The combination of open access and our digital networked environment offers huge potential tomake the research outputs of humanities and social sciences more Findable, Accessible,Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) and more easily available to the broader community for publicbenefit. Yet despite growing international policy derivatives, open digital scholarship hasencountered significant challenges. This study:• Reviewed key barriers currently hampering the uptake of these policies by diverse universityparticipants (senior university administrators, researchers, librarians, platform providers anddevelopers), policymakers and community users; and• Examined how these have influenced the fields of humanities and social sciences (HASS).This paper discusses research undertaken by the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative (COKI) andparticipants during and following an Open Knowledge international workshop held in Mauritiusin September 2019. The workshop brought together key experts to explore the role of openknowledge in the creation of equitable and inclusive global knowledge landscapes. This paperexplores the role of open access and institutional repositories in knowledge sharing and thedissemination of research output from higher education and research institutions within theAfrican continent. The paper reviews the landscape of research output from the Africancontinent; analyses open access research output, overviews of institutional knowledge sharingpositions and the dissemination […]
Since 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), European Union regulation, demandstransparency from companies and imposes new restrictions on data transfers (Botchorishvili,2017).The purpose of this article is to analyze the uses and representations of information andcommunication science students regarding the RGPD and to compare it with that of students inthe education sciences. This article is in line with the research on the Privacy Paradox and bringsnew elements of explanation thanks to the confrontation between two populations of students.In this perspective, a questionnaire was sent out to information and communication students andeducation sciences students. 70 students provided answers to 32 questions.More than two-thirds of the respondents gave a correct definition of the GDPR. They alsobelieved that personal data protection was a key matter. So much considered that individualsshould know the reason behind data collection as well as its use. Information andCommunication students are more numerous to be convinced than Education Sciences studentsthat training individuals is necessary. Indeed, those studying information and communicationare more prone, thanks to their curriculum, to understand the issues of personal data protection.Therefore, the students who a priori know the most are more aware of the need to improve theirknowledge through training. In general students had a fairly comprehensive view of the riskswhen lacking data protection. However, […]
From among the varied non-technical issues, related to self- publishing, the history ofsubscription-based book publishing is addressed first, followed by a discussion of selfpublishing’slegitimacy, then by an examination of self-publishing authors’ roles andresponsibilities. Subsequently, some processes of self- publishing are described, its relationshipto independent editors discussed. Self-publishing is also explored through the eyes of thelibraries and librarians. Some of the related issues, including motives for publishing selfpublishedtextbooks are dealt with. A short discussion directs attention to the possibility of selfpublishingresearch data. Last, self-publishing activities in Hungary are shortly presented.
In the last years here is an increasing need to ensure a more objective and transparent evaluationof scientific research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This short paper explores some ofthe underlying issues and suggests a study using the suvey method based on a sample of 146publications. The results of this study could contribute to the identification and describingdistinctive types of edited books and conference proceedings according to their peer-reviewprocedures, and thus to facilitate the recognition of their scholarly value and reliability.
This paper focuses on the issue of academic social networks as means of changing the openaccess reality. Nowadays a free, direct and permanent access to digital scientific content isnecessary for every student and researcher. The need for human communication has made socialnetworks popular to the public, resulting in their rapid development, for example, ResearchGateand Academia.edu. The study is motivated by one main research question: What is their role andutilization in digital publishing? Through observational research and secondary quantitative andqualitative data analysis, the key objectives of the study are to highlight the role of internationalacademic social networks in digital publishing and present the benefits and limitations ofexisting networks. In conclusion, the active use of academic social networks enables researchersto expand their knowledge but on the other hand limitations on digital publishing ariseregarding to copyrights and licensing barriers.
Digital libraries often need to make tweets that will attract high engagement rate. To understandthis factor in relation to Qatar Digital Library (QDL), this paper will draw a comparison of tweeterfeeds of QDL, British Library Labs (BL Labs) as well as Europeana Digital Library. In doing so, thepaper will try to establish the reasons behind low engagement rate in the QDL tweets. So, thispaper will develop steps that QDL can take so that it can increase its current number of Twitterfollowers and increase the engagement rate of its users. The things that QDL is failing to addresswill be identified by comparing the best Twitter practices from BL Labs, and Europeana digitallibrary to that of QDL. After identifying, a recommended practices for the QDL will be provided.The practices will mainly be meant to help QDL have better Twitter engagement rate.
Professionally edited open access online encyclopaedias enable a systemic and reliableorientation within the ever-increasing amount of data and information on the Internet.Providing access to scientifically verified information, they represent an important part of theresearch and didactic infrastructure.This paper demonstrates the activities of Croatia’s Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicographyaimed at exploring the new encyclopaedic concept in the digital age. The Institute’s digitaltransformation is shown, which involves the digitisation and online publishing of archivaleditions, publishing of the permanently updated online general encyclopaedia, and thetransformation of specialised encyclopedias to the encyclopaedic portals. Encyclopaedic portalscould represent a new concept of encyclopaedias in the digital realm by serving as platforms fordata networking and sharing, a sort of ‘junction points’ that connect diverse digital content on aspecific topic.Institute’s publicly available repository of encyclopaedic knowledge enables the linking to thedigital data and collections of other research and cultural institutions; therefore thecollaborative projects aimed at reinforcing digital research and cultural infrastructure will bedescribed.Thanks to the properties of the digital media and increasing connectivity, a closer collaborationTowards a New Concept of Open Access Online Encyclopaedia : A Case Study from...between professionally edited online encyclopaedias […]
The non-governmental non-for profit organisations have a long tradition of a voluntaryassociation to promote a certain idea or goal. In this light, a professional association publishermay boost the visibility of its scholarly publication after identifying its audience. Art history as adiscipline in the humanities should use the potentials of open access and open science to developa new model of synthesising researches on the global level.
The publishing of open data is considered a key element for civic participation paving the way tothe ‘public value’, a term which underpins the social contribution. A result of that can be seenthrough the popularity of data portals published all around the world by governments, publicand private organizations. However, the diffusion of data portals raises concerns aboutdiscoverability and validity of these data sources, especially to what extent they contribute toopen data and open science. The purpose of this work is to develop a framework to reveal opendata publishing with the use of a freely available open science project called Common Crawl. Theidea is to identify open data-related initiatives and to gather information about their availability,having in the framework’s essence an iterative and differential process. The main outcome isshown through a proposed model for the historical data repository which involves both use andcreation of open science to branch new sort of research possibilities based on publishing ofderived data.
Knowledge creating and dissemination is synonymous with institutions of higher learning. However, many institutions, especially in Africa spurn electronic publishing (e-publishing), failing to join most parts of the world that have embraced it with very positive results. Though connected to internet and the World Wide Web, only a number of universities practice electronic publishing. This paper aims to study the electronic publishing trends in institutions of higher learning and identify the opportunities and challenges faced by academic publishers in Kenya. The objectives of the study are to: identify institutions that practice academic publishing in Kenya; examine the relationship between authors’ knowledge on e-publishing platforms and publishers’ choice of e-platforms; analyze whether an existing work relationship between the publisher and an author influences the format of a publication; examine whether or not there is an association between levels of staff experiences within publishing and e-publishing. This is a research survey that employed a mixed method approach. The sample frame of 49 universities was used. Judgmental sampling was used in selecting key participants under the study. Data were collected by questionnaires and document analysis where simple descriptive statistical analysis was done based on objectives of the study to gauge the relationships between variables. Findings of the survey show that 12.2% of the Kenyan academic publishers are engaged in […]
What does “open science” mean to researchers? A survey of researchers at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) suggests some interesting conclusions, particularly as far as the humanities are concerned. According to the responses, most of these researchers are in favour of open science as a matter of personal conviction. However, when it comes to publishing their own work, hardly any would consent to being published under some basic conditions of open science (adaptation, commercial use). Furthermore, they do appreciate subscription-based e-libraries, although they admit to using other methods, e.g. “resourcefulness”, to gain access to research papers. They would rather not pay to be published or to acquire an e-article of a fellow researcher. They read predominantly in English, with the second language of their research literature being Slovenian (before any other language). Even the most productive age group (40–50 years of age) write more articles than they perform peer-reviewing. They do not support open reviews, yet they consider peer-reviews to be very important; in their opinion peer-reviewing should be included in their evaluation. The survey and its results are just a minor example from a European country, but they have a very clear and universal message: open science is something yet to be defined.
The service portfolio of the institutional publishing platform perspectivia.net is built on partnerships, cooperations, and community networks. The paper discusses context, preconditions, best practices and challenges of an institutional service concept relying on services outside the institution.
This paper analyses usage statistics, citation data and altmetrics from a university press publishing open access monographs. The bibliometric data is then contrasted to the outcome of a survey of attitudes and behaviour among authors and editors who have published open access books. The metrics indicate that downloads and citations depend on the community of practice of the intended audience within each specific academic discipline, as well as the content itself. There is, for example, a clear difference in usage patterns between monographs and anthologies. The altmetric data used in the study indicate how users interact with the published books online. The data suggests, despite the small sample, that authors can to a greater extent influence how their book is discovered by the readership. It would, therefore, be relevant for authors to become more aware of the type of metrics available and how they can be interpreted and used for better understanding of how the book can reach its intended audience. Further studies are needed, and publishers of open access books are encouraged to share data for benchmarking and development of best practices.
This study deals with the strategy of converting the workflow and document basis from a proprietary format to a fully standards-compliant system in the context of a publishing platform, that offers multiple output formats of monographs in the arts and humanities. It stresses the importance of creating an abstract document model as the basis for this single-source publishing approach and how a model offers guidance on each step of the way in book production.
This demonstration study sets out the way in which a model for open access can work in which funders pay the portion of publishing costs associated with the articles that acknowledge research funder. Using the field of anthropology, this analysis presents the participation incentives and advantages behind of an open access model in which a journal article’s publication costs are paid by either (a) the research funder(s) acknowledged by the article or, if without a funder, (b) the libraries whose patrons read and utilize the research. Using both hypothetical and actual examples, the paper describes how the existing metadata systems such as Crossref’s Open Funder Registry can be utilized to automate the implementation of the model. It also addresses the model’s economic impact, from an initial pilot study to large-scale implementation, for the principal stakeholders in scholarly communication.
This paper presents an introduction and status report on work being done to provide shared infrastructure for open access book publishers under the HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science infrastructure) project. It focuses specifically on the work being done to provide shared altmetrics services, including reporting on annotation activity.
An inclusive systemic design is specified for publishing data derived from personal private health records, owned and curated by patients. The design is specified with an example of a digital scrapbook of private personal records of care for medically significant pain. This scrapbook is designed to aggregate private records of patient pain experiences and of the care and accommodations they access. The design also specifies how to store, access and analyze those private records through distributed ledgers and how qualitative and quantitative data derived from that private data can be published as a common pool resource with polycentric governance.
Global scientific publishing, including open access publishing, is heavily biased towards journals and authors from the Global North. This has resulted in a knowledge gap between the South and the North. It has led to a situation where scientific knowledge from the Global South is very much underrepresented in the collective scientific output worldwide: a problem which has been described as cognitive injustice. Unfortunately this situation is not helped by the fact that many questionable publishers are based in countries in the Global South. To address these issues the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) started an Ambassador programme in 2016 with the help of funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC Canada). The main objective of the programme was to increase the number of quality open access journals published, and the quality of open access publishing, in the Global South.
