Birgit Schmidt

From Service Providers to Content Producers: New Opportunities For Libraries in Collaborative Open Access Book Publishing

Several libraries have become active partners in Open Access publishing of books in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Not only have libraries started up their own presses, they are also collaborating with existing presses or forming alliances with other institutions on campus such as scholarly communication offices, ICT departments, and academic research centers. By combining institutional strengths and enabling the sharing of resources across institutions, these collaborations offer synergies and efficiencies in the scholarly book publishing business. This paper examines this new function taken on by libraries. Using research conducted by the European project “Open Access Publishing in European Networks” (OAPEN) on OA publishing models and business models for books, we look at libraries’ motives and challenges and explore how their new roles enable them to serve their customers in the most effective way. By combining digital repositories with scholarly publishing, libraries can facilitate and support HSS book publishing and can help sustain the scholarly monograph in the transition towards digital formats and an Open Access future.

Open Data in Global Environmental Research: The Belmont Forum’s Open Data Survey

This paper presents the findings of the Belmont Forum’s survey on Open Data which targeted the global environmental research and data infrastructure community. It highlights users’ perceptions of the term “open data”, expectations of infrastructure functionalities, and barriers and enablers for the sharing of data. A wide range of good practice examples was pointed out by the respondents which demonstrates a substantial uptake of data sharing through e-infrastructures and a further need for enhancement and consolidation. Among all policy responses, funder policies seem to be the most important motivator. This supports the conclusion that stronger mandates will strengthen the case for data sharing.

Survey on open peer review: Attitudes and experience amongst editors, authors and reviewers

Open peer review (OPR) is a cornerstone of the emergent Open Science agenda. Yet to date no large-scale survey of attitudes towards OPR amongst academic editors, authors, reviewers and publishers has been undertaken. This paper presents the findings of an online survey, conducted for the OpenAIRE2020 project during September and October 2016, that sought to bridge this information gap in order to aid the development of appropriate OPR approaches by providing evidence about attitudes towards and levels of experience with OPR. The results of this cross-disciplinary survey, which received 3,062 full responses, show the majority (60.3%) of respondents to be believe that OPR as a general concept should be mainstream scholarly practice (although attitudes to individual traits varied, and open identities peer review was not generally favoured). Respondents were also in favour of other areas of Open Science, like Open Access (88.2%) and Open Data (80.3%). Among respondents we observed high levels of experience with OPR, with three out of four (76.2%) reporting having taken part in an OPR process as author, reviewer or editor. There were also high levels of support for most of the traits of OPR, particularly open interaction, open reports and final-version commenting. Respondents were against opening reviewer identities to authors, however, with more than half believing it would make peer review worse. Overall satisfaction with the peer review system used by scholarly journals seems to strongly vary across disciplines. Taken together, these findings are very encouraging for OPR’s prospects for moving mainstream but indicate that due care must be taken to avoid a “one-size fits all” solution and to tailor such systems to differing (especially disciplinary) contexts. OPR is an evolving phenomenon and hence future studies are to be encouraged, especially to further explore differences between disciplines and monitor the evolution of attitudes.

New alliances for research and teaching support: establishing the Göttingen eResearch Alliance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and implementation of policies, digital infrastructures and hands-on support for eResearch at the University of Gottingen. Core elements of this activity are to provide support for research data management to researchers of all disciplines and to coordinate on-campus activities. These activities are actively aligned with disciplinary, national and international policies and e-infrastructures. Design/methodology/approach – The process of setting up and implementing an institutional data policy and its necessary communications and workflows are described and analysed. A first assessment of service development and uptake is provided in the area of embedded research data support. Findings – A coordination unit for eResearch brings together knowledge about methods and tools that are otherwise scattered across disciplinary units. This provides a framework for policy implementation and improves the quality of institutional research environments. Pract...

Are funder Open Access platforms a good idea

As open access (OA) to publications continues to gather momentum, we should continuously question whether it is moving in the right direction. A novel intervention in this space is the creation of ...

Peer Review on the Move from Closed to Open

Openness in peer review is no longer a terra incognita. However, there remains a need for further experimentation and careful evaluation of its advantages and disadvantages in practice. OpenAIRE, the European digital infrastructure for Open Scholarship, offers a unique environment for such experiments. This paper describes the design and early results of three such experiments, which are currently under development in close collaboration with selected publishing and repository communities.

Auf dem »goldenen« Weg? Alternative Geschäftsmodelle für Open -Access -Primärpublikationen

Publications in Open Access media are free of charge to the readers but nevertheless need to be financed. Scholars, their institutions and libraries as well as research funders contribute. This places them in a new position within the publication chain and changes the dynamics of supply and demand of the scientific publication market. The present report analyses current business models for primary publications with respect to this dynamics and points out some chances and risks.

Open Science lernen und lehren: FOSTER Portal stellt Materialien und Kurse bereit

Open Science ist ein relativ junger Begriff, die zugrunde liegende Idee des Teilens von Wissen, Ergebnissen und Methoden ist jedoch so alt ist wie die Wissenschaft selbst. Open Science umfasst neben Open Access und Open Data – dem offenen Zugang zu Veröffentlichungen und Forschungsdaten – auch radikal neue Bereiche wie Citizen Science und Open Notebook Science. Seitdem die Europäische Kommission und andere Forschungsförderer zunehmend Open Access zu Publikationen und Daten in ihre Förderrichtlinien aufnehmen, ist es für Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unumgänglich geworden, sich mit diesem Thema auseinanderzusetzen. Die Herausforderung bei der Umsetzung dieser Anforderungen ist nicht so sehr die Existenz und Zugänglichkeit relevanter Informationen, sondern die unübersichtliche Fülle an Material. Das von der Europäischen Kommission geförderte Projekt „Facilitating Open Science Training for European Research“ (FOSTER) führt deshalb eine breite Sammlung von Materialien und Kursen zum Thema Open Science zusammen und schafft so eine Lernressource für die europäische Forschungscommunity. Die Inhalte stehen möglichst über offene Lizenzen zur Verfügung, um die Nachnutzung in weiteren Schulungen zu unterstützen. Die Navigation durch die Fülle an Inhalten erfolgt entlang einer Taxonomie oder anhand von zielgruppenspezifischen Lernzielen, die zum Beispiel Projektmanager oder Multiplikatoren wie Bibliothekare adressieren. Der Artikel stellt die aktuellen Ergebnisse des Projektes vor, beleuchtet die Rolle der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen im Projekt und gibt einen Ausblick auf die Aktivitäten im zweiten Projektjahr. Open Science is a rather recent term, although the idea behind it is probably as old as science itself. It encompasses Open Access and Open Data, meaning free online access to research publications and data, but also more radical areas like Citizen Science and Open Notebook Science. As the European Commission and other research funders adopt mandates for open access to data and publications within their funding guidelines, familiarity with these topics becomes imperative for researchers. The challenge for researchers seeking information about these areas lies not, however, in finding or accessing resources, but rather in filtering the vast number of resources in existence. Hence, the European Commission funded project “Facilitating Open Science Training for European Research” (FOSTER) is collecting and consolidating Open Science materials and courses, to build a consistent learning resource for the European research community. Materials are provided under open licenses where possible to facilitate re-use in future training activities. The wealth of material on offer can be navigated either by an Open Science taxonomy or via specific learning objectives targeted at particular groups, e.g. project managers or multipliers like librarians. The article presents the most recent results of the project, highlighting the role of the State and University Library Göttingen and giving an overview of activities planned for the project’s second year. L’Open Science est encore un concept relativement nouveau, mais l’idée sous-jacente du partage des connaissances, des méthodes et des résultats est aussi vielle que la science en elle-même. L’Open Science comprend également, outre l’Open Access et l’Open Data, de nouveaux domaines tels que la science citoyenne et l’Open Notebook Science. Depuis que la Commission européenne et d’autres bailleurs de fonds de recherche reprennent plus régulièrement Open Access aux publications et aux données dans leurs lignes directrices pour les aides financières, il est devenu indispensable pour les chercheurs d’aborder ce sujet. Le défi de la mise en œuvre de ces exigences ne réside pas tant dans l’existence et l’accessibilité des informations pertinentes, mais plutôt dans l’abondance chaotique de matériel. Le projet „Facilitating Open Science Training for European Research“ (FOSTER), qui est subventionné par la Commission européenne, rassemble une vaste collection de matériel et de cours sur le thème de L’Open Science et crée ainsi une ressource d’apprentissage pour la communauté de la recherche européenne. Dans la mesure du possible, les contenus sont disponibles via des licences libres pour favoriser leur réutilisation dans d’autres formations. La navigation à travers la richesse du contenu se fait via une taxonomie ou basée sur des objectifs cibles spécifiques, qui s’adressent, par exemple, à des gestionnaires de projet ou des multiplicateurs tels que des bibliothécaires. L’article présente les résultats les plus récents du projet, met en évidence le rôle de la Bibliothèque d’État et universitaire de Basse-Saxe à Göttingen dans ce projet et donne un aperçu des activités planifiées pour la deuxième année du projet.

Open Access. Freier Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Publikationen - das Paradigma der Zukunft?

Since a couple of years there is a strong voice for open access – that is unrestricted free online access to research articles for everyone. By presenting a typology of open access, we discuss the realization of open access journals using various combinations of business models. There are high expectations, but as business models are still in flux, new challenges arise for libraries dealing with „institutional memberships“ and stagnating serials budgets.