Category: Reports and White Papers

Copyright Reform for a Digital Economy

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, has released Copyright Reform for a Digital Economy.

Here's an excerpt:

Congress can accommodate new technology innovation by:

(a) ensuring that fair use, which is integral to the fabric of the Copyright Act, remains a central consideration in any legislative effort;

(b) preserving the first sale doctrine to ensure that contractual restrictions do not limit the free movement of goods in the economy as more products increasingly incorporate digital components; and

(c) reforming the licensing landscape to ensure greater transparency as to copyright ownership and to better police against anticompetitive conduct, particularly where rights ownership is highly concentrated, and reforming Copyright Office functions to improve the quality and public availability of data about copyrighted works.

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"NIH Approves Strategic Vision to Transform National Library of Medicine"

National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., today approved a federal report (PDF – 163KB) that lays out the long-term scientific vision for the NIH’s National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest biomedical library. This vision, presented today at the 110th meeting of the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD), calls for NIH to position the NLM as a unifying force in biomedicine that promotes and accelerates knowledge generation, dissemination and understanding in the United States and internationally. The report also cites the need to make NLM the epicenter for biomedical data science, not just at NIH, but across the biomedical research enterprise. In addition, the report recommends dramatically expanding NLM’s activities to include research conducted beyond NIH’s walls to funded institutions, enabling it to have a greater and wider impact on data science than ever before. NIH plans to work with Congress to implement the necessary infrastructure changes to move this vision forward.

Mapping the Digital Divide

The Council of Economic Advisers, an agency within the Executive Office of the President, has released Mapping the Digital Divide.

Here's an excerpt:

Overall, the evidence shows that we have made progress, with the largest gains occurring for those groups that started with the least. While this suggests the beginning of convergence toward uniformly high levels of access and adoption, there is still a substantial distance to go, particularly in our poorest neighborhoods and most rural communities, to ensure that all Americans can take advantage of the opportunities created by recent advances in computing and communications technology.

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RDM Workflows and Integrations for HEIs Using Hosted Services

Arkivum has released RDM Workflows and Integrations for HEIs Using Hosted Services.

Here's an excerpt:

This report aims to look at what workflows are typically in place, where the gaps are, and how hosted RDM services could help fill these gaps or simplify the processes. In particular, this report aims to:

  • Describe the workflows/processes involved when researchers and institutions use or operate RDM infrastructure (tools, services, platforms).
  • Provide practical examples of how RDM workflows are implemented and supported at a range of UK Higher Education Institutions, including integration of systems/tools.
  • Define/compare the strengths/weaknesses when using hosted RDM infrastructure, onsite infrastructure or a combination.

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The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has released The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management.

Here's an excerpt:

Our report starts by tracing the history of metrics in research management and assessment, in the UK and internationally. It looks at the applicability of metrics within different research cultures, compares the peer review system with metric-based alternatives, and considers what balance might be struck between the two. It charts the development of research management systems within institutions, and examines the effects of the growing use of quantitative indicators on different aspects of research culture, including performance management, equality, diversity, interdisciplinarity, and the 'gaming' of assessment systems. The review looks at how different funders are using quantitative indicators, and considers their potential role in research and innovation policy.

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Stewardship of the Evolving Scholarly Record: From the Invisible Hand to Conscious Coordination

OCLC Research has released Stewardship of the Evolving Scholarly Record: From the Invisible Hand to Conscious Coordination.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Key highlights include:

  • As the scholarly record continues to evolve, conscious coordination will become an important organizing principle for stewardship models.
  • Past stewardship models were built on an "invisible hand" approach that relied on the uncoordinated, institution-scale efforts of individual academic libraries acting autonomously to maintain local collections.
  • Future stewardship of the evolving scholarly record requires conscious coordination of context, commitments, specialization, and reciprocity.
  • With conscious coordination, local stewardship efforts leverage scale by collecting more of less.
  • Keys to conscious coordination include right-scaling consolidation, cooperation, and community mix.
  • Reducing transaction costs and building trust facilitate conscious coordination.
  • Incentives to participate in cooperative stewardship activities should be linked to broader institutional priorities.

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Institutional ORCID Implementation and Cost-Benefit Analysis Report

JISC has released the Institutional ORCID Implementation and Cost-Benefit Analysis Report .

Here's an excerpt:

In May 2014, Jisc and ARMA commissioned eight HEI ORCID Pilot projects to support the broader use of ORCID unique researcher identifiers (ORCID iDs) in UK higher education. Information Power Ltd and Research Consulting Ltd were commissioned to prepare this report on the results of the eight pilot projects in order to:

  • Inform how ORCID is implemented in UK HEIs;
  • Enable institutional managers to build a business case for ORCID adoption in HEIs; and
  • Encourage wider adoption of ORCID IDs

The report is based on semi-structured interviews with the Jisc-ARMA ORCID pilot projects and other research community stakeholders conducted either face-to-face or through telephone/Skype interviews, attendance at the September 2014 and January 2015 pilot project workshops and desk-based review of other relevant evidence.

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Scholarly Output Assessment Activities, SPEC Kit 346

ARL has released Scholarly Output Assessment Activities, SPEC Kit 346 .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This SPEC Kit explores current ARL member library activities that help authors manage their scholarly identities, provide options for creating and disseminating scholarly outputs, offer strategies to enhance discoverability of scholarly outputs, help authors efficiently track scholarly outputs and impact, provide resources and tools to help authors assess their scholarly impact, create publication reports and social network maps for reporting purposes, and offer guidance and training on new trends and tools for reporting of impact. This study covers library assessment services and resources, training, staffing models, partnerships with the parent institution, marketing and publicity, and future trends.

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Disrupting the Subscription Journals’ Business Model for the Necessary Large-Scale Transformation to Open Access

The Max Planck Digital Library has released Disrupting the Subscription Journals' Business Model for the Necessary Large-Scale Transformation to Open Access .

Here's an excerpt:

This paper makes the strong, fact-based case for a large-scale transformation of the current corpus of scientific subscription journals to an open access business model. The existing journals, with their well-tested functionalities, should be retained and developed to meet the demands of 21st century research, while the underlying payment streams undergo a major restructuring. There is sufficient momentum for this decisive push towards open access publishing. The diverse existing initiatives must be coordinated so as to converge on this clear goal. The international nature of research implies that this transformation will be achieved on a truly global scale only through a consensus of the world's most eminent research organizations. All the indications are that the money already invested in the research publishing system is sufficient to enable a transformation that will be sustainable for the future. There needs to be a shared understanding that the money currently locked in the journal subscription system must be withdrawn and re-purposed for open access publishing services. The current library acquisition budgets are the ultimate reservoir for enabling the transformation without financial or other risks. The goal is to preserve the established service levels provided by publishers that are still requested b y researchers, while redefining and reorganizing the necessary payment streams. By disrupting the underlying business model, the viability of journal publishing can be preserved and put on a solid footing for the scholarly developments of the future.

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American’ Views on Open Government Data

The Pew Research Center has released American' Views on Open Government Data.

Here's an excerpt:

Few Americans think governments are very effective in sharing data they collect with the public:

  • Just 5% say the federal government does this very effectively, with another 39% saying the federal government does this somewhat effectively.
  • 5% say state governments share data very effectively, with another 44% saying somewhat effectively.
  • 7% say local governments share data very effectively, with another 45% responding somewhat effectively.

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Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation

The National Academies Press has released Preparing the Workforce for Digital Curation .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The massive increase in digital information in the last decade has created new requirements arising from a deficit in the institutional and technological structures and the human capital necessary to utilize and sustain the abundance of new digital information. This National Research Council consensus study report focuses on the need for education and training in digital curation to meet the societal demands for access to and meaningful use of digital information, now and in the future. For the purposes of this study, digital curation is defined as: "The active management and enhancement of digital information assets for current and future use." This definition provided the committee with a shared understanding of the scope of digital curation. As discussed below, digital curation entails more than secure storage and preservation of digital information because curation may add value to digital information and increase its utility.

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"Open Access Policy: Numbers, Analysis, Effectiveness"

A. Swan et al. have self-archived "Open Access Policy: Numbers, Analysis, Effectiveness".

Here's an excerpt:

The PASTEUR4OA project analyses what makes an Open Access (OA) policy effective. The total number of institutional or funder OA policies worldwide is now 663 (March 2015), over half of them mandatory. ROARMAP, the policy registry, has been rebuilt to record more policy detail and provide more extensive search functionality. Deposit rates were measured for articles in institutions' repositories and compared to the total number of WoS-indexed articles published from those institutions. Average deposit rate was over four times as high for institutions with a mandatory policy. Six positive correlations were found between deposit rates and (1) Must-Deposit; (2) Cannot-Waive-Deposit; (3) Deposit-Linked-to-Research-Evaluation; (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention; (5) Must-Make-Deposit-OA (after allowable embargo) and (6) Can-Waive-OA. For deposit latency, there is a positive correlation between earlier deposit and (7) Must-Deposit-Immediately as well as with (4) Cannot-Waive-Rights-Retention and with mandate age. There are not yet enough OA policies to test whether still further policy conditions would contribute to mandate effectiveness but the present findings already suggest that it would be useful for current and future OA policies to adopt the seven positive conditions so as to accelerate and maximise the growth of OA.

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U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015

The Pew Research Center has released U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015.

Here's an excerpt:

Today nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and 19% of Americans rely to some degree on a smartphone for accessing online services and information and for staying connected to the world around them—either because they lack broadband at home, or because they have few options for online access other than their cell phone.

Indeed, 7% of Americans own a smartphone but have neither traditional broadband service at home, nor easily available alternatives for going online other than their cell phone.

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Altmetric Mentions and the Communication of Medical Research

Digital Science has released Altmetric Mentions and the Communication of Medical Research.

Here's an excerpt:

Social and mainstream media mentions of research publications appear much more rapidly than conventional academic citations and are generated by a wider range of users. They therefore offer the potential for early and complementary indicators of research impact. Such indicators could also identify new kinds of economic and social impact.

In this report we explore the relevance of such new indicators to research in medical and health sciences.

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The Future of Library Resource Discovery

NISO has released The Future of Library Resource Discovery.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The white paper was commissioned by NISO's Discovery to Delivery (D2D) Topic Committee as part of its ongoing examination of areas in the discovery landscape that the information community could potentially standardize. Included in the paper is an overview of the current discovery environment; descriptions of how these technologies, methodologies, and products may be able to adapt to potential future change; and a look beyond current models of discovery to explore possible alternatives, especially those related to linked data.

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Perceptions 2014: An International Survey of Library Automation

Marshall Breeding. has released Perceptions 2014: An International Survey of Library Automation .

Here's an excerpt:

This eighth annual Library Automation Perceptions Report provides evaluative ratings submitted by individuals representing over three thousand libraries from 80 countries describing experiences with 154 different automation products, including both proprietary and open source systems. The survey results include 994 narrative comments providing candid statements—both positive and negative—about the products and companies involved or statements of intent regarding future automation plans. This report analyzes the results of the survey, presents a variety of statistical tables based on the data collected, and provides some initial observations. It aims to provide information to libraries as they evaluate their options for strategic technology products and to the organizations involved in providing these products and services as constructive criticism to help guide improvements.

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NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition

The NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have released the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This 12th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report aims to provide these leaders with more in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership and practice.

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COAR Roadmap: Future Directions for Repository Interoperability

COAR has released COAR Roadmap: Future Directions for Repository Interoperability.

Here's an excerpt:

Scholarly communication is undergoing fundamental changes, in particular with new requirements for open access to research outputs, new forms of peer-review, and alternative methods for measuring impact. In parallel, technical developments, especially in communication and interface technologies facilitate bi-directional data exchange across related applications and systems. The aim of this roadmap is to identify important trends and their associated action points in order for the repository community to determine priorities for further investments in interoperability.

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Bibliometric Study on Dutch Open Access

The Government of the Netherlands has released Bibliometric Study on Dutch Open Access.

Here's an excerpt:

In this text we will primarily focus on the way Open Access (OA from now on) publications are represented in the Web of Science database. We have collected data for this analysis in two different ways, which leads to different perspectives on OA publishing in the Netherlands. We focus on the output of three smaller scientific nations in Europe, next to the Netherlands we focus on Denmark and Switzerland, as these countries do contest the scientific runner up positions globally after the USA, and are more or less of comparable volume in economic terms.

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Policy Recommendations for Open Access to Research Data

The RECODE project has released Policy Recommendations for Open Access to Research Data.

Here's an excerpt:

These policy recommendations are targeted at key stakeholders in the scholarly communication ecosystem, namely research funders, research institutions, data managers, and publishers. They will assist each of the stakeholders in furthering the goals of open access to research data by providing both over-arching and stakeholder-specific recommendations. These function, as suggestions to address and attend to central issues that RECODE identified through the research work.

The current report thus comprises:

  • summary of project findings
  • overarching recommendations
  • targeted policy recommendations for funders, research institutions, data managers, and publishers
  • practical guides for developing policies for funders, research institutions, data managers, and publishers
  • resources to expedite the process of policy development and implementation among stakeholders

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Making Open Access Work for Authors, Institutions and Publishers

The Copyright Clearance Center has released Making Open Access Work for Authors, Institutions and Publishers.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), a global licensing and content solutions organization, recently brought together institutions from the UK and publishers from both the US and UK for an Open Access roundtable discussion to explore the implications of managing Open Access fees on a large scale. During this meeting, held at University College in London, the attendees examined a number of issues related to fragmentation, approach and processes, including ways vendors can play an expanded role in addressing the challenges. CCC published the group's findings in a report written by Rob Johnson, Founder and Director of Research Consulting.

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Towards a UK Digital Public Space—A Blueprint Report

The Strategic Content Alliance has released Towards a UK Digital Public Space—A Blueprint Report.

Here's an excerpt:

"Imagine … that much of the UK's publicly held cultural and heritage media assets could be found in a unified online space … connected together, searchable, open, accessible, visible and usable … in a way that allows individuals, institutions and machines to add additional material, meaning and context to each other's media, indexed and tagged to the highest level of detail … This emerging vision of a free-to-everyone, open access environment for learning and creative endeavour has been referred to as a digital public space."

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Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting

The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group has released Digital File Formats for Videotape Reformatting.

Here's an excerpt:

The project to compare video formats for reformatting is being led by the National Archives and Records Administration with significant input from the Library of Congress. The resulting matrixes offer comparisons of the wrappers AVI, MOV (QuickTime), Matroska, MXF, and MPEG-2 (ad hoc file wrapper), and the following encodings: uncompressed (various types), lossless JPEG 2000, ffv1, and MPEG-2 (encoding). The Working Group's starting point is a useful 2011 report by George Blood for the Library of Congress titled Determining Suitable Digital Video Formats for Medium-term Storage. The inclusion of MXF means that the comparison will complement the FADGI Audio-Visual Working Group's active contributions to the finalization of the MXF AS-07 application specification for preservation and archiving, a "pre-version" of which has been adopted by the Library of Congress as their video preservation format. Nevertheless, as the finalization of AS-07 continues, members of the Working Group and others have expressed interest in evaluating alternate digital file formats. These alternate formats may be appropriate to certain classes of content, for use as interim measures, or suitable for organizations in modest technical circumstances.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video

The Born Digital Video subgroup of the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group has released Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video.

Here's an excerpt:

The born digital video exploration is being led by the Library of Congress. The documents that comprise Creating and Archiving Born Digital Video provide practical technical information for both file creators and file archivists to help them make informed decisions when creating or archiving born digital video files and to understand the long term consequences of those decisions. . . .

Eight case histories document aspects of the current state of practice in six federal agencies working with born digital video. These case histories not only document deliverables and specifications but also tell the story of each project, and provide background information about the institution and the collection, as well as lessons learned. As the case histories developed, a set of high level recommended practices emerged from the collective project experiences. These recommended practices are intended to support informed decision-making and guide file creators and archivists as they seek out processes, file characteristics, and other practices that will yield files with the greatest preservation potential.

Digital Scholarship | "A Quarter-Century as an Open Access Publisher"

CNI Executive Roundtable Report: E-Book Strategies

CNI has released CNI Executive Roundtable Report: E-Book Strategies .

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

During two separate convenings of this roundtable, we explored questions that these new directions raise for institutions, the strategies that institutions are using to make choices among the available paths, the stakeholders involved, and the new programs and projects that CNI’s members are planning or have implemented. Our emphasis was on breadth rather than deep explorations of very specific issues; often we were most interested in understanding how institutions were shaping the questions and how they were exploring them, since many of these questions are far from resolution. Roundtable participants included representatives from academic libraries and information technology units from research institutions and liberal arts colleges, library associations, publishers, and aggregators/intermediaries.

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