Category: Scholarly Communication

Special Issue of The African Journal of Information and Communication on Scholarly Communication and Opening Access to Knowledge

The African Journal of Information and Communication has published a special issue on scholarly communication and opening access to knowledge.

Here's a selection of articles:

Version 1, Open Access Journals Bibliography

Version one of the Open Access Journals Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. Open access journals publish articles (typically peer-reviewed articles) that are free of charge and, depending on the journal, may be able to be reused under an open license (e.g., a Creative Commons license). This bibliography presents selected English-language scholarly works that are useful in understanding open access journals. It does not cover works about e-prints or works that include open access journals in a treatment of diverse types of research materials. Most sources have been published from 1999 to the present; however, a few key sources published prior to 1999 are also included. The bibliography primarily includes books and published journal articles. A limited number of magazine articles and technical reports that are deemed to be of exceptional interest are also included. The bibliography includes links to freely available versions of included works.

The following recent Digital Scholarship publications may also be of interest:

  1. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, version 78
  2. Digital Scholarship 2009 (paperback and open access PDF file)
  3. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition (paperback, Kindle version, and open access PDF file)
  4. Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, version 1

If You Build It, Will They Come? How Researchers Perceive and Use Web 2.0

The Research Information Network has released If You Build It, Will They Come? How Researchers Perceive and Use Web 2.0.

Here's an excerpt:

Over the past 15 years, the web has transformed the way we seek and use information. In the last 5 years in particular a set of innovative techniques—collectively termed 'web 2.0'—have enabled people to become producers as well as consumers of information.

It has been suggested that these relatively easy-to-use tools, and the behaviours which underpin their use, have enormous potential for scholarly researchers, enabling them to communicate their research and its findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before.

This report is based on a study commissioned by the Research Information Network to investigate whether such aspirations are being realised. It seeks to improve our currently limited understanding of whether, and if so how, researchers are making use of various web 2.0 tools in the course of their work, the factors that encourage or inhibit adoption, and researchers’ attitudes towards web 2.0 and other forms of communication.

Version 78, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography

Version 78 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. This selective bibliography presents over 3,750 articles, books, and other digital and printed sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories.

The bibliography has the following sections (revised sections are in italics):

Dedication
1 Economic Issues
2 Electronic Books and Texts
2.1 Case Studies and History
2.2 General Works
2.3 Library Issues
3 Electronic Serials
3.1 Case Studies and History
3.2 Critiques
3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals
3.4 General Works
3.5 Library Issues
3.6 Research
4 General Works
5 Legal Issues
5.1 Intellectual Property Rights
5.2 License Agreements
6 Library Issues
6.1 Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata
6.2 Digital Libraries
6.3 General Works
6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation
7 New Publishing Models
8 Publisher Issues
8.1 Digital Rights Management and User Authentication
9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI
Appendix A. Related Bibliographies
Appendix B. About the Author
Appendix C. SEPB Use Statistics

"Rebooting the CS Publication Process"

Dan S. Wallach, Associate Professor at Rice University's Department of Computer Science, has made an eprint of "Rebooting the CS Publication Process" available.

Here's an excerpt:

Many computer science academics have been grousing about failures in our publication process. This paper catalogs many of the specific complaints that are raised and proposes some radical new solutions based on the assumption that, by eliminating physical paper entirely and going with a centralized system to manage papers, we can rethink the entire process: paper submission, revision and publication. Furthermore, having all of the metadata standardized and easily available, ranking algorithms can be easily conceived to aid in tenure cases and departmental rankings.

Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, Version One

Version one of the Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

This bibliography presents over 360 selected English-language articles, books, and technical reports that are useful in understanding digital curation and preservation. Most sources have been published between 2000 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints for published articles in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical. (See the scope note for further details.)

The following recent Digital Scholarship publications may also be of interest:

Peer Review in Academic Promotion and Publishing: Its Meaning, Locus, and Future

The Center for Studies in Higher Education has released Peer Review in Academic Promotion and Publishing: Its Meaning, Locus, and Future.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

As part of its Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded Future of Scholarly Communication Project, the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) has hosted two meetings to explore how peer review relates to scholarly communication and academic values. In preparation for an April 2010 workshop, four working papers were developed and circulated. They are presented as drafts here. . . .

The topics of the working papers are: (1) Peer Review in Academic Promotion and Publishing: Norms, Complaints, and Costs, (2) New Models of Peer Review: Repositories, Open Peer Review, and Post Publication Metrics, (3) Open Access: Green OA, Gold OA, and University Resolutions, and (4) Creating New Publishing and Peer Review Models: Scholarly Societies, Presses, Libraries, Commercial Publishers, and Other Stakeholders.

"BioTorrents: A File Sharing Service for Scientific Data"

Morgan G. I. Langille and Jonathan A. Eisen have published "BioTorrents: A File Sharing Service for Scientific Data" in PLoS ONE.

Here's an excerpt:

The transfer of scientific data has emerged as a significant challenge, as datasets continue to grow in size and demand for open access sharing increases. Current methods for file transfer do not scale well for large files and can cause long transfer times. In this study we present BioTorrents, a website that allows open access sharing of scientific data and uses the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing technology. BioTorrents allows files to be transferred rapidly due to the sharing of bandwidth across multiple institutions and provides more reliable file transfers due to the built-in error checking of the file sharing technology. BioTorrents contains multiple features, including keyword searching, category browsing, RSS feeds, torrent comments, and a discussion forum. BioTorrents is available at http://www.biotorrents.net.

Google Books Bibliography, Version 6

Version 6 of the Google Books Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship.

This bibliography presents over 310 selected English-language articles and other works that are useful in understanding Google Books. It primarily focuses on the evolution of Google Books and the legal, library, and social issues associated with it. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical.

The following recent Digital Scholarship publications may also be of interest:

  • Digital Scholarship 2009: 504-page paperback that includes four bibliographies: the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition, the Institutional Repository Bibliography, the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography, and the Google Book Search Bibliography.
  • Institutional Repository Bibliography, Version 2: Includes over 700 selected English-language articles and other works that are useful in understanding institutional repositories.
  • Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography, Version 4: Includes over 130 selected English-language articles and other works that are useful in understanding electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).

Faculty Survey 2009: Key Strategic Insights for Libraries, Publishers, and Societies

ITHAKA has released Faculty Survey 2009: Key Strategic Insights for Libraries, Publishers, and Societies.

Here's an excerpt:

In the Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey 2009, we examined faculty attitudes and reported practices in three broad areas, finding that:

  • Basic scholarly information use practices have shifted rapidly in recent years, and as a result the academic library is increasingly being disintermediated from the discovery process, risking irrelevance in one of its core functional areas;
  • Faculty members' growing comfort relying exclusively on digital versions of scholarly materials opens new opportunities for libraries, new business models for publishers, and new challenges for preservation;
  • and Despite several years of sustained efforts by publishers, scholarly societies, libraries, faculty members, and others to reform various aspects of the scholarly communications system, a fundamentally conservative set of faculty attitudes continues to impede systematic change.

Read more about it at "Faculty Survey 2009."

The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behaviour Projects

JISC has released The Digital Information Seeker: Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behaviour Projects.

Here's an excerpt:

There are numerous user studies published in the literature and available on the web. There are studies that specifically address the behaviours of scholars while others identify the behaviours of the general public. Some studies address the information-seeking behaviours of scholars within specific disciplines while others identify the behaviours of scholars of multiple disciplines. There are studies that only address undergraduate, graduate, or post graduate students or compare these individual groups' information seeking behaviours to those of scholars. Still other studies address the behaviors of young adults. . .

In the interest of analyzing and synthesizing several user behaviour studies conducted in the US and the UK twelve studies were identified. These twelve selected studies were commissioned and/or supported by non- profit organizations and government agencies; therefore, they have little dependence upon the outcomes of the studies. The studies were reviewed by two researchers who analyzed the findings, compared their analyses, and identified the overlapping and contradictory findings. This report is not intended to be the definitive work on user behaviour studies, but rather to provide a synthesized document to make it easier for information professionals to better understand the information-seeking behaviours of the libraries' intended users and to review the issues associated with the development of information services and systems that will best meet these users' needs.

Read more about it at the JISC announcement.

Digital Scholarship 2009 Available from Amazon.com

Digital Scholarship 2009, a 504-page, 6" by 9" paperback, is now available for purchase from Amazon.com.

The book includes four bibliographies: the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition, the Institutional Repository Bibliography, the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography, and the Google Book Search Bibliography.

The longest bibliography in the book, the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition, presents over 3,620 selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and 2009; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included.

Table of Contents

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition
Dedication
1 Economic Issues
2 Electronic Books and Texts
2.1 Case Studies and History
2.2 General Works
2.3 Library Issues
3 Electronic Serials
3.1 Case Studies and History
3.2 Critiques
3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals
3.4 General Works
3.5 Library Issues
3.6 Research
4 General Works
5 Legal Issues
5.1 Intellectual Property Rights
5.2 License Agreements
6 Library Issues
6.1 Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata
6.2 Digital Libraries
6.3 General Works
6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation
7 New Publishing Models
8 Publisher Issues
8.1 Digital Rights Management and User Authentication
9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI
Appendix A. Related Bibliographies
Appendix B. About the Author

Institutional Repository Bibliography
1 General
2 Country and Regional Institutional Repository Surveys
3 Multiple-Institution Repositories
4 Specific Institutional Repositories
4.1 eScholarship
4.2 MIT
4.3 OSU Knowledge Bank
4.4 Other
5 Institutional Repository Digital Preservation Issues
6 Institutional Repository Library Issues
7 Institutional Repository Metadata Issues
8 Institutional Repository Open Access Policies
9 Institutional Repository R&D Projects
9.1 ARROW
9.2 DAEDALUS
9.3 DARE
9.4 DRIVER
9.5 FAIR Programme
9.6 Hydra/REMAP/RepoMMan
9.7 SHERPA
9.8 Other
10 Institutional Repository Research Studies
11 Institutional Repository Software
11.1 General
11.2 DSpace
11.3 Fedora
11.4 Other

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography

Google Book Search Bibliography

Digital Scholarship 2009

Digital Scholarship 2009 Published

Digital Scholarship has published Digital Scholarship 2009. The book includes four bibliographies: the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition, the Institutional Repository Bibliography, the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography, and the Google Book Search Bibliography. The 504-page, 6" by 9" paperback is available from CreateSpace for $18.95. The book will also be available from Amazon.com in approximately two weeks and from CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution Channel (includes library distribution via Ingram's Lightning Source) in about six weeks. A Kindle version will be released within the next two months.

The longest bibliography in the book, the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2009 Annual Edition, presents over 3,620 selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and 2009; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included.

SEPB was chosen for inclusion in The Scout Report in 1996, 1998, and 2001 (the 2001 entry said: "Anyone involved in electronic publishing—research or practice—should bookmark this site if they haven't already").

Péter Jacsó said in ONLINE (vol. 27, no. 3 2003, pp. 73-76):

SEP [Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography] is compiled with utter professionalism. It reminds me of the work of the best artisans who know not only every item that leaves their workshops, but each component used to create them—providing the ideal quality control. . . . The selection of items is impeccable. I have yet to find journal articles irrelevant to the scope of the bibliography. SEP could be used as a benchmark in evaluating abstracting/indexing databases that proudly claim to have coverage of electronic publishing, but do not come close to SEP.

Note on pricing: author royalties for the book in different CreateSpace sales channels under the Pro Plan are: Expanded Distribution Channel: $.69, Amazon.com: $4.48, and CreateSpace eStore: $8.27. Without the Pro Plan, author royalties would have been: Expanded Distribution Channel: not available, Amazon.com: -$0.35, and CreateSpace eStore: $3.58.

Digital Scholarship 2009

Modelling Scholarly Communication Options: Costs and Benefits for Universities

JISC has released Modelling Scholarly Communication Options: Costs and Benefits for Universities.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement (announcement includes podcast):

The key findings from the report show

  • The annual savings in research and library costs of a university repository model combined with subscription publishing could range from £100,000 to £1,320,000
  • Moving from Open Access journals and subscription-funding to per-article Open Access journal funding has the potential to achieve savings for universities between £620,000 per year and £1,700,000 per year if the article-processing charge is set at £500 or less
  • Savings from a change away from subscription-funding to per-article Open Access journal funding were estimated to be between £170,000 and £1,365,000 per year for three out of the four universities studied when the article-processing charge is £1000 per article or less
  • For the remaining university in the study a move from subscription-funding to the per-article Open Access journal funding saw the university having to pay £1.86m more in this scenario

See also the related documents: How to Build a Case for University Policies and Practices in Support of Open Access and Publishing Research Papers Which Policy Will Deliver Best Value for Your University?.

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition Now $25 or $9.99 (Kindle)

The paperback version of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition is now $25 and the Kindle version is $9.99. The paperback version is now available via Amazon's expanded distribution channel for libraries and academic institutions.

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition presents over 3,350 references to selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and 2008; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Peter Jacso said in ONLINE (vol. 27, no. 3 2003, pp. 73-76): "SEP is compiled with utter professionalism. It reminds me of the work of the best artisans who know not only every item that leaves their workshops, but each component used to create them-providing the ideal quality control. . . . The selection of items is impeccable. I have yet to find journal articles irrelevant to the scope of the bibliography. SEP could be used as a benchmark in evaluating abstracting/indexing databases that proudly claim to have coverage of electronic publishing, but do not come close to SEP."

Interoperable Annotation: Perspectives from the Open Annotation Collaboration

CNI has released a digital video of the Robert Sanderson's "Interoperable Annotation: Perspectives from the Open Annotation Collaboration" presentation at the CNI Fall 2009 Task Force Meeting.

Here's an excerpt from the project briefing abstract:

The Open Annotation Collaboration project (OAC), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is making progress towards the establishment of an interoperable annotation environment for scholarly artifacts. This environment will allow heterogeneous annotation clients to annotate distributed scholarly collections, and then share these annotations across clients and collections. While OAC's focus is on scholarly artifacts, the envisioned interoperability framework will be usable for a broad range of Web content, and is therefore based on Web architecture and concepts from the Semantic Web and Linked Data efforts. This presentation will give an overview of the core guiding principles followed, indicating why and how these differ from prior attempts. It will also introduce and motivate the evolving data model for interoperable annotation. An early draft of an interoperability specification, including a preliminary data model, will be released for public comment at the time of the CNI member meeting.

Here's the Open Annotation Collaboration website.

"Recognizing Opportunities: Conversational Openings to Promote Positive Scholarly Communication Change"

Adrian K. Ho and Daniel R. Lee have published "Recognizing Opportunities: Conversational Openings to Promote Positive Scholarly Communication Change" in College & Research Libraries News.

Here's an excerpt:

Librarians in the midst of conversations with members of the campus community are often hesitant to bring up scholarly communication issues. Numerous online resources have been created in the past few years to help campuses address these issues, but some of us, whether or not we are familiar with these resources and are comfortable with the relevant concepts, aren't quite ready to talk about the resources and translate the concepts into practices. This article aims to provide scenarios of how such resources can come in handy during day-to-day interaction with faculty and students to help our campuses manage change and achieve an information sharing environment that benefits everyone.

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