ACRL Framework for Impactful Scholarship and Metrics

“ACRL recommended “as standard practice that academic librarians publish in open access venues.” ….In June 2019, ACRL outlined priorities and plans to reshape the current system of scholarly communications to increase equity and inclusivity.  While by no means an exhaustive list of the values that institutions should discuss and balance, both of these priorities place value on a scholarly infrastructure that is new, emerging, different, and may not completely align with current evaluative practices. We urge institutions to discuss their core institutional values and priorities, and how support for open access, equity, and inclusion, and impact will be represented by the codified institutional guidelines, expectations, and rank/tenure/promotion/evaluation processes….”

The document is undated. But the announcement is dated December 11, 2020.

 

Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future – ACRL Insider

“ACRL is pleased to announce the release of “Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future,” prepared for ACRL by Nancy Maron and Rebecca Kennison with Paul Bracke, Nathan Hall, Isaac Gilman, Kara Malenfant, Charlotte Roh, and Yasmeen Shorish. Developed over the course of a year with leadership from the Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC) and with a high degree of community involvement, this powerful new action-oriented research agenda encourages the community to make the scholarly communications system more open, inclusive, and equitable by outlining trends, encouraging practical actions, and clearly identifying the most strategic research questions to pursue.

This report is an important contribution to ACRL’s core commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion which includes valuing different ways of knowing and identifying and working to eliminate barriers to equitable services, spaces, resources, and scholarship. The full research agenda is freely available on the ACRL website and will be available for purchase in print in the ALA store….”

“Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive” by Nancy Maron, Rebecca Kennison et al.

Abstract:  For many years, the academic and research library workforce has worked to accelerate the transition to more open and equitable systems of scholarship. While significant progress has been made, barriers remain. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) seeks to stimulate further advances through this action- oriented research agenda, which is 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. This report represents a yearlong process of reviewing the scholarly and practice-based literature to take into account established investigation coupled with extensive public consultation to identify the major problems facing the academic library community. Through interviews, focus groups, workshops, and an online survey, over 1,000 members of the ACRL community offered their thoughts and expertise to shape this research agenda. Incorporating guidance and input from ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee and an advisory panel, this document recommends ways to make the scholarly communications and research environment more open, inclusive, and equitable. 

 

[Open letter to Donald Trump]

“On behalf of the undersigned national and regional library, research, publishing, and advocacy organizations, we are writing to express our commitment to ensuring that American taxpayers are guaranteed immediate, free, and unfettered access to the results of scientific research that their tax dollars support, and to encourage the Administration to support continued progress towards this shared goal. We strongly endorse updating existing U.S. policy to eliminate the current 12-month embargo period on articles reporting on publicly funded research, and to ensure that they are made immediately available under terms and conditions that allow their full reuse. To unlock the full value of our collective investment in science, the underlying data needed to validate an article’s conclusions, along with any corresponding software or code, should also be made immediately available….”

2019 Scholarly Communications Research Grant Recipients Announced – ACRL Insider

“ACRL is pleased to announce the recipients of its Scholarly Communications Research Grants in 2019. These grants of up to $5,000 each support new research that will contribute to more inclusive systems of scholarly communications in areas suggested by the 2019 report Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future (available for download or purchase).

The selection committee from ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee chose seven proposals from a highly competitive round of applications. The grant recipients are:

Tatiana Bryant (Adelphi University) and Camille Thomas (Florida State University) for a project titled “Attitudes Towards Open Access Publishing Amongst Faculty of Color”
Jennifer Chan (University of California, Los Angeles) and Juleah Swanson (University of Colorado Boulder) for a project titled “SCORE Analysis: Leveraging Institutional Data to Bring Balance Back into the Scholarly Landscape”
Amanda Makula and Laura Turner (University of San Diego) for a project titled “Collaborative Collection Development: Inviting Community-Owned Public Scholarship into the Academic Library”
Gemmicka Piper (Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis) for a project titled “Barriers to Minority Faculty Open Knowledge Production”
Mantra Roy (San Jose State University) for a project titled “Global South Speaks: A Librarianship Perspective”
Teresa Schultz and Elena Azadbakht (University of Nevada, Reno) for a project titled “Accessible Open Educational Resources Project”
Carolyn Sheffield, Michelle Flinchbaugh (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Carolyn Cox (University of Baltimore), Adam Zukowski (Towson University), Robin Sinn, Caitlin Carter (Johns Hopkins University), Katherine Pitcher (St. Mary’s College), Trevor Muñoz, and Terry Owens (University of Maryland, College Park) for a project titled “A Roadmap to the Future of Promotion & Tenure”…”

Scholarly Communication: From Understanding to Engagement | Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)

“Academic and research librarians increasingly recognize scholarly communication as a core competency of the profession. Whether helping researchers meet their funder’s mandates for public access and data sharing, guiding responsible copyright practice, or supporting new types of scholarship and instruction, librarians are leading change across campus and around the world. With this workshop, ACRL empowers our community in accelerating the transformation of the scholarly communication system.

This workshop has been updated with a series of targeted modules that reflect the most exciting and pressing issues in the field today. The goal of the structured, interactive program is to equip participants with knowledge and skills to help accelerate the transformation of the scholarly communication system.

You can bring this workshop at full cost to your campus year round. Additionally, ACRL offers a partial subsidy on a competitive basis for up to five hosts each academic year. The deadline to apply to host the subsidized version in 2020 is Friday, November 15, 2019. View more information about the subsidized program….”

Open for Students and Educators: Open Educational Resources Level the Playing Field

“Open educational resources (OERs) are not usually a hard sell for students. But what about educators? How do they benefit from having access to resources that are licensed openly? And how can we, as librarians, guide faculty in adopting and adapting OERs? This free webcast will cover essential OER questions and topics, including:

• What does OER mean?
• How is OER helpful not only to students, but to educators as well?
• Locating and adapting OER (or how to interpret Creative Commons licensing attached to OERs)….”

ACRL Offers Scholarly Communications Research Grants – ACRL Insider

ACRL is allocating $30,000 in the 2020 fiscal year to offer grants of up to $5,000 each for new research in areas suggested by ACRL’s new research agenda Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future (freely available for PDF download or purchase in print). This program is one of several developed by ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC) to support our strategic goal that the academic and research library workforce accelerates the transition to more open and equitable systems of scholarship….”

ACRL/SPARC Forum: Collective Reinvestment in Open Infrastructure (ACRL)

Libraries are increasingly considering scaling back their subscriptions or cancelling big deals altogether. Yet, the question of how and where to reinvest the resources that become available is both far from settled and increasingly pressing. As we start to move away from the subscription model, we should be intentional about crafting the vision for open research communication we strive to build and how we intend to build it. 

This forum, “If I Had A Million Dollars: Collective Reinvestment in Open Infrastructure,” will invite active participation throughout the session in a facilitated discussion with experts representing both libraries and research funders. …”

Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future

“For many years, the academic and research library workforce has worked to accelerate the transition to more open and equitable systems of scholarship. While significant progress has been made, barriers remain. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) seeks to stimulate further advances through this action-oriented research agenda, which is 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.

This report represents a yearlong process of reviewing the scholarly and practice-based literature to take into account established investigation coupled with extensive public consultation to identify the major problems facing the academic library community. Through interviews, focus groups, workshops, and an online survey, over 1,000 members of the ACRL community offered their thoughts and expertise to shape this research agenda. Incorporating guidance and input from ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee and an advisory panel, this document recommends ways to make the scholarly communications and research environment more open, inclusive, and equitable….”

Feedback on Draft ACRL Research Agenda – Deadline Extended to January 11 – ACRL Insider

“ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee together with Rebecca Kennison and Nancy Maron – the authors selected by ACRL to design, develop, and deliver a new ACRL research agenda for scholarly communications and the research environment – are grateful for the feedback received thus far on the draft document for public comment. To ensure the robust community engagement continues, the deadline to comment has been extended to COB Friday, January 11, 2019….

Your input is crucial for ensuring the final document is as helpful as possible both in guiding academic librarians on actions that can be taken now to promote a more open system of scholarship and identifying essential areas that merit further investigation….”

Draft ACRL Scholarly Communications Research Agenda Feedback Due Jan 4 – ACRL Insider

Rebecca Kennison and Nancy Maron, selected by ACRL to design, develop, and deliver a new research agenda for scholarly communications and the research environment, have been hard at work since March 2018 with guidance and input from ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC). ACRL is now seeking public comment on a draft document by COB Friday, January 4, 2019….

By sharing this draft publicly for feedback, ACRL seeks to continue the robust community engagement, which has included input from over 1,000 individuals via expert interviews, online focus groups, a survey, and large group conversations at major conferences. ACRL wants the final document to be as helpful as possible both in guiding academic librarians on actions that can be taken now to promote a more open system of scholarship and identifying essential areas that merit further investigation….”

ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians, Draft Revision Feedback – ACRL Insider

“The ACRL Research and Scholarly Environment Committee (ReSEC) is seeking community input on proposed revisions to the ACRL Policy Statement on Open Access to Scholarship by Academic Librarians, approved by the ACRL Board of Directors during the 2016 ALA Annual Conference….

Please review the draft revision (PDF) on the ACRL website and send your feedback by July 1, 2018 to Steven Harris (stevenharris@unr.edu)….”

Jump Start Your Scholarly Communication Initiatives: Lessons Learned From Redesigning the Scholarly Communications Roadshow for a New Generation of Librarians

“In keeping with its role as a bellwether for a changing profession, the Roadshow’s latest revision points to several clear lessons in designing engagement. At a high level, engagement must recognize the diversity of scholarly communication and the variety of paths libraries are following. For many stakeholders within and beyond the library, the perception that scholarly communication is simply a conversation about open access to scholarly articles remains. This can be dispiriting for librarians who may feel that if they cannot sustain a large open access fund or drive a campus mandate then scholarly communication “isn’t for their campus.” Similarly, campus administrators and faculty may dismiss scholarly communication as little more than library complaints about funding.

Instead, scholarly communication should be presented as an opportunity to do new things that advance the core mission of the library and the institution. Scholarly communication should be understood as supporting exciting new types of scholarship, documenting the broader impact of the university’s work, reducing barriers to student success, and enabling compliance with complicated mandates from national funding agencies. The Roadshow’s use of a pre-survey and modules is one way to tailor outreach to the priorities of diverse institutions, but on-campus engagement can do this in a variety of ways from partnering with campus stakeholders to department-specific work on pressing issues.

A second major lesson learned from our revision is that engagement should be led by presenters that balance their own expertise with work that highlights the expertise of others in the community. Of course, exercises and workshops need to present new information and skills with high levels of credibility, but evaluations make it clear that expertise is valued no more highly than attributes like an engaging presentation style or opportunities to do hands-on work. A session where peers work through a concrete problem together is likely to be more impactful than a dry lecture from even the most respected expert presenter.

This is especially true in the context of scholarly communication where the issues are new and rapidly evolving so expertise is likely to be fluid and shared across the institution. The Roadshow has put a premium on group work because it accommodates diverse levels of expertise. At almost any institution, every librarian is an expert in something and a novice in something else. An exercise or series of events that lets individuals show off their own expertise and then learn from others is effective for all participants, rather than racing past those who are new or slowing down to the frustration of those with more experience.

Finally, scholarly communication engagement is most effective when it is designed to develop a community of practice, rather than impart specific skills. There is too much content to be covered in any single day. A workshop can introduce shared vocabulary, present case studies, or provide a framework, but scholarly communication is too large and fast moving to be covered in a workshop or lecture. Instead, it should be integrated into the core work of the library through targeted engagement that supports pilot projects and new models of librarianship.”