Category Archives: oa.knowledge_exchange

Alternative Publishing Platforms

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“In 2022, Knowledge Exchange started the project of exploring what Alternative Publishing Platforms do and how they can be placed in the open scholarly communication ecosystem. In order to help guide conversations, we first published a Knowledge Exchange (KE) scoping paper. The next step is to identify and better understand the individual platforms. This call for entries is open to any platform working in open access publishing / communication who wishes to be included in The Knowledge Exchange taxonomy of Alternative Publishing Platforms.

With the data thus collected, a landscape analysis will be produced and made public by September 2023 together with a toolkit enabling to manipulate and showcase the data. In the mid-term, the plan is also to reproduce this analysis in two years time in order to gain a better understanding of the dynamics at play in the field of scientific publishing platforms.

The application form is not personal – it should be filled on behalf of the entity operating the platform. Information provided in the application will be used to decide inclusion in the taxonomy, and for research purposes. Personal information (name, role, email address, etc.) about the respondent will be treated as confidential and will only be used to verify that the respondent is entitled to give answers on behalf the platform, and to inform the respondent about the progress of the project and announcing project results.

Participation is voluntary. The respondent is entitled to ask that part, or all, of the answers given for the application be deleted.”

News – Call for entries to explore Alternative Publishing Platforms – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“Knowledge Exchange (KE) invites any platforms working in open access, publishing and communication who wishes to be included in a KE taxomomy of Alternative Publishing Platforms to answer this call for entries. 

The call is part of a KE activity with the purpose to better understand what Alternative Publishing Platforms do and how they can be placed in the open scholarly communication ecosystem.

The value of Alternative Publishing Platforms is not to be underestimated. They can represent not only examples of real innovative, open access scholarly communication, but also effective ‘threat infrastructures’ to traditional journal publishers. These platforms represent a move away from the traditional journal as an organising principle, and might differ from traditional scholarly journals in a number of ways, including publication process, governance and underlying infrastructure.

Your contribution will be of great value. It will enable KE to build a taxonomy of various platforms that follow different paths, for example in equitable publishing models, quality control, technical features, open source, interactive publishing and so on. With the data from the call for entries we plan to produce a landscape analysis together with a toolkit enabling to manipulate and showcase the data made public by the end of September 2023.”

News – PIDs – risks and trust-related issues explored with new Knowledge Exchange report and case studies – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) are of vital importance to modern day digital information-based research. They ensure that all elements of research are uniquely identifiable and discoverable. They support the integrity of scientific information and its reproducibility. Most importantly they make possible automated computer processing of a staggering and ever-growing amount of diverse digital objects, hosted by multitudes of actors across the planet. Hence, the pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research is of paramount strategic importance.

However, there can be significant risks of failure if the PID implementation process is not properly managed on an international scale.

As part of the work around Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research, this Knowledge Exchange report examines the complex PID landscape within its six partner countries and beyond. The benefits of an efficient PID infrastructure and how this is a precondition for research communities impending research agendas, are explained. The report provides an in-depth look at what can go wrong with an unreliable PID service….”

The role of research funders in the consolidation of the PID landscape | Zenodo

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de Castro, Pablo, Herb, Ulrich, Rothfritz, Laura, & Schöpfel, Joachim. (2022). The role of research funders in the consolidation of the PID landscape. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7258210

This case study is part of a series that has been produced within the study on “Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research” commissioned by the Knowledge Exchange in July 2021. The main outcome of this work will be a report examining the current PID landscape with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues.

This initial case study aims to explore the key role research funders are expected to play in the gradual adoption of an ever wider range of PIDs across European countries.

The study examines matters such as the endorsement of PIDs by research funders and opportunities for cross-funder collaboration. In addition it looks at the potential differences in the technical workflows for PID adoption among others.

The report, “Building the Plane as We Fly It”: the Promise of Persistent Identifiers, and remaining complementary case studies will be published soon.

 

News – Case study: The role of research funders in the consolidation of the PID landscape – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“There can be risk and trust related concerns within the current PID landscape. To explore this, the Knowledge Exchange commissioned consultants, scidecode science consulting, to undertake a study which examines the world of PIDs with an emphasis on its risks and trust-related issues. The resulting report will be accompanied by a series of case studies which aim to provide a greater understanding of the wider PID landscape. ‘The role of research funders in the consolidation of the PID landscape’ is the first case study in this series.

Research funders will likely play an important role in the gradual adoption of an ever wider range of PIDs across European countries. From raising awareness of the role of PIDs through to implementation of best practices, this case study examines what this key task involves.

The study explores topics such as the endorsement of PIDs by research funders and opportunities for cross-funder collaboration. Additionally it looks at the potential divergences in the technical workflows for PID adoption among others.

Research funders’ involvement is seen as critical for ensuring widespread adoption of the more technical PIDs, that are likely to see a bottom-up implementation with researchers in the lead. International coordination across national research funders is crucial as they are ideally placed to identify researchers’ best practices and to further promote them in specific disciplines. Understanding what funders believe to be the main issues around risks and trust will guide us in formulating further recommendations.

To access the case study please click here.”

News – Call for proposals: ‘Minimum conditions supporting research reproducibility’ – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“The KE Task and Finish group on FAIR Data and Software supporting Reproducible Research have produced a scoping document which provides an overview for this work.

We are inviting consultants to submit proposals to undertake work around ‘Minimum conditions supporting research reproducibility’. Full details of the work and its requirements are included in the Call for proposals document….”

Alternative Publishing Platforms – Knowledge Exchange

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“Are you confused by all the ‘alternative’ scholarly publishing platforms that have emerged over recent years? Today there seem to be so many ways to communicate or disseminate research. There are not only peer-reviewed academic articles, monographs, conference proceedings, or theses. Now there are also preprint repositories, data journals, specialist data and code repositories, trials registries, scholarly blogs and websites, many forms of peer review and micropublications. These different forms of publication all have different aims, such as seeking to remove the barriers, constraints and costs imposed by legacy academic publishing companies, to reduce questionable practices, or make research work more deeply accessible and reusable.

In order to help guide conversations about the merits and downsides of these different ‘alternative’ publishing platforms, a new Task and Finish Group worked on a recently published Knowledge Exchange  (KE) scoping paper. As a next step, we hope that we can develop a taxonomy of these various platforms – platforms that follow different paths (e.g. in equitable publishing models, quality control, technical features, open source, iterative publishing workflows, etc.) compared to the legacy publishers. Such platforms represent a move away from the traditional journal as an organising principle and might differ from traditional scholarly journals in a number of ways, including publication process, governance, and underlying infrastructure. They can be regarded as examples of real innovative, open access scholarly communication or as effective “threat infrastructures” to traditional journal publishers. Knowing the directions in which these platforms are driving innovation, and their different aims, might allow us insight into what can be a confusing landscape.

Throughout the process we would welcome feedback on our scoping paper (https://doi.org/10.21428/996e2e37.3ebdc864) and the developing taxonomy. We therefore invite all stakeholders, including researchers, institutions, funders and (non profit) publishers to comment and provide feedback….”

News – Knowledge Exchange welcomes comments on Alternative Publishing Platforms scoping paper – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“These days there are so many ways to communicate or disseminate research. Each platform has different aims and features. To help the research community understand these alternative publishing platforms, a new KE Task and Finish Group was set up. The Group have worked on a scoping paper and KE are pleased to announce that this has been published and is available for review and comment.

As a next step, we aim to develop a taxonomy of these different platforms. Throughout the process we would welcome feedback on our scoping paper and the developing taxonomy. We are inviting all stakeholders, including researchers, institutions, funders and (non profit) publishers to comment and provide feedback. An updated report will be available once all comments have been received….”

Alternative Publishing Platforms

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Research findings have traditionally been published as peer-reviewed academic articles, monographs and edited collection, proceedings, or theses, with academic publishing companies being the main venue for the publication of findings. In order for research organisations to make research findings available to their researchers and students, they have to subscribe to journals and monographs agreements. One of the issues with this process of publication and discoverability of academic content is that it has become increasingly costly to research organisations and has tied them to big deal agreements with a limited number of publishersundefined.

More recently, changes in the scholarly communications landscape have fomented the emergence of other forms of communication and dissemination of research findings. For example: preprint repositories, data journals, scholarly blogs and websites, innovations of the peer review process, and micropublicationsundefined. These are innovative forms of publication that seek to remove the barriers, constraints and costs imposed by legacy academic publishing companies.

 

News – Five things you need to know to support reproducible publication practices – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“The KE activity “Publishing Reproducible Research Output” has published its final report “The art of publishing reproducible research outputs – Supporting emerging practices through cultural and technological innovation.” The report represents the culmination of a 12-month project aiming to investigate current practices and barriers related to publishing reproducible research outputs and to determine how infrastructure (technical and social) can support progress in this area. 

The final report, delivered by Research Consulting in partnership with the Knowledge Exchange Task and Finish group, includes a literature review of over 130 sources and engagement with over 50 individuals from 12 different countries through focus groups and interviews. To practise what we preach, we have sought to work in a reproducible way ourselves: you can find all project outputs in our Zenodo Community! …”

News – Knowledge Exchange Newsletter July 2021 – News – Knowledge Exchange

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he July 2021 Knowledge Exchange newsletter is out now!

This newsletter summarises our latest work and updates on new activities since our previous newsletter in December 2020. It includes details on our ongoing work on the Openness Profile as well as early findings from our Publishing Reproducible Research Outputs work and details of scoping a new activity around PID Risks and Trust.

News – Call for proposals: Risks and Trust in pursuit of a well functioning Persistent Identifier infrastructure for research – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“As part of its work on Open Science, the Knowledge Exchange (KE) are currently exploring the role of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) within modern-day research. To better understand what is needed to build and exploit a well-functioning PID infrastructure for research, we wish to commission a consultant to undertake further investigation, analysis and recommendations, to identify best possible strategic and operational paths to achieve a well-functioning PID infrastructure for Knowledge Exchange (KE) member states and beyond.

We are inviting consultants to submit proposals to undertake work around ‘PIDs: Risk and Trust’. Detailed information around the background and scope of the PIDs: Risk and Trust work is provided below, along with suggested timelines for completion, selection criteria and contact details for key personal….”

Investing in the Open Access Book infrastructure – A call for action | Zenodo

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Abstract:  Books play an essential role in scholarly communication, notably but not only within the Social Sciences and Humanities. Open science benefits the quality and value of research and scholarship. If open access is to benefit society as widely as possible, it is logical to include academic books. In a 2019 briefing paper, Science Europe reported that: “Open access to academic books must be considered in the wider open access policies developed by research institutions, funders, and governments”.

In recent years, Knowledge Exchange, a joint network of six key national organisations in Europe, has been working on gaining a better understanding of the open access book landscape, identifying existing initiatives as well as gaps that need to be addressed in the countries concerned. In general, there is a clear will in the scholarly community to accelerate open access for academic books in order to better serve research and society’s needs.

However, to overcome the obstacles identified by research activities, reports and networks, and to roll out good practices and increase opportunities, additional coordinated support is needed, in particular from research and funding organisations. In February 2021, a one-day virtual workshop brought together stakeholders from a number of European countries, all with a common understanding that open access for academic books needs further attention and support. The prerequisites for the implementation of a well-functioning and sustainable open access book infrastructure are discussed below.

This position paper, undersigned by the workshop participants, identifies three legs of a policy stool that together will support the full transition to open access for academic books. It brings together people, technology and knowledge.

The signatures in the first version of this document include workshop delegates. The document will stay open (https://tinyurl.com/PPOpenBooks) for additional signatures. We will update this document (and version it) as appropriate.

News – Position Paper on OA Books: A call for action – News – Knowledge Exchange

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“Previous Knowledge Exchange work on OA Monographs inspired experts Pierre Mounier (EHESS, OpenEdition, OPERAS), Graham Stone (Jisc) and Jeroen Sondervan (Utrecht University Library) to organise a community supporting investment in the OA Book infrastructure. In early 2021 they organised an online event that was facilitated by Knowledge Exchange and attended by key stakeholders, including representatives of cOAlition-S, SPARC-Europe, OASPA, OAPEN, DARIAH-EU, OpenAIRE, national funders, KE partner organisations and many more. 

As a result, the position paper ‘Investing in the Open Access Book infrastructure – A call for action’ has been published and is available as a PDF to download via Zenodo. There is also a Google doc version where we invite you to add your name to the growing list of signatories. We will update the PDF at regular intervals to ensure we have an up-to-date version of record.

Full details of this work have also been published via a blog post on the Jisc website.”

Investing in the Open Access Book infrastructure: a call for action – Jisc Research

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Investing in the Open Access Book infrastructure: a call for action

 

This is a guest blog post by Pierre Mounier, Jeroen Sondervan, and Graham Stone.

Join Pierre Mounier (EHESS, OpenEdition, OPERAS), Jeroen Sondervan (Knowledge Exchange Open Access Working Group and Utrecht University Library), Graham Stone (Jisc), and key stakeholders in signing a position paper calling for investment in the open access book infrastructure (Zenodo version of record, Google doc version for signatories).

In June 2020, we published a blog Open Access to academic books: Working towards the “tipping point”, which reflected on the work of the Knowledge Exchange (KE) task and finish group’s work around open access books (see “Towards a Roadmap for Open Access Monographs: A Knowledge Exchange Report”. The blogpost led to a number of valuable discussions with stakeholders and key experts in the OA books community regarding the need to develop a joined up approach to the open infrastructure required for a successful transition to open access for books.

In light of forthcoming (and existing) policy on open access for books, the KE task and finish group agreed to extend their work on open access books by facilitating a partner exchange in February 2021. This one-day virtual workshop gathered key stakeholders, including representatives of cOAlition S, SPARC Europe, OASPA, OAPEN, DARIAH-EU, OpenAIRE, national funders, KE partner organizations and many more.

After a brief overview, the day used a workshop approach to develop a common understanding on the need for further attention and support for open access for academic books. Delegates explored the key issues in three parallel sessions (OA Book Watch, OA Book Network, OA Book infrastructure), before a Mentimeter poll was used to prioritise areas for further discussion. At the end of a long day of vibrant and fruitful discussion, we took stock of the contributions and discussed the idea of a position paper on open access books infrastructure. A writing group was formed and we started work on the position paper.