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Attitudes towards Open Access Books in the European Research Area

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Gabriela Manist, Maciej Mary, Magdalena Wnuk

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of publishing Open Access (OA) books within the European Research Area (ERA), drawing on data collected through the PALOMERA project. Despite the growing interest in OA books, the landscape remains fragmented due to a lack of clear policies.

National policies are often sparse, with institutional and funder mandates typically focused on journal articles rather than monographs. An issue also highlighted is the marginalisation of non-English language works, which receive significantly less visibility than English-language publications.

Additionally, the perceived prestige of OA monographs remains a concern, with some scholars viewing them as less reputable than traditionally published works. This paper synthesises findings from 42 in-depth interviews to offer an overview of the current state of OA book publishing in Europe. It identifies areas for policy improvement to foster a more inclusive and sustainable OA landscape.

URL : Attitudes towards Open Access Books in the European Research Area

DOI : https://doi.org/10.53377/lq.21719

EN

Making Reproducibility a Reality by 2035? Enabling Publisher Collaboration for Enhanced Data Policy Enforcement

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Matthew Cannon, Allyson Lister, Susanna-Assunta Sansone

This paper describes a project which identified practical and pragmatic ways to increase the FAIRness and reproducibility of published research. Academic journals have supported Open Science through the implementation of data sharing policies for over ten years; some evidence has since emerged on the additional time, resources and expertise that policy enforcement requires as part of an editorial workflow.

A series of publisher workshops facilitated by the EC-funded TIER2 project aimed to identify the key checks needed to enforce strengthened journal data sharing policies and to understand which editorial roles have the capacity to undertake such enforcement. The intended outcome of this work was to establish the workflows and resourcing which can support academic journals to enforce stronger data sharing policies in future.

URL : Making Reproducibility a Reality by 2035? Enabling Publisher Collaboration for Enhanced Data Policy Enforcement

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v19i1.1064

EN

AI and Open Science: Implications and Library Practice

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Nicole Helregel

With the increasing proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research, what are the implications for open science?

As the open science movement advocates for increased transparency and openness in the research process, where do AI and machine learning fit in? And where does that leave library and information science professionals in roles related to open science?

This article explores several approaches and considerations for how AI impacts open science, including whether AI has sufficient openness and transparency to align with the goals of open science, whether AI can be used to further open science goals, and the effects of AI use on researcher and public attitudes and actions.

The article provides recommendations for library practice, including knowledge-building, connections and advocacy, consultations and liaison work, licensing, and science communication and engagement.

URL : AI and Open Science: Implications and Library Practice

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a961191

EN

Generative AI and Open Access Publishing: A New Economic Paradigm

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Leo S. Lo

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in scholarly publishing presents both opportunities and challenges for open access. AI can streamline workflows, reduce costs, and enhance the discoverability of research, potentially making open access more financially sustainable.

However, the same AI capabilities also raise concerns about exclusivity and the creation of a tiered system that limits access to knowledge. Publishers face a strategic decision between embracing open access and leveraging AI for proprietary content and services.

Libraries play a crucial role in advocating for open access and ethical AI use, building expertise, and influencing policy development. Balancing the benefits of AI with the principles of equity and inclusivity requires collaboration among stakeholders.

By working together, publishers, librarians, and policymakers can harness the power of AI to democratize access to knowledge while upholding ethical standards, fostering a more inclusive and equitable academic community.

URL : Generative AI and Open Access Publishing: A New Economic Paradigm

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a961190

EN

Performance of the Nigerian Open Access Repositories

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Binta Ladan Farouk, Karimatu Isa Maisango, Alkasim Hamisu Abdu

Research is undertaken to make human life better. This underscores the need to communicate the research results globally. The possibilities inherent in digital technologies coupled with the understanding that knowledge should be treated as a public good engender the emergence of the open access movement.

The movement aims at making research literature more freely available. Open access is implemented in two major ways: the gold route and the green route. The gold route entails making research literature freely available on publishers’ servers, whereas the green route entails using Open Access Repositories (OARs) to achieve the open access aims.

To date, a few OARs have been hosted in Nigeria to communicate the research produced in the country with the rest of the world. Therefore, this study used content analysis to assess the functionality and effectiveness of OARs hosted in Nigeria. Data were extracted from the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), and, additionally, the contents of Nigerian repositories were analyzed.

The finding of the study revealed that there is a steady increase in OARs in Nigeria; however, the country lags when compared with its counterparts. It was also discovered that most Nigerian OARs were inaccessible owing to technical problems. At the same time, the contents of the accessible repositories are not consistent with OpenDOAR repository information sheets.

DSpace repository software continues to be the most popular in Nigeria; however, libraries were found to be lagging in housing OARs for their universities. Therefore, it is recommended that stakeholders in Nigeria double their efforts to develop OARs in the country.

URL : Performance of the Nigerian Open Access Repositories

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.18293

EN

An APC Trap? Privilege and the Perception of Reasonableness in Open Access Publishing

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Melissa H. Cantrell, Jennifer A. Mezick, Matthew Estill, Rachel Caldwell &
Lauren B. Collister

Introduction: This article investigates funding sources reported by authors of open access (OA) articles at four R1 (doctoral-granting institutions in the United States with very high research activity) universities, along with these authors’ perceptions of Article Processing Charges (APCs). The study suggests a cognitive dissonance among many respondents, in which there appears to be a desire and willingness to participate in OA publishing, which is at odds with a sense of unreasonableness and an uneven distribution of the ability of researchers to participate.

Literature review: Much of the literature on APCs centers on rising prices, how commercial publishers profit from this model, and the resulting inequities in OA publishing. Some information exists about resources for funding APCs, including grant funding, library programs, and fee waivers.

Methods: We surveyed authors who published an OA article in the calendar year 2022. The survey asked whether there was an APC, the funding source for the fee, and the author’s perception of the reasonableness of APC prices and their relative ability to pay compared with their peers.

Results: From 321 total respondents, grant funding was the largest source of APC funding, and authors reported fees of over $1,500 in U.S. dollars as unreasonable.

Discussion: This study confirms the hypothesis that external grants are the primary support for authors paying APCs, and beyond that, authors use a variety of sources to support their publishing fees. Respondents characterized APCs in general as unreasonable for less well-resourced colleagues.

Conclusion: Though authors were generally able to find funding or have fees waived, they perceive a threshold of reasonableness for APCs.

URL : An APC Trap? Privilege and the Perception of Reasonableness in Open Access Publishing

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.18184

EN

Assessing the Societal Impact of Academic Research With Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Scoping Review of Business School Scholarship as a ‘Force for Good’

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : David Steingard, Kathleen Rodenburg

This study addresses critical questions about how current evaluative frameworks for academic research can effectively translate scholarly findings into practical applications and policies to tackle societal ‘grand challenges’.

This scoping review analysis was conducted using bibliometric methods and AI tools. Articles were drawn from a wide range of disciplines, with particular emphasis on the business and management fields, focusing on the burgeoning scholarship area of ‘business as a force for good’.

The novel integration of generative AI research approaches underscores the transformative potential of AI-human collaboration in academic research. Metadata from 4051 articles were examined in the scoping review, with only 370 articles (9.1%) explicitly identified as relevant to societal impact.

This finding reveals a substantial and concerning gap in research addressing the urgent social and environmental issues of our time. To address this gap, the study identifies six meta-themes related to enhancing the societal impact of research: business applications; faculty publication pressure; societal impact focus; sustainable development; university and scholarly rankings; and reference to responsible research frameworks.

Key findings highlight critical misalignments between research outputs and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a lack of practical business applications of research insights.

The results emphasise the urgent need for academic institutions to expand evaluation criteria beyond traditional metrics to prioritise real-world impacts. Recommendations include developing holistic evaluation frameworks and incentivising research that addresses pressing societal challenges—shifting academia from a ‘scholar-to-scholar’ to a ‘scholar-to-society’ paradigm.

The implications of this shift are applied to business-related scholarship and its potential to inspire meaningful societal impact through business practice.

URL : Assessing the Societal Impact of Academic Research With Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Scoping Review of Business School Scholarship as a ‘Force for Good’

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2010