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Motivations and barriers to publishing open access book chapters and monographs: An institutional perspective

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Wm. Joseph Thomas, Allison Kaefring, Jeanne K. Hoover

Introduction

Recent years have seen an increase in publishers exploring open access for monographs and book chapters. Programs like the Direct to Open from MIT Press and JSTOR’s Path to Open have provided avenues for libraries and authors to support open access monographs generally, but not campus authors specifically. On our campus, we have seen an increase in requests for and questions about publishing monographs and book chapters open access.

Description of Program

We offer several options for support for open access article publishing, including transformational agreements, institutional memberships, and an open access fund, but have limited resources and strategies for supporting book and chapter authors to make their publications open access.

To gauge our authors’ awareness and interest, we surveyed faculty who recently published a book or chapter about their publishing experiences with a focus on open access publishing. In addition to our survey, we conducted interviews with faculty to gain a better understanding of open access publishing from their perspective as recent authors.

Next Steps

In response to this research, the library has explored new methods of supporting open monograph publishing and plans to develop open education resources and webinars about the open monograph publishing process.

URL : Motivations and barriers to publishing open access book chapters and monographs: An institutional perspective

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.18280

 

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Automation Applied to the Collection and Generation of Scientific Literature

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Nadia Paola Valadez-de la Paz , Jose Antonio Vazquez-Lopez , Aidee Hernandez-Lopez , Jaime Francisco Aviles-Viñas, Jose Luis Navarro-Gonzalez,  Alfredo Valentin Reyes-Acosta, Ismael Lopez-Juarez

Preliminary activities of searching and selecting relevant articles are crucial in scientific research to determine the state of the art (SOTA) and enhance overall outcomes.

While there are automatic tools for keyword extraction, these algorithms are often computationally expensive, storage-intensive, and reliant on institutional subscriptions for metadata retrieval. Most importantly, they still require manual selection of literature.

This paper introduces a framework that automates keyword searching in article abstracts to help select relevant literature for the SOTA by identifying key terms matching that we, hereafter, call source words. A case study in the food and beverage industry is provided to demonstrate the algorithm’s application.

In the study, five relevant knowledge areas were defined to guide literature selection. The database from scientific repositories was categorized using six classification rules based on impact factor (IF), Open Access (OA) status, and JCR journal ranking.

This classification revealed the knowledge area with the highest presence and highlighted the effectiveness of the selection rules in identifying articles for the SOTA. The approach included a panel of experts who confirmed the algorithm’s effectiveness in identifying source words in high-quality articles. The algorithm’s performance was evaluated using the 𝐹1 Score, which reached 0.83 after filtering out non-relevant articles.

This result validates the algorithm’s ability to extract significant source words and demonstrates its usefulness in building the SOTA by focusing on the most scientifically impactful articles.

URL : Automation Applied to the Collection and Generation of Scientific Literature

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications13010011

EN

The Economic Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Lena Tsipouri, Sofia Liarti, Silvia Vignetti, Izabella Martins-Grapengiesser

This paper summarised a comprehensive scoping review of the economic impact of Open Science (OS), examining empirical evidence from 2000 to 2023. It focuses on Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Source Software (OSS), and Open Methods, assessing their contributions to efficiency gains in research production, innovation enhancement, and economic growth.

Evidence, although limited, indicates that OS accelerates research processes, reduces the related costs, fosters innovation by improving access to data and resources and this ultimately generates economic growth. Specific sectors, such as life sciences, are researched more and the literature exhibits substantial gains, mainly thanks to OFD and OA.

OSS supports productivity, while the very limited studies on Open Methods indicate benefits in terms of productivity gains and innovation enhancement. However, gaps persist in the literature, particularly in fields like Citizen Science and Open Evaluation, for which no empirical findings on economic impact could be detected.

Despite limitations, empirical evidence on specific cases highlight economic benefits. This review underscores the need for further metrics and studies across diverse sectors and regions to fully capture OS’s economic potential.

URL : The Economic Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/kqse5_v1

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Academic Quality or Commercial Concern? The Role of APCs in Open-Access Communication Studies Journals

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Burak Ili

Despite the positive effects of the open access (OA) movement on academic publishing, commercial publishers’ profit-driven policies continue to prevail, making the publishing process increasingly difficult for many researchers, particularly those from developing countries. T

his study critically examines open-access Q1 and Q2 journals listed in the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) within the field of Media and Communication Studies.

Despite the OA movement’s goal of increasing access to information, the capitalist academic publishing model transforms knowledge production into a commercial activity through article processing charges (APCs). The research reveals that high APCs demanded by high-impact journals represent a significant barrier, especially for researchers with limited financial and institutional support.

This situation underscores the urgent need for institutional reform in the structure of academic publishing, particularly within the field of Media and Communication Studies.

The proposed reforms should focus on critical areas such as increased support for OA models, freeing journals and editorial boards from Western monopolies, fairly compensating the labour of reviewers and editors, and offering greater language support.

Steps taken in this direction will contribute to the creation of a more transparent, fair, and inclusive structure for academic production and sharing processes.

URL : Academic Quality or Commercial Concern? The Role of APCs in Open-Access Communication Studies Journals

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v23i1.1547

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Trends and changes in academic libraries’ data management functions: A topic modeling analysis of job advertisements

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Ye Yuan , A.M.K. Yanti Idaya , A. Noorhidawati, Guan Wang

In the era of open science, academic libraries have transitioned from traditional resource providers to proactive platforms that drive data integration and knowledge innovation.

This shift has led to the continuous evolution and expansion of their data management functions. This study aims to (i) track trends in academic library data management positions, (ii) identify key themes in job advertisements related to data management, and (iii) examine how these themes have evolved. Using text mining techniques, this study applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and TF-IDF vectorization to systematically analyze 803 job advertisements related to data management posted on the IFLA LIBJOBS platform from 1996 to 2023.

The findings reveal that the development of these positions has undergone three phases: exploration, growth, and adjustment. Four core themes in data management functions emerged: “Cataloging and Metadata Management,” “Data Services and Support,” “Research Data Management,” and “Systems Management and Maintenance.”

Over time, these themes have evolved from distinct roles to a more balanced distribution. Technological advancements, political initiatives, and shifts in the global data environment have influenced these trends. Notably, the rising demand for “Systems Management and Maintenance” highlights its critical role in ensuring data security, while the sustained need for “Cataloging and Metadata Management” underscores its foundational place in data management strategies.

Meanwhile, the steady growth of “Data Services and Support” and “Research Data Management” reflects the adaptability and strategic adjustments of academic libraries in response to the rapidly changing information landscape.

These insights offer valuable empirical evidence for library leaders and policymakers in strategic planning and capacity development, ensuring that libraries can effectively navigate the challenges of a dynamic research environment.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103017

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The business of transformative agreement

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Reece Steinberg

What can transformative agreements (TA) tell us about the future of Open Access (OA)? To investigate and analyze the business model of big publishers driving these agreements, this article uses a case study of the publisher Wiley, a business model canvas, and a decision matrix. The study uncovers motivations for moving to this model and effects to libraries and research spread unequally among institutions and globally.

This has implications for the work of liaison librarians – the frontline with researchers, as well as library leadership, university leadership and others concerned with equitable access to publishing, and diversity of research.

URL : The business of transformative agreement

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103020

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Open Science Infrastructure in Croatia: Examples and Trends

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Jelena Bolkovac, Andrea Zabjan Bogut, Tamara Kraina

This paper will present examples of open science infrastructure and trends in Croatia as well as a view of librarians’ role in development and support of open science infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to showcase several parts of the Croatian open science infrastructure which were formed with the idea of Open Access in mind and with heavy involvement of librarians. Croatian national e-infrastructure for academic and scientific community has been in development since the founding of the University Computing Centre (SRCE) within the University of Zagreb in 1971.

SRCE has become a major national infrastructural ICT institution and is involved in most of the open science infrastructure projects in Croatia. Open Access has been a key point of Croatian e-infrastructure since the 90’s when the Open Access movement started in 1997 with the launch of the first version of the Croatian scientific bibliography – CROSBI developed by the Ruđer Bošković Institute Library.

From the beginning, it offered an option of storing a full text file alongside the bibliographic record which was an advanced concept at that time. HRČAK is a central Open Access portal launched in 2006. It offers Open Access to papers from Croatian scientific and professional journals as well as journals for the popularization of science and culture. DABAR (Digital Academic Archives and Repositories) was launched in 2015 as a digital object repository for higher education and research institutions in Croatia.

It was the result of cooperation between SRCE and National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) who recognised the need for this key component in the Croatian e-infrastructure. Repositories in DABAR are encouraged to register with Open DOAR and OpenAIRE. Croatia is moving forward with Open Access and Open Science Infrastructure with the launch of the Croatian Research Information System CroRIS in 2023.

URL : Open Science Infrastructure in Croatia: Examples and Trends

DOI : https://doi.org/10.21428/1bfadeb6.b6c29488