Category: Reports and White Papers

Research Data Infrastructures in the UK

The Open Research Data Task Force has released Research Data Infrastructures in the UK.

Here's an excerpt:

This report is intended to inform the work of the Open Research Data Task Force, which has been established with the aim of building on the principles set out in Open Research Data Concordat (published in July 2016) to co-ordinate creation of a roadmap to develop the infrastructure for open research data across the UK. As an initial contribution to that work, the report provides an outline of the policy and service infrastructure in the UK as it stands in the first half of 2017, including some comparisons with other countries; and it points to some key areas and issues which require attention.

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Institute of Museum and Library Services Funding Report by State: FY 2011-2016

IMLS has released Institute of Museum and Library Services Funding Report by State: FY 2011-2016 .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

These reports provide detailed views of IMLS funding for the past six years (FY 2011-2016) at each state across the nation. The documents provide a one-stop summary of data that are publicly available but have been distributed across multiple datasets or databases.

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Open Data: The Researcher Perspective

Elsevier and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies have released Open Data: The Researcher Perspective.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The study is based on a complementary methods approach consisting of a quantitative analysis of bibliometric and publication data, a global survey of 1,200 researchers and three case studies including in-depth interviews with key individuals involved in data collection, analysis and deposition in the fields of soil science, human genetics and digital humanities.

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Final Version: Reimagining the Digital Monograph: Design Thinking to Build New Tools for Researchers

JSTOR has released the final version of Reimagining the Digital Monograph: Design Thinking to Build New Tools for Researchers .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This new version retains much of the structure of the previous one, and it still includes the ethnographic user profiles showing how six scholars do research with print and digital monographs. It also includes minor changes throughout addressing both specific and general questions we received and clarifying many points. We have gone from twelve to thirteen principles for the reimagined monograph. Most significantly, we have added as an appendix a new landscape review of related projects, which helps to situate our work on this project amongst a number of other important initiatives.

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Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars

Ithaka S+R has released Supporting the Changing Research Practices of Agriculture Scholars.

Here's an excerpt:

Agriculture scholars report relatively low challenges with digital discovery and access, particularly in contrast to information management, in which a lack of services and support, coupled with gaps in responsibility, lead scholars to utilize idiosyncratic approaches to the detriment of long-term preservation. While they have a wealth of options for disseminating their scholarship, agriculture scholars struggle with conveying the underlying findings and importance of their research to wider audiences.

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The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are the Implications?

The Pew Research Centerhas released The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What Are the Implications? .

Here's an excerpt:

Researchers have been showing how easy it is to hack cars, voting machines and power plants. They have demonstrated ransomware exploits against home thermostats and exposed vulnerabilities in implanted heart pacemakers. In one paper, "IoT Goes Nuclear," analysts showed how a flaw in the design of smart lightbulbs could be used for a "bricking attack" that kills all of a city's traffic lights. . . .

Thus, the question: Could security vulnerabilities that become evident as the IoT rolls out prompt people, businesses and government to avoid or withdraw from certain online connectivity options? In summer 2016, Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center conducted a large canvassing of technologists, scholars, practitioners, strategic thinkers and other leaders, asking them to react to this framing of the issue.

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Building Capacity for Digital Humanities: A Framework for Institutional Planning

EDUCAUSE has released Building Capacity for Digital Humanities: A Framework for Institutional Planning.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

A growing number of researchers in the humanities are using computational tools and methods that are more typically associated with social and scientific research. These tools and techniques enable researchers to pursue new forms of inquiry and new questions and bring more attention to—and cultivate broader interest in—traditional humanities and humanities data. This paper from ECAR and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) outlines a practical framework for capacity building to develop institutional digital humanities support for IT staff, librarians, administrators, and faculty with administrative responsibilities.

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Digital 3D Objects in Art and Humanities: Challenges of Creation, Interoperability and Preservation: White Paper

The PARTHENOS project has released Digital 3D Objects in Art and Humanities: Challenges of Creation, Interoperability and Preservation: White Paper .

Here's an excerpt:

With this White Paper, which gathers contributions from more than 25 experts of 3D imaging, modellng and processing, as well as professionals concerned with the interoperability and sustainability of research data, the PARTHENOS project aims at laying the foundations of a comprehensive environment centered on the researchers' practices concerning 3D digital objects. The topics addressed in the document are meant to help to ensure the development of standardized good practices relating to the production, the handling, the long-term conservation and the reuse of 3D objects.

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Finding a Way from the Margins to the Middle: Library Information Technology, Leadership, and Culture

Ithaka S+R has released Finding a Way from the Margins to the Middle: Library Information Technology, Leadership, and Culture.

Here's an excerpt:

Unlike other recent library service program developments—namely, information literacy and scholarly communication, which also started on the margins—information technology has not found its way to the "middle" in most of our organizations. Information technology workers, not solely but in particular, experience a lingering divide between the culture of the information technology unit and the library culture at large as an unproductive chasm. As a result, libraries fail to develop the full potential in their technology-dependent service programs and, ultimately, library users are left without the kinds of programs and products that would create real value for them.

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Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults

The Pew Research Center has released Tech Adoption Climbs Among Older Adults .

Here's an excerpt:

At the same time America is graying, recent Pew Research Center surveys find that seniors are also moving towards more digitally connected lives. Around four-in-ten (42%) adults ages 65 and older now report owning smartphones, up from just 18% in 2013. Internet use and home broadband adoption among this group have also risen substantially. Today, 67% of seniors use the internet—a 55-percentage-point increase in just under two decades. And for the first time, half of older Americans now have broadband at home.

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Knowledge Exchange Consensus on Monitoring Open Access Publications and Cost Data

The Knowledge Exchange has released Knowledge Exchange Consensus on Monitoring Open Access Publications and Cost Data .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The report gives a great deal of detail on the presentations from the different countries, as well as the keynote address from Stuart Lawson on the true costs of publishing, which coincides significantly with the excellent work he and Katie Shamash have done with the Total Cost of Ownership project in Jisc Collections. In addition, Kai Geschuhn from the Max Planck Digital Library spoke about the idea of moving from offsetting deals to pay-as-you-publish; Rachel Lammey discussed CrossREF and open access meta-data; and Graham Stone, from Jisc, focused on collecting information on APC cost data.

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US Library Survey 2016

Ithaka S+R has released the US Library Survey 2016.

Here's an excerpt:

Library directors are pursuing strategic directions with a decreasing sense of support from their institutions. There is evidence across the survey that library directors feel increasingly less valued by, involved with, and aligned strategically with their supervisors and other senior academic leadership. Compared with the previous survey cycle in 2013, fewer library directors perceive that they are a part of their institution’s senior academic leadership and that they share the same vision for the library with their direct supervisor. Only about 20% of respondents agreed that the budget allocations they receive from their institution demonstrates recognition of the value of the library.

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A Snapshot of Open Data and Open Science Policies in Europe

SPARC Europe and the DCC have released A Snapshot of Open Data and Open Science Policies in Europe.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This report is the first in a series that will seek to shed light on similarities and differences in Open Data and Open Science policies between European nations, and to assess their effectiveness in opening research data.

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W3C: Data on the Web Best Practices

W3C has released Data on the Web Best Practices.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

W3C is delighted to publish its Data on the Web Best Practices as a Recommendation. The document offers 35 Best Practices for sharing data, openly or not, in a way that maximizes the potential of the Web as a data platform rather than simply as a way to send data from A to B. The Best Practices are prescriptive in their intended outcomes but not in how those outcomes are achieved. They cover everything from the basics (provide metadata!) through nuance (provide structural metadata), to topics like licensing, provenance and basic information on providing APIs through to more advanced topics like data archiving, data enrichment and republishing data.

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Keepers of Our Digital Future: An Assessment of the National Digital Stewardship Residencies, 2013-2016

CLIR has released Keepers of Our Digital Future: An Assessment of the National Digital Stewardship Residencies, 2013-2016.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In September 2015, IMLS awarded CLIR a grant to investigate the early impacts of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) programs, in order to inform subsequent development of similar programs by others with a vested interest in building professional capacity to preserve digital information. Keepers of Our Digital Future provides a formative evaluation of the early residencies, based on surveys and interviews with NDSR participants and supervisors from the Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston programs. The authors offer a series of findings and recommendations for future programs, noting that as the model is reproduced, there is a greater need for national-level coordination and communication across programs.

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Across the Great Divide: Findings and Possibilities for Action from the 2016 Summit Meeting of Academic Libraries and University Presses with Administrative Relationships (P2L)

ARL has released Across the Great Divide: Findings and Possibilities for Action from the 2016 Summit Meeting of Academic Libraries and University Presses with Administrative Relationships (P2L).

Here's an excerpt:

P2L explored how these separate components of the scholarly communications ecosystem (e.g., libraries and publishers) might move beyond relationships often established for administrative convenience and think together, leveraging the skills and strengths of their distinctive enterprises to move toward a unified system of publication, dissemination, access, and preservation that better serves both the host institution and the wider world of scholarship. P2L was an important first step toward a shared action agenda for university presses and academic libraries that supports and updates traditional approaches to scholarly publishing, broader scholarly communication through established and emerging channels and practices, and digital scholarship services for faculty and students. This shared action agenda also must seek to adapt to the new challenges of the digital environment in commitments such as the preservation of the scholarly record.

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Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy Recommendations

The Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group has released the Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy Recommendations.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The emergence of IoT presents opportunities for significant innovation, from smart homes to smart cities. In many cases, straightforward changes to device development, distribution, and maintenance processes can prevent the distribution of IoT devices that suffer from significant security and privacy issues. BITAG believes that following the guidelines outlined in this report may dramatically improve the security and privacy of IoT devices and minimize the costs associated with the collateral damage that would otherwise affect both end users and ISPs.

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Investigating OA Monograph Services: Final Report

Jisc has released Investigating OA Monograph Services: Final Report.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Overall, the project 'Investigating OA monographs services' has produced some extremely valuable guides in areas where no information (specifically for OA monographs) existed and identified some very strong areas where collaboration and experimentation could simultaneously bring real value to OA monograph publishers and the authors and readers of monographs.

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Self-Publishing in the United States, 2010-2015: Print and Ebook

Bowker has released Self-Publishing in the United States, 2010-2015: Print and Ebook.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

ProQuest affiliate Bowker reveals in its latest industry report that the number of authors who are opting to self-publish continues to rise, with a growth rate of 21% between 2014 and 2015 for print and Ebooks combined. ISBN registrations for self-published titles have grown more than 375% since 2010, climbing from 152,978 ISBNs to 727,125 ISBNs.

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"Public Knowledge Launches Report on Systemic Bias at the U.S. Copyright Office"

Public Knowledge has released Public Knowledge Launches Report on Systemic Bias at the U.S. Copyright Office.

Here's an excerpt:

Today we're releasing our newest report, "Captured: Systemic Bias at the U.S. Copyright Office." This report examines the role of industry capture and the revolving door between the major entertainment industries and the Copyright Office, and the implications that capture has had on the policies the Office embraces. In the report, we investigate how the Copyright Office:

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State of the Art Report on Open Access Publishing of Research Data in the Humanities

Stefan Buddenbohm et al. have self-archived State of the Art Report on Open Access Publishing of Research Data in the Humanities.

Here's an excerpt:

This report gives an overview of the various aspects that are connected to open access publishing of research data in the humanities. After the introduction, where we give definitions of key concepts, we describe the research data life cycle. We present an overview of the different stakeholders involved and we look into advantages and obstacles for researchers to share research data. Furthermore, a description of the European data repositories is given, followed by certification standards of trusted digital data repositories. The possibility of data citation is important for sharing open data and is also described in this report. We also discuss the standards and use of metadata in the humanities. Finally, we discuss best practice example of open access research data system in the humanities: the French open research data ecosystem.

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Book Reading 2016

The Pew Research Center has released Book Reading 2016.

Here's an excerpt:

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of Americans who read books on tablet computers has increased nearly fourfold (from 4% to 15%), while the share who read books on smartphones has more than doubled (from 5% to 13%). The share of Americans who read books on desktop or laptop computers has also increased, although by a more modest amount: 11% of Americans now do this, up from 7% in 2011.

By contrast, 8% of Americans now report that they read books using dedicated e-reader devices—nearly identical to the 7% who reported doing so in 2011.

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Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions: Proceedings of a Workshop (2016)

The National Academies Press has released Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions: Proceedings of a Workshop (2016) .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

In January 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted the Workshop on Data Breach Aftermath and Recovery for Individuals and Institutions. Participants examined existing technical and policy remediations, and they discussed possible new mechanisms for better protecting and helping consumers in the wake of a breach.

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The Internet of Things: A UKeiG White Paper

UKeiG has released The Internet of Things: A UKeiG White Paper .

Here's an excerpt:

This White Paper presents an overview of some of the key issues surrounding the development and deployment of the collection of technologies commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

The technological underpinnings of the IoT are discussed in the context of a rapidly developing new field of technology and with an acknowledgement that there is some way to go before commonly accepted standards are agreed upon and that the commercial case, particularly in the domestic sphere, for the IoT is yet to be made.

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An Analytical Review of Text and Data Mining Practices and Approaches in Europe

OpenForum Europe has released An Analytical Review of Text and Data Mining Practices and Approaches in Europe: Policy Recommendations in View of the Upcoming Copyright Legislative Proposal.

Here's an excerpt:

Europe needs a regime which enables any researcher, citizen, company or other entity to engage in TDM activities, using material to which they have lawful access, wherever they feel there is a good idea. The exact commercial rewards can be managed at subsequent stages, depending on the implementation of the mining outcome. The protection could be considered at the point at which some clearly commercially beneficial project, product, service, business or company has emerged.

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