- 1. Ways Ahead in Scholarly Publishing Michael Jubb Research
Information Network Wiley-Blackwell Seminar 19 June 2009
2. or, Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows 3. The
Political Context 4. Political Context
- developing the UKs knowledge base and translating this
knowledge into business and public service innovation
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- Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014
- policies for research and innovation are evolving, in response
to broader reforms to boost productivity and economic growth as
well as to address national concerns ( e.g.jobs, education, health)
and, increasingly, global challenges such as energy security and
climate change.
- Governments would boost innovation and get a better return on
their investment in publicly-funded research by making research
findings more widely available .And by doing so they would maximise
social returns on public investments
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- OECD Report on Scientific Publishing, 2005
5. Whose perspective? some key stakeholders
- researchers as creators, disseminators and users
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- public, charitable and commercial sectors
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- national policy-making bodies
- publishers (and secondary publishers)
- libraries and publicly-funded service providers
- commercial information service providers
6. A particular view.. from Microsoft 7. Some propositions
- the volume of research undertaken worldwide has increased, is
increasing, and will continue to increase
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- and more of it will be done collaboratively
- researchers are both producers and consumers of research
outputs
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- but they dont necessarily share the same interests
- Governments invest in research because they believe it has a
positive impact on society and the economy
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- and they want to maximise that impact
- the costs of research, and of higher education, have increased,
are increasing (and ought to be diminished?)
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- cost-effectiveness an increasingly-dominant theme in current
economic climate
8. The big picture: overall costs of the current system 9. Key
issues Skills Services Content Who provides what and how?Is that
provision sustainable?What are researchers needs?How can they best
be met? 10. Content: user expectations and needs
- published and non-published
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- grey literature, reports, working papers
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- data: raw or refined? mine or yours?
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- websites, blogs, wikis, emails
- quality-assured and non-quality-assured?
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- the good-enough source and/or version?
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- pre or post-publication peer review?
11. Content: who provides?
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- researchers and research institutions
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- personal websites, repositories etc
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- publishers and aggregators
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- direct relationship with authors and readers
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- from ownership to licensing
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- consortia as aggregators?
12. Content: costs and sustainability
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- continued growth in the volumes of research
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- constrained university budgets
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- sustainability of the publishing business under challenges
of
13. Services: user expectations and needs
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- quality assurance and enhancement
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- distribution and marketing
- researchers and others as consumers
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- search and navigation services
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- access, 24x7 and permanent
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- links and interoperability
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- text mining (published text as data)
- funders and research institutions
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- assessment and evaluation services
14. Services: who provides?
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- competition from other providers
- search, navigation, access & preservation
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- individual libraries and consortia
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- individual publishers, aggregators etc
15. Services: sustainability
- search, navigation and access
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- invigorating competition or wasteful duplication?
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- levels of usage of services provided by publishers and
libraries
- sustainability/preservation of digital content
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- roles of publishers and libraries
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- grey literature, websites, blogs, wikis, emails.
- increasing interest in assessment and evaluation services
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- RAE/REF in the UK; ERA in Australia
16. Skills, expertise and competences:user expectations and
needs
- specialist research skills and specialist information
skills
- whats easy, and whats not
- information literacy approaches and their limitations
- enhanced needs in some areas
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- eg business, management and communication skills;
bibliometrics
17. Skills, expertise and competences: who provides?
- differences of view as between researchers, librarians and
publishers
- changes in views over time
- de-skilling, up-skilling and complementarity
18. Skills, expertise and competences: sustainability
- continuing need for skills development for both researchers and
information providers and specialists
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- generic and specialist skills
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- engagement and communication
19. Some conclusions:seeing through a glass darkly
- 1. Users(creators and consumers)
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- they are (or should be) the drivers
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- but we are only beginning to understand how they use
information resources and services
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- imperfect understanding of the digital information environment;
but they want content and services that
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- are quick and simple to use
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- are as comprehensive and interoperable as possible
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- provide for both quality-assured and non-quality-assured
content
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- theres an increasing demand for assessment and evaluation
services
20. Some conclusions:seeing through a glass darkly
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- growth in concentration of resources and services
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- growth in overlaps (and competition?) between differenttypesof
provider
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- researchers and research institutions
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- libraries and library consortia
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- publishers and aggregators
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- search and navigation services
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- complementarity and skill sets
21. Some conclusions:seeing through a glass darkly
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- constraints on university funding, and need for a value
proposition
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- while research volumes continue to increase
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- growing interest in theoverallcosts of the scholarly
communications process, and in the (cost-) efficiency of the
research process as a whole
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- growth in support from Governments and funding agencies for
gold OA policies;and from universities and research institutions
for green OA
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- growing concerns about the pace and the costs of
transition
22.