Open Access monographic publishing in th…

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Open Access monographic publishing in the humanities :

“In recent years, it has become widely recognized that in the case of monographs, the traditional business model for books is losing its sustainability. Academic publishers have been forced to become more selective in the books they publish, and authors, in particular young researchers and first time authors, have found it harder to find a press willing to publish their work. In response to the economic restraints of printed monographs, many publishers and academic institutes, in particular research libraries, have started to experiment with digital and Open Access publication of monographs.

OAPEN is the first international project to develop an Open Access model for publishers and stakeholders in scholarly communication. OAPEN stands for Open Access Publishing in European Networks. It is a 30 month project co-funded by the European Union, to develop and implement an Open Access (OA) publication model for peer reviewed academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS).”

URL : http://iospress.metapress.com/content/l6wg61l0mg6426w8/

Information access needs of satellite ca…

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Information access needs of satellite campuses in Kenya – Can OER close the gap? The Case of Moi University Nairobi Campus :

“This case study was aimed at obtaining the experiences of faculty and students of Moi University, Nairobi Campus in accessing information resources for teaching, learning and research. The study examined background information regarding knowledge societies and the role of higher education in society. This was done with a view to exploring the potential of Open Educational Resources in enhancing access to teaching, learning and research information resources at the campus. The literature review focused on the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) and provided a critical examination of access to knowledge and learning materials in higher education. Evidently, little empirical studies have been conducted in Africa concerning OER. The Communities of Practice theory was adopted to inform the study with regard to learning experiences and their realization in communities. Online questionnaires and interviews were the principle data collection instruments. These were administered upon faculty, students and the librarian of Moi University, Nairobi campus. Furthermore, data was also gathered through interviews with OER experts from North America, Europe, and Africa. These experts provided vital information on the potential of OER in enhancing access to teaching, learning and research information resources to institutions such as the case for this study. The findings of the study revealed that the concept of OER was not clearly understood by the respondents and interviewees from the case institution. Respondents confused the concept of OER with other concepts like e-learning. Nevertheless, they signaled appreciation for access to open resources. In addition, it was evident that the faculty and students of this institution had insufficient access to resources. The library was not sufficiently stocked with information materials and facilities to cater for the growing population of the campus. The study recommends the adoption of more open educational practices through the creation of electronic institutional repositories that are open and searchable. Furthermore, the study suggests greater collaboration and sharing of resources and teaching practices among faculty within the campus and beyond. To achieve this, both faculty and students require information literacy skills. Finally, the study recommends that the librarians and information professionals be more proactive in identifying and bringing awareness to clients about available and relevant open resources.”

URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/handle/10760/15384

Multivariate approach to classify resear…

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Multivariate approach to classify research institutes according to their outputs: the case of the CSIC’s institutes :

“This paper attempts to build a classification model according to the research products created by those institutes and hence to design specific evaluation processes. Several scientific input/output indicators belonging to 109 research institutes from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) were selected. A multidimensional approach was proposed to resume these indicators in various components. A clustering analysis was used to classify the institutes according to their scores with those components (principal component analysis). Moreover, the validity of the a priori classification was tested and the most discriminant variables were detected (linear discriminant analysis). Results show that there are three types of institutes according to their research outputs: Humanistic, Scientific and Technological. It is argue that these differences oblige to design more precise assessment exercises which focus on the particular results of each type of institute. We conclude that this method permits to build more precise research assessment exercises which consider the varied nature of the scientific activity.”

URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/handle/10760/15364

Social media: A guide for researchers : …

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Social media: A guide for researchers :

“Social media is an important technological trend that has big implications for how researchers (and people in general) communicate and collaborate. Researchers have a huge amount to gain from engaging with social media in various aspects of their work.

This guide has been produced by the International Centre for Guidance Studies, and aims to provide the information needed to make an informed decision about using social media and select from the vast range of tools that are available.

One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offers a range of tools which can facilitate this. The guide discusses the use of social media for research and academic purposes and will not be examining the many other uses that social media is put to across society.

Social media can change the way in which you undertake research, and can also open up new forms of communication and dissemination. It has the power to enable researchers to engage in a wide range of dissemination in a highly efficient way.”

URL : http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

Creative Commons and Public Sector Infor…

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Creative Commons and Public Sector Information: Flexible tools to support PSI creators and re-users :

“Public sector information (PSI) is meant for wide re-use, but this information will only achieve maximum possible impact if users understand how they may use it. Creative Commons tools, which signify availability for re-use to users and require attribution to the releasing authority, are ideal tools for the sharing of public sector information. There is also increasing interest in open licenses and other tools to share publicly funded information, data, and content, including various kinds of cultural resources, educational materials, and research findings; Creative Commons tools are applicable here and recommended for these purposes too.”

URL : http://www.epsiplus.net/topic_reports/creative_commons_and_public_sector_information_flexible_tools_to_support_psi_creators_and_re_users

Support for gold open access publishing …

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Support for gold open access publishing strategies at QUT :

“INTRODUCTION : Since the introduction of its QUT ePrints institutional repository of published research outputs, together with the world’s first mandate for author contributions to an institutional repository, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been a leader in support of green road open access. With QUT ePrints providing our mechanism for supporting the green road to open access, QUT has since then also continued to expand its secondary open access strategy supporting gold road open access, which is also designed to assist QUT researchers to maximise the accessibility and so impact of their research.

METHODS : QUT Library has adopted the position of selectively supporting true gold road open access publishing by using the Library Resource Allocation budget to pay the author publication fees for QUT authors wishing to publish in the open access journals of a range of publishers including BioMed Central, Public Library of Science and Hindawi. QUT Library has been careful to support only true open access publishers and not those open access publishers with hybrid models which “double dip” by charging authors publication fees and libraries subscription fees for the same journal content. QUT Library has maintained a watch on the growing number of open access journals available from gold road open access publishers and their increased rate of success as measured by publication impact.

RESULTS : This paper reports on the successes and challenges of QUT’s efforts to support true gold road open access publishers and promote these publishing strategy options to researchers at QUT. The number and spread of QUT papers submitted and published in the journals of each publisher is provided. Citation counts for papers and authors are also presented and analysed, with the intention of identifying the benefits to accessibility and research impact for early career and established researchers.

CONCLUSIONS : QUT Library is eager to continue and further develop support for this publishing strategy, and makes a number of recommendations to other research institutions, on how they can best achieve success with this strategy.”

URL : http://eprints.qut.edu.au/39416/