EN

Making the Mission Visible: Altmetrics and Nontraditional Publishing

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Jennifer L. Bonnet, Marisa Méndez-Brady

Purpose

Whereas traditional book and journal publishing remain the gold standard for many post-secondary institutions, nontraditional publishing is just as prolific at the flagship university in Maine. The university has strong land and sea grant missions that drive a broad research agenda, with an emphasis on community outreach and engagement.

However, the impact of researchers’ contributions outside of academe is unlikely to be accurately reflected in promotion, tenure or review processes. Thus, the authors designed a series of altmetrics workshops aimed at seeding conversations around novel ways to track the impact of researchers’ diverse scholarly and creative outputs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study of the instructional approach taken at the University of Maine library to facilitate discussions of alternative impact assessments that reach beyond traditional publications.

Findings

Evaluations revealed an increased awareness of, and interest in, impact tracking tools that capture both traditional scholarship, like journal articles, and nontraditional scholarly and creative outputs, such as videos, podcasts and newsletters.

The authors learned that altmetrics provides an entry point into a broader conversation about scholarly impact, and was best received by those whose scholarly output is not always captured by traditional metrics.

Practical implications

Scholars are equipped with novel methods for describing the value of their work and discovering a broader audience for their research. Future initiatives will target the needs identified through initial conversations around altmetrics.

Originality/value

Altmetrics workshops provide spaces to explore the potential for new tools that capture a range of previously unconsidered measures of impact, and to discuss the implications of those measures.

URL : http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/lib_staffpub/27/

 

EN

Imagining the “open” university: Sharing scholarship to improve research and education

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Erin C. McKiernan

Open scholarship, such as the sharing of articles, code, data, and educational resources, has the potential to improve university research and education as well as increase the impact universities can have beyond their own walls.

To support this perspective, I present evidence from case studies, published literature, and personal experiences as a practicing open scholar. I describe some of the challenges inherent to practicing open scholarship and some of the tensions created by incompatibilities between institutional policies and personal practice.

To address this, I propose several concrete actions universities could take to support open scholarship and outline ways in which such initiatives could benefit the public as well as institutions. Importantly, I do not think most of these actions would require new funding but rather a redistribution of existing funds and a rewriting of internal policies to better align with university missions of knowledge dissemination and societal impact.

URL : Imagining the “open” university: Sharing scholarship to improve research and education

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002614 

EN

Assessing the Openness of Anthropology Journals

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Melody Dale, Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, Sheeji Kathuria, Mary Ann Jones

This study analyses the extent of gold open access (OA) publishing options in 377 anthropology journals by applying a six-level coding scheme (0=non-transparent publishing, 5=fully OA, i.e., free to read and publish without embargo).

This analysis is meant to simplify the process of identifying OA journal publishing options in the discipline of anthropology, in addition to sharing findings on some of the prominent issues in OA publishing as they relate to anthropology journals, including non-transparency among publishers and the prevalence and price of article processing charges (APCs).

We conclude that publishers should be more transparent about their OA publishing options and policies by providing conspicuous and straightforward information to potential authors. Further, we find that in the anthropology scholarly communication ecosystem,

APCs for hybrid journals are more expensive than those for fully gold OA journals, thus contradicting the assumption that gold OA is more costly to researchers.

URL : http://scholar.colorado.edu/libr_facpapers/92/

EN

The Evolution, Approval and Implementation of the U.S. Geological Survey Science Data Lifecycle Model

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : John L. Faundeen, Vivian B. Hutchison

This paper details how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Community for Data Integration (CDI) Data Management Working Group developed a Science Data Lifecycle Model, and the role the Model plays in shaping agency-wide policies and data management applications.

Starting with an extensive literature review of existing data lifecycle models, representatives from various backgrounds in USGS attended a two-day meeting where the basic elements for the Science Data Lifecycle Model were determined.

Refinements and reviews spanned two years, leading to finalization of the model and documentation in a formal agency publication1.

The Model serves as a critical framework for data management policy, instructional resources, and tools. The Model helps the USGS address both the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)2 for increased public access to federally funded research, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)3 2013 Open Data directives, as the foundation for a series of agency policies related to data management planning, metadata development, data release procedures, and the long-term preservation of data.

Additionally, the agency website devoted to data management instruction and best practices (www2.usgs.gov/datamanagement) is designed around the Model’s structure and concepts. This paper also illustrates how the Model is being used to develop tools for supporting USGS research and data management processes.

URL : http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol6/iss2/4/

 

EN

Does Peer Review Identify the Best Papers? A Simulation Study of Editors, Reviewers, and the Scientific Publication Process

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Justin Esarey

How does the structure of the peer review process, which can vary among journals, influence the quality of papers published in a journal? This article studies multiple systems of peer review using computational simulation. I find that, under any of the systems I study, a majority of accepted papers are evaluated by an average reader as not meeting the standards of the journal.

Moreover, all systems allow random chance to play a strong role in the acceptance decision. Heterogeneous reviewer and reader standards for scientific quality drive both results. A peer review system with an active editor—that is, one who uses desk rejection before review and does not rely strictly on reviewer votes to make decisions—can mitigate some of these effects.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517001081

FR

L’open innovation et les grandes entreprises françaises : de l’urgence de l’appropriation à l’opportunité de transformation : le cas d’EDF comme prisme d’étude

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : Céline Repoux

L’accélération imprègne tous les aspects du champ social : la consommation, les transports, les loisirs, les discours… Tout est prétexte à aller plus vite pour optimiser les effets attendus. Avec la crise économique, les grandes entreprises sont aussi concernées : pour rester compétitives dans un univers de plus en plus concurrentiel, celles-ci sont enjointes en permanence à « innover ».

Cependant, le temps long de la Recherche & Développement, entité qui gère traditionnellement l’innovation de ces grandes entreprises, n’est pas celui du nouveau marché très rapide qui se dessine et qui profite aux start-ups, leurs nouveaux concurrents directs. Comment appréhender ce bouleversement ?

Ce travail tente de montrer comment les Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information Communication (NTIC) ont transformé le rapport au temps de la société et comment cette transformation trouve ses effets dans le mode de gestion de l’innovation des grandes entreprises, au profit d’une pratique dénommée « Open innovation ».

Une étude plus particulière du cas d’EDF, étayée par l’analyse d’éléments issus de plusieurs autres grandes entreprises françaises et de start-ups, nous permet d’analyser ce phénomène. En rappelant les définitions couramment attribuées à « l’innovation », nous voyons dans un premier temps en quoi les NTIC sont étroitement liées à cette notion et comment leur association crée « l’urgence d’innover » parmi les grandes entreprises.

Nous voyons ensuite comment les imaginaires liés à ces NTIC, intégrés par les individus, transforment la gestion effective de l’innovation des grandes entreprises, mettant en tension les enjeux d’« ouverture » et de « gestion » de l’Open innovation.

Un dernier temps de l’analyse nous permet de montrer comment ce changement de paradigme affecte jusqu’à l’organisation de l’entreprise, au point de conduire à sa propre mutation.

URL : https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-01559266