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Exploratory analysis of indicators for open knowledge institutions: a case study of Australian universities

Authors : Richard Hosking, Chun-Kai Huang, Lucy Montgomery, Cameron Neylon, Alkim Ozaygen, Katie Wilson

While the movement for open access (OA) has gained momentum in recent years, there remain concerns about the broader commitment to openness in knowledge production and dissemination. Increasingly, universities are under pressure to transform themselves to engage with the wider community and to be more inclusive.

Open knowledge institutions (OKIs) provide a framework that encourages universities to act with the principles of openness at their centre; not only should universities embrace digital OA, but also lead actions in cultivating diversity, equity, transparency and positive changes in society.

Accordingly, this leads onto questions of whether we can evaluate the progress of OKIs and what are potential indicators for OKIs. As an exploratory study, this article reports on the collection and analysis of a list of potential indicators for OKIs.

Data for these indicators are gathered for 43 Australian universities. The results show evidence of large disparities in characteristics such as Indigenous employment and gender equity, and a preference for repository-mediated OA across the Australian universities.

These OKI indicators provide high-dimensional and complex signals that can be widely categorised into three groups of diversity, communication and coordination.

URL : Exploratory analysis of indicators for open knowledge institutions: a case study of Australian universities

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/r2sx-xg40

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Copyright and protection of scientific results: the experience of Russia, the United States and the countries of the Near East

Authors : D V Ponomareva, P B Maggs, AG Barabashev

In this article, the authors analyze the legal regulation of the copyright protection of the results of scientific activity in Russia, the United States and the countries of the Near East.

Considerable attention is paid to the review of key regulatory acts of the states operating in the designated area, as well as international treaties affecting aspects of the copyright protection of intellectual rights in the field of science.

The authors consider the main ways of protecting the scientific results by means of copyright. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the judicial practice of the states, which plays a vital role in defining approaches to the legal regulation of the scientific results.

The authors emphasized the similarity and difference between the systems of copyright protection of the results of scientific activity, the role of the judiciary in the functioning of such systems.

In the end the conclusion is made about the prospects for harmonization of the approaches to the legal regulation of the results of scientific activity by means of copyright.

The article will be relevant to practicing lawyers, researchers, students and everyone who is interested in IP law.

URL : Copyright and protection of scientific results: the experience of Russia, the United States and the countries of the Near East

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1685/1/012018

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How to achieve short-term green open access and long-term radical reform of scholarly communication. The BitViews Project as a test case

Author : Manfredi La Manna

The Open Access movement has reached adulthood, but not maturity: fewer than one-third of newly-published peer-reviewed articles are available open access (OA) and progress widening OA has stalled.

Scores of uncoordinated initiatives try to achieve universal OA, but academic journal publishing is still dominated by a handful of powerful commercial publishers. Individual authors show little interest in OA and indeed have to be mandated (see the UK REF or Plan S) to release their research on OA.

The BitViews Project is a low-cost, no-risk, high-return initiative to turn all academic journals «green» through a combination of blockchain technology, provision of appropriate incentives to authors, and a new crowdfunding mechanism.

The project is predicated on the active participation of individual libraries taking direct action. The paper will provide an interim report on the progress of the project and an account of how libraries and their various associations (both in the global South and in the global North) have reacted to the project.

The concluding section of the paper sketches a possible direction for academic journal publishing in the near future. Huge savings and increased efficiency can flow to the academy from finally dissolving its current one-sided contract with publishers and from reclaiming control of the peer-review process.

Practical and incentive-based suggestions are proposed for the transition from publisher-owned to academy-owned peer review.

URL : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02544856

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Awareness and Use of Open Access Resources in Higher Education and Scholarly Research: Faculties versus Students Perspectives

Authors : Abdullah- Al- Mahmud, A. K. M. Eamin Ali Akanda, Md. Nazmul Hasan, Md. Armanul Haque, Dilara Begum

Purpose

The study aims to identify, and to compare the awareness and attitude of faculties and students towards Open Access Resources.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a mixed method research approach. A survey has been conducted among purposively selected students (52) and faculties (17) through distributing a structured questionnaire(1-5 point likert scale, and open ended).SPSS v.20 and coding method have been used for analyzing quantitative and qualitative data respectively.

Findings

Both faculties and students had positive perceptions towards OARs though faculties were more knowledgeable than students in terms of understanding on major OA concepts. Digital format and free availability were considered as motivational factors for using OARs.

Both respondents indicatedplagiarism and copyright violation as important vulnerabilities in using OARs.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the awareness level of faculties and students towards open access resources in higher education in scholarly research. Apart from purposes, sources, preferable model, and state of publication in open access mode, the study focuses on motivational factor, vulnerabilities, and integration of open access resources in higher education and scholarly research from faculties and students perspectives which demonstrateits originality.

Implication

It would generate awareness among the academics, library professionals as well as OA publishers topromote OARs for wider use.

URL : https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/4516/

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Publications and Evaluations: Conducting a Baseline Assessment of Open Access Adoption and Support at an R2 University

Author: Susan Vandagriff

INTRODUCTION

This study reflects a mid-size university library’s first attempt to assess faculty research output to shape future scholarly communications efforts.

METHODOLOGY

The assessment combined a qualitative analysis of the university’s reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT) documents with a quantitative analysis of faculty publications recorded in Digital Measures from 2015-2019.

The RPT documents were coded to determine which indicators of scholarly value were emphasized, then compared with data on where and how faculty were publishing.

RESULTS

Within RPT documents, peer review was frequently emphasized, but open access and predatory publishing were not mentioned. The majority of publications occurred in hybrid journals, and publishing was concentrated among only a handful of publishers, with 11 publishers responsible for 62% of faculty’s research output.

OA journal publications have risen slightly in recent years but still accounted for only 20.7% of UCCS publications. However, predatory publishing was very low, accounting for less than 5% of UCCS publications.

DISCUSSION

More education is needed on the importance of open access and how to assess the quality of a journal. RPT criteria consistently mentioned certain indicators of scholarly quality, but these indicators were often vague and preferential to traditional publishing models.

Both open access and predatory publishing remain low, and additional education may help faculty feel more confident in exploring alternative publishing models.

CONCLUSION

Assessing the research output of faculty and how scholarship is being evaluated within each college can help libraries to tailor their efforts to promote open access publishing.

However, the lack of OA support in the RPT criteria suggests a larger cultural shift is needed to make faculty not only aware of OA, but also encouraged and supported in publishing OA.

URL : Publications and Evaluations: Conducting a Baseline Assessment of Open Access Adoption and Support at an R2 University

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2392

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Research Data Sharing in Spain: Exploring Determinants, Practices, and Perceptions

Authors : Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent, Antonio Vidal-Infer, Adolfo Alonso-Arroyo, Fernanda Peset, Antonia Ferrer Sapena

This work provides an overview of a Spanish survey on research data, which was carried out within the framework of the project Datasea at the beginning of 2015. It is covered by the objectives of sustainable development (goal 9) to support the research.

The purpose of the study was to identify the habits and current experiences of Spanish researchers in the health sciences in relation to the management and sharing of raw research data. Method: An electronic questionnaire composed of 40 questions divided into three blocks was designed.

The three Section s contained questions on the following aspects: (A) personal information; (B) creation and reuse of data; and (C) preservation of data. The questionnaire was sent by email to a list of universities in Spain to be distributed among their researchers and professors. A total of 1063 researchers completed the questionnaire.

More than half of the respondents (54.9%) lacked a data management plan; nearly a quarter had storage systems for the research group; 81.5% used personal computers to store data; “Contact with colleagues” was the most frequent means used to locate and access other researchers’ data; and nearly 60% of researchers stated their data were available to the research group and collaborating colleagues.

The main fears about sharing were legal questions (47.9%), misuse or interpretation of data (42.7%), and loss of authorship (28.7%).

The results allow us to understand the state of data sharing among Spanish researchers and can serve as a basis to identify the needs of researchers to share data, optimize existing infrastructure, and promote data sharing among those who do not practice it yet.

URL : Research Data Sharing in Spain: Exploring Determinants, Practices, and Perceptions

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/data5020029

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How Libraries Make us Believe : Space, Place, and the Academic Library as Truth-Spot

Author : Vanja Stojanovic

This paper considers how the physical spaces of academic libraries actively assert the belief of intellectual pursuit upon users. Taking up Thomas Gieryn’s concept of “truth-spots,” this paper argues that the academic library is particularly effective at encapsulating and expressing this pursuit through its own spatial configurations.

Library spaces achieve this through the manipulation of time, spatial gathering and separation, an imposed order, exposure and obfuscation, as well as the library’s unique or standardized configurations.

This paper invites us to think about the library’s metaphysicality in terms that connect abstract beliefs to the library’s physical materials and spaces. The purpose of this paper is to identify the subtle, yet powerful, spatial changes occurring in recent efforts to reconfigure academic library spaces.

The implications of such a consideration may aid to inform future (re)designs of library spaces.

URL : How Libraries Make us Believe : Space, Place, and the Academic Library as Truth-Spot

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5206/elip.v3i1.8624