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

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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 [LCC] 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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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