Now Available from Amazon.com: Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition is now available from Amazon.com as a 372-page, 6" by 9" paperback book on white paper (ISBN: 1448624908, EAN: 139781448624904).

The bibliography presents over 3,350 English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet (see the table of contents for details). Most sources have been published between 1990 and 2008; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition

The bibliography is also available from CreateSpace (identical to the Amazon.com edition) and Lulu (same page length and size, but it is printed on cream paper and it does not have an ISBN or EAN.)

Presentations from "Rough Waters: Navigating Hard Times in the Scholarly Communication Marketplace"

SPARC has released presentations from the "Rough Waters: Navigating Hard Times in the Scholarly Communication Marketplace" SPARC-ACRL forum at ALA Annual 2009.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The economy and its impact on library and higher education budgets are the most urgent concern for the library community today. While libraries have long been grappling with constrained collection budgets, we face a new urgency in continuing the transformation promised by Open Access and new technologies. This forum took a bird's eye view of the scholarly communication marketplace and suggested tactics for navigating through tough times.

"Should Copyright of Academic Works Be Abolished?"

Steven Shavell, Samuel R. Rosenthal Professor of Law and Economics at the Harvard Law School, has self-archived "Should Copyright of Academic Works Be Abolished?"

Here's an excerpt:

The conventional rationale for copyright of written works, that copyright is needed to foster their creation, is seemingly of limited applicability to the academic domain. For in a world without copyright of academic writing, academics would still benefit from publishing in the major way that they do now, namely, from gaining scholarly esteem. Yet publishers would presumably have to impose fees on authors, because publishers would not be able to profit from reader charges. If these publication fees would be borne by academics, their incentives to publish would be reduced. But if the publication fees would usually be paid by universities or grantors, the motive of academics to publish would be unlikely to decrease (and could actually increase)—suggesting that ending academic copyright would be socially desirable in view of the broad benefits of a copyright-free world. If so, the demise of academic copyright should be achieved by a change in law, for the 'open access' movement that effectively seeks this objective without modification of the law faces fundamental difficulties.

"The Dissemination of Scholarly Information: Old Approaches and New Possibilities"

Economists Omar Al-Ubaydli (George Mason University) and Rufus Pollock (Cambridge University) have self-archived "The Dissemination of Scholarly Information: Old Approaches and New Possibilities."

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper we began by setting out the basic goals of the scholarly communication system. We compared the current, journal dominated system, against those goals and found it wanting, and explored in detail alternative options in which distribution and filtering are separated and centralized filtering is replaced by a distributed, decentralized approach.

Using a simple model we explored the factors underlying the development of the current journal paradigm. There were two main factors: a) the high costs of information transmission in the pre-digital era (and, associatedly, fixed costs and economies of scale in transmission which make journals an effective club good) b) the natural complementarity of filtering to distribution which leads journals to act as filtering as well as distributional mechanisms.

With the collapse of transmission costs in the era of the Internet these original rationales for journals have disappeared. It is now possible for distribution and filtering to be separate and for the development of richer, and more complex filtering models based on decentralized, distributed mechanisms—with this latter process dependent on the first (if distribution and filtering are tied—as in the traditional journal model—distributed mechanisms make little sense).

We explored the various benefits of such alternative distributed mechanisms—and also provide a detailed description of how such a mechanism would function in appendix A. One of the main implications of our work discussion is that a crucial benefit of the open-access approach, in addition to the obvious one of reducing the deadweight loss to access, is that it permits the development of radically new matching mechanisms based on a richer set of information which offer major efficiency (and other) advantages. This second benefit, though often overlooked, is a major one, and is, in the long run we believe, likely to be the most significant.

Unfortunately, it is hard for new approaches to take hold because of the lock-in to the traditional 'closed' journal model engendered by the mutual expectations of authors and readers. Given the potential benefits afforded by innovation in this area, it is crucial that the potential of new approaches be thoroughly considered so that the scholarly community can adequately assess the options and, if necessary, take collective action to achieve mutually beneficial change.

Scholarly and Research Communication Established

A new open access journal, Scholarly and Research Communication, has been established.

Here's an excerpt from the journal's home page:

Scholarly and Research Communication is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, Open Access, online journal that publishes original contributions to the understanding of production, dissemination, and usage of knowledge. It emphasizes the dynamics of representation and changing organizational elements, including technologically mediated workflows, ownership, and legal structures. Contributions are welcomed in all media and span formal research and analysis; technical reports and demonstration; commentary, and review.

Also see Rowland Lorimer's presentation "Scholarly and Research Communication: A Journal and Some Founding Ideas."

"Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members: Promoting Positive Change and a Continuing Role for Scholarly Societies"

The Association of Research Libraries has released "Campus Outreach to Scholarly Society Leaders, Editors, and Members: Promoting Positive Change and a Continuing Role for Scholarly Societies."

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The guide seeks to increase library staff’s conscious connections with leaders of scholarly societies residing on their campus in order to:

  • Build positive relationships between librarians and faculty members
  • Create opportunities for education and dialog with key opinion leaders and decision-makers within disciplinary communities
  • Identify opportunities for libraries to partner/collaborate with scholarly societies
  • Enhance library leadership’s decision-making capability by building a better understanding of their faculty members’ and researchers’ ongoing needs for services from scholarly societies

Successful campus outreach should encourage and support society leaders to engage in positive change that advances the scholarly communication system, promotes new research modes, and offers a path forward in a time of paradigm shift.

Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today

Ithaka has released Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today.

Here's an excerpt:

In a multi-phase programme that began in late 2007, Ithaka studied the factors influencing the sustainability of not-for-profit digital resources. In a report issued in 2008, Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources, we examined factors that leaders of online initiatives face when developing sustainability plans for their content-based projects. The report presented overall guidelines for leaders to consider, as well as detailed descriptions of the success drivers and challenges for a range of different revenue models. In two workshops held in London and New York in the spring of 2008, Ithaka staff met with project leaders, programme officers at foundations and library administrators to discuss the report's findings. A strong consensus emerged that the framework and guidelines would be even more useful if tested against real-world examples illustrating the range of theoretical business models the report described. While Sustainability and Revenue Models presented the theory, readers wanted to see how the models were working in practice. How did project leaders define their mission and revenue goals? What steps did they take to develop revenue-generating and cost-management strategies? How did these align with the organisations' missions? To what extent were certain models successful, and how did project leaders define that success? Where were they running into problems?

Based on the community's interest in seeing concrete examples, we embarked on an exploration of the sustainability models of 12 selected digital resources. Our goal is to help illuminate the ways in which the general principles outlined in the first report play out in the real world, as well as to highlight lessons for leaders of other digital projects and other stakeholders in the community. Of course, there is no formula that will guarantee a project's sustainability, but as these case studies demonstrate, there are certain steps that leaders can take to maximise the value a project creates and to leverage that value to better position a resource for success.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (7/15/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: "ARCHER—e-Research Tools for Research Data Management," "The Case for Regulating Google and the Proposed Book Rights Registry," "Characteristics of Open Access Scholarly Publishing: A Multidisciplinary Study," "Metadata Quality in Digital Repositories: A Survey of the Current State of the Art," "Motivations for Web-Based Scholarly Publishing: Do Scientists Recognize Open Availability as an Advantage?," "Name Authority Control in Institutional Repositories," "The National E-Books Observatory Project: Examining Student Behaviors and Usage," "Open Access for Digitization Projects," "Repository Metadata: Approaches and Challenges," and "Where There’s a Will There’s a Way?: Survey of Academic Librarian Attitudes about Open Access."

Open Access—What Are the Economic Benefits? A Comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark

The Knowledge Exchange has released Open Access—What Are the Economic Benefits? A Comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In June 2009 a study was completed that had been commissioned by Knowledge Exchange and written by Professor John Houghton, Victoria University, Australia. This report on the study was titled: "Open Access—What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark." This report was based on the findings of studies in which John Houghton had modelled the costs and benefits of Open Access in three countries. These studies had been undertaken in the UK by JISC, in the Netherlands by SURF and in Denmark by DEFF.

In the three national studies the costs and benefits of scholarly communication were compared based on three different publication models. The modelling revealed that the greatest advantage would be offered by the Open Access model, which means that the research institution or the party financing the research pays for publication and the article is then freely accessible.

Adopting this model could lead to annual savings of around EUR 70 million in Denmark, EUR 133 million in The Netherlands and EUR 480 in the UK. The report concludes that the advantages would not just be in the long term; in the transitional phase too, more open access to research results would have positive effects. In this case the benefits would also outweigh the costs.

Elsevier Launches SciVal Spotlight

Elsevier has launched SciVal Spotlight.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

SciVal Spotlight uses an innovative visualization technique to produce customized maps that provide graphical views of an institution's performance over time and across scientific fields, focusing on specific topical areas. By pinpointing a university's topical strengths and identifying leading researchers and institutions in each area, the tool is designed to help academic decision-makers optimize funding allocations and enhance hiring and collaboration decisions.

Quantifying the overall size of each topical area, the tool allows institutions to understand the significance of their article and market shares and how they rank compared to competitors in those areas. It also assesses article and market growth or decline over the last five years, offering an average rate for each using a two year sliding scale. Additionally, it determines if an institution's work is building upon the most recent discoveries; providing a "state of the art quotient" by analyzing how recent the citations are within its published output.

"We recognized a need to change the way research is currently being measured, and designed the tool to provide a more holistic and integrated view of performance," explained Jay Katzen, Managing Director, Academic and Government Products. "By capturing the unique research fingerprint of each institution, we can help academic executives better understand their core strengths and potential weaknesses so they can develop and implement successful long-term research strategies."

Moving beyond the traditional method of measuring research output by journal count, SciVal Spotlight is based on a more detailed model of the current structure of science. The model, covering virtually all of the research being published across the globe, was developed using co-citation analysis of a comprehensive database that includes 6.1 million separate papers published between 2004 and 2008, and another two million of the highly-cited references from these papers.

Leveraging this new model of science, SciVal Spotlight identifies and focuses on the inter-related work being done within an institution which represents the unique topical areas or "distinctive competencies" in which it is a leader. It also offers an opportunity to better understand which institutions are true competitors by revealing those that compete within the same research competencies.

"The square peg, round hole nature of evaluating research performance based on the broad classifications of journals no longer captures the reality of today's multidisciplinary scientific landscape," explains Kevin Boyack, a senior development advisor for Elsevier. "SciVal Spotlight provides academic decision-makers with a more accurate picture of research productivity. It allows them to evaluate performance based on the breakthroughs they are trying to achieve, rather than the classification of the journals in which their researchers are publishing articles."

Papers and Presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies

Papers and presentations from EPUB 2009—Rethinking Electronic Publishing: Innovation in Communication Paradigms and Technologies are now available.

Here's a quick selection of papers:

Presentations from 2009 Annual RLG Partnership Meeting

Presentations (PDF, MP4, and WMV formats) from the 2009 Annual RLG Partnership Meeting are now available.

Here's a brief selection of PDF files:

The UK’s Share of World Research Output: An Investigation of Different Data Sources and Trends

The Research Information Network has released The UK's Share of World Research Output: An Investigation of Different Data Sources and Trends.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Bibliometrics have come to play an increasing role in assessing the performance of researchers in the UK, as indeed in other parts of the world. But the complexities of both the data sources and the methods of analysis used are little understood by many of those who wish to make use of the results. Even the relatively simple matter of measuring the UK’s share of the global production of scientific publications is much more complex than appears at first sight, with traps for the unwary and huge differences in the published figures.

The RIN's The UK's share of world research output report explains how these difference arise, and reflects on the implications for the measurement of UK scientific performance. It highlights that producers and publishers of bibliometric data must make much more transparent the choices they have made as to data sources and methodology, and the implications of those choices. Policy-makers and others interested in the health of the UK research base must also take greater care to interrogate the figures that they use and to present them accurately. Otherwise the risk is that policy and related decisions will be made on the basis of false assessments.

Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics Workshop Materials Added to Scholarly Communication Toolkit

ACRL has added materials from its Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics Workshop to its Scholarly Communication Toolkit.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is extending the reach of the "Scholarly Communication 101: Starting with the Basics" workshop by adding related materials to its popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit. The materials—including short videos, presentations templates and handouts—were developed for the half-day workshop offered at the ACRL 14th National Conference in Seattle and traveling to five locations around the country this summer (http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/april2009/acrlscroadshowhosts.cfm). Now librarians can make use of these tools to enhance their own knowledge or adapt them to offer related workshops on their own campuses. The Scholarly Communication Toolkit is available online at http://www.acrl.ala.org/scholcomm/.

Developing a basic understanding of scholarly communication issues should be a high priority for every librarian. Enhancing understanding of how scholars work along with the systems, tools and technology to support the evolving work of the creation, personal organization, aggregation, discovery, preservation, access and exchange of information in all formats is one of six strategic priorities for 2009-13 developed by the ACRL Board of Directors (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/whatisacrl/index.cfm). The newly developed tools support this strategic priority, with a focus on new methods of scholarly publishing and communication, copyright and intellectual property and economics along with open access and openness as a principle.

Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation

The SURFfoundation has released Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This study examines the costs and potential benefits of alternative models for scientific and scholarly publishing in the Netherlands. It is a follow-up of the Australian study 'Research Communication Costs, Emerging Opportunities and Benefits' (Houghton et al. 2006) and the UK/JISC study 'Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models'. The Dutch study was commissioned by SURFfoundation and led by Professor John Houghton from the Centre of Strategic Economic Studies at Melbourne's Victoria University and Jos de Jonge and Marcia van Oploo of EIM Business & Policy Research in the Netherlands. . . .

The study Costs and Benefits of Research Communication: The Dutch Situation compares three publication models. The greatest advantage is offered by the Open Access model, which means that the research institution or the party financing the research pays for publication and the article is then freely accessible. Adopting this model could lead to an annual saving of EUR 133 million. Even if the Netherlands were the only country to adopt this publication model and continued to pay for licences to access periodicals, there would still be a saving of EUR 37 million.

Digital Library Jobs: Systems and Digitization Librarian at Jewish Theological Seminary

The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is recruiting a Systems and Digitization Librarian.

Here's an excerpt from the ad:

Working with ExLibirs products (ALEPH and DigiTool) to resolve problems, answer questions and communicate solutions. Implementation of new features and applications to support library services; perform system analysis and application development to facilitate the use of technology in the library; manages the Integrated Library System and digital assets management system in line with the priorities set by the Library management. This position plans, develops and implements improvements to, or expansions of the ILS, digital assets management system and its related applications in order to support library users and staff.

“Summary and Conclusions. Final Chapter of Scholarly Communication for Librarians

Heather Morrison has self-archived "Summary and Conclusions. Final Chapter of Scholarly Communication for Librarians" in E-LIS.

Scholarly Communication for Librarians is written from the perspective of a passionate advocate for Open Access and transformative change in scholarly communication, and is based on a course first taught at the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Topics covered include perspectives from the different groups involved in scholarly communication, including the scholars themselves, journals, publishers, and librarians. There are chapters devoted to Author’s Rights and Intellectual Property, Economics, Open Access, and Emerging Trends and Formats. The following summary highlights the major points of each chapter.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (6/10/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available. It provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: "Choosing a Digital Asset Management System That's Right for You"; "Customized Mapping and Metadata Transfer from DSpace to OCLC to Improve ETD Work Flow"; "EThOS: From Project to Service"; E-Journals: Their Use, Value and Impact; "E-Theses and Indian Academia: A Case Study of Nine ETD Digital Libraries and Formulation of Policies for a National Service"; "Evaluation of Digital Repository Software at the National Library of Medicine"; Journal Authors' Rights: Perception and Reality; "The KB e-Depot: Building and Managing a Safe Place for e-Journals"; "Publish and Cherish with Non-Proprietary Peer Review Systems"; "Planting Seeds for a Successful Institutional Repository: Role of the Archivist as Manager, Designer, and Policymaker"; "Putting the Public in the Public Domain: The Public Library's Role in the Re-Conceptualization of the Public Domain"; and "Towards a Repository-Enabled Scholar's Workbench: RepoMMan, REMAP and Hydra."

“Leading Change in the System of Scholarly Communication: A Case Study of Engaging Liaison Librarians for Outreach to Faculty”

College & Research Libraries has made a preprint of "Leading Change in the System of Scholarly Communication: A Case Study of Engaging Liaison Librarians for Outreach to Faculty" available.

Here's an excerpt:

This narrative, single-case study examines how liaison librarians at the University of Minnesota (UMN) came to include advocating for reform of the scholarly communication system among their core responsibilities. While other libraries may hire a coordinator or rely on a committee to undertake outreach programs, UMN has defined baseline expertise in scholarly communication for all librarians who serve as liaisons to disciplinary faculty members. By “mainstreaming” scholarly communication duties, UMN is declaring these issues central to the profession.1 This intrinsic study uses evidence gathered from open-ended interviews with three participants, supplemented by documentation. It explores the context of these changes, systems thinking, and new mental models.

Ph.D. Scholarship in Digital Rights and Digital Scholarship

EPrints Services is sponsoring a Ph.D. scholarship in Digital Rights and Digital Scholarship at the EPSRC Web Science Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Southampton.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Web has had a huge impact on society and on the scientific and scholarly communications process. As more attention is paid to new e-research and e-learning methodologies it is time to stand back and investigate how rights and responsibilities are understood when "copying", "publishing" and "syndicating" are fundamental activities of the interconnected digital world.

Applicants with a technical background (a good Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Information Technology or similar) are invited for this 4-year research programme, which begins in October 2009 with a 1-year taught MSc in Web Science and is followed by a three year PhD supervised jointly by the School of Law and the School of Electronics and Computer Science. The full four-year scholarships (including stipend) is available to UK residents.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog Update (5/15/09)

The latest update of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (SEPW) is now available, which provides information about new works related to scholarly electronic publishing, such as books, e-prints, journal articles, magazine articles, technical reports, and white papers.

Especially interesting are: Approaches to Managing and Collecting Born-Digital Literary Materials for Scholarly Use, "The Economics of Open Access Publishing," "Estimating the Potential Impacts of Open Access to Research Findings," "Fair to Whom?," "Making the Case for an Institutional Repository to Your Provost," Policy-making for Research Data in Repositories: A Guide, "Self-Archiving Journal Articles: A Case Study of Faculty Practice and Missed Opportunity," "The Stratified Economics of Open Access," and "Where There's a Will There's a Way?: Survey of Academic Librarian Attitudes about Open Access."

Water Environment Research Foundation Adopts Embargo Free Access Policy

The Water Environment Research Foundation will make its reports freely available after a two-year embargo period. Reports may be released for free access earlier under some conditions.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The Water Environment Research Foundation today announced a new open access initiative that will bring its wastewater and stormwater research results to the forefront of scientific and technical innovation. The new policy, which was vetted with all subscribers through an initial survey and then with a follow-up invitation to comment on the proposal, will go into full effect on July 1, 2009. . . .

The open access policy has two primary components:

  • First, all WERF final research report PDF files and hard copy reports remain available exclusively to subscribers, or available for sale to the public, through WERF and its publishing partners for two years. After the initial two years, all WERF final research report PDF files will be "open access," free to the general public, from the WERF website. (Tools are not part of the open access initiative.)
  • Second, if the WERF Board of Directors, Research Council, Communications Advisory Committee, or executive director determine that an earlier release of a final research report is in the public’s and subscribers' interest, they will need a majority vote in the affirmative to enact "open access" for that report before the 2-year open access date. Once WERF designates a report as open access, a PDF version of the report will be available, free of charge, on the WERF website.