Danny Kingsley

The publishing imperative : the pervasive influence of publication metrics

This article summarizes the effects of the increasing global trend towards measuring research quality and effectiveness through, in particular, publication‐based metrics, and its effects on scholarly communication. Such metrics are increasingly influencing the behaviour patterns of administrators, publishers, librarians, and researchers. Impact and citation measures, which often rely solely on Thomson Scientific data, are examined in the context of university league tables and research assessment exercises. The need to establish alternate metrics, particularly for the social sciences and humanities, is emphasized, as is an holistic approach to scholarly communication agenda.

The journal is dead, long live the journal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue that the traditional scholarly journal system is outdated and in need of revamp, and new internet technologies provide opportunities for change unavailable until now.Design/methodology/approach – The four functions of the scholarly journal: registration; awareness; certification; and archiving are discussed in turn and alternative ways of undertaking those functions are explored. Barriers to change and ways to overcome these barriers are addressed.Findings – The functions of registration and certification are already met with an open peer review system in place for some high profile journals. Recently developed searching and browsing facilities give academics access to a greater proportion of scholarly literature, providing a more efficient awareness function than traditional journals. The function of archiving is not being adequately addressed by commercial publishers, and the steps being taken by institutional repositories to that end are more sustainable....

e-Publishing's Impacts on Journals and Journal Articles

ABSTRACT The primary vehicle for formal communications in most disciplines and research domains is articles published in journals. The digital era as a whole has had many impacts on the activities of article creation and use. Of particular significance is the availability of the Internet as a distribution mechanism. This is bringing about significant changes in the economics of journal publishing. The dimensions of those changes are examined within the context provided by models of the roles of journals in the mid-to-late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries. Several early indicators of fundamental changes in the process and product of the journal are considered. Tensions between for-profit and open-access publishing are identified. The new potentials for community-based endeavor create the likelihood of upheaval in what has been a highly profitable industry sector.

Developing the 21st Century Academic Librarian: The Research Support Ambassador Programme

ABSTRACTThe nature of academic librarianship is changing as librarians move away from the curation of material and into research support roles. Although this creates new opportunities it can be difficult for staff to learn the skills needed. The Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University seeks to address this issue with the Research Support Ambassadors Programme, an initiative which skills staff in areas such as Research Data Management and Open Access. This case study outlines the evolution of the program from its pilot through to its recently completed second run in 2016. The challenges associated with running a cross-library training program are discussed and solutions highlighted. Also discussed is the impact that the program has had on participants. This case study will be of interest to those aiming to pursue a career in this area of librarianship and those looking at preparing staff for the future of the academic library.

Institutional Framework and Responsibilities: Facing Open Science’s challenges and assuring quality of research

This was a presentation to LERU workshop: Nurturing a Culture of Responsible Research in the Era of Open Science held at Campus Biotech, Geneva on 25 May 2018

JLSC Board Editorial 2018

The current scholarly communication landscape is populated by a variety of actors and powered by an ever-increasing array of complementary and competitive systems for the production, publication, and distribution of scholarship. Recent years have also seen increasing numbers of proposals to recast these systems in ways that better align with the needs and values of the academy and its scholars. In this editorial, members of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication consider the present environment and contemplate the future of academy-owned and -supported scholarly communication, as well as the role of libraries in that future.

Creating a Community of Data Champions

Research Data Management (RDM) presents an unusual challenge for service providers in Higher Education. There is increased awareness of the need for training in this area but the nature of the discipline-specific practices involved make it difficult to provide training across a multi-disciplinary organisation. Whilst most UK universities now have a research data team of some description, they are often small and rarely have the resources necessary to provide targeted training to the different disciplines and research career stages that they are increasingly expected to support. This practice paper describes the approach taken at the University of Cambridge to address this problem by creating a community of Data Champions. This collaborative initiative, working with researchers to provide training and advocacy for good RDM practice, allows for more discipline-specific training to be given, researchers to be credited for their expertise and creates an opportunity for those interested in RDM to exchange knowledge with others. The ‘community of practice’ model has been used in many sectors, including Higher Education, to facilitate collaboration across organisational units and this initiative will adopt some of the same principles to improve communication across a decentralised institution. The Data Champions initiative at Cambridge was launched in September 2016 and this paper reports on the early months, plans for building the community in the future and the possible risks associated with this approach to providing RDM services.

Is the tail wagging the dog? Perversity in academic rewards

This talk is a Keynote Address delivered to the 9th Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing held in Lisbon, Portugal on 20-21 September 2017 https://oaspa.org/conference/coasp-2017-program/ The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #COASP9

Emerging from the chrysalis – transforming libraries for the future

This presentation was made to the CONUL12017 conference held in Athlone, Ireland 30-31 May 2017

From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication

One of the joys of working with JLSC is the amazing community of intelligent, talented, and passionate people who make up its readers, authors, and reviewers. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its Editorial Board, which is currently made up of twenty-one professionals from across the scholarly communication landscape. Because their work usually happens behind the scenes, readers might not realize how influential they are in the life of the journal. They come from a wide range of organizations and backgrounds (not to mention three continents), but they all deal with scholarly communication issues on the ground, every day. There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about the future of scholarly communication in libraries (for an example, see Clifford Lynch’s guest editorial in the February issue of C&RL1 ), and we wanted to give our board a chance to weigh in. They were asked to share their take on the most pressing issues in scholarly communication today, in their capacity as Editorial Board members (rather than as representatives of their respective institutions), and the following six short pieces are the result. We hope their answers will help inspire the readers, authors, and editors of JLSC to think big, act strategically, and strengthen our growing network of peers.