scholarly journals Knowledge infrastructure and the role of the university

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-160
Author(s):  
Amy Brand

As open access to research information grows and publisher business models adapt accordingly, knowledge infrastructure has become the new frontier for advocates of open science. This paper argues that the time has come for universities and other knowledge institutions to assume a larger role in mitigating the risks that arise from ongoing consolidation in research infrastructure, including the privatization of community platforms, commercial control of analytics solutions, and other market-driven trends in scientific and scholarly publishing.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
Elena Tikhonova ◽  
Lilia Raitskaya

Nearly ten years ago, scholarly publishing came to the fore in research on scientific communication spurred by the evolving Open Science system, the reinvention of peer reviews, and new attitudes to scholarly publications in the ranking-based academic environment. Here, the JLE editors revisit the field of scholarly publishing and identify the most popular areas where potential JLE authors might have difficulty. In this editorial, Scopus-indexed reviews are analysed to map the prevailing trends. The editorial review shows that the trends include open access, peer review transparency, the changing role of libraries in scholarly publishing, CrossRef’s initiatives, outsourcing and skills lacking in publishing, the impact of universities’ prescribed lists for publishing research, open-access monographs, and the role of commercial publishers.


Author(s):  
Shaghayegh Abdolahzadeh ◽  
Peter G. Braun ◽  
Christina Elsenga ◽  
Marijke Folgering-van der Vliet ◽  
Babette Knauer ◽  
...  

The academic landscape of the Netherlands has been influenced in recent years by new governmental policies regarding open access and open science, national and European legal guidelines, developments in ICT, and changes in how researchers are assessed. The University of Groningen Library (UB) has seized the opportunity in these developments, providing research support in the domains of registration and archiving of research output, open access publishing, research data management, and research analytics. Increased efficiency in traditional library procedures and the introduction of project-based funding have provided staff capacity for these developments. Full-service customization, to meet the needs of researchers and alleviate their time and work pressure, lies at the heart of the UB's research support.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bård Smedsrød ◽  
Eirik Reierth ◽  
Lars Moksness ◽  
Leif Longva

Watch the VIDEO of the presentation.Journal coordinated peer reviewing, a hallmark of scholarly publishing, is also a pivotal part of other central academic processes, such as evaluation of research grant applications, and ranking of applicants for faculty/research positions. Hence, journal coordinated peer reviewing may be viewed as “the mother of academic peer reviewing”. On this background, it is astonishing that universities and other public R&D institutions take only a very limited interest in the management and policy shaping of this cornerstone of scholarly publishing.We suggest that the universities need to become more aware of the pivotal role of the peer reviewing jobs carried out by their professors and researchers. The peer reviewing should be viewed as a partial, in kind payment from the institutions involved to the journal publishers. The advantages of this are manifold: i) negotiating power that may lead to easier and quicker implementation of open access publishing and/or ii) reducing costs, in particular the unjustifiably high subscription and licensing rates set by the big commercial publishing houses; iii) better control of how scientific staff use their time for the good of the university; iv) managing a unified policy shaping of peer reviewing, reducing fraud and flaws. This will in turn increase quality of the research produced by the universities.    The EU has recently announced their goal of making all European scientific articles freely accessible by 2020. This announcement was made unanimously by the EU ministers responsible for research and innovation. The ministers have not announced what means to use in achieving their announced goal. We suggest a united approach whereby taking control of the peer review job could be an interesting road to follow. Such a unified international action among universities and grant agencies would be very beneficial in order to make the changes needed to establish peer reviewing as a truly academically based responsibility. The increasing international agreements and actions to implement open access publishing are indications that such changes are possible. By standing together universities will be able to break the economic grip that the big commercial publishing houses have on academic research.Some may argue that it is the right of each individual scientist to decide on the extent and for what journal to perform peer reviewing. However, if an employer for some reason limits the amount of time used to do peer reviewing for certain commercial publishing houses, it would not interfere with the academic freedom to do research and to choose freely where and how to publish. After all, work contracts include instructions on how to perform a certain amount of teaching, administration and research. The option of directing where to do or not to do peer review should not be very controversial.By taking control of and organizing peer reviewing universities would obtain a means to regain the academic freedom that was lost when commercial enterprises took over the society driven journals, introducing heavy paywalls. And it may facilitate a development towards an open science regime.


Author(s):  
Feriha Özdemir

Studies show that electromobility will emerge in urban areas. As urban mobility solutions are changing, electromobility is intended with a big potential of sustainable innovation. Nevertheless, changing the mobility culture depends on certain requirements. According to Urri, the automobile development lies in breaking the dominant role of cars which results in a development deadlock. In order to change the mobility culture, the mental approach to mobility options and the infrastructural conditions need to be considered as two central factors. Future mobility isn´t about less mobility, but rather a different way of being mobile and using different types of mobility solutions. This paper presents a research project that is based on the systemic-relational approach. It seeks to develop and introduce the conditions of electromobility in an urban area without a well-frequented local public transport by a networked innovation cooperation in four development areas. The central goal of this work is the integrated development of service innovation of technical and non-technical manner based on the network of project partners, the city council and the university. A change towards electromobility means changing infrastructure, market actors and business models. It signifies a change of social-cultural systems regarding mobility habits, practices and values. One of our main results show that the emotional perception by using experiences of electromobility has a positive effect on its social acceptability which raises the “flow factor” of electromobility.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Yaroshenko

Open Access to scientific information, transparency of research processes and data is one of the most important conditions for the progress of science and scientific communication, the basis of international collaboration of researchers globally. The COVID-19 global pandemic has once again highlighted the need for open, efficient and equal access to scientific information for researchers, regardless of geographical, gender or any other constraints, promoting the exchange of scientific knowledge and data, scientific cooperation and scientific decision-making, knowledge and open data. The Internet has radically changed scientific communication, particularly on the model of peer-reviewed scientific journals and the way readers find and access the scientific information. Digital access is now the norm, thanks to the Open Access model. Although 20 years have passed since the announcement of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, and despite many achievements and advantages, there are still obstacles to the implementation of this model, there is some resistance from commercial publishers and other providers, and discussions continue in the academia world. The Open Access model is already supported by various strategies, policies, platforms, applications but is not yet established. Various business models for scientific journals are still being tested, a culture of preprints is being formed, and discussions are underway on the ethics of scientific publications, intellectual property, the need to finance the dissemination of research results, and so on. Various platforms and applications are being developed to help researchers “discover” research results. Nevertheless, this is not enough: it is important to “discover” not only the results but also the research data, allowing them be used for further research in the global world. Thus, the concepts and practices of Open Science, Open Data, development of research infrastructures, etc., are developing quite rapidly. The article considers the main stages of this 20-year path and outlines the main components and trends of the current stage. Emphasis is placed on the need to form a culture of Open Science and create incentives for its implementation, promoting innovative methods of Open Science at different stages of the scientific process, the needs of European integration of Ukrainian e-infrastructure development, the need for socio-cultural and technological change. The main international and domestic practices and projects in Open Access and Open Science, particularly the National Repository of Academic Texts and the National Plan of Open Science draft, are considered. The role of libraries and librarians in implementing the principles of Open Access and Open Science is emphasized.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene N. Andreassen ◽  
Erik Lieungh

In this episode, we are discussing how to teach open science to PhD students. Helene N. Andreassen, head of Library Teaching and Learning Support at the University Library of UiT the Arctic University of Norway shares her experiences with the integration of open science in a special, tailor-made course for PhD's that have just started their project. An interdisciplinary, discussion-based course, "Take Control of Your PhD Journey: From (P)reflection to Publishing" consists of a series of seminars on research data management, open access publishing and other subject matters pertaining to open science. First published online February 26, 2020.


Author(s):  
David Palfreyman ◽  
Ted Tapper

The basic structure of the Oxbridge type evolved historically as a federal set of multi-disciplinary and largely self-governing colleges. Each set was balanced between competition and cooperation. A distinct feature is that teaching is divided between the university role of organizing and examining taught courses, and the college role of organizing the attendant processes of student learning, especially via the system of tutorials/supervisions, a form of apprenticeship in critical thinking. University policy is strongly influenced by faculty assemblies. This formula is now under pressure from greater dependence on government research funding, and from new performance criteria in evaluation. There are fears that new forms of state control will result in a decline of autonomy, and so the capacity for academic initiative, as universities as a whole become more market-driven.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 163-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Mary Marsh

Purpose – This paper aims to uncover the central purposes of institutional repositories, how developments are being affected by policies and researcher behaviour and also what services and approaches are appropriate in supporting repositories from those partners involved in scholarly communication with a particular focus on services that support the publication of research. Design/methodology/approach – The research reviews the literature and current practices within higher education with regard to the core purposes of institutional repositories, the possible causes of low population of repositories in some institutions and subject disciplines, how this is being addressed and likely future developments. A qualitative survey using semi-structured interviews explores current best practices and tests the specific research questions that emerged from the literature review. Findings – The rate at which institutional repositories have grown in number has been very fast in recent years, but the population of repositories with research has been relatively slow. The research identified a number of reasons as to why the population of repositories was likely to accelerate in the future and have a more significant impact on scholarly communication. The main catalysts are: strengthening of national and funder policies that serve to both mandate open access (green or gold) and raise awareness of open access amongst faculty; the alignment of repositories with current research information systems within universities; and the development of metadata and open archives initiative harvesting that will improve discoverability and usage data. Research limitations/implications – As many of the issues around the development of repositories centre on the attitudes of faculty, it would also provide an interesting extension to the research to understand their views of the role of institutional repositories, too. Practical implications – The study presents a number of possible new ways of working by both information professionals and publishers to improve scholarly communication through the inclusion of research within institutional repositories and how perceived barriers could be overcome. Social implications – The study provides guidance on how the communication of scholarly research could be improved and reach a wider audience. This, in turn, will benefit researchers, corporate organisations and the public at large. Originality/value – The paper provides a review of current best practices in managing institutional repositories and identifies new ways of addressing some of the perceived barriers to populating repositories and the benefits for each stakeholder in the scholarly communication process.


Author(s):  
Laura Icela González-Pérez ◽  
María-Soledad Ramírez-Montoya ◽  
Francisco J. García-Peñalvo

Disruptive ideas and innovative business models take shape from observing and investigating the needs and demands of potential users and measuring their success based on the acceptance by users and their satisfaction. In an educational context, a new mission of the university has emerged, supported by the transfer of open access knowledge through Institutional Repositories (IR); it is important to know the motivations and needs of the academic community to promote scientific dissemination using these platforms. The present article uses the method of systematic literature review: using 29 studies from SCOPUS and WoS, involving the topics User-Centered Design (UCD) and repositories. The results show that two of the three UCD phases—evaluation and requirements—are closely linked and are the reiterative focus of UCD; thus, it is desirable to promote the design of custom-made prototypes according to the users' motivations. It is necessary to redefine methodologies for IR development within open-access ecosystems to guide them towards meeting their potential users' needs and motivations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Kelty

In this interview, we discuss what open access can teach us about the state of the university, as well as practices in scholarly publishing. In particular the focus is on issues of labor and precarity, the question of how open access enables or blocks other innovations in scholarship, the way open access might be changing practices of scholarship, and the role of technology and automation in the creation, evaluation, and circulation of scholarly work.


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