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Charting The Futures(s) of Digital Publishing
The 24th edition of the International Conference on Electronic Publishing is hosted by UCL Qatar in Doha, Qatar from 18-21 April 2020.
1. Open access and research dissemination in Africa
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 of research output from Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa andUganda.
Section:
Long Papers
2. Open Digital Scholarship in the Humanities: A Review of Needs, Barriers and Opportunities
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 […]
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Short Papers
3. How Can We Use Social Media Data Related to OA Monographs
This paper reports on a study of social media events relating to 28 Open Access (OA) monographs,published between 2014 and 2015. As with citations (Cronin 1981) social media events representthe frozen footprints of the journey that monographs take as they move through digitallandscapes. The study captured mentions of the study-set of monographs via Twitter, Facebook,Wikipedia and online blogs; as well as user ratings on Google Books, Amazon and Goodreads.Information relating to the ways in which the books were bookmarked and cited was capturedvia the online reference managing platform Mendeley. The benefits and limitations of differentaltmetrics approaches to capturing and analyzing this data are discussed. Practical suggestionsfor researchers interested in the application of Altmetrics approaches to studies of monographsare also provided.
Section:
Long Papers
4. How to achieve short-term green open access and long-term radical reform of scholarly communication. The BitViews Project as a test case
The Open Access movement has reached adulthood, but not maturity: fewer than one-third ofnewly-published peer-reviewed articles are available open access (OA) and progress widening OAhas stalled. Scores of uncoordinated initiatives try to achieve universal OA, but academic journalpublishing is still dominated by a handful of powerful commercial publishers. Individual authorsshow little interest in OA and indeed have to be mandated (see the UK REF or Plan S) to releasetheir research on OA. The BitViews Project is a low-cost, no-risk, high-return initiative to turn allacademic journals «green» through a combination of blockchain technology, provision ofappropriate incentives to authors, and a new crowdfunding mechanism. The project is predicatedon the active participation of individual libraries taking direct action. The paper will provide aninterim report on the progress of the project and an account of how libraries and their variousassociations (both in the global South and in the global North) have reacted to the project. Theconcluding section of the paper sketches a possible direction for academic journal publishing inthe near future. Huge savings and increased efficiency can flow to the academy from finallydissolving its current one-sided contract with publishers and from reclaiming control of thepeer-review process. Practical and incentive-based suggestions are proposed for the transitionfrom publisher-owned to academy-owned peer review.
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Long Papers
5. Serbian Citation Index: The sustainability of a business model based on partnership between a non-profit web publisher and journal owners
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Long Papers
6. Personal data protection: are the GDPR objectives achieved amongst information and communication students?
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, […]
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Short Papers
7. Rethinking the Digital Divide: New Developments in East-Central Europe
My proposal offers to take account of developments in the digitisation of out-of-copyrighttextual material in East-Central Europe. Taking Western European digitisation as the norm andindicator of directions, my paper will argue that digitisation in East-Central Europe is behind, butthere is an increasing awareness of the need to make large-scale investments. The Hungariancase argues that it the National Széchényi Library is expected to lead the progress, and furtherresearch will provide comparative data about the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Based on projectdescription information retrieved from the site of knowledge institutions, as well as policydocuments communicated and held by professional bodies, I will attempt to assess the shorttermdevelopments and point at the pitfalls of these projected developments.
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Long Papers
8. Sustainable development of the practices of digitization in National Library "Ivan Vazov" - Plovdiv
The National Library Ivan Vazov in Plovdiv is the second largest library in Bulgaria. It serves asthe second national legal depository of Bulgarian printed works. In addition, it has contributedsignificantly to the preservation and the digital accessibility of the national cultural andhistorical heritage. This article offers an overview of the library’s history and currentdevelopments in the field of automation and digitization.
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Practitioner Papers
9. Publishing digital resources
The National Library of Romania shares digital resources, providing access to knowledge andcultural heritage, on three online platforms. These are:a) The Traditional Virtual Catalogue for the books published before 1993. It is the virtual image ofthe traditional catalogue which is organized alphabetically by author name in the appropriatefolders physical drawers. The platform and database was designed by the students from theTechnical University Bucuresti. Accessible at http://bookathon.bibnat.ro; b) The OnlineCatalogue on Aleph system, which offers bibliographic information about documents in thelibrary collections since 1993. There are two logical databases, The Doctoral Theses Referential,Publishing digital resources which provides access to online content thereof (by digitizing paper or archiving electroniccontent of CD attached by author) and digital library for the blind (project Sound of pages) thatdisabled users have access to requested digitized works. Accessible http://alephnew.bibnat.ro:8991/F; c) The Digital platform on Digitool system. It started in 2009. It is comprised of digitalcollections created by digitizing special collections of documents in the National Library ofRomania, organized by themes or after events. Accessible at http://digitool.bibnat.ro/R. Thedatabases have grown steadily and have become researching and learning tools for somecategories of users. The systems provide open resources, learning and navigating tutorials andcontribute to a creative […]
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Practitioner Papers
10. "Manuscripta Islamica Rossica" - a new electronic resource of Arabic, Persian and Turkic manuscripts from the collections of Russian repositories and libraries
The paper discusses the current state of digitizing Islamic manuscript in Russia and the gradualbuilding of the digital collection “Manuscripta Islamica Rossica”. It outlines some of thechallenges and the benefits from providing digital access to these resources.
Section:
Practitioner Papers
11. Whom we should blame for bad e-book? (sociological perspective of evaluation, selection and reception of e-book)
From the perspective of Sociology of literature, this paper sets the question of what happens withcommunication and reception issues in the context of e-publishing, considering the culturalsituation of lacking critic methods and established values? Related to e-publishing, the precisequestion is: how to set the reliable system of filtering e-books on the net? The paper discusses themain obstacles in that process and analyzes a few individual attempts to set that kind ofmechanism. Besides technical improvements which will be mainly discussed on the EIPub Forum,this paper aims to motivate us to point some theoretical issues considering the problem ofevaluation and reception as part of literary communication.
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Long Papers
12. Some non-Technical Issues of self- Publishing
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.
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Short Papers
13. Towards a typology of edited books and conference proceedings according to the applied peer-review procedures
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.
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Short Papers
14. The Role and Utilization of International Academic Social Networks in Digital Publishing
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.
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Short Papers
15. The use of Twitter in promoting digital libraries: a case study of QDL
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.
Section:
Short Papers
16. Towards a New Concept of Open Access Online Encyclopaedia : A Case Study from Croatia The Role of Encyclopaedias Today 1
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 […]
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Short Papers
17. Scholar reaching the audience - a perspective of a civil society sector publisher in the humanities
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.
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Short Papers
18. Towards Semantic Digital Games for Semantic Digital Libraries
The purpose of this paper is to set the scene for further twofold exploratory studies: first, inexamining what type of game designs are suitable for digital libraries to motivate both producingand consuming library content in order to offer a personalised experience to using digitallibraries, and second, in exploring how to leverage Semantic Web technologies to createpersonalised digital games (including VR and AR applications) for using digital librariesgenerated from various open and linked datasets. We are providing an overview of theTowards Semantic Digital Games for Semantic Digital Libraries development of games and semantic technologies as a basis for a better understanding of the roleof games in current digital resources provision
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Long Papers
19. Analysis of typography in papers from open access Brazilian scientific journals
Scientific journals are the main form of recording and disseminating results of scientificresearch. After the advancement of digital media, their search, access, and navigation becameeasier and faster. This changes the way readers interact with the content. In this sense, theconfiguration of typography, an essential component of text-based publications, should facilitatethe reading and understanding of the information presented. Thus, this research aimed toformalize an analysis process for the application of typography in papers on electronic scientificjournals. Based on the literature review, an analysis structure was formulated. The analysisidentified the fundamental principles of application of typography as: legibility, readability,spacing and font size and information hierarchy. Subsequently, four electronic papers fromBrazilian scientific journals with different areas of knowledge were selected as objects of study.As a result, a potential application of typography for digital media was identified, but thispotential is not fully explored by the editors of scientific journals nor by the literature dealingwith the topic.
Section:
Long Papers
20. Open science-based framework to reveal open data publishing: an experience from using Common Crawl
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.
Section:
Short Papers