Scholarly Communication

Paywall: “Innovation-Oriented Makerspaces in Academic Libraries: A Systematic Literature Review”

The [literature] review highlights key themes and methodologies in existing research, with a special focus on the functions, services, and collaborative innovation aspects of these spaces.. . . It reveals that these spaces serve multiple roles, such as exploration and training hub for emerging technologies, cultivation and research incubation center for innovative literacy, innovation platform, component of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and acting as space arrangements, guidance with new technologies, teaching and services design, consultation on entrepreneurship and intellectual property rights. Additionally, the research explores key collaborative innovation factors within these spaces, including governance, compactness, reliability, and institutionalization.

https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006251333447

Digital Asset Specialist at Chicago History Museum (Term)

The Digital Asset Specialist, reporting to the Head of Digital Collections Initiatives, will contribute to the development and implementation of a robust digital asset management program as part of CHM’s long-term Digital Futures initiative. Key responsibilities include assisting with DAMS vendor research, selection, and implementation; organizing and preparing CHM’s unmanaged digital assets for ingestion; migrating assets to local/cloud storage and DAMS; and creating and enhancing metadata. Collaborating closely with the Digital Futures project team, this position will help ensure the successful launch of a new DAMS in 2026.

https://tinyurl.com/57nax7vm

Digital Archivist at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The Digital Archivist works cross-departmentally with Academy curators, preservationists, and archivists to manage efforts to preserve, describe, and make accessible digitized and born-digital archival materials. This position primarily supports producers and users of audio and video content.

https://tinyurl.com/mvm3hvhp

“Clarivate Releases EndNote 2025 with AI-powered Research Tools”

The new EndNote 2025 features are available for all users, and include:

Key Takeaway — A new, generative AI-powered tool that expedites research discovery by extracting key insights and takeaways from individual papers.

Find a Journal publishing tool — An enhanced machine learning tool available directly in Cite While You Write that allows researchers to find the best journal match using their paper.

Cite from PDF — Quickly insert both a highlighted quote from a PDF and its corresponding citation into the document with a click of a button. . . .

Web of Science citing articles and related records — Curate a more comprehensive reference library by viewing relevant articles and finding papers that have cited existing references.

https://tinyurl.com/4vzcthjy

“Understanding ORCID Adoption Among Academic Researchers”

Just over a decade ago, the ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier) was created to provide a unique digital identifier for researchers around the world. The ORCID has proven essential in identifying individual researchers and their publications, both for bibliometric research analyses and for universities and other organizations tracking the research productivity and impact of their personnel. Yet widespread adoption of the ORCID by individual researchers has proved elusive, with previous studies finding adoption rates ranging from 3% to 42%. Using a national survey of U.S. academic researchers at 31 research universities, we investigate why some researchers adopt an ORCID and some do not. We found an overall adoption rate of 72%, with adoptions rates ranging between academic disciplines from a low of 17% in the visual and performing arts to a high of 93% in biological and biomedical sciences. Many academic journals require an ORCID to submit a manuscript, and this is the main reason why researchers adopt an ORCID. The top three reasons for not having an ORCID are not seeing the benefits, being far enough in the academic career to not need it, and working in an academic discipline where it is not needed.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05300-7

Electronic Resources Librarian at Argonne National Laboratory

Administer the Research Library’s integrated library system, library discovery service, and other library-related technology platforms.

Manage and curate the Research Library’s intranet presence and subject guide platform.

Configure authentication and Single Sign-On services for relevant library digital resources.

Facilitate researcher text/data mining and generative AI projects using library content platforms.

https://tinyurl.com/4n3tnx8z

Paywall: “What Do Users Prefer: Google Scholar or Black Open Access? A Comparative Log Analysis Study”

The study aims to examine the comparative usage trends of black open-access sites (Sci-Hub, LibGen) and Google Scholar globally. . . . The findings of the study indicate that Sci-Hub and LibGen (Black Open Access) were the most used websites globally for searching scholarly content in comparison to Google Scholar. Sci-Hub has the highest number of monthly visitors and the lowest bounce rate as compared with LibGen and Google Scholar.

https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515251330604

Paywall: “Invasion of the ‘Journal Snatchers’: The Firms That Buy Science Publications and Turn Them Rogue”

In an analysis published on the preprint repository Zenodo in January, researchers identified three dozen journals that have been caught in this predicament after being bought by what they describe as a network of recently established international companies with no track record in the publishing industry. . . .

After acquisition. . . the journals introduce or raise article-processing charges. . . and churn out more studies. Many of these papers are outside the scope of topics covered by the journal before acquisition.

https://tinyurl.com/mr4625xx

DigitalKoans and Digital Scholarship Have Been Published for 20 Years

Established on May 20, 2005, DigitalKoans and Digital Scholarship are now 20 years old.

Digital Scholarship was established by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. (ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8453-4402), who has been an open access publisher since 1989 when he launched The Public-Access Computer Systems Review—one of the first peer-reviewed diamond open access journals on the Internet. Digital Scholarship's digital publications are open access and are licensed under variations of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Since inception, DigitalKoans has published over 17,200 posts, including over 6,100 job ads, and Digital Scholarship has had over 16.2 million nonunique visitors (excluding spiders).

Digital Scholarship primarily publishes scholarly works on these topics:

Data Discovery and Access Specialist at Johns Hopkins University

As a member of the Digital Scholarship and Data Services team, the data discovery and access specialist promotes data literacy and the discovery and use of relevant datasets by providing individual consultations and developing and delivering workshops, training programs, and research guides. The data discovery and access specialist supports and collaborates closely with colleagues in Digital Scholarship and Data Services, Academic Liaisons, Hopkins researchers and faculty, the larger academic data services community, and especially the new Data Science and AI Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

https://tinyurl.com/yusvecbd

Senior Digital Collections Specialist at Library of Congress

This position serves as the Senior Digital Collections Specialist and is located within the Technology Policy Directorate in Library Services. The position reports to the Head, Digital Content Management Section of the Digital Collections Management & Services Division. The Digital Content Management Section is responsible for providing digital acquisitions support to Library Services, and for the lifecycle management of digital collections that are not otherwise under the care of a custodial division. The section also is responsible for managing the Library’s web archiving program and collections, and provides advice and assistance to the Law Library as needed. Digital Content Management Section staff collaborates with other Library curatorial units, technical staff, and external organizations to establish best practices, implement new and streamline existing digital workflows, identify digital content management problems, and propose solutions for the content within the scope of the section.

https://tinyurl.com/8wyu6yhr

Digital Archivist at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Act as liaison to curatorial staff and internal content producers to manage the selection, description, preservation, and archiving of digital assets.

Perform content audits and verify fixity of born-digital collections.

Manage preservation ingests and monitor file-based workflows for proxy creation; identify preservation issues and report problems to AMPAS staff and system vendors

https://tinyurl.com/mr9cjxft

Digital Scholarly Librarian at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

Create, maintain and manage resources on the Libraries Open Access, Open Educational Resources and Academic Publishing, including print materials and websites.

Investigates the Intersection of AI in research to inform Faculty how technology can shape research Interpretation and output.

Advise faculty, students, and staff on strategies to better manage, describe. preserve, and make available their scholarly work.

https://tinyurl.com/mvr6rwmp

“Promoting AI Literacy through U.S. Academic Libraries: An Analysis of LibGuides from ARL and Oberlin Group Libraries Using the EDUCAUSE AI Literacy Framework”

Introduction. As the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly advances, academic libraries are increasingly pivotal in supporting AI literacy among students and faculty.

Method. Through content analysis, the present study examines 70 newly developed generative AI LibGuides from academic libraries affiliated with the association of research libraries (ARL) and the Oberlin group, using the EDUCAUSE AI literacy framework.

Analysis. Through a detailed examination, the present research reorganizes and improves the EDUCAUSE AI literacy framework, proposing a more comprehensive version tailored to higher education needs. The adapted framework fills the gaps in the original model and offers a nuanced approach to AI literacy, reflecting the unique challenges faced by academic libraries.

Results. The findings reveal that most LibGuides emphasize foundational AI tools and responsible use, with less focus on advanced technical competencies related to AI creation. Significant differences were observed between ARL and Oberlin Group LibGuides, with ARL offering more comprehensive coverage. To address these differences, consistent training and knowledge sharing initiatives are recommended to ensure a common standard of AI literacy support across academic libraries.

Conclusion. This study provides insights into the role of libraries in promoting generative AI literacy and identifies areas for future strategic partnerships and improvement.

https://doi.org/10.47989/ir30iConf47182

“The Origins and Veracity of References ‘Cited’ by Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications: Implications for the Quality of Responses”

The public release of ChatGPT in late 2022 has resulted in considerable publicity and has led to widespread discussion of the usefulness and capabilities of generative Artificial intelligence (Ai) language models. Its ability to extract and summarise data from textual sources and present them as human-like contextual responses makes it an eminently suitable tool to answer questions users might ask. Expanding on a previous analysis of the capabilities of ChatGPT3.5, this paper tested what archaeological literature appears to have been included in the training phase of three recent generative Ai language models: ChatGPT4o, ScholarGPT, and DeepSeek R1. While ChatGPT3.5 offered seemingly pertinent references, a large percentage proved to be fictitious. While the more recent model ScholarGPT, which is purportedly tailored towards academic needs, performed much better, it still offered a high rate of fictitious references compared to the general models ChatGPT4o and DeepSeek. Using ‘cloze’ analysis to make inferences on the sources ‘memorized’ by a generative Ai model, this paper was unable to prove that any of the four genAi models had perused the full texts of the genuine references. It can be shown that all references provided by ChatGPT and other OpenAi models, as well as DeepSeek, that were found to be genuine, have also been cited on Wikipedia pages. This strongly indicates that the source base for at least some, if not most, of the data is found in those pages and thus represents, at best, third-hand source material. This has significant implications in relation to the quality of the data available to generative Ai models to shape their answers. The implications of this are discussed.

https://doi.org/10.3390/publications13010012

Digital Initiatives Librarian at West Chester University

Oversee the conception, development, and implementation of digital projects

Support in the acquisition of born-digital content, web-archiving, and other digital collecting initiatives

Develop the vision for digital content hosting and sharing across a variety of platforms, including policies, workflows, procedures, and the selection and maintenance of various CMS

Develop the vision for digital asset management and preservation, including policies, workflows, procedures, and selection and maintenance of the libraries’ dedicated server spaces and DAMS

https://tinyurl.com/3xy62wvj

“Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment: the CoARA Working Group publishes Its First Report”

The OI4RRA report stresses that transitioning to OIs requires institutions and stakeholders to identify the advantages that OIs offer in comparison with closed systems. These can be summarised in four key contributions.

In contrast to the traditional focus on publications and journal-based metrics, OIs support the consideration of a broad range of scholarly contributions in research evaluations.

OIs have the ability to integrate data-driven indicators with the nuance of contextual and narrative based information.

Thirdly, interoperability paired with community-driven governance for evaluations promote the uptake of best practices and foster trust.

Lastly, an emphasis on transparent data automation streamlines workflows, allowing researchers to devote more time to actual research.

https://tinyurl.com/vasmmrsh

Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment: Principles and Framework

“Questioning the Predator of the Predatory Journals: How Fair Are Global Publishing Standards?”

What is concerning now is far from just publishing in predatory journals. It is the new emerging trend where academics and non-academics misuse the term ‘predatory’ by applying it to any lesser-known publishers or those publishers mentioned in blog lists of predatory journals. This oversimplification can blur the boundary between what is actually predatory and what is not. It prevents from having any possible scholarly discussions. It can delegitimise any legitimate emerging journal and even discourage researchers who lack funding from attaining any form of publication. Which means that this misuse of the term, even unintentionally, has the potential to marginalise academic communities. Considering this trend, it is vital to educate ourselves on the distinction between predatory journals and what is regarded as a new, lesser-known emerging journal.

https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1662

“The Business of Transformative Agreements”

Large publishers are adopting a transformative approach because of a combination of needs and environmental factors: their main potential for growth is to generate more revenue from existing customers and products; TA reduce administrative charges in comparison with collecting APCs; TA are often consortial, again reducing costs associated with multiple negotiations with individual libraries; institutions such as libraries are more willing to pay for academic digital content than individuals; government incentives influence researchers to seek OA publishing; Researcher-publisher relationships have been damaged by high APCs; and TA stabilize revenue compared with APCs. In addition, there is an added incentive of a potential for higher revenue once this model is established, and for researchers to advocate for and expect TA from libraries.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103020

“NIH Cuts ICR [Indirect Cost Recovery]– Implications for Research Institutions and Scholarly Publishing”

Long-term it is unlikely that an institution can cover the kind of budgetary shortfall this ICR cut represents. . . . If NIH grants are not financially sustainable for an institution, the institution might reduce or eliminate NIH applications or even seek to end an existing grant contract. . . .

Publishers should also anticipate additional subscription cancellations and declining interest in transformative and pure publish agreements from research institutions. Library support for research is factored into an institution’s ICR and is an infrastructure expense that is easier to cut than, for example, support for mandated regulatory compliance. . . .

As institutions face budget shortfalls, administrative support staff—who handle essential tasks like grant management, compliance reporting, and research coordination—may be among the first to be let go. . . .

[P]ublishers that charge APCs for open access publishing may be buffered against some of the ICR cut implications because APCs are eligible to be budgeted as direct costs.

https://tinyurl.com/ym9mrppb

From “NIH Announces It’s Slashing Funding for Indirect Research Costs“

In the agency’s announcement, the NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration, or OPERA, wrote that $9 billion of the $35 billion total spent on research grants in fiscal year 2023 was allocated from the agency for indirect costs, which cover things like equipment, operations, maintenance, accounting and personnel.

“Librarians at the Center of Peer Review Training: Increasing Collaboration among Scholarly Communication Stakeholders”

Librarians can organise peer review training, such as the six-part peer review series ‘Peer Review in Scholarly Journals: History, People, and Models’ delivered at UIUC, and build networks with key stakeholders to improve them.

Knowledge of peer review processes is still lacking for academic authors at all career levels.

Peer review training initiatives should be tailored to the information needs of researchers.

By partnering with other scholarly communication stakeholders, librarians are uniquely equipped to effectively deliver programs and services which can increase awareness of and interest in scholarly communication.

https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1657

Health Sciences and Digital Scholarship Librarian at Lenoir-Rhyne University

The Health Sciences and Digital Scholarship Librarian will focus on information literacy sessions, reference and research services, and collection management. . . .

Additionally, the role includes collaboration with faculty, students, and staff on digital scholarship, data analytics, and online academic publishing.

https://tinyurl.com/mrxyft7m

Archivist (Digital Preservation) at University of Glasgow

To manage and develop Archives & Special Collections (ASC) digital preservation services, providing expert professional knowledge and expertise on ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of the Library’s unique and distinctive born-digital collections.

https://tinyurl.com/yspxz2fd

"News and Views: How Much Content Can AI Legally Exploit?"

Most OA licenses, even permissive ones like CC BY, require attribution. However, generative AI models inherently strip attribution from the data they process, making compliance nearly impossible. Specialist AIs might be trained to circumvent this, but the bulk of big-name gen AI tools don’t. Compliance with the most basic OA requirement of attribution is unworkable.

Additionally, while traditional licenses clearly delineate permissible use, OA licenses often depend on interpretations of “non-commercial” or “derivative” use that may vary by jurisdiction.

https://tinyurl.com/562k8kee

"An Assessment of Whether Educated Non-researcher Audiences Understand How to Reuse Research Data"

Most participants reported that they figured out how to reuse the data, although their self-reports can be an overestimated assessment.. . . Data set type tends to play a role in understanding how to reuse data sets and the purpose of data sets. Participants reported that unless a data set is self-explanatory, instructions on data set reuse and the purpose of data set were necessary for understanding how to reuse data set.

https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2023-0241