“I write to announce that University Librarian Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, who is also a professor in the School of Information and an affiliate professor of the Department of Economics, will be retiring from campus in June 2024. Under Jeff’s leadership, the Library has helped the university advance its strategic priorities and support the research, teaching, and learning missions of the UC Berkeley community. Key accomplishments, in partnership with colleagues, have included the following: Doubling the Library’s annual philanthropic funding and securing nearly $97 million in funding for three capital projects. Co-chairing the University of California team that has made it possible for 54% of UC-authored articles to be published open access. Establishing the Library’s scholarly communications office, which provides the campus community with more than 3,800 copyright, intellectual property, and information policy consultations a year….”
Category Archives: oa.hei
Austin Peay State University | Scholarly Engagement Librarian | 03/24/2023
“Austin Peay State University seeks an enthusiastic, innovative, and collaborative team member for the Scholarly Engagement Librarian. This 12-month, tenure track position reports to the Director of Library Services and will develop, coordinate, and promote access to scholarly resources with an emphasis on education, outreach, and advocacy. Provides training and support to faculty, students, and staff on intellectual property, copyright, fair use, open access, open education, and scholarly publishing. Advances and promotes the use of ASPIRE, APSU’s institutional repository, as well as other scholarly interdisciplinary communication tools provided by the library. Monitors the scholarly communication landscape, including funding and publishing trends, to keep colleagues informed. Collaboratively develops and supports curricular and co-curricular programming in the area of research and creative activities….”
Assessing Open Access Friendliness of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) A Data Carpentry Approach | DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 2022-10
“Abstract: This research study aims to measure the Open Access (OA) friendliness of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) of India that are listed in the overall category of NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework), 2021 by taking into consideration four important OA parameters – i) OA publication share; ii) OA licensing scenario; iii) citation impact of OA publications; and iv) altmetric scores of OA publications. It deals with 64,485 publications of the selected 11 NITs during the period from 2012 to 2021 (10 years), citations received by these publications (5,42,638 citations), and altmetric attention scores of the documents (5,213 publications) during the period under study. A data carpentry tool, namely OpenRefine, and open access bibliographic/citation data sources such as Unpaywall, Dimensions, and Altmetric.com have been deployed to accomplish this large-scale study for ranking NITs by their Open Access Friendliness (OAF). The OAF indicator, as applied in this study, is a distributed weightage based 100-point scale built on top of the aforesaid OA parameters. The ranking framework shows that Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat (est. in 1961) has achieved the top position with a score of 52.12 (out of 100), but in totality only 3 NITs (out of the selected 11 NITs) crossed the 50 per cent mark in the adapted OAF scale.”
Roy, A., & Mukhopadhyay, P. (2022). Assessing Open Access Friendliness of National Institutes of Technology (NITs) A Data Carpentry Approach. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 42(5), 331-338. https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.42.5.18263
The OBC Welcomes University of Manchester Library | 6 March 2023 | Open Book Collective
“As a member of the UK’s prestigious Russell Group, Manchester University is recognised as a world-leading research institution. You can read more about the University’s commitment to Open Access (OA) at their website here. Thanks to Manchester University’s support, the flourishing of a more bibliodiverse landscape for scholarly books is better assured. By becoming a member of the Open Book Collective, libraries have the opportunity to evaluate, compare, and support a bespoke range of small-to-medium Open Access book publishers and groups that are building important technical infrastructure for the creation and curation of OA books, and are also able to combine initiatives in any way they see fit, as well as support the OBC as a whole, thereby enabling libraries to support OA books in ways that allow them to demonstrate that their investments in OA books have broad impact in multiple sectors of the landscape of scholarly communications. The OBC, and the librarians who support it, are committed to a more equitable landscape for OA books and moving away from author-facing Book Processing Charges, our members are committed to collaborative, horizontal modes of working together on opening access to scholarly books for readers globally, without monetary, technical, or other barriers….”
Partners in Library Publishing: Florida State University, University of Cape Town | Feb 2023
“…we now launch a new blog post series, Library Publishing Through the IFLA Global Lens. This series will showcase the work of library publishers around the world, provide an opportunity to get to know the people who are working in this exciting field of librarianship, and highlight the diversity of perspectives on and approaches to library publishing globally. Our first two contributors are Jill Claassen [JC] and Devin Soper [DS].
Describe your work in library publishing?
JC: I work at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Libraries, in Cape Town, South Africa and oversee scholarly communication and publishing. Library publishing started in 2016, when the library didn’t have much skills in this area, but we were able to call on the assistance of the Public Knowledge Project initially. At that time, we published our first open access journal, which was a student journal and then started publishing open monographs and textbooks. We now have six open access journals, and 23 open access monographs and textbooks, with a lot of the skills now self-taught amongst the staff, using Open Journal Systems (OJS) and Open Monograph Press (OMP). This diamond open access publishing service ensures that local publications are available, accessible and discoverable to an African audience, first and foremost, and then to the rest of the world. We have two full time staff in the scholarly communication and publishing section at UCT Libraries. However, as our Research and Learning’s (one of two divisions in UCT Libraries) structure is based on functional librarianship, library publishing is one of the services that form part of the job description of library staff. Thus, we are able to have a thriving library publishing service at UCT because we have a flexible staff structure.
DS: I work at Florida State University (FSU) Libraries in Tallahassee, Florida, where I lead a small team that supports our library publishing program, Florida State Open Publishing (FSOP)….”
University of Kansas Libraries sign transformative open access agreements with Elsevier, Cambridge University Press | The University of Kansas
“The University of Kansas Libraries have signed a pair of renegotiated deals aimed at supporting open access and broadening the reach of KU-generated research. Through a pair of transformative read-and-publish agreements with Elsevier — the world’s largest scientific publishing company — and Cambridge University Press — the world’s oldest university publisher — KU Libraries have increased the number of scholarly journals available for reading to KU students and researchers and will cover the costs of open access article processing charges (APCs) for eligible articles by KU corresponding authors, broadening the potential reach of the work. In a three-year agreement with Elsevier, the KU community will maintain existing access to more than 2,000 journals, while covering APCs for KU corresponding authors who opt in to publish articles as open access. Historically, publishers have used a subscription model in which authors publish in a journal and their content remains behind a paywall for journal subscribers only. In an open access publishing model, articles are available to all readers regardless of subscription status, often under a Creative Commons license that enables sharing and reuse. While not all open access is supported by APCs, they have become a common model. Subscription journals that publish some open access articles on payment of an APC are referred to as hybrid open access….”
Introducing the University of Leeds Open Research Statement, January 16 2023 | Online Event | AllEvents.in
The University of Leeds Open Research Statement was published in October 2022 and demonstrates our commitment and support for open research practices for staff, students, partners, and the wider community. Leeds is just the latest university to publish such a statement, following the lead of the University of Reading in January 2019. For this online event, we are very pleased to welcome Dr Robert Darby from that pioneering institution to hear about how Reading have worked to embed open research practices, their successes and challenges, next steps and what they have learned along the way. Robert is the Research Data Manager at the University of Reading and a senior member of the Library’s Research Engagement team, which provides research publishing, research data management, bibliometrics and digital humanities services, and supports the University’s initiative to develop a culture of Open Research. He has played a strategic role in developing this initiative and was instrumental in drafting the University’s Statement on Open Research. He is currently involved in a UK Reproducibility Network project that will develop a toolkit to assist institutions in implementing research assessment policies and procedures that include recognition of Open Research. Also speaking will be Dr Bernadette Moore, chair of the Open Research Advisory Group, a subgroup of Research Culture, who will introduce the statement and chair a discussion about the future of open research at Leeds and across the sector.
Stockholm University’s publishing platform | recording of September 2022 interviews with developers
“Soon Stockholm University is to launch its own publishing platform where researchers can publish articles with open peer review and with an open license. A pilot of the platform will be released during Open Access Week 2022, where 50 researchers affiliated with Stockholm University will participate and try the tool for a few months, before it is made available to others as well. Interviewed in this video clip is Wilhelm Widmark, Senior Advisor to the President with operational responsibility for Open Science at Stockholm University, and Abeni Wickham, founder of SciFree and developer of the platform. The interview was originally published in the staff web cast Panorama in September 2022, led by Stefan Nyman at the Communication Team at Stockholm University….”
Tennessee State University | Assistant Professor-Scholarly Communications Librarian
“Tennessee State University is seeking to fill a twelve month tenure track position for a Scholarly Communications Librarian at the Brown-Daniel Library in Nashville. The incumbent will be responsible for Open Access Initiatives and will assume leadership for the library’s OER program. They will provide vision, planning and an operational agenda for the library’s institutional repository, Digital Scholarship@TSU, and will promote its research and publishing use for faculty, staff and students. They will serve as the library’s resource person for copyright, fair use and author rights. The successful candidate will have embedded librarians duties, serve as a liaison to assigned departments and teach information literacy classes. Faculty status requires the ability to publish research and participate in conferences….”
A brief history of open access at Harvard · Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication
“This is the first of two related posts. The second will describe our current thinking about open access. (Watch for it around Open Access Week, 2020.) We’re looking forward and want to start by showing where we’ve come from.
For now, this brief history focuses mostly on Harvard’s thinking about subscription journal prices and Harvard’s open access (OA) policies. There are many other OA initiatives at Harvard we might add later, for example on courseware, data, digitization, open-source software, and publishing, as well as our partnerships with larger, multi-institutional initiatives. …”
Sudbury News: Laurentian University receives more than $225,000 to support the humanities | CTV News | Oct. 13, 2022
“Laurentian University researchers have received funding in excess of $237,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through its Insight Program. The Insight, Insight Development and Aid to Scholarly Journals grants were awarded to LU’s School of Social Work, School of Liberal Arts as well as the McEwen School of Architecture….Aid to Scholarly Journal grants support Canadian scholarly dissemination by enabling journals to explore innovative activities as well as helping them cover the costs associated with publishing scholarly articles and journal distribution on Canadian not-for-profit platforms. “Insight, Insight Development and Aid to Scholarly Journals grants are critically important for researchers and the training of students that often work side by side with faculty to advance scholarship and knowledge dissemination,” Doctor Tammy Eger, vice-president of research at the university, said in a media release Thursday. “These investments from the federal government ensure that researchers are able to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in fields of social sciences and humanities.”…”
Panel Discussion: The Role of Publishers and Libraries in the Evolution of Open Research | September 19, 2022 | Library Journal
“The role of institutional libraries and of publishers continues to evolve along with the changing landscape of research dissemination. Open access publishing has paved the way for a broader open science or open research landscape that emphasizes the importance of sharing research elements across the scientific discovery process. Sharing across the lifecycle supports greater transparency, assists in reproducibility and replicability, and can speed up the dissemination of important research outcomes. In the US, an increasing number of policies, practices, and guidelines are helping to encourage openness from data to code to publication. Institutional libraries are responding by providing leadership in the open science environment through activities like expanding support for grant compliance, helping facilitate data reuse, and working with organizations to build the necessary infrastructure to facilitate an open research process. Publishers are likewise exploring new models, technologies, and processes to support greater openness and to shift away from a pay-to-read model. F1000’s innovative publishing model, for example, is designed to fully promote open science practices by requiring FAIR compliant data with submission, allowing for a broad variety of publication types beyond standard journal articles, and using open community peer review to validate research. In this panel discussion, representatives from State University of New York at Stony Brook, Library Journal, F1000 and Taylor & Francis will convene for an interactive discussion about the ways in which institutional libraries are collaborating with partners to advance open science principles, rigor and reproducibility, and research innovations.
Speakers:
Joseph Lerro – Open Research Business Development Manager, the Americas – F1000 and Taylor & Francis Group
Dr. Vitaly Citovsky, Ph.D./SUNY – Distinguished Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology – State University of New York at Stony Brook
Mona Ramonetti, Head of Scholarly Communication, Stony Brook University Libraries
Lisa Federer, Data Science and Open Science Librarian, National Library of Medicine…”
East Carolina University, US | Publishing and Open Access Support Librarian | August 2022
“…The Publishing and Open Access Support Librarian promotes and supports open access to the scholarship and educational resources produced by faculty and students at East Carolina University. This highly collaborative position will be part of the Scholarly Communication Department in the Division for Collections and Scholarly Communication in Academic Library Services (ALS). In alignment with the library’s strategic emphasis on impacting research and maximizing student success, this employee’s primary duties include providing consultation, training, and support to the campus community on issues and evolving needs related to digital and open access publishing. Specifically, the incumbent will lead and support Open Journal Systems, the library’s online publishing software, and explore other relevant open access publishing tools. This position will support faculty and students by promoting and implementing sustainable scholarship initiatives. As a member of the Division for Collections and Scholarly Communication, this position participates in the library’s student affordability and equity initiatives. These duties include creating, adapting, publishing, supporting, and advocating for Open Educational Resources and other open access works. Additional duties include assisting with open data and digital scholarship projects and making content available through the institutional repository in collaboration with department colleagues. This position may serve as a liaison to one or more departments. This position will support the Scholarly Communication Department and library with other projects as assigned. The Publishing and Open Access Support Librarian participates in professional development and appropriate service on library, university, and professional committees. Employment contingent upon availability of funds….”
Call for Proposals: College & Research Libraries Topical Issue on Open and Equitable Scholarship | deadline: October 3, 2022 | Association of College and Research Libraries, US
“ACRL’s Research and Scholarly Environment Committee is planning a topical issue of College & Research Libraries (C&RL) around new research on how the academic and research library workforce has accelerated change in the scholarly communications environment. We are particularly interested in articles on recent research that advances the three priority areas established in ACRL’s 2019 report Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future (available for download or purchase): people, content, and systems. In that report, the first section on people addresses embracing diversity and inclusion, improving the working lives of people engaged in scholarly communications, and increasing awareness concerning creators’ rights. The second section, content, acknowledges the opportunity for greater inclusion and openness by rethinking what scholarship “counts” and creating more representative and open collections. The third section on systems identifies several avenues to explore: supporting sustainable technological infrastructure, creating systems that permit more access to more people, building mission-aligned organizational and financial systems, and advancing innovation in academic libraries. To learn more about the report, view a recorded webinar from when it was first released. For this C&RL topical issue, the research may use any investigative methods appropriate to addressing the research question(s). These include but are not limited to: standard quantitative and qualitative approaches, as well as critical evaluations, case studies, reflective essays, and (auto)ethnography. Articles resulting from collaborative research involving librarians and other higher education stakeholders, such as institutional researchers, faculty, administration, students, or community partners are particularly welcome. Given the focus of Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications on valuing different ways of knowing, the committee particularly welcomes adventurous scholarship, and we encourage work on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion as they relate to academic libraries and scholarly communication. Proposals Proposals should be a maximum of 750 words. They should clearly outline the methodology and findings of the research, as well as its relevance to this topical issue, specifically its connection to the ACRL report Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications: Creating a More Inclusive Future, as described above. Prospective authors should submit a proposal by 5 p.m. Central on Monday, October 3, 2022, for open peer review. Submit via C&RL’s submission system (login required) and please note in your cover page that your submission is a proposal for the Open and Equitable Scholarly Communications topical issue….”
Barnett & Gadd (2022) University league tables have no legs to stand on | Significance
Barnett, A. and Gadd, E. (2022), University league tables have no legs to stand on. Significance, 19: 4-7. https://doi.org/10.1111/1740-9713.01663
What really makes one higher education institution “better” than another? The ranking of the world’s universities is big business built on a flimsy statistical approach, say Adrian Barnett and Elizabeth Gadd