News Roundup January 2018

Open Access Publishing Cooperative Study

The Public Knowledge Project have published the final report of their Open Access Publishing Cooperative Study, following a two-year investigation in the USA ‘…to examine whether scholarly publishing models, involving cooperation between the relevant stakeholder, might provide a means of moving subscription journals to a sustainable form of open access publishing.’ A key finding was that the majority of the libraries surveyed were willing to explore the option of forming open access cooperatives with publishers, replacing subscriptions with funding for conversion to an open access model, whereas journal editors and publishers were much less attracted to this strategy.

The Meaning of Research Impact

In this post from the LSE Impact Blog, the tricky concept of ‘impact’ within academic research is explored, with the argument that the term is often ‘unclear and contested’. Based on a literature review, four existing types of research impact definitions are identified, which are further broken down into four domains that underpin these definitions. The authors then go on to propose their own definition with a focus on mental health research, which is also adaptable for other health-related areas. The article the post is based on is freely available here.

Reporting New Research

This article from The Conversation examines the way that research is communicated through the media, critiquing a lack of transparency where news reports fail to provide information on who has carried out the research, where this was done, and how it was funded. Highlighting the progress made by the open access movement, the author argues that the media have a responsibility to accurately represent research, and that in the age of “fake news”it is more important than ever that people are able to dig deeper into what is being reported.

Elsevier Negotiations

Institutions around the world have been involved in negotiation stand-offs with Elsevier, pushing back against subscription price increases and seeking an easier transition towards open access publishing. Although consortia in South Korea and Finland have recently reached agreements, the Project DEAL coalition in Germany is still holding out. Despite the fact that contracts have expired, Elsevier have not yet severed access to their journals for the majority of the institutions in question.

Flipping Learned Societies to Open Access

In this post Martin Paul Eve (Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck) outlines an interesting proposal for Learned Societies who wish to move to an OA model of publishing, but without introducing charges for authors. Professor Eve provides a concise step-by-step guide to how this transition could work and the advantages it would bring, explaining that the key barrier would be communicating the new model to subscribers.

Open Access Knowledge: Digital Style Guide

As part of the Writing For Research resource, Patrick Dunleavy et al. have produced a new style guide for citations and references, designed to address issues with current practice and encourage modernisation. Central principles include the idea that wherever possible citations/references should lead to digital resources, and that the primary source cited should be open access. The guide is clearly laid out, identifying issues and suggesting solutions, and providing lots of examples of how different sources should be cited. The guide is currently at the beta stage, so the creators welcome any comments and suggestions.

DOAJ Best Practice Guide

The Directory of Open Access Journals have enhanced their service even further by launching a Best Practice Guide, designed to ‘…support researchers, publishers and librarians in their search of best practice and transparency standards’ when identifying reputable open access journals. The guide aims to highlight issues around questionable publishing practices, provide a checklist of criteria for identifying questionable publishers, highlight other tools to assist in making informed decisons on where to submit articles, and provide case studies and real-life examples to base decisions on. Find more information here.

Launch of Dimensions

Digital Science have launched their new Dimensions service, which includes a citations database, a research analytics suite, and article discovery and access. The tool is designed around a “freemium” business model, providing free basic access to the database, with a paid-for institutional version that will allow more advanced research analytics. For more information see this article.

UCL’s Open Access Megajournal

UCL Press have announced the launch of a new OA megajournal, stating that ‘…this will provide academics and students with ground-breaking research free of charge in a move that challenges traditional commercial publishing models.’ As well as being freely available, the cross-disciplinary platform will aim to appeal to authors by reducing publication times compared to traditional models, and incorporating open peer review for greater transparency. See the full press release here.

Special Issue of Publications

OA journal Publications are inviting submissions of manuscripts for a special issue on ‘Open Access and the Library’, with some suggested topics including the changing role of university/research libraries, OA workflows and systems, and communications and engagement with authors. The submission deadline has been extended to 20 February 2018, and the Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived for ‘well-prepared manuscripts’.