du domaine.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4581

Early career researchers: observing how the new wave of researchers is changing the scholarly communications market

At 13:26 03/02/2019

Authors : David Nicholas, Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Anthony Watkinson, Marzena wigon, Jie Xu, Abdullah Abrizah, Eti Herman

The paper presents the early findings from the first two years of the Harbingers research project, a 3-year-long study of early career researchers (ECRs), the new wave of researchers, which sought to ascertain their current and changing habits with regard to scholarly communications.

The study recruited a convenience sample of 116 researchers from seven countries (China, France, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, UK and US) who were subject to repeat, in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted face-to-face or remotely (via Skype).

A major focus of the study was to determine whether ECRs are taking the myriad opportunities proffered by digital innovations, developing within the context Open Science, Open Access and social media to disseminate their research.

The paper provides the highlights of the first-year benchmarking exercise and then investigates the strategic changes one year on.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4635

Plus ou moins open : les revues de rang A en Sciences de l’information et de la communication

At 14:28 03/02/2019

Auteurs/Authors : Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost, Amel Fraisse

Selon une étude récente, presque la moitié des articles publiés par des chercheurs français sont diffusés en libre accès, déposés dans les archives ouvertes, comme HAL, ou mis en ligne dans des revues administrées suivant le modèle du “open access”, sans abonnement payant.

Dans cet environnement dynamique, les agences d’évaluation de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche ont un rôle à jouer, par le biais de leurs critères et outils d’évaluation.

En fonction de leur approche et méthodologie, ces établissements peuvent créer des opportunités pour le développement du libre accès, par l’incitation au partage des résultats de la recherche, ou bien, ralentir le processus par le maintien des critères habituels, dont notamment l’évaluation bibliométrique à partir du classement des publications.

Notre étude propose un regard sur notre propre discipline, avec un état des lieux dans le domaine des sciences de l’information et de la communication en France, à partir de la liste actualisée des revues de rang A publiée fin 2017 et sous l’aspect du libre accès.

L’approche est exploratoire. Il s’agit avant tout d’étudier nos propres standards et pratiques, en tant que communauté de recherche en SIC par rapport à la politique scientifique du libre accès et de la science ouverte. 38 % des revues de rang A en SIC sont en libre accès. Mais ces revues représentent seulement 4 % de l’ensemble des revues SIC en libre accès.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4706

Écrilecture : la littératie informationnelle à la croisée de l’offre et des services des intermédiaires

At 15:28 03/02/2019

Auteur/Author : Evelyne Broudoux

Nous proposons ici d’observer les usages et non usages de l’offre logicielle visant l’écriture, la lecture, la préservation des données, des références, des citations et leur traitement.

Nous établissons le lien entre cette panoplie d’outils, services, plateformes, avec les acteurs de la recherche responsables de cette offre : start-ups émanant de projets de recherche, éditeurs et groupes de médias scientifiques.

Nous complétons par une exploration des services et créations logicielles liées au web de données et à l’éditorialisation sémantique des articles qui représentent des innovations notables encore à l’état de prototypes.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4738

Science on YouTube: Legitimation Strategies of Brazilian Science YouTubers

At 16:30 03/02/2019

Authors : Natália Martins Flore, Priscila Muniz de Medeiros

This study analyzes the legitimation strategies displayed by YouTubers of the 10 most popular science channels regarding YouTube Brazil. Using Discourse Analysis from a French perspective, it unfolds the ethos of the YouTuber, the preferred discursive scenographies, and kinds of contents and discursive approaches of these channels.

The results show the predominant presence of didactic scenography, followed by commentary, scientist-in-action, and journalist scenographies. They unfold themselves in monologue, questions and answers, live experiments, whiteboard videos and short documentary subgenres.

The discursive ethos presents the YouTuber as an informed person who has knowledge on science subjects, teaching them to his audience or commenting on a certain theme or topic. Legitimation strategies come from personal experiences and rarely from a scientist’s identity, despite the YouTuber may use scientific authority in some cases.

The use of humor in enunciations and video editing, the reference to pop culture, and the use of an informal language, show the tendency that these channels have in presenting scientific themes in a soft and interesting way.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4782

La remédiation des savoirs en santé dans les communautés en ligne sur les transidentités

At 17:31 03/02/2019

Auteurs/Authors : Lucie Delias, Mélanie Lallet

Depuis une trentaine d’années, les associations de support et de défense des personnes trans militent pour une prise en charge médicale des parcours de transition qui laisse plus de marge de manœuvre aux patient·e·s, dans un contexte français où les soins liés à la transidentité dans le secteur public s’effectuent au sein d’équipes hospitalières parfois accusées de mettre en place des protocoles trop stricts à partir d’une conception binaire du genre et de la sexualité.

Partant du concept de communauté épistémique, cet article propose d’analyser les stratégies communicationnelles déployées en ligne par la communauté trans, qui, en réponse à des institutions souvent opaques et grâce à un travail d’expertise profane, opère une remédiation des savoirs en santé à travers la production, la publication et la mise en circulation de connaissances scientifiques sur l’internet.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4813

Hypotheses : l’inscription d’une pratique de communication dans l’activité de recherche

At 18:33 03/02/2019

Auteurs/Authors : Elsa Poupardin, Mélodie Faury

En croisant deux approches, qualitative et quantitative, sur les discours et les pratiques des auteurs de carnets de recherche sur « Hypotheses.org » concernant la publication et la citation, nous montrons que les billets ne sont pas écrits pour remplacer les articles scientifiques classiques.

Neuf logiques distinctes nous semblent décrire la manière dont les carnetières et les carnetiers interrogés s’investissent dans les carnets de recherche : logique d’élaboration, de mise en lien, de partage d’idées, de publication, d’édition, d’information, de pédagogie et de vulgarisation, de valorisation et d’éditorialisation de soi.

L’écriture sur les carnets de recherche apparaît alors comme une pratique de communication directement reliée à l’activité de recherche, dont les effets sont loin d'être marginaux.

À l’instar de ceux que produit la vulgarisation sur le chercheur, ils ne peuvent être quantifiés simplement, et ne s’expriment pas en termes de retour direct, facilement saisissable. Il faut pour les mesurer articuler traces, discours et contextes de l’appropriation de la pratique de carnetier.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4877

Du médiateur documentaire traditionnel au producteur de dispositifs info-communicationnels : application d’une méthode documentographique à des documents cartographiques dormants

At 19:35 03/02/2019

Auteur/Author : Joubert Nathalie

Responsable d’une cartothèque, nous avons élaboré en doctorat une méthode documentographique pour révéler les nombreuses valeurs informatives portées par les cartes en nous plaçant du côté des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication.

Un des objectifs de son application est la mise en œuvre de dispositifs info-communicationnels en bibliothèque universitaire pour susciter de nouveaux usages, autres que géographiques, pour les documents cartographiques dormants, recensés en 2015 dans les collections patrimoniales de l’Université fédérale de Toulouse.

Notre propos est de montrer comment, en s’appuyant sur cette méthode, les bibliothécaires universitaires, médiateurs documentaires traditionnels, peuvent proposer à leurs publics spécifiques des dispositifs nouveaux d’appropriation de l’information contenue dans un document, soit en réactivant ses valeurs intentionnelles, soit en activant des valeurs historiques, patrimoniales, pédagogiques, artistiques, répondant ainsi différemment aux besoins d’apprentissages informationnels.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4934

La coopération entre l’archive ouverte HAL AMU et les Presses universitaires de Provence : une dynamique au service de la science ouverte et de la bibliodiversité

At 20:36 03/02/2019

Auteurs/Authors : Isabelle Gras, Charles Zaremba

Cette collaboration s’inscrit dans le cadre de la politique soutenue par la gouvernance d’AMU en faveur de l’open access, qui a notamment permis le déploiement de l’archive ouverte institutionnelle HAL AMU (Bertin, 2014).

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/4982

Methods to Evaluate Lifecycle Models for Research Data Management

At 21:37 03/02/2019

Authors : Tobias Weber, Dieter Kranzlmüller

Lifecycle models for research data are often abstract and simple. This comes at the danger of oversimplifying the complex concepts of research data management.

The analysis of 90 different lifecycle models lead to two approaches to assess the quality of these models. While terminological issues make direct comparisons of models hard, an empirical evaluation seems possible.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.11267

A multidimensional perspective on the citation impact of scientific publications

At 22:39 03/02/2019

Authors : Yi Bu, Ludo Waltman, Yong Huang

The citation impact of scientific publications is usually seen as a one-dimensional concept. We introduce a three-dimensional perspective on the citation impact of publications. In addition to the level of citation impact, quantified by the number of citations received by a publication, we also conceptualize and operationalize the depth and dependence of citation impact.

This enables us to make a distinction between publications that have a deep impact concentrated in one specific field of research and publications that have a broad impact scattered over different research fields.

It also allows us to distinguish between publications that are strongly dependent on earlier work and publications that make a more independent scientific contribution.

We present a large-scale empirical analysis of the level, depth, and dependence of the citation impact of publications. In addition, we report a case study focusing on publications in the field of scientometrics.

Our three-dimensional citation impact framework provides a more detailed understanding of the citation impact of a publication than a traditional one-dimensional perspective.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.09663

Open Research Knowledge Graph: Towards Machine Actionability in Scholarly Communication

At 23:41 03/02/2019

Authors : Mohamad Yaser Jaradeh, Sören Auer, Manuel Prinz, Viktor Kovtun, Gábor Kismihók, Markus Stocker

Despite improved digital access to scientific publications in the last decades, the fundamental principles of scholarly communication remain unchanged and continue to be largely document-based.

The document-oriented workflows in science publication have reached the limits of adequacy as highlighted by recent discussions on the increasing proliferation of scientific literature, the deficiency of peer-review and the reproducibility crisis.

In this article, we present first steps towards representing scholarly knowledge semantically with knowledge graphs. We expand the currently popular RDF graph-based knowledge representation formalism to capture annotations, such as provenance information and describe how to manage such knowledge in a graph data base.

We report on the results of a first experimental evaluation of the concept and its implementations with the participants of an international conference.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.10816

Open-access policy and data-sharing practice in UK academia

At 19:26 06/02/2019

Author : Yimei Zhu

Data sharing can be defined as the release of research data that can be used by others. With the recent open-science movement, there has been a call for free access to data, tools and methods in academia. In recent years, subject-based and institutional repositories and data centres have emerged along with online publishing.

Many scientific records, including published articles and data, have been made available via new platforms. In the United Kingdom, most major research funders had a data policy and require researchers to include a ‘data-sharing plan’ when applying for funding.

However, there are a number of barriers to the full-scale adoption of data sharing. Those barriers are not only technical, but also psychological and social. A survey was conducted with over 1800 UK-based academics to explore the extent of support of data sharing and the characteristics and factors associated with data-sharing practice.

It found that while most academics recognised the importance of sharing research data, most of them had never shared or reused research data. There were differences in the extent of data sharing between different gender, academic disciplines, age and seniority.

It also found that the awareness of Research Council UK’s (RCUK) Open-Access (OA) policy, experience of Gold and Green OA publishing, attitudes towards the importance of data sharing and experience of using secondary data were associated with the practice of data sharing.

A small group of researchers used social media such as Twitter, blogs and Facebook to promote the research data they had shared online. Our findings contribute to the knowledge and understanding of open science and offer recommendations to academic institutions, journals and funding agencies.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551518823174

Scientific Landscape of Citizen Science Publications: Dynamics, Content and Presence in Social Media

At 20:28 06/02/2019

Authors : Núria Bautista-Puig, Daniela De Filippo, Elba Mauleón, Elías Sanz-Casado

Citizen science (CS) aims primarily to create a new scientific culture able to improve upon the triple interaction between science, society, and policy in the dual pursuit of more democratic research and decision-making informed by sound evidence.

It is both an aim and an enabler of open science (OS), to which it contributes by involving citizens in research and encouraging participation in the generation of new knowledge. This study analyses scientific output on CS using bibliometric techniques and Web of Science (WoS) data.

Co-occurrence maps are formulated to define subject clusters as background for an analysis of the impact of each on social media. Four clusters are identified: HEALTH, BIO, GEO and PUBLIC. The profiles for the four clusters are observed to be fairly similar, although BIO and HEALTH are mentioned more frequently in blogposts and tweets and BIO and PUBLIC in Facebook and newsfeeds.

The findings also show that output in the area has grown since 2010, with a larger proportion of papers (66%) mentioned in social media than reported in other studies. The percentage of open access documents (30.7%) is likewise higher than the overall mean for all areas.

URL : Scientific Landscape of Citizen Science Publications: Dynamics, Content and Presence in Social Media

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010012

The relationship between usage and citations in an open access mega journal

At 21:29 06/02/2019

Authors : Barbara McGillivray, Mathias Astell

How does usage of an article relate to the number of citations it accrues? Does the timeframe in which an article is used (and how much that article is used) have an effect on when and how much that article is cited?

What role does an article's subject area play in the relationship between usage and citations? This paper aims to answer these questions through an observational study of usage and citation data collected about a multidisciplinary, open access mega journal, Scientific Reports.

We find that while the direct correlation between usage and citations is only moderate at best, the relationship between how early and how much an article is used and how early it is cited is much clearer. What is more, we find that when an article is cited earlier it is also cited more often, leading to the assertion that if an article is more highly accessed early on, it is more likely to be cited earlier and more often.

As Scientific Reports is a multidisciplinary journal covering all natural and clinical sciences, this study was also able to look at the differences across subject areas and found some interesting variations when comparing the major subject areas covered by the journal (i.e. biological, Earth, physical and health sciences).

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.01333

Informing the Digital Archive with Altmetrics

At 19:56 08/02/2019

Authors : Ashley L. Taylor, Lauren B. Collister

Altmetrics can be used to understand impact beyond citations, particularly for digitized collections.

As cultural institutions look to pursue more active engagement with communities of practice, altmetrics help archivists understand the conversations happening in real time that will allow them to provide access to the most relevant materials.

Through the use of case studies, we aim to demonstrate how applying altmetrics while considering the curation of digital collections can allow archivists to stay engaged with target communities outside traditional channels, demonstrating both the applicability of altmetrics to legacy scholarly work and the value of digitization as an access method.

URL : Informing the Digital Archive with Altmetrics

DOI : http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/35931

Library publisher resources: Making publishing approachable, sustainable, and values-driven

At 20:59 08/02/2019

Authors : Jenny Hoops, Sarah Hare

The Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) defines library publishing as the “creation, dissemination, and curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works” by college and university libraries.

While providing a publishing platform, hosting, and services for editorial teams is key to any library publishing initiative, library publishing is also centered on furthering core library values.

Thus library publishing activities are mission-driven, centered on education, and focused on finding and promoting sustainable approaches to open access publishing and building cooperative open infrastructure.

URL : Library publisher resources: Making publishing approachable, sustainable, and values-driven

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.80.2.74

Few Open Access Journals are Plan S Compliant

At 21:00 15/02/2019

Authors : Jan Erik Frantsvåg, Tormod Eismann Strømme

Much of the debate on Plan S seems to concentrate on how to make toll access journals open access, taking for granted that existing open access journals are Plan S compliant.

We suspected this was not so, and set out to explore this using DOAJ's journal metadata. We conclude that an overwhelmingly large majority of open access journals are not Plan S compliant, and that it is small HSS publishers not charging APCs that are least compliant and will face major challenges with becoming compliant.

Plan S need to give special considerations to smaller publishers and/or non-APC-based journals.

URL : Few Open Access Journals are Plan S Compliant

Alternative location : https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201901.0165/v3

“When You Use Social Media You Are Not Working”: Barriers for the Use of Metrics in Social Sciences

At 15:36 16/02/2019

Authors : Steffen Lemke, Maryam Mehrazar, Athanasios Mazarakis, Isabella Peters

The Social Sciences have long been struggling with quantitative forms of research assessment­insufficient coverage in prominent citation indices and overall lower citation counts than in STM subject areas have led to a widespread weariness regarding bibliometric evaluations among social scientists.

Fueled by the rise of the social web, new hope is often placed on alternative metrics that measure the attention scholarly publications receive online, in particular on social media. But almost a decade after the coining of the term altmetrics for this new group of indicators, the uptake of the concept in the Social Sciences still seems to be low.

Just like with traditional bibliometric indicators, one central problem hindering the applicability of altmetrics for the Social Sciences is the low coverage of social science publications on the respective data sources­which in the case of altmetrics are the various social media platforms on which interactions with scientific outputs can be measured.

Another reason is that social scientists have strong opinions about the usefulness of metrics for research evaluation which may hinder broad acceptance of altmetrics too. We conducted qualitative interviews and online surveys with researchers to identify the concerns which inhibit the use of social media and the utilization of metrics for research evaluation in the Social Sciences.

By analyzing the response data from the interviews in conjunction with the response data from the surveys, we identify the key concerns that inhibit social scientists from (1) applying social media for professional purposes and (2) making use of the wide array of metrics available.

Our findings show that aspects of time consumption, privacy, dealing with information overload, and prevalent styles of communication are predominant concerns inhibiting Social Science researchers from using social media platforms for their work.

Regarding indicators for research impact we identify a widespread lack of knowledge about existing metrics, their methodologies and meanings as a major hindrance for their uptake through social scientists.

The results have implications for future developments of scholarly online tools and show that researchers could benefit considerably from additional formal training regarding the correct application and interpretation of metrics.

URL : “When You Use Social Media You Are Not Working”: Barriers for the Use of Metrics in Social Sciences

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2018.00039

A Principled Approach to Online Publication Listings and Scientific Resource Sharing

At 16:36 16/02/2019

Authors : Jacquelijn Ringersma, Karin Kastens, Ulla Tschida, Jos van Berkum

The Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Psycholinguistics has developed a service to manage and present the scholarly output of their researchers. The PubMan database manages publication metadata and full-texts of publications published by their scholars.

All relevant information regarding a researcher’s work is brought together in this database, including supplementary materials and links to the MPI database for primary research data.

The PubMan metadata is harvested into the MPI website CMS (Plone). The system developed for the creation of the publication lists, allows the researcher to create a selection of the harvested data in a variety of formats.

URL : https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2520

Improving the discoverability and web impact of open repositories: techniques and evaluation

At 17:38 16/02/2019

Author : George Macgregor

In this contribution we experiment with a suite of repository adjustments and improvements performed on Strathprints, the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, institutional repository powered by EPrints 3.3.13.

These adjustments were designed to support improved repository web visibility and user engagement, thereby improving usage. Although the experiments were performed on EPrints it is thought that most of the adopted improvements are equally applicable to any other repository platform.

Following preliminary results reported elsewhere, and using Strathprints as a case study, this paper outlines the approaches implemented, reports on comparative search traffic data and usage metrics, and delivers conclusions on the efficacy of the techniques implemented.

The evaluation provides persuasive evidence that specific enhancements to technical aspects of a repository can result in significant improvements to repository visibility, resulting in a greater web impact and consequent increases in content usage.

COUNTER usage grew by 33% and traffic to Strathprints from Google and Google Scholar was found to increase by 63% and 99% respectively. Other insights from the evaluation are also explored.

The results are likely to positively inform the work of repository practitioners and open scientists.

URL : https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/14180

Open data to evaluate academic researchers: an experiment with the Italian Scientific Habilitation

At 18:41 16/02/2019

Authors : Angelo Di Iorio, Silvio Peroni, Francesco Poggi

The need for scholarly open data is ever increasing. While there are large repositories of open access articles and free publication indexes, there are still a few examples of free citation networks and their coverage is partial.

One of the results is that most of the evaluation processes based on citation counts rely on commercial citation databases. Things are changing under the pressure of the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), whose goal is to campaign for scholarly publishers to make their citations as totally open.

This paper investigates the growth of open citations with an experiment on the Italian Scientific Habilitation, the National process for University Professor qualification which instead uses data from commercial indexes.

We simulated the procedure by only using open data and explored similarities and differences with the official results. The outcomes of the experiment show that the amount of open citation data currently available is not yet enough for obtaining similar results.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03287

Merits and Limits: Applying open data to monitor open access publications in bibliometric databases

At 19:43 16/02/2019

Authors : Aliakbar Akbaritabar, Stephan Stahlschmidt

Identifying and monitoring Open Access (OA) publications might seem a trivial task while practical efforts prove otherwise. Contradictory information arise often depending on metadata employed.

We strive to assign OA status to publications in Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus while complementing it with different sources of OA information to resolve contradicting cases.

We linked publications from WOS and Scopus via DOIs and ISSNs to Unpaywall, Crossref, DOAJ and ROAD. Only about 50% of articles and reviews from WOS and Scopus could be matched via a DOI to Unpaywall.

Matching with Crossref brought 56 distinct licences, which define in many cases the legally binding access status of publications. But only 44% of publications hold only a single licence on Crossref, while more than 50% have no licence information submitted to Crossref.

Contrasting OA information from Crossref licences with Unpaywall we found contradictory cases overall amounting to more than 25%, which might be partially explained by (ex-)including green OA.

A further manual check found about 17% of OA publications that are not accessible and 15% non-OA publications that are accessible through publishers' websites. These preliminary results suggest that identification of OA state of publications denotes a difficult and currently unfulfilled task.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03937

Correcting duplicate publications: follow up study of MEDLINE tagged duplications

At 19:16 18/02/2019

Authors : Mario Mali ki, Ana Utrobi i , Ana Maruši

Introduction

As MEDLINE indexers tag similar articles as duplicates even when journals have not addressed the duplication(s), we sought to determine the reasons behind the tagged duplications, and if the journals had undertaken or had planned to undertake any actions to address them.

Materials and methods

On 16 January 2013, we extracted all tagged duplicate publications (DPs), analysed published notices, and then contacted MEDLINE and editors regarding cases unaddressed by notices.

For non-respondents, we compared full text of the articles. We followed up the study for the next 5 years to see if any changes occurred.

Results

We found 1011 indexed DPs, which represented 555 possible DP cases (in MEDLINE, both the original and the duplicate are assigned a DP tag). Six cases were excluded as we could not obtain their full text.

Additional 190 (35%) cases were incorrectly tagged as DPs. Of 359 actual cases of DPs, 200 (54%) were due to publishers’ actions (e.g. identical publications in the same journal), and 159 (46%) due to authors’ actions (e.g. article submission to more than one journal). Of the 359 cases, 185 (52%) were addressed by notices, but only 25 (7%) retracted.

Following our notifications, MEDLINE corrected 138 (73%) incorrectly tagged cases, and editors retracted 8 articles.

Conclusions

Despite clear policies on how to handle DPs, just half (54%) of the DPs in MEDLINE were addressed by journals and only 9% retracted. Publishers, editors, and indexers need to develop and implement standards for better correction of duplicate published records.

URL : Correcting duplicate publications: follow up study of MEDLINE tagged duplications

DOI : https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2019.010201

Scholarly Communication and Open Access in Psychology: Current Considerations for Researchers

At 19:52 20/02/2019

Author : Laura Bowering Mullen

Scholarly communication and open access practices in psychological science are rapidly evolving. However, most published works that focus on scholarly communication issues do not target the specific discipline, and instead take a more “one size fits all” approach.

When it comes to scholarly communication, practices and traditions vary greatly across the disciplines. It is important to look at issues such as open access (of all types), reproducibility, research data management, citation metrics, the emergence of preprint options, the evolution of new peer review models, coauthorship conventions, and use of scholarly networking sites such as ResearchGate and Academia.edu from a disciplinary perspective.

Important issues in scholarly publishing for psychology include uptake of authors’ use of open access megajournals, how open science is represented in psychology journals, challenges of interdisciplinarity, and how authors avail themselves of green and gold open access strategies.

This overview presents a discipline-focused treatment of selected scholarly communication topics that will allow psychology researchers and others to get up to speed on this expansive topic.

Further study into researcher behavior in terms of scholarly communication in psychology would create more understanding of existing culture as well as provide early career researchers with a more effective roadmap to the current landscape.

As no other single work provides a study of scholarly communication and open access in psychology, this work aims to partially fill that niche.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2d7um

The effect of publishing peer review reports on referee behavior in five scholarly journals

At 20:53 20/02/2019

Authors : Giangiacomo Bravo, Francisco Grimaldo, Emilia López-Iñesta, Bahar Mehmani, Flaminio Squazzoni

To increase transparency in science, some scholarly journals are publishing peer review reports. But it is unclear how this practice affects the peer review process. Here, we examine the effect of publishing peer review reports on referee behavior in five scholarly journals involved in a pilot study at Elsevier.

By considering 9,220 submissions and 18,525 reviews from 2010 to 2017, we measured changes both before and during the pilot and found that publishing reports did not significantly compromise referees' willingness to review, recommendations, or turn-around times.

Younger and non-academic scholars were more willing to accept to review and provided more positive and objective recommendations. Male referees tended to write more constructive reports during the pilot.

Only 8.1% of referees agreed to reveal their identity in the published report. These findings suggest that open peer review does not compromise the process, at least when referees are able to protect their anonymity.

URL : The effect of publishing peer review reports on referee behavior in five scholarly journals

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08250-2

Les données de la recherche à l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne : Synthèse d’une enquête qualitative auprès des chercheurs

At 21:57 20/02/2019

Auteur/Author : Julie Duprat

Alors que ces dernières années l’importance de l’ouverture des publications écrites par les chercheurs des universités françaises a été largement abordée, les regards se tournent désormais sur une autre de leurs productions avec les données de la recherche.

Dans ce contexte, l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne, spécialisée en sciences humaines et sociales, souhaite mettre en place un service « données de la recherche » afin d’accompagner ses chercheurs dans la gestion et le partage de leurs données de recherche.

Au préalable du service à venir, une enquête a été menée entre septembre et décembre 2018 auprès des chercheurs de l'Université par la conservatrice-stagiaire Julie Duprat afin de faire remonter les besoins du terrain, dans une logique bottom up.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02020141

Access, preservation and analysis in a consortial journal archive: the evolution of Scholars Portal Journals

At 17:16 22/02/2019

Authors : Sabina Pagotto, Wei Zhao

This article discusses Scholars Portal Journals (SP Journals), a library consortium-run platform that aggregates and archives licensed scholarly journal content in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Born in the early days of e-journals out of a need to provide consistent and long-term access to scholarly materials in the sometimes volatile world of online publishing, SP Journals has evolved into a major digital repository and archive.

With over 55 million full-text articles and serving a student population of just under half a million, SP Journals represents a major investment in access to online scholarship.

This article explains the lifecycle of content on the platform, from initial publisher negotiations to delivering usage reports, and discusses considerations of running a locally hosted journal platform.

URL : Access, preservation and analysis in a consortial journal archive: the evolution of Scholars Portal Journals

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.458

Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review

At 12:53 23/02/2019

Author : Kristin A Briney

INTRODUCTION

Data handling in library learning analytics plays a pivotal role in protecting patron privacy, yet the landscape of data management by librarians is poorly understood.

METHODS

This critical review examines data-handling practices from 54 learning analytics studies in academic libraries and compares them against the NISO Consensus Principles on User’s Digital Privacy in Library, Publisher, and Software-Provider Systems and data management best practices.

RESULTS

A number of the published research projects demonstrate inadequate data protection practices including incomplete anonymization, prolonged data retention, collection of a broad scope of sensitive information, lack of informed consent, and sharing of patron-identified information.

DISCUSSION

As with researchers more generally, libraries should improve their data management practices. No studies aligned with the NISO Principles in all evaluated areas, but several studies provide specific exemplars of good practice.

CONCLUSION

Libraries can better protect patron privacy by improving data management practices in learning analytics research.

URL : Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2268

Strategies for Supporting OER Adoption through Faculty and Instructor Use of a Federated Search Tool

At 13:55 23/02/2019

Authors: Talea Anderson, Chelsea Leachman

INTRODUCTION

Open educational resources (OER) are gaining traction in higher education and becoming accepted by academics as a viable means for delivering course content. However, these resources can be difficult to find and use, both due to low visibility and confusion about licensing.

This article describes one university’s work with faculty members to identify barriers in their search process when they are looking to adopt OER.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

A scholarly communication librarian and science librarian partnered to collect faculty and instructor reactions to a particular OER search tool, with the intention of better understanding the difficulties encountered during the search process.

Eight interviews were conducted as participants were asked about their preferences when it comes to locating OER, understanding licensing information, and adopting materials for class.

NEXT STEPS

From these interviews, the librarians identified practical recommendations for instruction/liaison librarians and technical services/systems librarians as they continue working to support faculty and instructors through the OER discovery and selection process.

These recommendations relate to four themes uncovered in interviews with faculty and instructors: the need for increased transparency in search tools, the importance of intuitive narrowing and broadening features in search tools, the need for detailed and consistent metadata in OER records, and the need for clarity in intellectual property statements.

The librarians note that these recommendations might best be pursued through wide-scale collaboration across library units and, more generally, between libraries, consortia, and institutions.

URL : Strategies for Supporting OER Adoption through Faculty and Instructor Use of a Federated Search Tool

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2279

Legal and policy implications of licenses between LIS open access journal publishers and authors : A qualitative case study

At 19:35 28/02/2019

Authors : Tomas A. Lipinski, Katie Chamberlain Kritikos

“Open access” (“OA”) refers to research placed online free from all price barriers and from most permission barriers (Suber, 2015). OA may apply to research outputs published traditionally, such as books (Schwartz, 2012) and articles in academic journals (Suber, 2015), and non-traditionally, such as student dissertations and theses (Schöpfel & Prost).

The lack of legal barriers is grounded in and given effect through the law of copyright and contract, and the submission of content by authors is often executed through a publication agreement.

This paper studies the contract aspects of OA and the open publishing movement in library and information science (“LIS”) scholarly communication. To explore this phenomenon, it undertakes a case study of the publication agreements of five OA LIS journals.

The sample consists of a brand-new open journal with an agreements drafted by copyright librarians (journal 1) and top-ranked LIS journals that converted to OA (journals 2 through 5) (Scimago, 2017).

With a descriptive data analysis based on that in Lipinski and Copeland (2015; 2013) and Lipinski (2013; 2012), the case study investigates the similarities and differences in the agreements used by the sampled OA LIS journals.

The study builds on the best practices from the Harvard Open Access Project (Shieber & Suber, 2016; 2013). It recommends best practices for the drafting and content of OA LIS publication agreements.

URL : Legal and policy implications of licenses between LIS open access journal publishers and authors : A qualitative case study

Alternative location : http://www.qqml-journal.net/index.php/qqml/article/view/440

Joining Voices: University – Industry Partnerships in the Humanities

At 20:36 28/02/2019

Authors : Lynne Siemens, The INKE Research Group

University-industry partnerships are common in the Sciences, but less so in the Humanities. As a result, there is little understanding of how they work in the Humanities.

Using the Implementing New Knowledge Environments: Networked Open Social Scholarship (INKE:NOSS) initiative as a case study, this paper contributes to this discussion by examining the nature of the university-industry partnership with libraries and academic-adjacent organizations, and associated benefits, challenges, measures of success, and outcomes.

Interviews were conducted with the collaboration’s industry partners. After several years of collaboration on the development of a grant application, industry partners have found the experience of working with academics to be a positive one overall.

Industry partners are contributing primarily in-kind resources in the form of staff time, travel to meetings, and reading and commenting on documents. They have also been able to realize benefits while negotiating the challenges.

Using qualitative standards, measures of success and desired outcomes are being articulated. This work developing the partnership should stand the larger INKE:NOSS team in good stead if they are successful with securing grant funding.

URL : Joining Voices: University – Industry Partnerships in the Humanities

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/kula.42

Open Social Knowledge Creation and Library and Archival Metadata

At 21:37 28/02/2019

Authors: Dean Seeman, Heather Dean

Standardization both reflects and facilitates the collaborative and networked approach to metadata creation within the fields of librarianship and archival studies.

These standards­such as Resource Description and Access and Rules for Archival Description­and the theoretical frameworks they embody enable professionals to work more effectively together.

Yet such guidelines also determine who is qualified to undertake the work of cataloging and processing in libraries and archives. Both fields are empathetic to facilitating user-generated metadata and have taken steps towards collaborating with their research communities (as illustrated, for example, by social tagging and folksonomies) but these initial experiments cannot yet be regarded as widely adopted and radically open and social.

This paper explores the recent histories of descriptive work in libraries and archives and the challenges involved in departing from deeply established models of metadata creation.

URL : Open Social Knowledge Creation and Library and Archival Metadata

Towards Open Annotation: Examples and Experiments

At 22:38 28/02/2019

Authors : Lindsey Seatter

This article interrogates how digital text annotation tools and projects facilitate online engagement and virtual communities of practice. With the rise of the Web 2.0 movement and the proliferation of digital resources, annotation has evolved from an isolated practice to a collaborative one.

This article unpacks the impact of this shift by providing an in-depth discussion of five web-based tools and two social reading projects.

This article examines issues of design, usability, and applicability to pedagogical intervention as well as underscores how productive group dynamics can be fostered through digital, social annotation.

URL : Towards Open Annotation: Examples and Experiments

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/kula.49

Networking Social Scholarship…Again

At 23:41 28/02/2019

Author : Shawn Martin

This paper proposes to answer several questions that arise from the actions of American scientists between 1840 and 1890. How did the broader organization of science in the late nineteenth century create a system of professional disciplines?

Why did the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) form, and why did specialized societies like the American Chemical Society (ACS) later found an organization separate from the AAAS?

Why did these professional societies create journals, and how did these journals help to communicate science? This paper combines both quantitative textual analysis and qualitative historical and sociological methods within the context of nineteenth-century American science.

It is hoped that by broadening the methods used, and by better understanding the early deliberations of scientists before there was a formal scholarly communication system, it may be possible to contextualize current debates about the need for changes in the scholarly communication system.

URL : Networking Social Scholarship…Again

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/kula.47

When a Repository Is Not Enough: Redesigning a Digital Ecosystem to Serve Scholarly Communication

At 00:43 01/03/2019

Authors : Robin R. Sewell, Sarah Potvin, Pauline Melgoza, James Silas Creel, Jeremy T. Huff, Gregory T. Bailey, John Bondurant, Sean Buckner, Anton R. duPlessis, Lisa Furubotten, Julie A. Mosbo Ballestro, Ian W. Muise, Brian J. Wright

INTRODUCTION

Our library’s digital asset management system (DAMS) was no longer meeting digital asset management requirements or expanding scholarly communication needs.

We formed a multiunit task force (TF) to (1) survey and identify existing and emerging institutional needs; (2) research available DAMS (open source and proprietary) and assess their potential fit; and (3) deploy software locally for in-depth testing and evaluation.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

We winnowed a field of 25 potential DAMS down to 5 for deployment and evaluation. The process included selection and identification of test collections and the creation of a multipart task based rubric based on library and campus needs assessments.

Time constraints and DAMS deployment limitations prompted a move toward a new evaluation iteration: a shorter criteria-based rubric.

LESSONS LEARNED

We discovered that no single DAMS was “just right,” nor was any single DAMS a static product. Changing and expanding scholarly communication and digital needs could only be met by the more flexible approach offered by a multicomponent digital asset management ecosystem (DAME), described in this study.

We encountered obstacles related to testing complex, rapidly evolving software available in a range of configurations and flavors (including tiers of vendor-hosted functionality) and time and capacity constraints curtailed in-depth testing.

While we anticipate long-term benefits from “going further together” by including university-wide representation in the task force, there were trade-offs in distributing responsibilities and diffusing priorities.

NEXT STEPS

Shifts in scholarly communication at multiple levels­institutional, regional, consortial, national, and international­have already necessitated continual review and adjustment of our digital systems.

URL : When a Repository Is Not Enough: Redesigning a Digital Ecosystem to Serve Scholarly Communication

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2225

Open Access Escape Room: the key to OA engagement?

At 01:44 01/03/2019

Author: Katrine Sundsbø

Open access (OA) has had, and will continue to have, a significant effect on the scholarly publishing landscape in academia, yet many academic staff publish OA in order to comply with policies, rather than engaging with the value of open scholarship and in debates that ultimately affect them.

Training sessions and workshops are often arranged to increase knowledge and awareness in the academic community, but engagement is often low. On the other hand, some academic staff, who already do engage, will happily attend sessions and workshops to increase their knowledge even further.

The struggle to increase OA engagement overall could be due to the training not being appealing enough, and academics not being aware of benefits until after they have attended workshops.

This resulted in great engagement from students, academic staff and professional services staff, some of whom reported that they never knew how relevant OA was for them. The Open Access Escape Room was a success, and provided a positive environment for conversations around OA. At the University of Essex, we took a bold, brave and curious approach to increasing engagement during Open Access Week 2018, and created an OA-themed escape room.

URL : Open Access Escape Room: the key to OA engagement?

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.459

Is open access affordable? Why current models do not work and why we need internet era transformation of scholarly communications

At 13:01 02/03/2019

Author : Toby Green

Progress to open access (OA) has stalled, with perhaps 20% of new papers ‘born free’, and half of all versions of record pay walled; why? In this paper, I review the last 12 months: librarians showing muscle in negotiations, publishers’ Read and Publish deals, and funders determined to force change with initiatives like Plan S. I conclude that these efforts will not work.

For example, flipping to supply side business models, such as article processing charges, simply flips the pay wall to a ‘play wall’ to the disadvantage of authors without financial support.

I argue that the focus on OA makes us miss the bigger problem: today’s scholarly communications is unaffordable with today’s budgets. OA is not the problem, the publishing process is the problem.

To solve it, I propose using the principles of digital transformation to reinvent publishing as a two step process where articles are published first as preprints, and then, journal editors invite authors to submit only papers that ‘succeed’ to peer review.

This would reduce costs significantly, opening a sustainable pathway for scholarly publishing and OA. The catalyst for this change is for the reputation economy to accept preprints as it does articles in minor journals today.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1219

Peer Review Bias: A Critical Review

At 10:44 03/03/2019

Authors : Samir Haffar, Fateh Bazerbachi, M. Hassan Murad

Various types of bias and confounding have been described in the biomedical literature that can affect a study before, during, or after the intervention has been delivered.

The peer review process can also introduce bias. A compelling ethical and moral rationale necessitates improving the peer review process. A double-blind peer review system is supported on equipoise and fair-play principles.

Triple- and quadruple-blind systems have also been described but are not commonly used. The open peer review system introduces “Skin in the Game” heuristic principles for both authors and reviewers and has a small favorable effect on the quality of published reports.

In this exposition, we present, on the basis of a comprehensive literature search of PubMed from its inception until October 20, 2017, various possible mechanisms by which the peer review process can distort research results, and we discuss the evidence supporting different strategies that may mitigate this bias.

It is time to improve the quality, transparency, and accountability of the peer review system.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.09.004

Quality of reports of investigations of research integrity by academic institutions

At 11:47 03/03/2019

Authors : Andrew Grey, Mark Bolland, Greg Gamble, Alison Avenell

Background

Academic institutions play important roles in protecting and preserving research integrity. Concerns have been expressed about the objectivity, adequacy and transparency of institutional investigations of potentially compromised research integrity.

We assessed the reports provided to us of investigations by three academic institutions of a large body of overlapping research with potentially compromised integrity.

Methods

In 2017, we raised concerns with four academic institutions about the integrity of > 200 publications co-authored by an overlapping set of researchers. Each institution initiated an investigation.

By November 2018, three had reported to us the results of their investigations, but only one report was publicly available. Two investigators independently assessed each available report using a published 26-item checklist designed to determine the quality and adequacy of institutional investigations of research integrity. Each assessor recorded additional comments ad hoc.

Results

Concerns raised with the institutions were overlapping, wide-ranging and included those which were both general and publication-specific. The number of potentially affected publications at individual institutions ranged from 34 to 200.

The duration of investigation by the three institutions which provided reports was 8–17 months. These investigations covered 14%, 15% and 77%, respectively, of potentially affected publications.

Between-assessor agreement using the quality checklist was 0.68, 0.72 and 0.65 for each report. Only 4/78 individual checklist items were addressed adequately: a further 14 could not be assessed.

Each report was graded inadequate overall. Reports failed to address publication-specific concerns and focussed more strongly on determining research misconduct than evaluating the integrity of publications.

Conclusions

Our analyses identify important deficiencies in the quality and reporting of institutional investigation of concerns about the integrity of a large body of research reported by an overlapping set of researchers.

They reinforce disquiet about the ability of institutions to rigorously and objectively oversee integrity of research conducted by their own employees.

URL : Quality of reports of investigations of research integrity by academic institutions

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0062-x

Intellectual contributions meriting authorship: Survey results from the top cited authors across all science categories

At 12:49 03/03/2019

Authors : Gregory S. Patience, Federico Galli, Paul A. Patience, Daria C. Boffito==

Authorship is the currency of an academic career for which the number of papers researchers publish demonstrates creativity, productivity, and impact. To discourage coercive authorship practices and inflated publication records, journals require authors to affirm and detail their intellectual contributions but this strategy has been unsuccessful as authorship lists continue to grow.

Here, we surveyed close to 6000 of the top cited authors in all science categories with a list of 25 research activities that we adapted from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) authorship guidelines.

Responses varied widely from individuals in the same discipline, same level of experience, and same geographic region. Most researchers agreed with the NIH criteria and grant authorship to individuals who draft the manuscript, analyze and interpret data, and propose ideas.

However, thousands of the researchers also value supervision and contributing comments to the manuscript, whereas the NIH recommends discounting these activities when attributing authorship.

People value the minutiae of research beyond writing and data reduction: researchers in the humanities value it less than those in pure and applied sciences; individuals from Far East Asia and Middle East and Northern Africa value these activities more than anglophones and northern Europeans.

While developing national and international collaborations, researchers must recognize differences in peoples values while assigning authorship.

URL : Intellectual contributions meriting authorship: Survey results from the top cited authors across all science categories

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198117

Is Scopus Polluting Its Own Database by Indexing Junk articles? A Case Study of Five Journals

At 11:48 04/03/2019

Author : Jackie Earle Haley

The aim of this short research note is to demonstrate that Scopus is polluting its own databases, unintentionally or otherwise, by indexing junk articles. I have used five journals indexed by Scopus in this research note as examples in a case study format.

I have found that the publication rate of junk articles for these five journals increased after they began to be indexed in Scopus. These journals are publishing conference papers and graduate students’ initial research reports in which there are many errors.

This makes the indexing of The Journal of Social Sciences Research (Online ISSN: 2411-9458/Print ISSN: 2413-6670) questionable as it was considered for evaluation before its current two year publication history.

The quality of its published articles is very poor, and it has advertised and promoted false figures for its impact factors. These journals publish articles that are out of their scope and publish every article on condition of payment of a fee by the author that averages out to about 400 USD per article.

Given that these journals have been advertising and promoting fake impact factors prior to their being indexed in Scopus and given that Scopus has included them in its central index, they are deceiving young researchers and the broader academic community with false information.

Beall (2016) has previously pointed out the issue of the falsified impact factor information in his list of predatory journals. Many universities subscribe to Scopus to, among other reasons, measure the impact of their faculty members' research.

There is therefore a need to address the ethics of this situation, and this study recommends that Scopus carefully index new journals but observe the publication rates of junk articles, and if an indexed journal makes such an error, to take a decision within three months and impose a lifetime ban on indexing the journal.

URL : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3322183

Production and uptake of Open Access publications involving the private sector: the case of big pharma

At 18:57 04/03/2019

Authors : Afredo Yegros-Yegros, Thed van Leeuwen

Over the last years Open Access has been ranked very high on science policy agenda’s both internationally as well as nationally. This resulted in many national mandates and international guidelines on OA publishing of scientific results.

One of the reasons OA has been pushed so strongly by science policy is found in the argument that what is financed publicly, should be publicly available. This argument, also known as the ‘tax payers argument’ is used to support and legitimize the push for open accessibility, not only of scientific publications, but also of the underlying research data, in order to guarantee the nonacademic sector, with lower degrees of accessibility to otherwise ‘behind-the-paywall’ information, access to outcomes of scientific research in the public sector.

In this study we will focus on the developments in the OA publishing in one particular institutional sector, the private sector. Business enterprises represent the main sector in terms of R&D investments.

According to Eurostat, in the year 2016 this sector represented 65% of the total R&D expenditures within the EU28. While objectives and incentives in the private sector might not always been aligned with the disclosure of research results in the open scientific literature, there is no doubt that this is the main actor when it comes to R&D performance.

Within the business sector, we will focus our study in the pharmaceutical sector, by selecting a number of large pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies represent an interesting case of study, given that is it one of the most R&D intensive industries, while it si also known for its shift in R&D orientation, from an in-house focus in the development of R&D towards a model much more open and collaborative, with more interactions with academic partners and other companies.

Despite the importance of industrial R&D, until now it remains relatively understudied how private sector institutions which are active in R&D have embraced the OA movement, hence it remains relatively unknown how the private sector adapts to and can benefit from the new paradigm of open scholarship.

Our objective is to shed more light on the extent to which big pharma both has been publishing in OA and also has been benefiting from OA publications to build their own research.

URL : Production and uptake of Open Access publications involving the private sector: the case of big pharma

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/zt6kc

Guidelines for open peer review implementation

At 19:59 04/03/2019

Authors : Tony Ross-Hellauer, Edit Görögh

Open peer review (OPR) is moving into the mainstream, but it is often poorly understood and surveys of researcher attitudes show important barriers to implementation.

As more journals move to implement and experiment with the myriad of innovations covered by this term, there is a clear need for best practice guidelines to guide implementation.

This brief article aims to address this knowledge gap, reporting work based on an interactive stakeholder workshop to create best-practice guidelines for editors and journals who wish to transition to OPR.

Although the advice is aimed mainly at editors and publishers of scientific journals, since this is the area in which OPR is at its most mature, many of the principles may also be applicable for the implementation of OPR in other areas (e.g., books, conference submissions).

URL : Guidelines for open peer review implementation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0063-9

Decoding Academic Fair Use: Transformative Use and the Fair Use Doctrine in Scholarship

At 21:02 04/03/2019

Author : Matthew D. Bunker

Fair use in copyright law is an enormously complex legal doctrine. Although much scholarly attention has been paid to fair use in the context of teaching -- particularly in on-line education -- relatively little research exists on the problem of fair use in scholarship.

This article analyzes reported federal cases on fair use in scholarly contexts, with a particular emphasis on the transformative use doctrine that has become enormously influential in fair use determinations.

The article explores insights from this body of case law that may assist future scholars wishing to fairly use copyrighted expression in their scholarship.

URL : Decoding Academic Fair Use: Transformative Use and the Fair Use Doctrine in Scholarship

DOI : https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v3i1.6481

Historicizing the Knowledge Commons: Open Access, Technical Knowledge, and the Industrial Application of Science

At 22:04 04/03/2019

Author: Shawn Martin

How does open access relate to scholarly communication? Though there are many modern definitions stressing the accessibility of knowledge to everyone, sharing scientific knowledge has a much longer history.

What might the concept of ‘open access’ have meant to scientists and knowledge practitioners over the past several hundred years? This paper poses some relevant questions and calls for better historicization of the idea of the knowledge commons at different periods of time, particularly the era of the ‘Republic of Letters’ and the ‘Modern System of Science.’

The concept of open access as it relates to academic publishing has been very nuanced, and hopefully, understanding the history of ‘open access’ in relation to scholarly communication can help us to have more informed debates about where open access needs to go in the future.

URL : Historicizing the Knowledge Commons: Open Access, Technical Knowledge, and the Industrial Application of Science

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/kula.16

Replicable Services for Reproducible Research: A Model for Academic Libraries

At 23:06 04/03/2019

Authors : Franklin Sayre, Amy Riegelman

Over the past decade, evidence from disciplines ranging from biology to economics has suggested that many scientific studies may not be reproducible. This has led to declarations in both the scientific and lay press that science is experiencing a “reproducibility crisis” and that this crisis has consequences for the extent to which students, faculty, and the public at large can trust research.

Faculty build on these results with their own research, and students and the public use these results for everything from patient care to public policy. To build a model for how academic libraries can support reproducible research, the authors conducted a review of major guidelines from funders, publishers, and professional societies. Specific recommendations were extracted from guidelines and compared with existing academic library services and librarian expertise.

The authors believe this review shows that many of the recommendations for improving reproducibility are core areas of academic librarianship, including data management, scholarly communication, and methodological support for systematic reviews and data-intensive research.

By increasing our knowledge of disciplinary, journal, funder, and society perspectives on reproducibility, and reframing existing librarian expertise and services, academic librarians will be well positioned to be leaders in supporting reproducible research.

URL : Replicable Services for Reproducible Research: A Model for Academic Libraries

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.80.2.260

Who Is (Likely) Peer-Reviewing Your Papers? A Partial Insight into the World’s Top Reviewers

At 00:08 05/03/2019

Authors : Francesco Pomponi, Bernardino D’Amico, Tom Rye

Scientific publishing is experiencing unprecedented growth in terms of outputs across all fields. Inevitably this creates pressure throughout the system on a number of entities.

One key element is represented by peer-reviewers, whose demand increases at an even higher pace than that of publications, since more than one reviewer per paper is needed and not all papers that get reviewed get published.

The relatively recent Publons platform allows for unprecedented insight into the usual ‘blindness’ of the peer-review system. At a time where the world’s top peer-reviewers are announced and celebrated, we have taken a step back in order to attempt a partial mapping of their profiles to identify trends and key dimensions of this community of ‘super-reviewers’.

This commentary focuses necessarily on a limited sample due to manual processing of data, which needs to be done within a single day for the type of information we seek. In investigating the numbers of performed reviews vs. academic citations, our analysis suggests that most reviews are carried out by relatively inexperienced academics.

For some of these early career academics, peer-reviewing seems to be the only activity they engage with, given the high number of reviews performed (e.g., three manuscripts per day) and the lack of outputs (zero academic papers and citations in some cases). Additionally, the world’s top researchers (i.e., highly-cited researchers) are understandably busy with research activities and therefore far less active in peer-reviewing.

Lastly, there seems to be an uneven distribution at a national level between scientific outputs (e.g., publications) and reviews performed. Our analysis contributes to the ongoing global discourse on the health of scientific peer-review, and it raises some important questions for further discussion.

URL : Who Is (Likely) Peer-Reviewing Your Papers? A Partial Insight into the World’s Top Reviewers

URL : https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/1/15

Can Google Scholar and Mendeley help to assess the scholarly impacts of dissertations?

At 19:26 07/03/2019

Authors : Kayvan Kousha, Mike Thelwall

Dissertations can be the single most important scholarly outputs of junior researchers. Whilst sets of journal articles are often evaluated with the help of citation counts from the Web of Science or Scopus, these do not index dissertations and so their impact is hard to assess.

In response, this article introduces a new multistage method to extract Google Scholar citation counts for large collections of dissertations from repositories indexed by Google.

The method was used to extract Google Scholar citation counts for 77,884 American doctoral dissertations from 2013-2017 via ProQuest, with a precision of over 95%. Some ProQuest dissertations that were dual indexed with other repositories could not be retrieved with ProQuest-specific searches but could be found with Google Scholar searches of the other repositories.

The Google Scholar citation counts were then compared with Mendeley reader counts, a known source of scholarly-like impact data. A fifth of the dissertations had at least one citation recorded in Google Scholar and slightly fewer had at least one Mendeley reader.

Based on numerical comparisons, the Mendeley reader counts seem to be more useful for impact assessment purposes for dissertations that are less than two years old, whilst Google Scholar citations are more useful for older dissertations, especially in social sciences, arts and humanities.

Google Scholar citation counts may reflect a more scholarly type of impact than that of Mendeley reader counts because dissertations attract a substantial minority of their citations from other dissertations.

In summary, the new method now makes it possible for research funders, institutions and others to systematically evaluate the impact of dissertations, although additional Google Scholar queries for other online repositories are needed to ensure comprehensive coverage.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.08746

Seeking, Reading, and Use of Scholarly Articles: An International Study of Perceptions and Behavior of Researchers

At 20:27 07/03/2019

Authors : Carol Tenopir, Lisa Christian, Jordan Kaufman

While journal articles are still considered the most important sources of scholarly reading, libraries may no longer have a monopoly on providing discovery and access. Many other sources of scholarly information are available to readers.

This international study examines how researchers discover, read, and use scholarly literature for their work. Respondents in 2018 report an average of almost 20 article readings a month and there are still significant differences found in the reading and use of scholarly literature by discipline and geographical location, consistent with the earlier studies.

Researchers show they are willing to change or adopt new strategies to discover and obtain articles.

URL : Seeking, Reading, and Use of Scholarly Articles: An International Study of Perceptions and Behavior of Researchers

Alternative location : https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/7/1/18

Open Practices in Public Higher Education in Portugal: faculty perspectives

At 21:29 07/03/2019

Authors : Paula Cardoso, Lina Morgado, António Teixeira

In recent years, the Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA) movements have been essential in creating opportunities in all scholarly activities, within the context of higher education.

The main purpose of this research was to understand how perceptions and practices of faculty towards OER are related to their perceptions and practices towards OA. It is an exploratory and descriptive study, with a mixed methods approach, undertaken in Portugal.

Results indicate that, although faculty already show some degree of knowledge and use of OER and OA in their teaching and research practices, there is still a general lack of knowledge in both fields.

However, the convergence of perceptions regarding both fields provide evidence on the possibility of a common approach to both fields in faculty’s educational practices, with the purpose of opening up their educational and scientific resources, thus reinforcing the principles of transparency, collaboration and openness to knowledge.

URL : Open Practices in Public Higher Education in Portugal: faculty perspectives

Alternative location : https://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/823

How to Fight Fair Use Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt : The Experience of One Open Educational Resource

At 22:30 07/03/2019

Author : Lindsey Weeramuni

Or was permission-seeking necessary for this project to succeed and protect the integrity of faculty and university? For many years, this OER was conservative in its approach to third-party material, avoiding making fair use claims on the theory that it was too risky and difficult to prove in the face of an infringement claim. At the launch of one of the early online open educational resources (OER) in 2002, the approach to addressing copyright was uncertain. Did the university or the faculty own their material? How would the third-party material be handled? Was all of its use considered fair use under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) because of its educational purpose?

Additionally, being one of the early projects of its kind, there was fear of becoming a target for ambitious copyright holders wanting to make headlines (and perhaps win lawsuits). It was not until 2009 that the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare was written by a community of practitioners who believed that if fair use worked for documentary film makers, video creators, and others (including big media), it worked in open education as well.

Once this Code was adopted, universities and institutions were able to offer more rich and complete course content to their users than before. This paper explains how it happened at this early open educational resource offering.

URL : How to Fight Fair Use Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt : The Experience of One Open Educational Resource

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v3i1.9751

Sci-Hub, a challenge for academic and research libraries

At 23:33 07/03/2019

Authors : Llarina González-Solar, Viviana Fernández-Marcial

Sci-Hub emerged into the field of scientific communication in 2011 as a platform for free access to scientific papers. It is the most popular of the so-called shadow libraries, systems that overcome the limits of legal access to scientific publications, standing apart from the open access movement.

Besides from the media coverage that has served to boost its popularity, several studies reveal the impact of Sci-Hub among researchers, who have embraced this initiative. Sci-Hub has revealed new forms of access to scientific information, affecting academic and research libraries that cannot remain on the sidelines.

This study addresses the Sci-Hub phenomenon and its implications for academic and research libraries from different points of view, through a bibliographic review and an analysis of examples of action.

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/10760/34165

Do open educational resources improve student learning? Implications of the access hypothesis

At 19:10 09/03/2019

Authors : Phillip J. Grimaldi, Debshila Basu Mallick, Andrew E. Waters, Richard G. Baraniuk

Open Educational Resources (OER) have been lauded for their ability to reduce student costs and improve equity in higher education. Research examining whether OER provides learning benefits have produced mixed results, with most studies showing null effects.

We argue that the common methods used to examine OER efficacy are unlikely to detect positive effects based on predictions of the access hypothesis. The access hypothesis states that OER benefits learning by providing access to critical course materials, and therefore predicts that OER should only benefit students who would not otherwise have access to the materials.

Through the use of simulation analysis, we demonstrate that even if there is a learning benefit of OER, standard research methods are unlikely to detect it.

URL : Do open educational resources improve student learning? Implications of the access hypothesis

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212508

Blockchain and OECD data repositories: opportunities and policymaking implications

At 20:11 09/03/2019

Authors : Miguel-Angel Sicilia, Anna Visvizi

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to employ the case of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data repositories to examine the potential of blockchain technology in the context of addressing basic contemporary societal concerns, such as transparency, accountability and trust in the policymaking process. Current approaches to sharing data employ standardized metadata, in which the provider of the service is assumed to be a trusted party.

However, derived data, analytic processes or links from policies, are in many cases not shared in the same form, thus breaking the provenance trace and making the repetition of analysis conducted in the past difficult. Similarly, it becomes tricky to test whether certain conditions justifying policies implemented still apply.

A higher level of reuse would require a decentralized approach to sharing both data and analytic scripts and software. This could be supported by a combination of blockchain and decentralized file system technology.

Design/methodology/approach

The findings presented in this paper have been derived from an analysis of a case study, i.e., analytics using data made available by the OECD. The set of data the OECD provides is vast and is used broadly.

The argument is structured as follows. First, current issues and topics shaping the debate on blockchain are outlined. Then, a redefinition of the main artifacts on which some simple or convoluted analytic results are based is revised for some concrete purposes.

The requirements on provenance, trust and repeatability are discussed with regards to the architecture proposed, and a proof of concept using smart contracts is used for reasoning on relevant scenarios.

Findings

A combination of decentralized file systems and an open blockchain such as Ethereum supporting smart contracts can ascertain that the set of artifacts used for the analytics is shared. This enables the sequence underlying the successive stages of research and/or policymaking to be preserved.

This suggests that, in turn, and ex post, it becomes possible to test whether evidence supporting certain findings and/or policy decisions still hold. Moreover, unlike traditional databases, blockchain technology makes it possible that immutable records can be stored.

This means that the artifacts can be used for further exploitation or repetition of results. In practical terms, the use of blockchain technology creates the opportunity to enhance the evidence-based approach to policy design and policy recommendations that the OECD fosters.

That is, it might enable the stakeholders not only to use the data available in the OECD repositories but also to assess corrections to a given policy strategy or modify its scope.

Research limitations/implications

Blockchains and related technologies are still maturing, and several questions related to their use and potential remain underexplored. Several issues require particular consideration in future research, including anonymity, scalability and stability of the data repository.

This research took as example OECD data repositories, precisely to make the point that more research and more dialogue between the research and policymaking community is needed to embrace the challenges and opportunities blockchain technology generates.

Several questions that this research prompts have not been addressed. For instance, the question of how the sharing economy concept for the specifics of the case could be employed in the context of blockchain has not been dealt with.

Practical implications

The practical implications of the research presented here can be summarized in two ways. On the one hand, by suggesting how a combination of decentralized file systems and an open blockchain, such as Ethereum supporting smart contracts, can ascertain that artifacts are shared, this paper paves the way toward a discussion on how to make this approach and solution reality.

The approach and architecture proposed in this paper would provide a way to increase the scope of the reuse of statistical data and results and thus would improve the effectiveness of decision making as well as the transparency of the evidence supporting policy.

Social implications

Decentralizing analytic artifacts will add to existing open data practices an additional layer of benefits for different actors, including but not limited to policymakers, journalists, analysts and/or researchers without the need to establish centrally managed institutions.

Moreover, due to the degree of decentralization and absence of a single-entry point, the vulnerability of data repositories to cyberthreats might be reduced. Simultaneously, by ensuring that artifacts derived from data based in those distributed depositories are made immutable therein, full reproducibility of conclusions concerning the data is possible.

In the field of data-driven policymaking processes, it might allow policymakers to devise more accurate ways of addressing pressing issues and challenges.

Originality/value

This paper offers the first blueprint of a form of sharing that complements open data practices with the decentralized approach of blockchain and decentralized file systems.

The case of OECD data repositories is used to highlight that while data storing is important, the real added value of blockchain technology rests in the possible change on how we use the data and data sets in the repositories. It would eventually enable a more transparent and actionable approach to linking policy up with the supporting evidence.

From a different angle, throughout the paper the case is made that rather than simply data, artifacts from conducted analyses should be made persistent in a blockchain.

What is at stake is the full reproducibility of conclusions based on a given set of data, coupled with the possibility of ex post testing the validity of the assumptions and evidence underlying those conclusions.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-12-2017-0276

Opening Up Open Access Institutional Repositories to Demonstrate Value: Two Universities’ Pilots on Including Metadata-Only Records

At 21:14 09/03/2019

Authors: Karen Bjork, Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Ryan Otto

INTRODUCTION

Institutional repository managers are continuously looking for new ways to demonstrate the value of their repositories. One way to do this is to create a more inclusive repository that provides reliable information about the research output produced by faculty affiliated with the institution.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

This article details two pilot projects that evaluated how their repositories could track faculty research output through the inclusion of metadata-only (no full-text) records.

The purpose of each pilot project was to determine the feasibility and provide an assessment of the long-term impact on the repository’s mission statement, staffing, and collection development policies.

NEXT STEPS

This article shares the results of the pilot project and explores the impact for faculty and end users as well as the implications for repositories.

URL : Opening Up Open Access Institutional Repositories to Demonstrate Value: Two Universities’ Pilots on Including Metadata-Only Records

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2220

Transformations disciplinaires en Littérature et Sciences Humaines à l’heure numérique

At 22:15 09/03/2019

Auteur/Author : Xavier-Laurent Salvador

Il existe une spécificité disciplinaire des LSHS qui ont en commun l’étude de l’objet documentaire. Ce dernier n’est plus conservé en bibliothèque mais consulté sous une forme chimiquement stable du silicium qui en constitue la substance.

L’émergence de nouvelles sources épistémologiques et la multiplication des compétences technologiques nécessaires pour la conduite d’une chaîne éditoriale favorise l’émergence d’une dynamique, les Humanités Numériques, que l’on pourrait définir à ce stade comme une discipline dont l’objet d’étude est à proprement parler le document numérique lui-même, éventuellement perçu comme un original second, et dont l’objectif est l’encyclopédisme numérique libre et partagé en rupture avec les processus d’édition savante.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/quaderni/1399

The impact of the open-access status on journal indices: a review of medical journals

At 08:38 14/03/2019

Authors : Saif Aldeen AlRyalat, Mohammad Saleh, Mohammad Alaqraa, Alaa Alfukaha, Yara Alkayed, Maryann Abaza, Hadeel Abu Saa, Mohamed Alshamiry

Background

Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of open access (OA) journals in almost all disciplines. This increase in OA journals was accompanied an increase in funding to support such movements.

Medical fields are among the highest funded fields, which further promoted its journals to move toward OA publishing. Here, we aim to compare OA and non-OA journals in terms of citation metrics and other indices.

Methods

We collected data on the included journals from Scopus Source List on 1st November 2018. We filtered the list for medical journals only. For each journal, we extracted data regarding citation metrics, scholarly output, and wither the journal is OA or non-OA.

Results

On the 2017 Scopus list of journals, there was 5835 medical journals. Upon analyzing the difference between medical OA and non-OA journals, we found that OA journals had a significantly higher CiteScore (p< 0.001), percent cited (p< 0.001), and source normalized impact per paper (SNIP) (p< 0.001), whereas non-OA journals had higher scholarly output (p< 0.001).

Among the five largest journal publishers, Springer Nature published the highest frequency of OA articles (31.5%), while Wiley-Blackwell had the lowest frequency among its medical journals (4.4%).

Conclusion

Among medical journals, although non-OA journals still have higher output in terms of articles per year, OA journals have higher citation metrics.

URL : The impact of the open-access status on journal indices: a review of medical journals DOI : https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17979.1

Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines

At 09:41 14/03/2019

Authors : Kathleen Gregory, Paul Groth, Helena Cousijn, Andrea Scharnhorst, Sally Wyatt

A cross disciplinary examination of the user behaviors involved in seeking and evaluating data is surprisingly absent from the research data discussion. This review explores the data retrieval literature to identify commonalities in how users search for and evaluate observational research data in selected disciplines.

Two analytical frameworks, rooted in information retrieval and science and technology studies, are used to identify key similarities in practices as a first step toward developing a model describing data retrieval.

URL : Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24165

Ten myths around open scholarly publishing

At 11:49 16/03/2019

Authors : Jonathan P Tennant , Harry Crane , Tom Crick , Jacinto Davila , Asura Enkhbayar , Johanna Havemann , Bianca Kramer , Ryan Martin , Paola Masuzzo , Andy Nobes , Curt Rice , Bárbara R López , Tony Ross-Hellauer , Susanne Sattler , Paul Thacker , MarcVanholsbeeck

The changing world of scholarly communication and the emergence of ‘Open Science’ or ‘Open Research’ has brought to light a number of controversial and hotly-debated topics.

Yet, evidence-based rational debate is regularly drowned out by misinformed or exaggerated rhetoric, which does not benefit the evolving system of scholarly communication.

The aim of this article is to provide a baseline evidence framework for ten of the most contested topics, in order to help frame and move forward discussions, practices and policies. We address preprints and scooping, the practice of copyright transfer, the function of peer review, and the legitimacy of ‘global’ databases.

The presented facts and data will be a powerful tool against misinformation across wider academic research, policy and practice, and may be used to inform changes within the rapidly evolving scholarly publishing system.

URL : Ten myths around open scholarly publishing

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27580v1

A cross sectional study of retraction notices of scholarly journals of science

At 12:50 16/03/2019

Authors : Manorama Tripathi, Sharad Kumar Sonkar, Sunil Kumar

Retraction is the withdrawal of published article after it is found that the authors did not ensure integrity in conducting and reporting their research activities. The bibliometric information of 4716 document categorised as retractions in Science Citation Index, Web of Science was downloaded and analysed to understand trend, pattern and reasons of retraction.

The results showed that retractions had increased during the ten-year period, 2008-2017. The main reasons for retractions were plagiarism, falsified data, manipulation of images and figures. It was also found that just 40 out of 4716 retraction notices had explicitly stated reasons for retracting the published articles.

The open access journals had more number of retractions as compared to subscription based journals. The study will guide library professionals and research scholars towards a better comprehension of the reasons behind retractions in science discipline in the ten-year period.

They would be better equipped to steer clear of inauthentic publications in their citations and references.

URL : A cross sectional study of retraction notices of scholarly journals of science

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/14000

Les business models de l’édition open source ; Le cas des logiciels

At 16:45 17/03/2019

Authors : Amel Charleux, Anne Mione

Cette recherche identifie les business models (BM) mis en œuvre par les éditeurs de logiciels libres et open source. Ces modèles requièrent une approche originale des BM parce que la création de la valeur dépend de l’attractivité du projet auprès de contributeurs dont le nombre, la qualité et la diversité ne sont pas contrôlés.

Cette spécificité pose la question du partage d’une valeur qui ne peut pas être anticipée ni formellement négociée. Nous procédons à une analyse quantitative de près de 200 logiciels et réalisons une taxonomie par la méthode TwoStep Cluster. Nos résultats mettent au jour quatre BM, engagement, exploration, expertise et optimisation.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/fcs/2088

The Time Efficiency Gain in Sharing and Reuse of Research Data

At 03:43 20/03/2019

Author: Tessa E. Pronk

Among the frequently stated benefits of sharing research data are time efficiency or increased productivity. The assumption is that reuse or secondary use of research data saves researchers time in not having to produce data for a publication themselves.

This can make science more efficient and productive. However, if there is no reuse, time costs in making data available for reuse will have been made with no return on this investment.

In this paper a mathematical model is used to calculate the break-even point for time spent sharing in a scientific community, versus time gain by reuse. This is done for several scenarios; from simple to complex datasets to share and reuse, and at different sharing rates.

The results indicate that sharing research data can indeed cause an efficiency revenue for the scientific community. However, this is not a given in all modeled scenarios.

The scientific community with the lowest reuse needed to reach a break-even point is one that has few sharing researchers and low time investments for sharing and reuse.

This suggests it would be beneficial to have a critical selection of datasets that are worth the effort to prepare for reuse in other scientific studies. In addition, stimulating reuse of datasets in itself would be beneficial to increase efficiency in scientific communities.

URL : The Time Efficiency Gain in Sharing and Reuse of Research Data

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-010

Determining Textbook Cost, Formats, and Licensing with Google Books API: A Case Study from an Open Textbook Project

At 16:15 24/03/2019

Authors : Eamon Costello, Richard Bolger, Tiziana Soverino, Mark Brown

The rising cost of textbooks for students has been highlighted as a major concern in higher education, particularly in the US and Canada. Less has been reported, however, about the costs of textbooks outside of North America, including in Europe.

We address this gap in the knowledge through a case study of one Irish higher education institution, focusing on the cost, accessibility, and licensing of textbooks. We report here on an investigation of textbook prices drawing from an official college course catalog containing several thousand books.

We detail how we sought to determine metadata of these books including: the formats they are available in, whether they are in the public domain, and the retail prices.

We explain how we used methods to automatically determine textbook costs using Google Books API and make our code and dataset publicly available.

URL : Determining Textbook Cost, Formats, and Licensing with Google Books API: A Case Study from an Open Textbook Project

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v38i1.10738

Potential predatory journals are colonizing the ICMJE recommendations list of followers

At 10:50 27/03/2019

Authors : Dal-Ré R., Maruši A.

BACKGROUND

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has expressed its concerns about predatory journals using the list of ICMJE Recommendations (ICMJE-R) followers to "gain the appearance of legitimacy."

We assessed the presence of potential predatory journals on the ICMJE-R list and their adherence to ICMJE recommendations.

METHODS

A random sample of 350 journals from the estimated 3,100-3,200 biomedical journals listed as ICMJE-R followers was chosen. Data collected from the ICMJE and journal webpages in English were: adherence to six ICMJE-R policies/requirements, year of journal's listing as ICMJE-R follower, discipline covered, publisher and its country of origin and existence of article processing charge.

Potential predatory journal was considered as one open access journal not being a member of a recognized listing in COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, AJOL and/or INASP.

RESULTS

Thirty-one percent of journals were considered to be potentially predatory; 94% of them were included in the ICMJE-R list in 2014-2018. Half were published in the United States and 62% were devoted to medicine.

Adherence to five of the six policies/requirements was infrequent, ranging from 51% (plagiarism) to 7% (trial registration). Seventy-two percent of journals mentioned a policy on authors' conflicts of interest. Information on article processing charge was available for 76% journals and could not be found for 22%.==

Authorship policy/ instructions were significantly more present in journals with publishers from India than from the USA (53% vs 30%; p = 0.047), with no differences in the other five policies.

CONCLUSION

Predatory journals should be deleted from the ICMJE-R list of followers to prevent misleading authors. ICMJE-R following journals need to be reevaluated with pre-defined published criteria.

URL : http://www.njmonline.nl/getpdf.php?id=2093

Establishing a Research Data Management Service on a Health Sciences Campus

At 11:52 27/03/2019

Authors : Kathryn Vela, Nancy Shin

Objective

Given the increasing need for research data management support and education, the Spokane Academic Library at Washington State University (WSU) sought to determine the data management practices, perceptions, and needs of researchers on the WSU Spokane health sciences campus.

Methods

A 23-question online survey was distributed to WSU researchers and research support staff through the campus listserv.

This online survey addressed data organization, documentation, storage & backup, security, preservation, and sharing, as well as challenges and desired support services.

Results

Survey results indicated that there was a clear need for more instruction with regard to data management planning, particularly as data management planning addresses the areas of metadata design, data sharing, data security, and data storage and backup.

Conclusions

This needs assessment will direct how RDM services are implemented on the WSU Spokane campus by the Spokane Academic Library (SAL). These services will influence both research data quality and integrity through improved data management practices.

URL : Establishing a Research Data Management Service on a Health Sciences Campus

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2019.1146

Data objects and documenting scientific processes: An analysis of data events in biodiversity data papers

At 12:55 27/03/2019

Authors : Kai Li, Jane Greenberg, Jillian Dunic

The data paper, an emerging scholarly genre, describes research datasets and is intended to bridge the gap between the publication of research data and scientific articles. Research examining how data papers report data events, such as data transactions and manipulations, is limited.

The research reported on in this paper addresses this limitation and investigated how data events are inscribed in data papers. A content analysis was conducted examining the full texts of 82 data papers, drawn from the curated list of data papers connected to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Data events recorded for each paper were organized into a set of 17 categories. Many of these categories are described together in the same sentence, which indicates the messiness of data events in the laboratory space.

The findings challenge the degrees to which data papers are a distinct genre compared to research papers and they describe data-centric research processes in a through way.

This paper also discusses how our results could inform a better data publication ecosystem in the future.

URL : Data objects and documenting scientific processes: An analysis of data events in biodiversity data papers

Alternative location : https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06215

Assessing Data Management Support Needs of Bioengineering and Biomedical Research Faculty

At 13:57 27/03/2019

Authors : Christie A. Wiley,

Objectives

This study explores data management knowledge, attitudes, and practices of bioengineering and biomedical researchers in the context of the National Institutes of Health-funded research projects. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following questions:

• What is the nature of biomedical and bioengineering research on the Illinois campus and what kinds of data are being generated?

• To what degree are biomedical and bioengineering researchers aware of best practices for data management and what are the actual data management behaviors?

• What aspects of data management present the greatest challenges and frustrations?

• To what degree are biomedical and bioengineering researchers aware of data sharing opportunities and data repositories, and what are their attitudes towards data sharing?

• To what degree are researchers aware of campus services and support for data management planning, data sharing, and data deposit, and what is the level of interest in instruction in these areas?

Methods

Librarians on the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign campus conducted semi-structured interviews with bioengineering and biomedical researchers to explore researchers’ knowledge of data management best practices, awareness of library campus services, data management behavior and challenges managing research data.

The topics covered during the interviews were current research projects, data types, format, description, campus repository usage, data-sharing, awareness of library campus services, data reuse, the anticipated impact of health on public and challenges (interview questions are provided in the Appendix).

Results

This study revealed the majority of researchers explore broad research topics, various file storage solutions, generate numerous amounts of data and adhere to differing discipline-specific practices. Researchers expressed both familiarity and unfamiliarity with DMP Tool.

Roughly half of the researchers interviewed reported having documented protocols for file names, file backup, and file storage. Findings also suggest that there is ambiguity about what it means to share research data and confusion about terminology such as “repository” and “data deposit”. Many researchers equate publication to data sharing.

Conclusions

The interviews reveal significant data literacy gaps that present opportunities for library instruction in the areas of file organization, project workflow and documentation, metadata standards, and data deposit options.

The interviews also provide invaluable insight into biomedical and bioengineering research in general and contribute to the authors’ understanding of the challenges facing the researchers we strive to support.

URL : Assessing Data Management Support Needs of Bioengineering and Biomedical Research Faculty

Alternative location  : https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol8/iss1/1/

Let It Flow: The Monopolization of Academic Content Providers and How It Threatens the Democratization of Information

At 23:36 29/03/2019

Author : Dana Lachenmayer

The monopolization of academic journal publishers concentrates power and valuable information into the hands of a few players in the marketplace. It has detrimental effects on how information flows and is accessed.

This, in turn, has profound effects on how a nation progresses. Placed in a theoretical framework, utilizing the marketplace of ideas and the economies that coincide, this article takes a look at the history of Elsevier in order to chart this course toward monopolization.

It exhibits the effect it has already had on the academic community, while offering two models of Open Access as a much sounder option.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2018.1556189

Responsible data sharing in international health research: a systematic review of principles and norms

At 17:48 01/04/2019

Authors : Shona Kalkman, Menno Mostert, Christoph Gerlinger, Johannes J. M. van Delden, Ghislaine J. M. W. van Thiel

Background

Large-scale linkage of international clinical datasets could lead to unique insights into disease aetiology and facilitate treatment evaluation and drug development.

Hereto, multi-stakeholder consortia are currently designing several disease-specific translational research platforms to enable international health data sharing.

Despite the recent adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the procedures for how to govern responsible data sharing in such projects are not at all spelled out yet. In search of a first, basic outline of an ethical governance framework, we set out to explore relevant ethical principles and norms.

Methods

We performed a systematic review of literature and ethical guidelines for principles and norms pertaining to data sharing for international health research.

Results

We observed an abundance of principles and norms with considerable convergence at the aggregate level of four overarching themes: societal benefits and value; distribution of risks, benefits and burdens; respect for individuals and groups; and public trust and engagement.

However, at the level of principles and norms we identified substantial variation in the phrasing and level of detail, the number and content of norms considered necessary to protect a principle, and the contextual approaches in which principles and norms are used.

Conclusions

While providing some helpful leads for further work on a coherent governance framework for data sharing, the current collection of principles and norms prompts important questions about how to streamline terminology regarding de-identification and how to harmonise the identified principles and norms into a coherent governance framework that promotes data sharing while securing public trust.

URL : Responsible data sharing in international health research: a systematic review of principles and norms

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0359-9

Online division of labour: emergent structures in Open Source Software

At 18:50 01/04/2019

Authors : María J. Palazzi, Jordi Cabot, Javier Luis Cánovas Izquierdo, Albert Solé-Ribalta, Javier Borge-Holthoefer

The development Open Source Software fundamentally depends on the participation and commitment of volunteer developers to progress. Several works have presented strategies to increase the on-boarding and engagement of new contributors, but little is known on how these diverse groups of developers self-organise to work together.

To understand this, one must consider that, on one hand, platforms like GitHub provide a virtually unlimited development framework: any number of actors can potentially join to contribute in a decentralised, distributed, remote, and asynchronous manner.

On the other, however, it seems reasonable that some sort of hierarchy and division of labour must be in place to meet human biological and cognitive limits, and also to achieve some level of efficiency.

These latter features (hierarchy and division of labour) should translate into recognisable structural arrangements when projects are represented as developer-file bipartite networks.

In this paper we analyse a set of popular open source projects from GitHub, placing the accent on three key properties: nestedness, modularity and in-block nestedness -which typify the emergence of heterogeneities among contributors, the emergence of subgroups of developers working on specific subgroups of files, and a mixture of the two previous, respectively.

These analyses show that indeed projects evolve into internally organised blocks. Furthermore, the distribution of sizes of such blocks is bounded, connecting our results to the celebrated Dunbar number both in off- and on-line environments.

Our analyses create a link between bio-cognitive constraints, group formation and online working environments, opening up a rich scenario for future research on (online) work team assembly.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.03375

Revisiting the Term Predatory Open Access Publishing

At 19:51 01/04/2019

Author : Aamir Raoof Memon

Since the 1990s, scholarly publishing has been transformed from subscription print-based paradigm to an open access and digital publishing model, but this transformation has been accompanied by unethical and predatory publishing practices.

‘Pay-to-publish’ predatory journals abuse the open-access publishing model, and their main intention is to make money out of authors for their editor–owners. The defining characteristic of predatory journals is the lack of a proper peer review process, despite their claims to the contrary.

The spectrum of victims of predatory journals varies widely and includes inexperienced, early-career and naive researchers from both developing and high- to upper middle-income countries, together with experienced researchers.

To circumvent this, several black and whitelists have been created. Beall's list of potential or probable predatory journals remained the go-to list until its sudden closure.

Later, similar lists such as the Stop Predatory Journals website (https://predatoryjournals.com), and institutional lists such as those published by the University Grants Commission (UGC) India, and several other commercial bodies and associations appeared; however, they have been criticized for several reasons, including their poor methodology and lack of transparency.

The world of scholarly publishing is not purely black and white, and there are always some grey areas; therefore, we cannot rely on any such listings.

URL : Revisiting the Term Predatory Open Access Publishing

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2019.34.e99

Ten principles for machine-actionable data management plans

At 20:53 01/04/2019

Authors : Tomasz Miksa, Stephanie Simms, Daniel Mietchen, Sarah Jones

Data management plans (DMPs) are documents accompanying research proposals and project outputs. DMPs are created as free-form text and describe the data and tools employed in scientific investigations. They are often seen as an administrative exercise and not as an integral part of research practice.

There is now widespread recognition that the DMP can have more thematic, machine-actionable richness with added value for all stakeholders: researchers, funders, repository managers, research administrators, data librarians, and others.

The research community is moving toward a shared goal of making DMPs machine-actionable to improve the experience for all involved by exchanging information across research tools and systems and embedding DMPs in existing workflows.

This will enable parts of the DMP to be automatically generated and shared, thus reducing administrative burdens and improving the quality of information within a DMP.

This paper presents 10 principles to put machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) into practice and realize their benefits. The principles contain specific actions that various stakeholders are already undertaking or should undertake in order to work together across research communities to achieve the larger aims of the principles themselves.

We describe existing initiatives to highlight how much progress has already been made toward achieving the goals of maDMPs as well as a call to action for those who wish to get involved.

URL : Ten principles for machine-actionable data management plans

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006750

Highly cited references in PLOS ONE and their in-text usage over time

At 21:55 01/04/2019

Authors : Wolfgang Otto, Behnam Ghavimi, Philipp Mayr, Rajesh Piryani, Vivek Kumar Singh

In this article, we describe highly cited publications in a PLOS ONE full-text corpus. For these publications, we analyse the citation contexts concerning their position in the text and their age at the time of citing.

By selecting the perspective of highly cited papers, we can distinguish them based on the context during citation even if we do not have any other information source or metrics.

We describe the top cited references based on how, when and in which context they are cited. The focus of this study is on a time perspective to explain the nature of the reception of highly cited papers.

We have found that these references are distinguishable by the IMRaD sections of their citation. And further, we can show that the section usage of highly cited papers is time-dependent.

The longer the citation interval, the higher the probability that a reference is cited in a method section.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11693

From closed to open access: A case study of flipped journals

At 22:56 01/04/2019

Authors : Fakhri Momeni, Nicholas Fraser, Isabella Peters, Philipp Mayr

In recent years, increased stakeholder pressure to transition research to Open Access has led to many journals "flipping" from a toll access to an open access publishing model. Changing the publishing model can influence the decision of authors to submit their papers to a journal, and increased article accessibility may influence citation behaviour.

The aim of this paper is to show changes in the number of published articles and citations after the flipping of a journal. We analysed a set of 171 journals in the Web of Science (WoS) which flipped to open access.

In addition to comparing the number of articles, average relative citation (ARC) and normalized impact factor (IF) are applied, respectively, as bibliometric indicators at the article and journal level, to trace the transformation of flipped journals covered.

Our results show that flipping mostly has had positive effects on journal's IF. But it has had no obvious citation advantage for the articles. We also see a decline in the number of published articles after flipping.

We can conclude that flipping to open access can improve the performance of journals, despite decreasing the tendency of authors to submit their articles and no better citation advantages for articles.

URL : https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11682

Implementing publisher policies that inform, support and encourage authors to share data: two case studies

At 23:59 01/04/2019

Authors: Leila Jones, Rebecca Grant, Iain Hrynaszkiewicz

Open research data is one of the key areas in the expanding open scholarship movement. Scholarly journals and publishers find themselves at the heart of the shift towards openness, with recent years seeing an increase in the number of scholarly journals with data-sharing policies aiming to increase transparency and reproducibility of research.

In this article we present two case studies which examine the experiences that two leading academic publishers, Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature, have had in rolling out data-sharing policies.

We illustrate some of the considerations involved in providing consistent policies across journals of many disciplines, reflecting on successes and challenges.

URL : Implementing publisher policies that inform, support and encourage authors to share data: two case studies

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.463

Decoding Academic Fair Use: Transformative Use and the Fair Use Doctrine in Scholarship

At 01:00 02/04/2019

Author : Matthew D. Bunker

Fair use in copyright law is an enormously complex legal doctrine. Although much scholarly attention has been paid to fair use in the context of teaching -- particularly in on-line education -- relatively little research exists on the problem of fair use in scholarship.

This article analyzes reported federal cases on fair use in scholarly contexts, with a particular emphasis on the transformative use doctrine that has become enormously influential in fair use determinations.

The article explores insights from this body of case law that may assist future scholars wishing to fairly use copyrighted expression in their scholarship.

URL : Decoding Academic Fair Use: Transformative Use and the Fair Use Doctrine in Scholarship

DOI : https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v3i1.6481

Analyser l'autorité dans les publications scientifiques

At 18:23 02/04/2019

Auteure/Author : Evelyne Broudoux

Les usages de l’autorité dans les écrits scientifiques sont peu analysés en sciences de l’information et de la communication, la littérature se concentrant sur l’analyse de citations d’articles pour mesurer statistiquement leur influence.

A partir de définitions reconnues dans différentes disciplines, nous proposons de modéliser l’autorité selon ses modes d’expression. Le premier concerne les entités sociales nommées qui se décomposent en autorité énonciative et autorité institutionnelle.

Les autorités épistémique et cognitive concernent les connaissances ; la médiatisation des écrits se déroule sous l’autorité du support-logiciel et l’autorité du public visé.

Une première mise en pratique de la grille d’analyse ainsi constituée indique que ses trois modes d’autorité peuvent se superposer sans s’exclure selon les objectifs poursuivis par les auteurs.

URL : https://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01827957

Tough data-driven decisions and radical thinking: how Middlesbrough College’s LRC survived austerity

At 17:55 08/04/2019

Author: Tracey Totty

When other libraries had their budgets cut, Middlesbrough College’s Learning Resources Centre (LRC) enjoyed a stable (yet not increasing) budget with minor cuts from 2015–2017. For 2017–2018, the LRC was required to save 50% of its non-pay budget. The cuts were not unexpected, but so much in one go was a severe shock.

As a matter of good practice, we were already making data-driven decisions for all our resources and were trying to get the best deals we could. It was time for consolidation, tougher decisions and, possibly, some radical thinking.

The author presented this work at the UKSG E-resources for Further Education event in November 2018. At the beginning of 2017 this process started, and is now reaping rewards. This article will set out how decisions on making the necessary budget cuts were made, what was done to make the reduced budget go further (whilst maintaining the high quality of services) and the results of the exercise.

URL : Tough data-driven decisions and radical thinking: how Middlesbrough College’s LRC survived austerity

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.462

Hype or Real Threat: The Extent of Predatory Journals in Student Bibliographies

At 18:56 08/04/2019

Authors : H. Rainer Schira, Chris Hurst

Predatory publishing has risen with the development of open access publishing. This study examines how many potential predatory journals were used by Brandon University students by analyzing their bibliographies.

In total, 245 bibliographies including 2,359 citations were analyzed. Of the 1,485 citations to journals in these citations, five were found to cite journals on Beall’s List of Predatory Journals and Publishers.

The probable sources of these journals in the students’ bibliographies were examined.

URL : Hype or Real Threat: The Extent of Predatory Journals in Student Bibliographies

DOI : https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v14i1.4764

Outcomes and Impacts of Development Interventions: Toward Conceptual Clarity

At 19:59 08/04/2019

Authors : Brian Belcher, Markus Palenberg

The terms “outcome” and “impact” are ubiquitous in evaluation discourse. However, there are many competing definitions that lack clarity and consistency and sometimes represent fundamentally different meanings.

This leads to profound confusion, undermines efforts to improve learning and accountability, and represents a challenge for the evaluation profession. This article investigates how the terms are defined and understood by different institutions and communities. It systematically investigates representative sets of definitions, analyzing them to identify 16 distinct defining elements.

This framework is then used to compare definitions and assess their usefulness and limitations. Based on this assessment, the article proposes a remedy in three parts: applying good definition practice in future definition updates, differentiating causal perspectives and using appropriate causal language, and employing meaningful qualifiers when using the terms outcome and impact.

The article draws on definitions used in international development, but its findings also apply to domestic public sector policies and interventions.

URL : Outcomes and Impacts of Development Interventions: Toward Conceptual Clarity

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214018765698

The Two-Way Street of Open Access Journal Publishing: Flip It and Reverse It

At 21:02 08/04/2019

Authors : Lisa Matthias, Najko Jahn, Mikael Laakso

As Open access (OA) is often perceived as the end goal of scholarly publishing, much research has focused on flipping subscription journals to an OA model. Focusing on what can happen after the presumed finish line, this study identifies journals that have converted from OA to a subscription model, and places these “reverse flips” within the greater context of scholarly publishing.

In particular, we examine specific journal descriptors, such as access mode, publisher, subject area, society affiliation, article volume, and citation metrics, to deepen our understanding of reverse flips.

Our results show that at least 152 actively publishing journals have reverse-flipped since 2005, suggesting that this phenomenon does not constitute merely a few marginal outliers, but instead a common pattern within scholarly publishing.

Notably, we found that 62% of reverse flips (N = 95) had not been born-OA journals, but had been founded as subscription journals, and hence have experienced a three-stage transformation from closed to open to closed.

We argue that reverse flips present a unique perspective on OA, and that further research would greatly benefit from enhanced data and tools for identifying such cases.

URL : The Two-Way Street of Open Access Journal Publishing: Flip It and Reverse It

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7020023

If Research Libraries and Funders Finance Open Access: Moving Beyond Subscriptions and APCs

At 22:04 08/04/2019

Authors : John Willinsky, Matthew Rusk

Following the examples of SCOAP3, in which libraries fund open access, and eLife, in which funding agencies have begun to directly fund open access scholarly publishing, this study presents an analysis of how creatively combining these two models might provide a means to move toward universal open access (without APCs).

This study calculates the publishing costs for the funders that sponsor the research and for the libraries that cover unsponsored articles for two nonprofit biomedical publishers, eLife and PLOS, and the nonprofit journal aggregator BioOne.

These entities represent a mix of publishing revenue models, including funder sponsorship, article processing charges (APC), and subscription fees. Using PubMed filtering and manual-sampling strategies, as well as publicly available publisher revenue data, the study found that, in 2015, 86 percent of the articles in eLife and PLOS acknowledge funder support, as do 76 percent of the articles in the largely subscription journals of BioOne.

Such findings can inform libraries and funding agencies, as well as publishers, in their consideration of a direct-payment open access model, as the study (a) demonstrates the cost breakdown for funder and library support for open access among this sample of X articles; (b) posits how publishing data-management organizations such as Crossref and ORCID can facilitate such a model of funder and library per-article open access payments; and (c) proposes ways in which such a model offers a more efficient, equitable, and scalable approach to open access across the disciplines than the prevailing APC model, which originated with biomedical publishing.

URL : If Research Libraries and Funders Finance Open Access: Moving Beyond Subscriptions and APCs

Alternative location : https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16992

Evolving and Enduring Patterns Surrounding Student Usage and Perceptions of Academic Library Reference Services

At 23:06 08/04/2019

Authors : Jodi Jameson, Gerald Natal, John Napp

This descriptive study analyzes results from an 18-item survey which assessed students’ usage and perceptions of library reference services at a comprehensive public metropolitan university.

Among 235 surveys completed between November 2016 and January 2017, the majority of respondents represented the “Generation Z” population of college students, 18 to 24 years of age. Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed patterns of reference service usage, perceptions of librarians, and barriers and facilitators to seeking help from a librarian.

These findings can inform decision-making to improve marketing and outreach to students regarding general reference services, reference models, and liaison roles.

URL : Evolving and Enduring Patterns Surrounding Student Usage and Perceptions of Academic Library Reference Services

Alternative location : https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/17116

Use of the Journal Impact Factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations

At 18:10 10/04/2019

Authors : Erin C. McKiernan , Lesley A. Schimanski, Carol Muñoz Nieves, Lisa Matthias, Meredith T. Niles, Juan Pablo Alperin

The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) was originally designed to aid libraries in deciding which journals to index and purchase for their collections. Over the past few decades, however, it has become a relied upon metric used to evaluate research articles based on journal rank. Surveyed faculty often report feeling pressure to publish in journals with high JIFs and mention reliance on the JIF as one problem with current academic evaluation systems.

While faculty reports are useful, information is lacking on how often and in what ways the JIF is currently used for review, promotion, and tenure (RPT). We therefore collected and analyzed RPT documents from a representative sample of 129 universities from the United States and Canada and 381 of their academic units.

We found that 40% of doctoral, research-intensive (R-type) institutions and 18% of master’s, or comprehensive (M-type) institutions explicitly mentioned the JIF, or closely related terms, in their RPT documents.

Undergraduate, or baccalaureate (B-type) institutions did not mention it at all. A detailed reading of these documents suggests that institutions may also be using a variety of terms to indirectly refer to the JIF.

Our qualitative analysis shows that 87% of the institutions that mentioned the JIF supported the metric’s use in at least one of their RPT documents, while 13% of institutions expressed caution about the JIF’s use in evaluations.

None of the RPT documents we analyzed heavily criticized the JIF or prohibited its use in evaluations. Of the institutions that mentioned the JIF, 63% associated it with quality, 40% with impact, importance, or significance, and 20% with prestige, reputation, or status.

In sum, our results show that the use of the JIF is encouraged in RPT evaluations, especially at research-intensive universities, and indicates there is work to be done to improve evaluation processes to avoid the potential misuse of metrics like the JIF.

URL : Use of the Journal Impact Factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27638v2

Instagram and the science museum: a missed opportunity for public engagement

At 19:12 10/04/2019

Authors : Paige Brown Jarreau, Nicole Smith Dahmen, Ember Jones

Science museums are missing an opportunity to promote informal education, scientific literacy, public engagement and public visibility of scientists outside of museum walls via Instagram.

With an analysis of 1,073 Instagram posts, we show that museums are using Instagram as a promotional broadcasting tool, with a focus on end results of collections and curation work over communication of museum-led discovery and science as a process.

We suggest that science museums create more Instagram posts that offer educational information and visibility of exhibit creation and museum researchers' work behind the scenes.

URL : Instagram and the science museum: a missed opportunityfor public engagement

Alternative location : https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/18/02/JCOM_1802_2019_A06

Building an International Consensus on Multi-Disciplinary Metadata Standards: A CODATA Case History in Nanotechnology

At 20:14 10/04/2019

Authors : John Rumble, John Broome, Simon Hodson

Science today is rapidly becoming both multi-disciplinary and data-driven. These two trends pose new challenges to the capture, management, sharing, and dissemination of research data. Multi-disciplinary science means diverse data generation communities and equally diverse user groups.

Data-driven means that sharing data among different communities is more important than ever because of the growth of modeling and knowledge discovery.

Nanotechnology is a prime example, involving chemistry, physics, materials science, toxicology, environmental science, and many other disciplines. During the past few years, CODATA has created an international, multi-disciplinary Working Group that has developed a number of critically important metadata standards to facilitate sharing nanomaterials data.

In this paper, we discuss the challenges faced in starting and executing this work, as well as the approaches taken to make progress on producing internationally accepted metadata standards.

Many of these approaches are directly applicable to other multi-disciplinary subjects.

URL : Building an International Consensus on Multi-Disciplinary Metadata Standards: A CODATA Case History in Nanotechnology

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-012

Construction(s) et contradictions des données de recherche en SHS

At 21:16 10/04/2019

Authors : Marie-Laure Malingre, Morgane Mignon, Cécile Pierre, Alexandre Serres

La structuration et le partage des données s’imposent depuis cinq ans au monde de la recherche, à travers des injonctions politiques (de Horizon 2020 au Plan national pour la science ouverte).

L’analyse de l’enquête menée en 2017 auprès des chercheurs de l’université Rennes 2 sur leurs pratiques, représentations et attentes en matière de données conduit à interroger le terme lui-même. Variable et complexe, contrairement à ce que suggère le mot « donnée », la notion ne va pas de soi.

L’article s’efforcera de montrer qu’elle fait l’objet d’une triple construction, épistémologique, intellectuelle et politique, dans les discours des chercheurs et des acteurs institutionnels, en tension avec les pratiques constatées sur le terrain.

DOI : https://www.openscience.fr/Construction-s-et-contradictions-des-donnees-de-recherche-en-SHS#

Investigating SSH Research and Publication Practices in Disciplinary and Institutional Contexts. A Survey-Based Comparative Approach in Two Universities

At 18:50 11/04/2019

Authors : Florian Baye, Juan Gorraiz, Christian Gumpenberger, Arantxa Itúrbiden, Isabel Iribarren-Maestro, Steve Reding

In this paper, we comparatively analyze, present and discuss the results from a survey on increasing the visibility of research achievements in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) that was carried out at the University of Vienna (Austria) and the University of Navarra (Spain) in 2016 and 2017.

Covering four major topics­searching and finding literature, publishing, the visibility of research, and the assessment of research outputs­we ask the following questions: are there disciplinary differences to be identified, and how do they present themselves in the two institutional contexts?

Discussing the results, we showcase how disciplinary and institutional traditions and contexts are important factors that influence research and publication practices in the SSH.

Our results indicate that the practices of searching and finding literature as well as publication practices and behavior are shaped by disciplinary traditions and epistemic cultures.

On the contrary, assessment and valuation of research outputs are influenced by institutional and national contexts in which SSH research is organized and carried out.

URL : Investigating SSH Research and Publication Practices in Disciplinary and Institutional Contexts. A Survey-Based Comparative Approach in Two Universities

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2019.00001

The Cornwall a-book: An Augmented Travel Guide Using Next Generation Paper

At 19:51 11/04/2019

Authors : David M. Frohlich, Emily Corrigan-Kavanagh, Mirek Bober, Haiyue Yuan, Radu Sporea, Brice Le Borgne, Caroline Scarles, George Revill, Jan van Duppen, Alan W. Brown, Megan Beynon

Electronic publishing usually presents readers with book or e-book options for reading on paper or screen. In this paper, we introduce a third method of reading on paper-and-screen through the use of an augmented book (‘a-book’) with printed hotlinks than can be viewed on a nearby smartphone or other device.

Two experimental versions of an augmented guide to Cornwall are shown using either optically recognised pages or embedded electronics making the book sensitive to light and touch. We refer to these as second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) paper respectively.

A common architectural framework, authoring workflow and interaction model is used for both technologies, enabling the creation of two future generations of augmented books with interactive features and content.

In the travel domain we use these features creatively to illustrate the printed book with local multimedia and updatable web media, to point to the printed pages from the digital content, and to record personal and web media into the book.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0022.101

Using AI to solve business problems in scholarly publishing

At 18:52 17/04/2019

Author: Michael Upshall

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are widely used today in many areas, and are now being introduced into scholarly publishing. This article provides a brief overview of present-day AI and machine learning as used for text-based resources such as journal articles and book chapters, and provides an example of its application to identify suitable peer reviewers for manuscript submissions.

It describes how one company, UNSILO, has created a tool for this purpose, and the underlying technology used to deliver it. The article also offers a glimpse into a future where AI will profoundly change the way that academic publishing will work.

URL : Using AI to solve business problems in scholarly publishing

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.460