Data sharing and its implications for academic libraries…

Data sharing and its implications for academic libraries :

« Purpose : As an important aspect of the scientific process, research data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research publicly available for use by other researchers. This paper seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the data-sharing challenges and opportunities posed by the data deluge in academics. An attempt is made to discuss implications for the changing role and functioning of academic libraries.

Design/methodology/approach : An extensive review of literature on current trends and the impact of data sharing are performed.

Findings : The context in which the increasing demands for data sharing have arisen is presented. Some of the practices, trends, and issues central to data sharing among academics are presented. Emerging implications for academic libraries that are expected to provide a data service are discussed.

Originality/value : An insightful review and synthesis of context, issues, and trends in data sharing will help academic libraries to plan and develop programs and policies for their data services. »

URL : http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0307-4803&volume=114&issue=11&articleid=17097171&show=abstract

Defining and characterizing open peer review a review…

Defining and characterizing open peer review: a review of the literature :

« Changes in scholarly publishing have resulted in a move toward openness. To this end, new, open models of peer review are emerging. While the scholarly literature has examined and discussed open peer review, no established definition of it exists, nor are there uniform implementations of open peer review processes. This article examines the literature discussing open peer review, identifies common open peer review definitions, and describes eight common characteristics of open peer review: signed review, disclosed review, editor-mediated review, transparent review, crowdsourced review, prepublication review, synchronous review, and post-publication review. This article further discusses benefits and challenges to the scholarly publishing community posed by open peer review, and concludes that open peer review can and should exist within the current scholarly publishing paradigm. »

URL : http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/ulib_fac/1/

Digital Copyright and Public Access: Why the Knowledge Principle Dictates a Fair Access Right for Public Libraries

This Article argues that copyright jurisprudence has lost sight of the knowledge principle at the heart of the Constitutional justification for copyright. The Framers envisioned the objective of copyright as promoting the advancement of knowledge for a democratic society by increasing access to published works.

Under what is best termed the “knowledge principle,” access to existing knowledge is a necessary condition for the creation of new knowledge. Copyright jurisprudence has largely protected the interests of producers – from early booksellers to modern Hollywood film companies – failing to notice the central role of access to works as a necessary pre-condition to the creation of new works.

The realities of the digital era further hinder the functioning of this mechanism. Ownership of copies of texts has morphed into a limited right of possession of digital files. Public libraries can no longer fulfill their mission of maximizing the circulation of materials in order to spread available knowledge among citizens.

This Article proposes an alternative model to the conventional copyright theories, focusing on the critical role that access to knowledge resources plays in the dynamic processes at work in the production of knowledge and the creation of new works.

This Article proposes a non-waivable “fair access” right exercisable by public libraries in order to realign copyright with its Constitutional justification, and more importantly to support the knowledge creation process for the future of our democratic society.

URL : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2315188

Researchers and scholarly communications: an evolving interdependency

Scholarly communication is not just about communication. It is not the final stage of the publication process, solely a means of providing the ‘minutes of science’. Rather, it is a vital part of the research process itself, inspiring researchers along new avenues of discovery and enabling the creation of connections between concepts and people.

The ways in which researchers disseminate their research have changed and developed over the four centuries since the launch of the first scientific journals. But it can be argued that scholarly communication has in turn affected the way in which researchers behave.

This chapter explores some of the interaction and interdependencies between researchers and scholarly communication. It also describes how the move to online, electronic publishing might further influence the research process.

URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/19914/

Open Data Access Policies and Strategies in the European Research Area and Beyond

This report examines policies and strategies towards open access (OA) of scientific data in the European Research Area (ERA), Brazil, Canada, Japan and the US from 2000 onwards. The analysis examines strategies that aim to foster OA scientific data—such as the types of incentives given at the researcher and institutional levels and the level of compliance by researchers and funded organisations —and also examines how, and whether, these policies are monitored and enforced. The infrastructures developed to store and share OA scientific data are also examined.

The analysis is supported by findings from the literature on the global progression of OA scientific data since 2000—including its growth as a segment of scholarly publishing—as well as some of the broader trends, themes and debates that have emerged from the movement.

URL : http://www.science-metrix.com/pdf/SM_EC_OA_Data.pdf

Open Access Strategies in the European Research Area…

Open Access Strategies in the European Research Area :

« This report presents an overview and analysis of strategies towards open access (OA) of peer-reviewed publications in the European Research Area (ERA), Brazil, Canada, Japan and the US from the year 2000 onwards. The analysis examines strategies that aim to foster OA (e.g. researcher and institutional incentives) and discusses how OA policies are monitored and enforced. The analysis is supported by findings from the literature on the global progression of OA since 2000, and comments on themes and debates that have emerged from the movement. »

URL : http://www.science-metrix.com/pdf/SM_EC_OA_Policies.pdf

Proportion of Open Access Peer Reviewed Papers at…

Proportion of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Papers at the European and World Levels—2004-2011 :

« This report re-assesses the Open Access (OA) availability of scholarly publications during the 2004 to 2011 period, for 22 fields of knowledge, as well as for the European Research Area countries, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the US. Using a strategy to increase the number of free articles retrieved (that is, which aims to increasing recall), led to close to a doubling of the proportion of OA estimated by teams lead by Björk and by Harnad. The present report shows that the tipping point for OA (more than 50% of the papers available for free) has been reached in several countries, including Brazil, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the US, as well as in biomedical research, biology, and mathematics and statistics. »

URL : http://www.science-metrix.com/pdf/SM_EC_OA_Availability_2004-2011.pdf