October 2024 – Page 2

"Research Data Policy: A Library and Information Science Publishers’ Perspective"

Apart from the common features identified in the literature, the authors found numerous distinct research data policy features of publishers, such as deposition of data sets, division of research data policy types, and sharing of research code. Furthermore, institutional publishers with research data policies have more rigid features for the execution of research data policy features since their beneficiaries are uniform, in contrast to the varied nature of journals’ and publishers’ authors.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-024-01994-8

Scholarly Communications and Copyright Librarian at Bucknell University

The Scholarly Communications and Copyright Librarian reports to the Director for Research Services and Information Literacy and is directly responsible for advocating for, supporting, and educating the campus community on issues related to scholarly communication, copyright, open access, and open education.

https://tinyurl.com/yucfrs4m

"Keeping Up-to-Date on New Scholarship with OpenAlex: Setting up the Perfect Email Notification"

In this installment of LibTech Tools hosted by Choice editor and publisher Rachel Hendrick and information services industry expert Gary Price, Gary highlights a useful tool within OpenAlex: email alerts for new scholarship. Of course, email alerts can be more annoying than useful, so Gary walks viewers through the different filter options to optimize their notifications and better stay up-to-date with the scholarship relevant to them.

https://tinyurl.com/3zddr3bj

Director, Open Scholarship & Publishing and Arts & Humanities at University of Washington

Under the general direction of the Senior Associate Dean of the Research & Learning Services Portfolio, the Director of Open Scholarship & Publishing and Arts & Humanities provides leadership, strategic vision, and oversight for Scholarly Communication, Copyright, physical and virtual services of the Open Scholarship Commons, Research Commons, and Government Publications, Maps, Microforms & Newspapers. The Director leads the Arts & Humanities liaison team, actively linking subject and functional expertise to develop robust services in support of key UW institutional initiatives (e.g. digital scholarship, open access mandates).

https://apply.interfolio.com/157537

"Data Curation Maturity Model"

The Data Curation Maturity Model (DCMM) enhances the effectiveness of data curation activities with its innovative, mathematically quantifiable matrix approach, specifically tailored to meet the dynamic needs of data curation. By integrating focus area maturity models with specific curation requirements, the DCMM provides a structured progression framework that allows organizations to visualize and measure their advancements in data management. This model not only elevates data quality and reproducibility across various research domains but also establishes a new standard for strategic, targeted improvement in data curation practices.

https://tinyurl.com/yb8am8ba

Scholarly Services Technical Administrator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Lead technical administrator for the institutional repositories (bepress/Scholarly Commons and Data Commons)

Primary technical support for the Research Information Management System (Pure/Portfolio), and OER publishing platform (Pressbooks/Eagle Pubs). . . .

Contributes to the policy developments of the department in support of our OA efforts

https://tinyurl.com/yckknsn

"cOAlition S Announces the Release of an Independent Study on the Impact of Plan S"

The authors of the study highlight that Plan S has opened new avenues for achieving full and immediate Open Access, successfully placing Open Access high on policymakers’ agendas and bringing publishers to the negotiating table with institutions. The study underscores the potentially game-changing effect of the rights retention strategy, which institutions have since expanded into their own Rights Retention Policies. It also notes the contribution to the current momentum around Diamond Open Access, and the role of cOAlition S in raising awareness of the inequities of article-based charges publishing models.

The authors note that it may be too early to fully assess Plan S’s quantitative impact, as many policies only took effect in 2021 or later, and they recommend revisiting the study in 5-10 years. However, observing significant progress in the push towards full and immediate Open Access since Plan S was first announced and the influential role of the alliance of research funders, they recommend continuing cOAlition S beyond 2025.

https://tinyurl.com/2ecyu8ce

Report

Scholarly Communications Librarian at University of New Mexico

Leads, develops, and implements comprehensive scholarly communication strategies that enhance the visibility and accessibility of research outputs.

Actively participates in relevant committees and working groups within and beyond the institution to advocate for open science, open access, open data, and open educational resources.

Evaluates and recommends technological solutions and infrastructure improvements that support the management and sharing of research outputs openly and effectively.

Collaborates with HSLIC colleagues in the development and maintenance of digital collections and repositories that support the academic community.

https://tinyurl.com/yc2yabcw

"‘Massive Copyright Violation’ Threatens One of the World’s Hottest AI Apps"

News Corp has officially filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI over accusations that the startup has committed copyright infringement on a “massive scale.” . . .

Perplexity’s value proposition is instead to insert itself between search and content producers as a middleman, training its AI on copyrighted content that its chatbot will then regurgitate. . . to its own paying customers, without compensating or attributing the original content producers. . . .

https://tinyurl.com/y2h5fpeu

Perplexity

University Librarian at University of California Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Library is the geographic and academic heart of the campus and an intellectual hub for the University, serving over 25,000 students, 1,200 academic faculty, 3,000 academic staff, and 8,000 non-academic staff. The Library welcomes over 2.2 million visitors annually, and its website receives over 1.3 million sessions each year. With annual expenditures of approximately $23 million, the Library is supported by approximately 130 librarians and staff, along with 140 student employees.

https://tinyurl.com/56j8uf6u

"Market Sizing Update 2024: Has OA Hit a Peak?"

The data suggest that OA’s share of output has likely peaked in 2023.

Our earlier sneak peek at the market suggested it peaked at 49% of output in 2022, falling to 48% in 2023. Our latest data here suggests OA just peaked at 50% share in 2022-2023 and may fall a few percentage points in the coming years.

Results from our survey and anecdotal feedback suggest more of the same for 2024: large OA-only publishers are likely to see continued declines, while established publishers will see continued growth.

The market will consolidate further. Long-term OA growth is likely to be less that it has been – perhaps mid-to-high single digits – but with increasing shares going to the larger publishers.

https://deltathink.com/news-views-market-sizing-update-2024-has-oa-hit-a-peak/

Systems and Technology Librarian at Texas A&M International University

Participating in the design, testing, deployment, maintenance, troubleshooting, administration, and evaluation of multiple essential discovery; delivering and inventorying systems in the Library’s portfolio including Alma/Primo VE, OpenAthens, the Springshare LibApps suite, and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) from Library vendors;

Researching, evaluating, recommending, testing, and implementing new technologies in collaboration with librarians and library staff;

Providing training and support for the Library on the configuration of library systems and services through troubleshooting, data analytics, and system enhancements;

https://tinyurl.com/33parmz3

DLF: "2023 NDSA Storage Survey Report Published"

Some major takeaways from the report include:

The amount of preservation storage required for all managed copies appeared to stabilize relative to previous surveys. Fewer organizations reported higher allocations of storage, but the anticipated need for storage over the next three years remains elevated.
Only 28% of respondents currently participate in a cooperative system – down from 45% in 2019 – and 63% indicate they are not considering a distributed storage cooperative. The use of commercial cloud storage providers rose from 46% in 2019 to 55% in 2023.
Heavy use of an onsite storage element was reported by academic institutions (91%), archives (88%), and government agencies (71%). It also shows that use of onsite storage is most often combined with use of either independently managed offsite storage or commercial cloud storage managed by the organization.
Leading commercial offsite storage providers used by academic institutions are Amazon Web Services (56%), and APTrust (16%). For archives, Amazon Web Services (36%) and Preservica (21%) are the most prevalent. Non-profits, museums, historical societies and public libraries use Amazon Web Services 45% of the time.
52% of respondents said their organization is considering their environmental impact during storage planning.

https://tinyurl.com/4627ffy3

Data Management and Sharing Specialist position at Washington University in St. Louis

The data management and sharing specialist (DMSS), reporting to the head of data services in the University Libraries, is a shared position between the Libraries and Digital Intelligence & Innovation Accelerator (DI2). The DMSS will be responsible for guiding research data sharing efforts at WashU, including collaboration and coordination with research data sharing stakeholders across campus, user outreach and consultation, oversight of data management planning services, repository management support and development, and curation and management of research datasets and tools that support resource sharing.

https://tinyurl.com/4n3dr4mv

Social Media Started Because of a Blizzard: "Ward Christensen, Early Visionary of Social Media, Dies at 78"

Housebound during a 1978 blizzard, he and a friend began devising the first computer bulletin board, a forerunner of online services like Reddit, TikTok and Facebook. . . .

As the idea spread, by word of mouth and through trade magazines, computer bulletin boards emerged from hobbyist groups across the country. These makeshift systems, a means of sharing everything from short messages to video games to software code, anticipated the rise of social media apps like Reddit, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, as well as countless internet file-sharing services.

https://tinyurl.com/ancunh6b

Systems Librarian at Old Dominion University

The University Libraries at Old Dominion University invite applicants for a Systems Librarian. The Systems Librarian will administer, configure, troubleshoot, and coordinate the integrated library system (Alma), discovery interface (Primo), and related applications, and they will ensure reliable and efficient access to the Libraries’ collections and resources.

https://tinyurl.com/544eecws

"Publishers Join with Worldwide Coalition to Condemn the Theft of Creative and Intellectual Authorship by Tech Companies for Generative AI Training"

Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) joined forces with more than 10,000 creators and coalition partners, including authors, musicians, actors, artists, and photographers, to condemn the theft of creative and intellectual authorship by big tech companies for use in their Generative AI models. In fact, these consumer-facing models and tools would not exist without the books, newspapers, songs, performances, and other invaluable human expressions that were—and continue to be—copied, ingested, and regenerated in blatant disregard of the law.

https://tinyurl.com/4e37e3ff

| Artificial Intelligence |
| Research Data Curation and Management Works |
| Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works |
| Open Access Works |
| Digital Scholarship |

Digital Services Librarian at Mount St. Mary’s University

Manages the library’s integrated library system, website, and reference platforms.

Manages and provides access to digital resource collections, including database products, licenses, and user authentication software.

Manages technical data and account integrity for the library’s large collection of digital resources, including collaboration with campus networking staff and vendor/content providers’ technical staff.

https://tinyurl.com/389thvf7

"Supporting Data Discovery: Comparing Perspectives of Support Specialists and Researchers Authors"

Purpose: Much of the research in data discovery is centered on the users’ viewpoint, frequently overlooking the perspective of those who develop and maintain the discovery infrastructure. Our goal is to conduct a comparative study on research data discovery, examining both support specialists’ and researchers’ views by merging new analysis with prior research insights.

Methods: This work summarizes the studies the authors have conducted over the last seven years investigating the data discovery practices of support specialists from different disciplines. Although support specialists were not the main target of some of these studies, data about their perspectives was collected. Our corpus comprises in-depth interviews with 6 social science support specialists, interviews with 19 researchers and 3 support specialists from multiple disciplines, a global survey with 1630 researchers and 47 support specialists, and a use case analysis of 25 support specialists. In the analysis section, we juxtapose the fresh insights on support specialists’ views with the already documented perspectives of researchers for a holistic understanding. The latter is primarily discussed in the literature review, with references made in the analysis section to draw comparisons.

Results: We found that support specialists’ views on data discovery are not entirely different from those of the researchers. There are, however, some differences that we have identified, most notably the interconnection of data discovery with general web search, literature search, and social networks. . . .

We conclude by proposing recommendations for different types of support work to better support researchers’ data discovery practices.

https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2024-048

Assistant Professor – Artificial Intelligence in LIS at San José State University

The School of Information at San José State University is pleased to announce a search for an Assistant Professor – Artificial Intelligence (AI) in LIS, beginning in August 2025, for our Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) and Bachelor of Information Science and Data Analytics (BSISDA) programs. The position will focus on AI and library & information science – a critical area of need and a high priority area for San José State University. Duties will include assisting with the design, development, and release of a new interdisciplinary minor in AI for undergraduates, as well as a new 4+1 accelerated program (a 4 year undergraduate program combining 1 year of graduate work to emerge with both a bachelors and a masters degree), and helping lead the iSchool in the AI LIS teaching and research areas.

https://tinyurl.com/5hehrex6

"IOP Publishing Study Reveals Varied Adoption and Barriers in Open Data Sharing Among Physical Research Communities"

Environmental scientists are the most open with their research data, yet legal constraints related to third-party ownership often limit their ability to follow the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) principles. Physicists are also willing to share data but have concerns about the accessibility and understanding of the formats used. Engineering and materials scientists face the most significant barriers to sharing FAIR data due to concerns over confidentiality and sensitivity.

https://tinyurl.com/2s3jjzft

Digital Asset Librarian at MIT

The Digital Asset Management (DAM) Librarian is instrumental to the organization and delivery of the Laboratory’s photographic and video assets to both communications practitioners and R&D staff. Reporting to the Multimedia Services Manager within the Technical Communications Department, the Laboratory’s central creative services team, the DAM Librarian is responsible for the overall management of Laboratory digital assets from ingest through delivery. This includes following workflows to apply taxonomy, indexing, cataloging, metadata tagging, and other details that will make the assets searchable and easily accessible by all Laboratory staff.

https://tinyurl.com/y4eja323

"Leveraging Transformative Agreements for Research Integrity "

Specifically, publishers could incorporate clauses that require the institution to identify a designated contact to handle research integrity investigations, just as they would for access-related matters like login issues or security breaches. Likewise, institutions may wish to negotiate for parallel requirements from publishers.

For example, in cases of suspected misconduct or ethical concerns related to publications, publishers could rely on designated university personnel to respond and engage with these issues directly. Additional contractual clauses could include agreed-upon investigatory procedures, such as a mutual commitment to follow COPE’s guideline on “Cooperation between research institutions and journals on research integrity and publication misconduct cases,” and penalties for failure to respond.

https://tinyurl.com/4twzs2w

Research Data Curation Specialist at UNC Chapel Hill

The Research Data Curation Specialist is a skilled practitioner with applied knowledge in the principles and practices of research data curation, digital preservation, and archives and records management. They are familiar with scientific research methods and processes and can assist researchers with the development and implementation of data management and sharing plans. They also have a curiosity about trends in research practices, scientific publication, funding agency and institutional policies, and information technologies, and how those trends affect the research data management and sharing requirements and preferences of research communities.

https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/290092

"When Researchers Pay to Publish: Results from a Survey on APCs in Four Countries"

This paper provides an empirical overview of the impact and practices of paying Article Processing Charges (APCs) by four nationally categorized groups of researchers in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa. The data was collected from 13,577 researchers through an online questionnaire. The analysis compares the practice of publishing in journals that charge APCs across different dimensions, including country, discipline, gender, and age of the researchers. The paper also focuses on the maximum amount APC paid and the methods and strategies researchers use to cover APC payments, such as waivers, research project funds, payment by coauthors, and the option to publish in closed access, where possible. Different tendencies were identified among the different disciplines and the national systems examined. Findings show that Argentine researchers apply for waivers most frequently and often use personal funds or international coauthors for APCs, with younger researchers less involved in APC payments. In contrast, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico have more older researchers, yet younger researchers still publish more in APC journals. South African researchers lead in APC publications, likely due to better funding access and read and publish agreements. This study lays the groundwork for further analysis of gender asymmetries, funding access, and views on the commercial Open Access model of scientific dissemination.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.12144