Open Access And The Future Of Scholarly Communication

This volume, the second of two in the series Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library that deals with the topic of open access in academic libraries, focuses on the implementation of open access in academic libraries. Chapters on the legalities and practicalities of open access in academic libraries address the issues associated with copyright, licensing, and intellectual property and include support for courses that require open access distribution of student work. The topic of library services in support of open access is explored, including the library’s role in providing open educational resources, and as an ally and driver of their adoption, for example, by helping defray author fees that are required for open access articles. A detailed look at open access in the context of undergraduate research is provided and considers how librarians can engage undergraduates in conversations about open access. Chapters consider ways to engage undergraduate students in the use, understanding, evaluation, and creation of open access resources. Issues that are of concern to graduate students are also given some attention and central to these are the development of Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) programs. A chapter examines the library’s role in balancing greater access to graduate student work with the consequences of openness, such as concerns about book contracts and sales, plagiarism, and changes in scholarly research and production. The book concludes with issues surrounding open data and library services in critical data librarianship, including advocacy, preservation, and instruction. It is hoped that this volume, and the series in general, will be a valuable and exciting addition to the discussions and planning surrounding the future directions, services, and careers in the 21st-century academic library.

It is impossible to imagine the future of academic libraries without an extensive consideration of open access—the removal of price and permission barriers from scholarly research online. As textbook and journal subscription prices continue to rise, improvements in technology make online dissemination of scholarship less expensive, and faculty recognize the practical and philosophical appeal of making their work available to wider audiences. As a consequences, libraries have begun to consider a wide variety of open access “flavors” and business models. These new possibilities have significant impact on both library services and collection policies, and the call for new skills within library staffing. Volume 9 of the series Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library is the first of two addressing the topic of open access in academic libraries and focuses on policy and infrastructure for libraries that wish to provide leadership on their campus in the transition to more open forms of scholarship. Chapters in the book discuss how to make the case for open access on campus, as well as the political and policy implications of libraries that themselves want to become publishing entities. Infrastructure issues are also addressed including metadata standards and research management services. Also considered here is how interlibrary loan, preservation and the library’s role in providing textbooks, support the concept of open access. It is hoped that this volume, and the series in general, will be a valuable and exciting addition to the discussions and planning surrounding the future directions, services, and careers in the 21st-century academic library.

A range of perspectives on the complex political, philosophical, and pragmatic implications of opening research and scholarship through digital technologies. The Open Access Movement proposes to remove price and permission barriers for accessing peer-reviewed research work--to use the power of the internet to duplicate material at an infinitesimal cost-per-copy. In this volume, contributors show that open access does not exist in a technological vacuum; there are complex political, philosophical, and pragmatic implications for opening research through digital technologies. The contributors examine open access across spans of colonial legacies, knowledge frameworks, publics and politics, archives and digital preservation, infrastructures and platforms, and global communities.

Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications is an action-oriented research agenda designed to provide practical, actionable information for academic librarians; include the perspectives of historically underrepresented communities in order to expand the profession's understanding of research environments and scholarly communication systems; and point librarians and other scholars toward important research questions to investigate.

Global thought-leaders define the future of research communication. Governments and societies globally agree that a vibrant and productive research community underpins a successful knowledge economy but the context, mechanisms and channels of research communication are in flux. As the pace of change quickens there needs to be analysis of new trends and drivers, their implications and a future framework. The editors draw together the informed commentary of internationally-renowned experts from all sectors and backgrounds to define the future of research communication. A comprehensive introduction by Michael Jubb is followed by two sections examining changing research behaviour and the roles and responsibilities of other key actors including researchers, funders, universities, research institutes, publishers, libraries and users. Key topics include: - Changing ways of sharing research in chemistry - Supporting qualitative research in the humanities and social sciences - Creative communication in a 'publish or perish' culture - Cybertaxonomy - Coping with the data deluge - Social media and scholarly communications - The changing role of the publisher in the scholarly communications process - Researchers and scholarly communications - The changing role of the journal editor - The view of the research funder - Changing institutional research strategies - The role of the research library - The library users' view. This is essential reading for all concerned with the rapidly evolving scholarly communications landscape, including researchers, librarians, publishers, funders, academics and HE institutions. Readership: Researchers, librarians, publishers, funders, academics and HE institutions.

This accessible and highly practical book provides an introductory guide to the world of research support in the academic library. Academic libraries have seen huge changes in recent years thanks to the increasing availability of information online but they are now undergoing another shift. As libraries move away from providing access to existing information and towards helping users create new knowledge there is an opportunity for them to develop new services for the research community. To do this successfully libraries need to have a knowledgeable workforce who are equipped to provide the support that researchers need. Information professionals are increasingly being asked to advise their users on issues such as open access and research data management but are often doing so with little or no formal preparation. Outlining the reasons why library staff need to develop a knowledge of research support and guiding them through the key information on each topic, The No-nonsense Guide to Research Support and Scholarly Communication provides an ideal primer for those who seek to work in this area or those who have acquired these responsibilities as part of a wider role. The practical nature of the book means readers can dip into it or read it from cover to cover as needed. It includes practical checklists of knowledge and skills, international case studies by practitioners from around the globe, end of chapter references, how-to sections, activities and links to freely available online training materials. The book covers: - scholarly communication, open research and the research lifecycle - research data management - open access - disseminating research - metrics and measuring impact including the Journal Impact Factor, H-Index and Altmetrics - career paths in research support - why and how library staff at all levels can get involved in the process of doing research and sharing their outputs. The book will be essential reading for academic librarians who have had research support duties added to their role with little or no formal training or those who have taken on a newly created role and are unsure of how best to use their existing skills or develop new ones suitable for a role in research support. The book will also be of interest to public librarians who may be dealing with supporting their own research communities and those who are considering taking on a career in this growing area but are unsure where to turn for guidance including students studying for postgraduate library qualifications and those who have undertaken qualifications in publishing.

The formal scientific communication system is currently undergoing significant change. This is due to four developments: the digitisation of formal science communication; the economisation of academic publishing as profit drives many academic publishers and other providers of information; an increase in the self-observation of science by means of publication, citation and utility-based indicators; and the medialisation of science as its observation by the mass media intensifies. Previously, these developments have only been dealt with individually in the literature and by science-policy actors. The Future of Scholarly Publishing documents the materials and results of an interdisciplinary working group commissioned by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) to analyse the future of scholarly publishing and to make recommendations on how to respond to the challenges posed by these developments. As per the working groups intention, the focus was mainly on the sciences and humanities in Germany. However, in the course of the work it became clear that the issues discussed by the group are equally relevant for academic publishing in other countries. As such, this book will contribute to the transfer of ideas and perspectives, and allow for mutual learning about the current and future state of scientific publishing in different settings.

The internet has transformed the ways in which scholars and scientists share their findings with each other and the world, creating a scholarly communication environment that is both more complex and more effective than it was just a few years earlier. "Scholarly communication" itself has become an umbrella term for the increasingly complex ecosystem of publications, platforms, and tools that scholars, scientists, and researchers use to share their work with each other and with other interested readers. Scholarly Communication: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an accessible overview of the current landscape, examining the state of affairs in the worlds of journal and book publishing, copyright law, emerging access models, digital archiving, university presses, metadata, and much more. Anderson discusses many of the problems that arise due to conflicts between the various values and interests at play within these systems: values that include the public good, academic freedom, the advancement of science, and the efficient use of limited resources. The implications of these issues extend far beyond academia. Organized in an easy-to-use question-and-answer format, this book provides a lively and helpful summary of some of the most important issues and developments in the world of scholarly communication -- a world that affects our everyday lives far more than we may realize.