Archives des mots-clés : scientific practices

Les pratiques de recherche documentaire des chercheurs français en 2020 : étude du consortium Couperin

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Auteurs/Authors : Marie Pascale Baligand, Grégory Colcanap, Vincent Harnais, Françoise Rousseau‐Hans, Christine Weil‐Miko

Connaître les pratiques et les besoins documentaires des communautés de recherche dans les différentes disciplines et les différents types d’institutions, c’est ce à quoi le consortium Couperin s’attelle avec les enquêtes réalisées auprès des chercheurs, des enseignants-chercheurs, des ingénieurs ou des doctorants.

Ces analyses sont essentielles pour connaître les changements à l’œuvre dans une période où la science s’ouvre, où les coûts liés aux ressources documentaires sont particulièrement élevés et où les modèles économiques de la publication scientifique sont engagés dans une mutation à l’issue incertaine.

Cette enquête s’inscrit dans la perspective particulière du renouvellement des marchés d’outils bibliographiques et bibliométriques. Son objet est limité aux pratiques de la recherche documentaires.

Plusieurs enseignements peuvent être tirés, ils confirment souvent les analyses que les professionnels de l’information scientifique tirent de leur pratique du terrain et des relations qu’ils entretiennent avec les acteurs de la recherche. 5598 réponses complètes ou partielles ont pu être analysées donnant ainsi à cette étude une dimension représentative certaine.

URL : Les pratiques de recherche documentaire des chercheurs français en 2020 : étude du consortium Couperin

Original location : https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03148285

Conjoint analysis of researchers’ hidden preferences for bibliometrics, altmetrics, and usage metrics

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Authors : Steffen Lemke, Athanasios Mazarakis, Isabella Peters

The amount of annually published scholarly articles is growing steadily, as is the number of indicators through which impact of publications is measured. Little is known about how the increasing variety of available metrics affects researchers’ processes of selecting literature to read.

We conducted ranking experiments embedded into an online survey with 247 participating researchers, most from social sciences. Participants completed series of tasks in which they were asked to rank fictitious publications regarding their expected relevance, based on their scores regarding six prototypical metrics.

Through applying logistic regression, cluster analysis, and manual coding of survey answers, we obtained detailed data on how prominent metrics for research impact influence our participants in decisions about which scientific articles to read.

Survey answers revealed a combination of qualitative and quantitative characteristics that researchers consult when selecting literature, while regression analysis showed that among quantitative metrics, citation counts tend to be of highest concern, followed by Journal Impact Factors.

Our results suggest a comparatively favorable view of many researchers on bibliometrics and widespread skepticism toward altmetrics.

The findings underline the importance of equipping researchers with solid knowledge about specific metrics’ limitations, as they seem to play significant roles in researchers’ everyday relevance assessments.

URL : Conjoint analysis of researchers’ hidden preferences for bibliometrics, altmetrics, and usage metrics

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24445

Research data management and data sharing behaviour of university researchers

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Authors : Yurdagül Ünal, Gobinda Chowdhury, Serap Kurbanoğlu, Joumana Boustany, Geoff Walton

Introduction

The aim of this study is to understand how university researchers behave in the context of using and sharing research data in OA mode.

Method

An online questionnaire survey was conducted amongst academics and researchers in three countries – UK, France and Turkey. There were 26 questions to collect data on: researcher information, e.g. discipline, gender and experience; data sharing practices, concerns; familiarity with data management practices; and policies/challenges including knowledge of metadata and training.

Analysis

SPSS was used to analyse the dataset, and Chi-Square tests, at 0.05 significance level, were conducted to find out association between researchers’ behaviour in data sharing and different areas of research data management (RDM).

Findings

Findings show that OA is still not common amongst researchers. Data ethics and legal issues appear to be the most significant concerns for researchers. Most researchers have not received any training in RDM such as data management planning metadata, or file naming. However, most researchers would welcome formal training in different aspects of RDM.

Conclusion

This study indicates directions for further research to understand the disciplinary differences in researchers’ data access and management behaviour so that appropriate training and advocacy programmes can be developed to promote OA to research data.

URL : http://www.informationr.net/ir/24-1/isic2018/isic1818.html

Where Do Early Career Researchers Stand on Open Science Practices? A Survey Within the Max Planck Society

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Authors : Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Lukas Anneser, Felipe Nathan deOliveira-Lopes, Martijn Pallandt, Isabell Tunn, Hendrik Windel

Open science (OS) is of paramount importance for the improvement of science worldwide and across research fields. Recent years have witnessed a transition toward open and transparent scientific practices, but there is still a long way to go.

Early career researchers (ECRs) are of crucial relevance in the process of steering toward the standardization of OS practices, as they will become the future decision makers of the institutional change that necessarily accompanies this transition. Thus, it is imperative to gain insight into where ECRs stand on OS practices.

Under this premise, the Open Science group of the Max Planck PhDnet designed and conducted an online survey to assess the stance toward OS practices of doctoral candidates from the Max Planck Society.

As one of the leading scientific institutions for basic research worldwide, the Max Planck Society provides a considerable population of researchers from multiple scientific fields, englobed into three sections: biomedical sciences, chemistry, physics and technology, and human and social sciences.

From an approximate total population of 5,100 doctoral candidates affiliated with the Max Planck Society, the survey collected responses from 568 doctoral candidates. The survey assessed self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and implementation of different OS practices, namely, open access publications, open data, preregistrations, registered reports, and replication studies.

ECRs seemed to hold a generally positive view toward these different practices and to be interested in learning more about them. Furthermore, we found that ECRs’ knowledge and positive attitudes predicted the extent to which they implemented these OS practices, although levels of implementation were rather low in the past. We observed differences and similarities between scientific sections.

We discuss these differences in terms of need and feasibility to apply these OS practices in specific scientific fields, but additionally in relation to the incentive systems that shape scientific communities. Lastly, we discuss the implications that these results can have for the training and career advancement of ECRs, and ultimately, for the consolidation of OS practices.

URL : Where Do Early Career Researchers Stand on Open Science Practices? A Survey Within the Max Planck Society

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2020.586992

Research Culture: A survey of early-career researchers in Australia

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Authors : Katherine Christian, Carolyn Johnstone, Jo-ann Larkins, Wendy Wright, Michael R Doran

Early-career researchers (ECRs) make up a large portion of the academic workforce and their experiences often reflect the wider culture of the research system. Here we surveyed 658 ECRs working in Australia to better understand the needs and challenges faced by this community.

Although most respondents indicated a ‘love of science’, many also expressed an intention to leave their research position. The responses highlight how job insecurity, workplace culture, mentorship and ‘questionable research practices’ are impacting the job satisfaction of ECRs and potentially compromising science in Australia.

We also make recommendations for addressing some of these concerns.

URL : Research Culture: A survey of early-career researchers in Australia

DOI : https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60613

Biomedical Data Sharing Among Researchers: A Study from Jordan

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Authors : Lina Al-Ebbini, Omar F Khabour, Karem H Alzoubi, Almuthanna K Alkaraki

Background

Data sharing is an encouraged practice to support research in all fields. For that purpose, it is important to examine perceptions and concerns of researchers about biomedical data sharing, which was investigated in the current study.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional survey study that was distributed among biomedical researchers in Jordan, as an example of developing countries. The study survey consisted of questions about demographics and about respondent’s attitudes toward sharing of biomedical data.

Results

Among study participants, 46.9% (n=82) were positive regarding making their research data available to the public, whereas 53.1% refused the idea. The reasons for refusing to publicly share their data included “lack of regulations” (33.5%), “access to research data should be limited to the research team” (29.5%), “no place to deposit the data” (6.5%), and “lack of funding for data deposition” (6.0%).

Agreement with the idea of making data available was associated with academic rank (P=0.003). Moreover, gender (P-value=0.043) and number of publications (P-value=0.005) were associated with a time frame for data sharing (ie, agreeing to share data before vs after publication).

Conclusion

About half of the respondents reported a positive attitude toward biomedical data sharing. Proper regulations and facilitation data deposition can enhance data sharing in Jordan.

URL : Biomedical Data Sharing Among Researchers: A Study from Jordan

DOI : https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S284294

Research Data Sharing in Spain: Exploring Determinants, Practices, and Perceptions

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Authors : Rafael Aleixandre-Benavent, Antonio Vidal-Infer, Adolfo Alonso-Arroyo, Fernanda Peset, Antonia Ferrer Sapena

This work provides an overview of a Spanish survey on research data, which was carried out within the framework of the project Datasea at the beginning of 2015. It is covered by the objectives of sustainable development (goal 9) to support the research.

The purpose of the study was to identify the habits and current experiences of Spanish researchers in the health sciences in relation to the management and sharing of raw research data. Method: An electronic questionnaire composed of 40 questions divided into three blocks was designed.

The three Section s contained questions on the following aspects: (A) personal information; (B) creation and reuse of data; and (C) preservation of data. The questionnaire was sent by email to a list of universities in Spain to be distributed among their researchers and professors. A total of 1063 researchers completed the questionnaire.

More than half of the respondents (54.9%) lacked a data management plan; nearly a quarter had storage systems for the research group; 81.5% used personal computers to store data; “Contact with colleagues” was the most frequent means used to locate and access other researchers’ data; and nearly 60% of researchers stated their data were available to the research group and collaborating colleagues.

The main fears about sharing were legal questions (47.9%), misuse or interpretation of data (42.7%), and loss of authorship (28.7%).

The results allow us to understand the state of data sharing among Spanish researchers and can serve as a basis to identify the needs of researchers to share data, optimize existing infrastructure, and promote data sharing among those who do not practice it yet.

URL : Research Data Sharing in Spain: Exploring Determinants, Practices, and Perceptions

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/data5020029