Researchers’ Behaviours, Needs and Expectations:Some Challenges

Michael JubbResearch Information Network

The Changing Face of Learned and Professional Society Libraries

5 August 2009

Some propositionsthe volume of research undertaken worldwide has increased, is increasing, and will continue to increase

and more of it will be done collaboratively

researchers are both producers and consumers of research outputs

but they don’t necessarily share the same interests

Governments invest in research because they believe it has a positive impact on society and the economy

and they want to maximise that impact

the costs of research, and of higher education, have increased, are increasing (and ought to be diminished?)

cost-effectiveness an increasingly-dominant theme in current economic climate

The Role of Information in Research: a crude model

defining a set of research questions, issues or problemsidentifying relevant existing knowledgeaccessing, analysing, and evaluating existing knowledge and datadesigning a methodology for generating new knowledgeapplying the methodology and discovering new knowledgecombining old and new knowledge to answer research questions and to enhance understandingdisseminating the outcomes of research in a form that is both sustainable and retrievable

Information in the Research Process

gatherevaluatecreateanalysemanagetransformpresent and communicate

The Research Process:Animal Genetics

The Research Process:Transgenesis and Embryology

The Research Process:Epidemiology

The Research Processdiffers even in apparently similar areas of work, and also between teams………

Composition of Research Groups

big science vs small sciencesmall teams typical in life sciencesamorphous and overlapping associations with other teams“primary research engagements tend to be local”

divisions of expertise, labour and knowledge exchange

PI/leader, senior researchers/lecturers, associates, computational specialists, postdocs, PhDs, technicians……… dangers of surveys that look at individual responses divorced from context

Key issuesWhat are researchers’ needs? How can they best be met?

Who provides what and how? Is that provision sustainable?

Content

Services

Skills

Content: what do researchers want to find and use?

Research Resources Yes No Journal articles 99.5% 0.5%

Chapters in multi-authored books 97.0% 3.0%

Organization’s web sites 90.8% 9.2%

Expertise of individuals 90.1% 9.9%

Conference proceedings 85.8% 14.2%

Monographs 83.3% 16.7%

Datasets – published or unpublished 62.0% 38.0%

Original text sources, e.g. newspapers, historical records 61.5% 38.5%

Preprints 54.7% 45.3%

Non-text sources, e.g. images, audio, artifacts 47.0% 53.0%

Other 18.0% 82.0%

Content: user expectations and needs

published and non-”published” grey literature, reports, working papersdata: raw or refined? mine or yours?websites, blogs, wikis, emails

quality-assured and non-”quality-assured”?

the good-enough source and/or version?pre or post-publication peer review?

digital and non-digitalperdurance of the book?role of digitisation

Data sharing: motivations and constraints

Evidence of benefitsCitation esteem and good evaluationExplicit rewards AltruismReciprocityEnhanced visibilityCultural/peer pressuresOpportunities for collaboration, co-authorshipEasy-to-do

No clear benefits/ incentivesCompetition; desire to extract maximum valueDesire for/ fear of commercial exploitation Access restrictions desired or imposed Legal, ethical problemsLack of time, funds, expertise Sheer size of datasetsNowhere to put it

Content: who provides?changing roles of

researchers and research institutionspersonal websites, repositories etc

publishers and aggregatorsdirect relationship with authors and readerswho aggregates?

librariesfrom ownership to licensingconsortia as aggregators?

Content: costs and sustainability

continued growth in the volumes of research constrained university budgetssustainability of the publishing business under challenges of

“green” OA“gold” OA

1.9

3.4

0.70.1 0.2 0.1

6.4

0.53

0.82

0.17

0.03 0.05 0.03

1.63

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

Researchfunders (peerreview noncash cost)

Academicsubscriptions

Othersubscriptions

Author-sidepayment

Advertising Membershipfees &

individualsubscriptions

Total cost

£ B

illions

Current Funding Difference between scenarios

Increases in research funding and article production over 10 years: funding

Sources of funding and other contributions

00

-318

-273-758

-288

935

00

-983

-556

-1,600

-1,400

-1,200

-1,000

-800

-600

-400

-200

0

200

£ million

Researchproduction*

Publishing&

Distribution

Accessprovision

User searchand print

cost

Reading Total

Impact of moves to e-only and gold OA publication

move to gold OApublicationmove to e-onlypublication

Increases in research funding and article production over 10 years: costs

Publishing and distribution costs

Real terms increase of £1.6bn (25%)

1.9 1.8

3.7

1.0 1.0 0.8

6.4

0.5 0.5

1.0

0.5 0.3 0.2

1.6

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Non-cashpeer review

Direct fixedcost

First copycost

Variable cost Indirect cost Surplus Total cost

£ B

illi

ons

Current funding Difference between scenarios

Services: user expectations and needs

researchers as creatorsquality assurance and enhancementdistribution and marketing

researchers and others as consumersquality assurancesearch and navigation servicesaccess, 24x7 and permanentlinks and interoperabilitytext mining (published text as data)

funders and research institutionsassessment and evaluation services

Services: who provides?publishing services

still needed?competition from other providers

search, navigation, access & preservation overlapping roles of

search engines individual libraries and consortiaindividual publishers, aggregators etc

Services: sustainabilitysearch, navigation and access

invigorating competition or wasteful duplication?levels of usage of services provided by publishers and libraries

sustainability/preservation of digital content

roles of publishers and librariesgrey literature, websites, blogs, wikis, emails…….

increasing interest in assessment and evaluation services

RAE/REF in the UK; ERA in Australia

Skills, expertise and competences: user expectations and needs

specialist research skills and specialist information skillswhat’s easy, and what’s not

and how that changes

‘information literacy’ approaches and their limitationsenhanced needs in some areas

eg business, management and communication skills; bibliometrics

Skills, expertise and competences:who provides?

differences of view as between researchers, librarians and publisherschanges in views over timede-skilling, up-skilling and complementarity

Skills, expertise and competences:sustainability

continuing need for professional/skills development for both researchers and information providers and specialists

generic and specialist skillscomplementarity engagement and communication

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

1. Users (creators and consumers) they are (or should be) the drivers

but we are only beginning to understand how they use information resources and services

imperfect understanding of the digital information environment; but they want content and services that

are quick and simple to use are as comprehensive and interoperable as possible

provide for both quality-assured and non-quality-assured content

there’s an increasing demand for assessment and evaluation services

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

2. Providersgrowth in concentration of resources and servicesgrowth in overlaps (and competition?) between different types of provider

researchers and research institutionslibraries and library consortiapublishers and aggregatorssearch and navigation services

complementarity and skill sets

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

3. Sustainabilityconstraints on university funding, and need for a value propositionwhile research volumes continue to increasegrowing interest in the overall costs of the scholarly communications process, and in the (cost-) efficiency of the research process as a wholegrowth in support from Governments and funding agencies for “gold” OA policies; and from universities and research institutions for “green” OAgrowing concerns about the pace and the costs of transition

A particular view………..from Microsoft

Questions?

Thanks

Michael Jubbwww.rin.ac.uk