Open Access Books in the Humanities and Social Sciences: an Open Access Altmetric Advantage

Author : Michael Taylor

The last decade has seen two significant phenomena emerge in research communication: the rise of open access (OA) publishing, and evidence of online sharing in the form of altmetrics. There has been limited examination of the effect of OA on online sharing for journal articles, and little for books.

This paper examines the altmetrics of a set of 32,222 books (of which 5% are OA) and a set of 220,527 chapters (of which 7% are OA) indexed by the scholarly database Dimensions in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Both OA books and chapters have significantly higher use on social networks, higher coverage in the mass media and blogs, and evidence of higher rates of social impact in policy documents. OA chapters have higher rates of coverage on Wikipedia than their non-OA equivalents, and are more likely to be shared on Mendeley.

Even within the Humanities and Social Sciences, disciplinary differences in altmetric activity are evident. The effect is confirmed for chapters, although sampling issues prevent the strong conclusion that OA facilitates extra attention at whole book level, the apparent OA altmetrics advantage suggests that the move towards OA is increasing social sharing and broader impact.

URL  : https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.10442

Adopting open access in the social sciences and humanities: evidence from a developing nation

Authors : Thu-Trang Vuong, Manh-Toan Ho, Minh-Hoang Nguyen, Thanh-Huyen T. Nguyen, Thanh-Dung Nguyen, Thi-Linh Nguyen, Anh-Phuong Luong, Quan-Hoang Vuong

Open Access (OA) publishing, with ambitious movements such as Plan S, is engendering radical changes among academic publishers. Emerging countries need to keep publishing as well as adopt open access to catch up with the changes.

Using exclusive data from the Social Sciences & Humanities Peer Awards (SSHPA) database, the study employed both descriptive statistics and a Bayesian linear regression model to examine the journals and publishers in which Vietnamese social scientists published during the period 2008–2019, and the potential of pursuing the OA movement in Vietnam.

We found an increasing diversification in the publishing sources of Vietnamese social science researchers with growth rates of 9.8% and 14.1% per annum in the number of publishers and journals, respectively. Given that the proportion of Gold OA articles had a fourfold increase over the examined period, it seems that the Vietnamese academic community is adopting OA.

Furthermore, Bayesian analysis results hint at positive associations of internal and external collaborative power (number of domestic and foreign authors, respectively) with the decision to publish in OA (βb_TotalVN_OpenAccess = 0.22; βb_TotalForeign_OpenAccess = 0.15).

The results and its implications suggest that Vietnamese policymakers and university director boards should facilitate as well as control the quality of the scientific publishing and the OA movement.

URL : Adopting open access in the social sciences and humanities: evidence from a developing nation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04522

Usages et pratiques en lien avec les données de recherche. Une enquête menée auprès des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3

Auteurs/Authors : Hans Dillaerts, Céline Paganelli, Lise Verlaet, Hugo Catherine

Cette enquête s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet de recherche intitulé « Science ouverte et données de la recherche en SHS : entre politiques d’incitation et pratiques de la communication scientifique, quelle place pour les institutions et les bibliothèques ? » qui bénéficie pour une durée de 2 ans d’un financement de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.

Le projet vise à recueillir et analyser d’une part les usages et les pratiques des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 en matière des données de recherche et d’autre part les pratiques institutionnelles et notamment celles des professionnels de l’IST au sein des structures documentaires et des bibliothèques universitaires.

Une enquête quantitative a été menée en 2019 sur les pratiques et les usages des chercheurs de l’université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 en lien avec les données de recherche. L’objectif de ce rapport est de présenter et analyser les résultats de cette enquête qui s’appuie sur un échantillon de 81 réponses complètes.

URL : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02902710

Towards a typology of edited books and conference proceedings according to the applied peer-review procedures

Author : Iva Zlodi

In the last years here is an increasing need to ensure a more objective and transparent evaluation of scientific research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This short paper explores some of the underlying issues and suggests a study using the suvey method based on a sample of 146 publications.

The results of this study could contribute to the identification and describing distinctive types of edited books and conference proceedings according to their peer-review procedures, and thus to facilitate the recognition of their scholarly value and reliability.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02544293

The Transcript OPEN Library Political Science Model: A Sustainable Way into Open Access for E-Books in the Humanities and Social Science

Authors : Alexandra Jobmann, Nina Schönfelder

The strategic goal of the project “National Contact Point Open Access OA2020-DE” is to create the conditions for a large-scale open-access transformation in accordance with the Alliance of German Science Organizations.

In close collaboration with the publisher transcript, we developed a business model that strengthens the transformation process for e-books in the humanities and social sciences.

It largely addresses the drawbacks of existing models. Moreover, it is manageable, sustainable, transparent, and scalable for both publishers and libraries. This case report describes the setup of the model, its successful implementation for the branch “political science” of transcript in 2019, and provides a Strengths–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats (SWOT) analysis.

We believe that it has the potential to become one of the major open-access business models for research monographs and anthologies in the humanities and social sciences, especially for non-English e-books.

URL : The Transcript OPEN Library Political Science Model: A Sustainable Way into Open Access for E-Books in the Humanities and Social Science

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7030055

Investigating SSH Research and Publication Practices in Disciplinary and Institutional Contexts. A Survey-Based Comparative Approach in Two Universities

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 topics—searching and finding literature, publishing, the visibility of research, and the assessment of research outputs—we 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

Les données de la recherche à l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne : Synthèse d’une enquête qualitative auprès des chercheurs

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