EN

The cost of reading research. A study of Computer Science publication venues

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

What does the cost of academic publishing look like to the common researcher today? Our goal is to convey the current state of academic publishing, specifically in regards to the field of computer science and provide analysis and data to be used as a basis for future studies. We will focus on author and reader costs as they are the primary points of interaction within the publishing world.

In this work, we restrict our focus to only computer science in order to make the data collection more feasible (the authors are computer scientists) and hope future work can analyze and collect data across all academic fields.

URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.00127

EN

Opening the Black Box of Scholarly Communication Funding: A Public Data Infrastructure for Financial Flows in Academic Publishing

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

« Public access to publicly funded research » has been one of the rallying calls of the global open access movement. Governments and public institutions around the world have mandated that publications supported by public funding sources should be publicly accessible. Publishers are experimenting with new models to widen access.

Yet financial flows underpinning scholarly publishing remain complex and opaque. In this paper we present work to trace and reassemble a picture of financial flows around the publication of journals in the UK in the midst of a national shift towards open access.

We contend that the current lack of financial transparency around scholarly communication is an obstacle to evidence-based policy-making – leaving researchers, decision-makers and institutions in the dark about the systemic implications of new financial models.

We conclude that obtaining a more joined up picture of financial flows is vital as a means for researchers, institutions and others to understand and shape changes to the sociotechnical systems that underpin scholarly communication.

URL : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2690570

EN

Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Croatia

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

There is a vibrant Open Access environment in Croatia and several academic and research institutions initiate different activities concerning open access to the scientific information (Ruđer Bošković Institute, School of Medicine, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Faculty of Organization and Informatics at University of Zagreb, University of Zadar, University of Osijek, National and University Library, etc.). It is very important to improve collaboration among different stakeholders, as well as to provide top-down guidance harmonized with EU practices.

Important blocks of the existing Open Access research infrastructure are presented in the paper: the Croatian Scientific Bibliography CROSBI, the Croatian portal for Open Access journals HRČAK, and the common infrastructure for digital academic repositories DABAR. Future development of Open Access infrastructure in Croatia is discussed.

URL : http://dipp2015.math.bas.bg/images/lecturers/abstracts/Jadranka_Stojanovski_DiPP2015_abstract.pdf

 

FR

L’open access dans la formation continue des bibliothécaires et documentalistes

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Après une première étude sur la formation professionnelle dans le domaine du libre accès à l’information (open access), l’Université de Technologie, des Art et Sciences de Cologne (TH Cologne) et l’Université de Lille 3 ont mené une étude comparative de la formation continue sur l’open access. L’objectif est de faire un état des lieux de l’offre de formation des trois dernières années, de comparer la situation dans les deux pays et de faire des propositions pour le développement de la formation continue sur l’open access.

L’objet est l’offre des principaux prestataires de formation continue dans le domaine des bibliothèques et sciences de l’information, dans les deux pays. En France, l’enquête s’adresse en particulier aux associations professionnelles ADBS et ABF, aux organismes publics dans l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche (URFIST, CRFCB, ENSSIB, bibliothèques universitaires, INIST), au consortium COUPERIN et à certains réseaux (MEDICI, Renatis etc.).

L’étude est accompagnée par plusieurs structures du Nord Pas-de-Calais (CRFCB MédiaLille, SCD et Formation Continue de Lille 3, Ecole Doctorale SHS, Collège Doctoral de la COMUE). En Allemagne, l’enquête implique entre autre l’offre de formation continue de la TH Cologne, de l’Université Libre de Berlin et du land Schleswig-Holstein, de plusieurs associations professionnelles (y compris leurs conférences) et autant que possible des BU et d’autres initiatives de l’open access. L’enquête s’est faite par écrit. Les questions concernent plusieurs aspects, en particulier : le public cible, les objectifs, les contenus, le format, la durée, les pré-requis (expériences professionnelles, compétences particulières etc.), évaluation par les participants, forces et faiblesses du point de vue du prestataire, perspectives pour la suite, suggestions etc.

L’enquête concerne la période de 2012 à 2015. Elle a lieu en juin et juillet 2015. Les résultats ont été présentés lors de la conférence OAT15 à Zurich , avant d‘être publiés avec les données. L’étude a été subventionnée par l’Université de Lille 3.

URL : http://hal.univ-lille3.fr/hal-01233838

EN

Search Engines and Alternative Data Sources in Webometric Research: An Exploratory Study

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Web contents are interlinked at each other through hyperlinks. Inter-linking nature of web explores significant sources of information. In the context of exploring hyper-linking behaviour of the web and retrieving relevant information, search engines and web crawlers play a predominant role as data sources but search engines had mostly withdrawn their supports after December 2011. An attempt has taken to evaluate search engines (Google, AoL, Bing, Yahoo!) using some criteria and found that AoL has the highest coverage among these search engines.

The paper also identifies various alternative data sources to carry out webometric research. The finding of the study shows that majestic.com is a predominant and comprehensive data source among alternative data sources in webometric research.

URL : Search Engines and Alternative Data Sources in Webometric Research: An Exploratory Study

Alternative location : http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/8883

EN

Open access disciplinary repository in S&T: a potentiality study for SAARC countries

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Most of the SAARC countries are unable to subscribe to high-priced research publications. Open access disciplinary repositories could provide them access to latest research results of any discipline. The objectives of this study are to find out the potentiality/possibility of developing open access disciplinary repositories for SAARC countries and provide suggestions for development of the same. Data were collected through a web search and then analysed. The article first discusses the current status of open access in the SAARC countries.

Then, it presents a brief statistics of research output of the SAARC countries as found in Web of Science along with the collaboration pattern amongst SAARC countries. It also presents research output from these countries in terms of patents granted as found in the WIPO web site. The study reveals that it is possible to develop disciplinary repositories for SAARC countries as sufficient material is available with them.

URL : http://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/forthcoming/GA13348.pdf

FR

Les humanités digitales précèdent-elle le numérique ?

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Le but de cet article est de montrer que les humanités digitales débutent en fait bien avant l’informatique en s’inscrivant dans l’histoire des outils de traitement et d’organisation de l’information. Nous montrons ici l’importance de l’index et la volonté des premiers humanistes d’améliorer l’accès et la recherche d’information. Certaines problématiques (surabondance de l’information, lecture à distance, perte d’attention, etc.) que nous pensons récentes sont en fait anciennes.

URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_01220978