Non classé

How common are explicit research questions in journal articles?

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Mike Thelwall, Amalia Mas-Bleda

Although explicitly labeled research questions seem to be central to some fields, others do not need them.

This may confuse authors, editors, readers, and reviewers of multidisciplinary research. This article assesses the extent to which research questions are explicitly mentioned in 17 out of 22 areas of scholarship from 2000 to 2018 by searching over a million full-text open access journal articles. Research questions were almost never explicitly mentioned (under 2%) by articles in engineering and physical, life, and medical sciences, and were the exception (always under 20%) for the broad fields in which they were least rare: computing, philosophy, theology, and social sciences. Nevertheless, research questions were increasingly mentioned explicitly in all fields investigated, despite a rate of 1.8% overall (1.1% after correcting for irrelevant matches).

Other terminology for an article’s purpose may be more widely used instead, including aims, objectives, goals, hypotheses, and purposes, although no terminology occurs in a majority of articles in any broad field tested. Authors, editors, readers, and reviewers should therefore be aware that the use of explicitly labeled research questions or other explicit research purpose terminology is non-standard in most or all broad fields, although it is becoming less rare.

URL : How common are explicit research questions in journal articles?

Original location : https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/qss_a_00041?af=R&

Non classé

Analysis of an Open Textbook Adoption in an American History Course: Impact on Student Academic Outcomes and Behaviors

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Penny Beile, Aimee deNoyelles, John Raible

Textbook costs can have a significant impact on the purchasing behaviors and academic success of higher education students. Open textbooks promise significant cost savings, yet perceptions about quality and efficacy still linger. This study explored the impact of an open textbook adoption in an American history course on student academic outcomes and behaviors.

Using a mixed-methods design, significant savings were realized with no decrease in student academic outcomes. Further, students reported having a positive experience using the open textbook, perceived the textbook as being of high quality, and expressed gratitude about the free cost.

The authors describe the respective roles of the librarian/instructional designer team and note the importance of working collaboratively with instructors to ensure successful implementation of open textbook adoptions.

URL : Analysis of an Open Textbook Adoption in an American History Course: Impact on Student Academic Outcomes and Behaviors

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.4.721

EN

Hostage authorship and the problem of dirty hands

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : William Bülow, Gert Helgesson

This article discusses gift authorship, the practice where co-authorship is awarded to a person who has not contributed significantly to the study. From an ethical point of view, gift authorship raises concerns about desert, fairness, honesty and transparency, and its prevalence in research is rightly considered a serious ethical concern.

We argue that even though misuse of authorship is always bad, there are instances where accepting requests of gift authorship may nevertheless be the right thing to do. More specifically, we propose that researchers may find themselves in a situation much similar to the problem of dirty hands, which has been frequently discussed in political philosophy and applied ethics.

The problem of dirty hands is relevant to what we call hostage authorship, where the researchers include undeserving authors unwillingly, and only because they find it unavoidable in order to accomplish a morally important research goal.

URL : Hostage authorship and the problem of dirty hands

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016118764305

FR

Pratiques de gestion des données de la recherche : une nécessaire acculturation des chercheurs aux enjeux de la science ouverte ? Résultats d’une enquête exploratoire dans le bassin montpelliérain (juin 2018)

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Authors : Philippe Amiel, Francesca Frontini, Pierre-Yves Lacour, Agnès Robin

L’article présente les résultats d’une enquête exploratoire, menée en juin 2018 par le programme de recherche CommonData, dans le bassin montpelliérain à propos des pratiques de gestion des données de la recherche scientifique par les chercheurs.

Les principaux objectifs étaient de voir si cette gestion est ou non le fruit d’une organisation pensée et raisonnée, de vérifier la capacité ou l’incapacité dans laquelle se trouvent les chercheurs pour qualifier juridiquement les données explorées, collectées ou produites – qualification rendue nécessaire par la mise en œuvre de la politique actuelle d’ouverture de la science – et enfin, d’observer la réalité du sentiment de propriété développé par les chercheurs à l’égard des données qu’ils produisent, posant la question plus générale de la dimension personnelle et/ou institutionnelle du travail de recherche et de ses conséquences sur l’attribution de la propriété.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/cdst/2061

FR

État des lieux sur les accords transformants – 31 mars 2020

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : Irini Paltani-Sargologos

Les accords dits « transformants », également appelés « négociations couplées abonnement / « APC » » (en anglais transformative arrangements, transformative agreements, journal agreements ou offsetting models) désignent un type particulier de négociation avec les éditeurs commerciaux.

Cette note présente le contexte d’émergence des accords « transformants », définit leurs caractéristiques principales et dresse un état des lieux des accords « transformants » signés dans le monde.

Les risques associés aux accords dits transformants ainsi qu’un retour d’expérience au Royaume-Uni sont évoqués. Cet état des lieux se termine par la présentation de deux exemples d’accords réellement « transformants » dans le système de l’édition scientifique.

URL : État des lieux sur les accords transformants – 31 mars 2020

Original location : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02538844

EN

Research Data Management Services and Strategic Planning in Libraries Today: A Longitudinal Study

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Elise Gowen, John J. Meier

INTRODUCTION

Research data services have been adopted by many academic libraries. This study tracked the changes in research data management services and staffing among Association of American Universities (AAU) libraries over the past 5 years and compared them to the libraries’ goals for research data management (RDM) in their strategic plan.

METHODS

This quantitative study examined libraries at the 60 U.S. AAU institutions. In order to examine longitudinal changes, portions of Briney et.al. (2015a) were used as a basis for measuring data librarian staffing and services.

These trends were compared to the contemporary strategic priorities of libraries interviewed by Meier (2016), as well as against strategic plans of 2014 and 2019 available online.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

While there have been modest increases in libraries in the sample population offering data services, most of those gains have been among the libraries that did not consider RDM a priority in 2014. Interestingly, some of the libraries that mentioned RDM as a priority in 2014 have lost data librarian positions.

Over half of the libraries in this study now provide or support a data repository. Many library strategic plans that mentioned RDM as an explicit goal 5 years ago now no longer mention it.

CONCLUSION

Data librarian positions, data services, and data repositories have now become common features of large research university libraries. However, research data services are no longer as prominent in many library strategic plans at institutions where such services are more established, and libraries instead seem to be moving on to the work of rethinking the nature of the services or expanding them.

URL : Research Data Management Services and Strategic Planning in Libraries Today: A Longitudinal Study

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2336

EN

Cancelling with the world’s largest scholarly publisher: lessons from the Swedish experience of having no access to Elsevier

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Lisa Olsson, Camilla Hertil Lindelöw, Lovisa Österlund, Frida Jakobsson

This article covers the consequences of the decision of the Bibsam consortium to cancel its journal licence agreement with Elsevier, the world’s largest scholarly publisher, in 2018.

First, we report on how the cancellation affected Swedish researchers. Second, we describe other consequences of the cancellation. Finally, we report on lessons for the future. In short, there was no consensus among researchers on how the cancellation affected them or whether the cancellation was positive or negative for them. Just over half (54%) of the 4,221 researchers who responded to a survey indicated that the cancellation had harmed their work, whereas 37% indicated that it had not.

Almost half (48%) of the researchers had a negative view of the cancellation, whereas 38% had a positive view. The cancellation highlighted the ongoing work at research libraries to facilitate the transition to an open access publishing system to more stakeholders in academia than before.

It also showed that Swedish vice-chancellors were prepared to suspend subscriptions with a publisher that could not accommodate the needs and requirements of open science.

Finally, the cancellation resulted in the signing of a transformative agreement which started on 1 January 2020. If it had not been for the cancellation, the reaching of such an agreement would have been unlikely.

URL : Cancelling with the world’s largest scholarly publisher: lessons from the Swedish experience of having no access to Elsevier

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.507