Research Access and Discovery in University News Releases: A Case Study

Author : Philip Young

Introduction

Many universities promote the peer-reviewed articles of their researchers in online news releases. However, access to the articles by the public can be limited, and information for locating articles is sometimes lacking.

This exploratory study quantifies article access, the potential for immediate article archiving, and the presence of discovery aids in news releases at a large research university.

Methods

A random sample of 120 news releases over an 11-year period were evaluated.

Results

At publication, 33% of the peer-reviewed articles mentioned in news releases were open access. Immediate archiving in the institutional repository could potentially raise the access rate to 58% of the articles.

Discovery aids in news releases included journal titles (96%), hyperlinks (67%), article titles (44%), and full citations (3%). No hyperlink was in the form of a referenceable digital object identifier (DOI).

Discussion

Article availability is greater than published estimates, and could result from the university’s STEM focus or self-selection. Delayed access by journals is a significant source of availability, and provides an additional rationale for hyperlinking from news releases.

Conclusion

Most articles promoted in the university’s news releases cannot be accessed by the public. Access could be significantly increased through immediate archiving in the institutional repository. Opportunities for facilitating article discovery could increase the credibility and outreach value of news releases.

URL : Research Access and Discovery in University News Releases: A Case Study

Alternative location : http://jlsc-pub.org/articles/abstract/10.7710/2162-3309.2155/

Les archives ouvertes dans le monde arabe : entre stagnation et évolution

Author : Mohamed Ben Romdhane

L’offre des archives ouvertes dans le monde arabe ne cesse d’accroitre ces dernières années, c’est ce que cette étude essaye de montrer à travers l’identification et l’évaluation de ces dépôts en se basant sur une grille spécifique et en comparant les résultats obtenus à ceux obtenus par d’autres études antérieures.

Sur d’autres plans, l’étude a montré une légère évolution dans quelques aspects voire une stagnation dans d’autres. C’est ainsi que les politiques des institutions arabes envers le libre accès et les archives ouvertes restent inconnus et non déclarées. Pour ce qui est le volume de ces dépôts, la plupart restent très peu alimentés.

URL : https://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01412079

 

Large scale implementation of open access: a case study at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

Authors : Anna Krzak, Dominic Tate

Journal papers and conference proceedings accepted for publication from April 2016 must be deposited in an institutional and/or subject repository within three months of acceptance, and following this must be made open access, in order to be eligible for submission to the next Research Evaluation Framework in the United Kingdom.

This paper describes the programme to facilitate this at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/1842/16058

Collecting and Describing University-Generated Patents in an Institutional Repository: A Case Study from Rice University

Providing an easy method of browsing a university’s patent output can free up valuable research time for faculty, students, and external researchers. This is especially true for Rice University’s Fondren Library, a USPTO-designated Patent and Trademark Resource Center that serves an academic community widely recognized for cutting edge science and engineering research.

In order to make Rice-generated patents easier to find in the university’s community, a team of technical and public services librarians from Fondren Library devised a method to identify, download, and upload patents to the university’s institutional repository, starting with a backlog of over 300. This article discusses the rationale behind the project, its potential benefits, and challenges as new Rice-generated patents are added to the repository on a monthly basis.

URL : http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/10981

Les archives de la recherche à l’Institut Pasteur : évolutions et perspectives

Statut

“Le but de cette communication est de présenter les moyens mis en œuvre jusqu’à présent par l’Institut Pasteur pour préserver ses archives. Il s’agira aussi d’évoquer, du fait des évolutions actuelles, les réflexions et projets en cours ou à venir. Depuis sa création en 1987, le service des archives de l’Institut Pasteur a orienté ses travaux suivant deux axes : la collecte, le classement et la description des principaux fonds d’archives historiques ainsi que la collecte systématique des archives des services scientifiques et administratifs de l’institution. Outre la richesse des fonds d’archives, une réelle complémentarité existe entre les dépôts de travaux scientifiques et le recueil des décisions administratives les concernant. Aujourd’hui, l’Institut Pasteur est confronté à l’augmentation de la masse des données/documents produits et reçus, à la prépondérance des données numériques, aux évolutions rapides du monde de la recherche… Une gestion plus rationnelle des données/documents est donc plus que jamais essentielle. Pour se faire, le service des archives élabore une politique d’archivage et redéfinit des procédures et des référentiels de conservation. Dans ce cadre, la collaboration avec les services transverses (service qualité, direction des systèmes d’information…) est également cruciale. De plus, le service des archives entend se rendre plus visible autant en interne (sensibilisation des pasteuriens, pages intranet, expositions…) qu’en externe (accueil de chercheurs notamment étrangers, site internet, numérisation d’archives, participation à des groupes de réflexion…).”

URL : Les archives de la recherche à l’Institut Pasteur : évolutions et perspectives

Alternative URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01094774

Institutional repository `eKMAIR’ establishing and populating a research…

Institutional repository `eKMAIR’: establishing and populating a research repository for the National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” :

“University libraries have an increasingly important role to play in supporting open access publishing and dissemination of research outputs. In particular, many libraries are playing a leading role in establishing and managing institutional repositories. Institutional repositories are, most often, Open Access Initiative (OAI)-compliant databases of a university or other research institution’s intellectual output, most typically research papers, although many other forms of digital media can also be stored and disseminated. Their main function is to provide improved access to the full text of research articles and improve retrieval of relevant research.
The National University “Kyiv Mohyla Academy” is a small-sized institution with approximately 3,000 students and 500 academic staff. Although it is a teaching-intensive university, developing research and knowledge-transfer capacity is a strategic priority and four research institutes have been established, with further research activity going on in the academic schools and research centres.”

URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1203.2434

Recruiting Content for the Institutional Repository The Barriers…

Recruiting Content for the Institutional Repository: The Barriers Exceed the Benefits :

“Focus groups conducted at Carnegie Mellon reveal that what motivates many faculty to self-archive on a website or disciplinary repository will not motivate them to deposit their work in the institutional repository. Recruiting a critical mass of content for the institutional repository is contingent on increasing awareness, aligning deposit with existing workflows, and providing value-added services that meet needs not currently being met by other tools. Faculty share concerns about quality and the payoff for time invested in publishing and disseminating their work, but disagree about metrics for assessing quality, the merit of disseminating work prior to peer review, and the importance of complying with publisher policies on open access. Bridging the differences among disciplinary cultures and belief systems presents a significant challenge to marketing the institutional repository and developing coherent guidelines for deposit.”

URL : http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/view/2068