Reconceptualizing Open Access to Theses and Dissertations

Theses and dissertations (TD) are academic research projects that are conducted by graduate students to acquire a high academic degree, such as a PhD. The perception of the written TD has evolved over the years, following changes concerning the purpose of advanced academic studies. Today, these academic fruits should meet a high standard of academic innovation, which is understood broadly as encompassing not only knowledge concerning basic science but also the knowledge that generates social and economic value for society. The modern perception of TD has generated a call for their greater accessibility, as part of the Open Science movement. Nevertheless, in many countries around the world TD are not published in an open access format. While the normative basis for open access approach to publicly funded academic research is extensively discussed in the literature, there is a lack of legal and normative discussion concerning the special case of TD. The present study aims at filling this gap. We argue that the essence of TD as unique outputs of academic research merits a special stance compelling the publication of these studies in open access format, subject to certain exceptions. This stance is underpinned by several arguments, which we develop in our study, based on historic and normative analysis. Moreover, we propose to establish a mandatory global policy and standardization regarding the publication of TD in designated repositories, open to the public, that would generate together an open world wide web of TD. Such a global framework will facilitate the progress of science and promote the public good worldwide

Institutionelle Repositorien – Traum und Wirklichkeit

Institutional Repositories (IRs) have been developed primarily to present the visibility of the research output of an institution. However, results of empirical work on the acceptance and use of institutional repositories in recent years show a rather critical picture of this apparent model of success. Even though university libraries and research institutes invested considerable resources in their construction and operation, institutional repositories were not always able to meet their expectations. Did the proponents make use of unsuitable strategies, have there been technological changes, and have IR been silently replaced by other forms and techniques of science communication? In an attempt to answer some of these and similar questions in a critical way, factors that have influenced the current status quo of IR are examined

Institutional Repositories - Dream and Reality

Institutionelle Repositorien (IR) wurden vornehmlich entwickelt, um die Sichtbarkeit des Forschungsoutputs einer Institution darzustellen. Resultate empirischer Arbeiten über die Akzeptanz und Nutzung institutioneller Repositorien in den vergangenen Jahren zeichnen jedoch ein eher kritisches Bild dieses scheinbaren Erfolgsmodells. Denn obwohl von Universitätsbibliotheken und Forschungseinrichtungen Geld und Personal in ihren Aufbau und Betrieb investiert wurde, konnten institutionellen Repositorien die Erwartungshaltungen nicht immer erfüllen. Haben sich die Proponenten bei der Umsetzung der Ziele ungeeigneter Strategien bedient, gab es technologische Veränderungen und wurden IR durch andere Formen und Techniken der Wissenschaftskommunikation bereits still und leise abgelöst? Im Versuch diese und ähnliche Fragestellungen in einer essayistisch kritischen Form zu beantworten, sollen Faktoren, die den heutigen Status quo von IR mitbestimmt haben, beleuchtet werden. An Beispielen aus dem Markt für Wissenschaftskommunikation einerseits und verschiedenen Charakteristika des Forschungsprozesses andererseits, wird versucht, Entwicklungen zu skizzieren und Wirkungszusammenhänge abzuleiten, die das Modell der institutionellen Repositorien beeinflusst haben.Institutional Repositories (IRs) have been developed primarily to present the visibility of the research output of an institution. However, results of empirical work on the acceptance and use of institutional repositories in recent years paint a rather critical picture of this apparent model of success. Even though university libraries and research institutes invested money and personnel in their construction and operation, institutional repositories were not always able to meet their expectations. Did the proponents make use of the objectives of unsuitable strategies, have there been technological changes, and have IR been silently replaced by other forms and techniques of science communication? In an attempt to answer these and similar questions in a critical way, factors that have influenced the current status quo of IR should be examined. Using examples from the market for science communication on the one hand and various characteristics of the research process on the other hand, an attempt is made to outline developments and to deduce interdependencies that have influenced the model of IR

Digital preservation in institutional repositories: a systematic literature review

Purpose This paper aims to carry out a literature review on the implementation of digital preservation policies, strategies and actions by institutional repositories. The objective is to identify, out of the published experiences, at which level they are fulfilling the function of ensuring the long-term availability of the deposited materials. Design/methodology/approach Using a systematic literature review methodology, a total of 21 articles from international refereed journals published between 2009 and 2020 are reviewed. Findings The research production on this subject is very limited. The scarce number of published articles proves that the interest of repository managers has been focused on issues other than to assure the long-term availability of the assets they store. The literature review has not found clear evidence about how institutional repositories are implementing digital preservation. It is particularly striking the lack of works focused on the situation in European countries. More field studies are needed. They would allow to extract conclusions and produce best practices to help managers to improve preservation strategies. Originality/value This study has shown that one of the main functions of repositories is not being dealt with as promised by repository managers. More work in this area is needed. In particular, it is necessary for a study at the European level to gather detailed data that will allow to draw a portrait of the current situation, extract conclusions and produce best practices to help managers to improve or develop preservation strategies

Institutionelle Repositorien – Traum und Wirklichkeit

Institutional Repositories (IRs) have been developed primarily to present the visibility of the research output of an institution. However, results of empirical work on the acceptance and use of institutional repositories in recent years show a rather critical picture of this apparent model of success. Even though university libraries and research institutes invested considerable resources in their construction and operation, institutional repositories were not always able to meet their expectations. Did the proponents make use of unsuitable strategies, have there been technological changes, and have IR been silently replaced by other forms and techniques of science communication? In an attempt to answer some of these and similar questions in a critical way, factors that have influenced the current status quo of IR are examined

Reconceptualizing Open Access to Theses and Dissertations

The global COVID-19 crisis has turned public attention to the special need for accessing those cutting-edge studies that are needed for further scientific innovation. Theses and dissertations (TDs) are prominent examples of such studies. TDs are academic research projects conducted by graduate students to acquire a high academic degree, such as a PhD. They encompass not only knowledge about basic science but also knowledge that generates social and economic value for society. Therefore, access to TDs is imperative for promoting science and innovation. Open access to scientific publications has been in the focus of public policy discourse for two decades, but progress toward this end has been limited. As part of this discourse, there has been no systematic discussion of the special case of TDs and of the justification for adopting an open access publication policy toward them. The present study aims to fill this gap. We argue that the essence of TDs as unique outputs of academic research merits a special policy mandating the publication of these studies in open access format, subject to certain exceptions. This policy is underpinned by several arguments, which we develop in our study, based on historic and normative analysis. These considerations support reconceiving access to TDs using an open access approach designated particularly for them. To better understand current open access policies toward TDs, we conducted a limited semi-empirical investigation to collect information. Our findings confirm that–despite the growing awareness of the importance of an open access TDs policy–no standard policy exists. Therefore, we propose to establish a mandatory global policy and standardization regarding the publication of TDs in designated repositories, open to the public, that would generate together an “open world wide web of TDs.” Such a global framework would facilitate the progress of science and promote the public good worldwide. In the aftermath of the global COVID-19 crisis, it seems that the time is ripe for such a move at both international and national levels

Sistemų sąveikumas kaip mokslo publikacijų talpyklų tobulinimo sąlyga mokslinėje komunikacijoje

It is evident that the speed of scholarly communication goes up tendentious if research products are commu­nicated via social networking platforms. Research­ers use the functionality of these platforms without any difficulties and get means for the fast spread of their achievements and for finding research partners. Speed, flexibility and simplicity become the essential conditions for information infrastructure products if there is an intention to reach the leading position in the market. The unquestionable priority of scholarly communication platforms in Lithuania is given to Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect. Nevertheless, a breakthrough is seen in the global permanent identi­fiers for researchers in ResearcherID and ORCID, the global social networking platforms for researchers ResearchGate and Academia.edu or other. The prog­ress of these products is ensured through the flexible functionality provided with precise insights into the needs of researchers, and it is realized through the interoperability of various information systems. This phenomenon is relevant to the develop­ment of the Lithuanian national information system eLABa. This paper presents the research made to examine the factors of scientific communication that recently leads to the future developments of eLABa repository. Results of this research indi­cate the duplication of data preparation, supply and preservation processes, too, and suggest the interoperability between the systems and processes of the Research Council of Lithuanian, the Research and Higher Education Monitoring and Analysis Center, the national data archive MIDAS, systems of research institutions, the Center of Information Technologies in Education, Claritative Analytics Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, SherpaRomeo, Creative Commons, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, ORCID and Google Scholar and The Data Bank of National Bibliography.Straipsnyje pristatomas tyrimas, kuriuo siekiama išnagrinėti ir nustatyti veiksnius, darančius įtaką mokslo publikacijų talpyklų informacinių sistemų funkcionalumo kaitai. Tyrimo metu atlikta literatūros apžvalga, vykdyti interviu su Vilniaus universiteto mokslininkais, taip pat pokalbiai su Lietuvos mokslo vertinimą atliekančių institucijų atstovais. Atliekant literatūros analizę buvo siekiama nustatyti mokslo publikacijų talpyklų plėtojimo problemines sritis ir suformuluoti hipotetines talpyklų tobulinimo kryptis. Šios hipotetinės kryptys buvo patikrintos interviu ir pokalbių metu. Gautų duomenų pagrindu parengti galimi sistemų sąveikos modeliai. Tyrimo rezultatai gali būti naudojami plėtojant institucines talpyklas, nacionalinę talpyklą eLABa

Social Network Analysis on Wisconsin Archival Facebook Community

The purpose of this study was to understand how Wisconsin archives are using Facebook (Wisconson archives Facebook community, WAFC). Few archive studies use quantitative measurements to draw conclusions from social media application use. Quantitative data is needed in order to identify the various ways that social media is being used in an archive. Without the data behind the assumptions, it is impossible to improve service and outreach to the archive users. This study proposed a mixed methods approach to aid in the process, using social network analysis, inferential statistics and thematic analysis. This study measured the effects of implementation of social media in areas of archives in order to begin to identify and evaluate social media for future use by the archive community. These methods provide a better understanding of archives’ use of social media, thus enabling researchers and practitioners with a foundational point to continue research. Social networks allow individuals to connect with individuals and groups with whom they share common interests either personally or professionally. Four research questions and six hypotheses were developed to determine the main actors, the role of the actors, content of each online activity (‘tagging’, ‘sharing’, ‘commenting’, and ‘liking’), and post characteristics. Unique findings of this study were found regarding the information flow of the WAFC and the content. For instance, the research questions determined that archives are a central hub within the WAFC; however, other affiliations like cultural institutions and universities are other contributors to the information flow. Four different themes were discovered by the thematic analysis: archive story, communication, information, and outreach. These findings have theoretical, methodological, and practical implications

Analysis of Family-Health-Related Topics on Wikipedia

New concepts, terms, and topics always emerge; and meanings of existing terms and topics keep changing all the time. These phenomena occur more frequently on social media than on conventional media because social media allows a huge number of users to generate information online. Retrieving relevant results in different time periods of a fast-changing topic becomes one of the most difficult challenges in the information retrieval field. Among numerous topics discussed on social media, health-related topics are a major category which attracts increasing attention from the general public. This study investigated and explored the evolution patterns of family-health-related topics on Wikipedia. Three family-health-related topics (Child Maltreatment, Family Planning, and Women’s Health) were selected from the World Health Organization Website and their associated entries were retrieved on Wikipedia. Historical numeric and text data of the entries from 2010 to 2017 were collected from a Wikipedia data dump and the Wikipedia Web pages. Four periods were defined: 2010 to 2011, 2012 to 2013, 2014 to 2015, and 2016 to 2017. Coding, subject analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, inferential statistical analysis, SOM approach, and n-gram approach were employed to explore the internal characteristics and external popularity evolutions of the topics. The findings illustrate that the external popularities of the family-health-related topics declined from 2010 to 2017, although their content on Wikipedia kept increasing. The emerged entries had three features: specialization, summarization, and internationalization. The subjects derived from the entries became increasingly diverse during the investigated periods. Meanwhile, the developing trajectories of the subjects varied from one to another. According to the developing trajectories, the subjects were grouped into three categories: growing subject, diminishing subject, and fluctuating subject. The popularities of the topics among the Wikipedia viewers were consistent, while among the editors were not. For each topic, its popularity trend among the editors and the viewers was inconsistent. Child Maltreatment was the most popular among the three topics, Women’s Health was the second most popular, while Family Planning was the least popular among the three. The implications of this study include: (1) helping health professionals and general users get a more comprehensive understanding of the investigated topics; (2) contributing to the developments of health ontologies and consumer health vocabularies; (3) assisting Website designers in organizing online health information and helping them identify popular family-health-related topics; (4) providing a new approach for query recommendation in information retrieval systems; (5) supporting temporal information retrieval by presenting the temporal changes of family-health-related topics; and (6) providing a new combination of data collection and analysis methods for researchers

Evaluación de la actividad científica en ciencia de la información a partir de indicadores bibliométricos y altmétricos

La presente investigación es un análisis de la producción científica en Ciencia de la Informacion (CI), fundamentada en el contexto epistemológico e histórico de la disciplina, para identificar las tendencias de uso de la información en plataformas de publicación formales e informales. A partir de la implementación de indicadores bibliométricos e indicadores alternativos, se pretende establecer. ¿Como la integración de indicadores altimétricos en la evaluación científica, posibilita la identificación de tendencias en la investigación disciplinar? Y si es valido afirmar, que la altmetría es una herramienta confiable y útil para la evaluación de los dominios científicos. Se toma como referente la producción visible en Web of Science durante el periodo 2012- 2016, para identificar las dinámicas científicas de investigación en la CI, a partir de una muestra de 1224 registros en los cuales se utilizan indicadores bibliometricos de producción, citación o impacto e indicadores altimétricos recuperados de las plataformas ResearchGate (RG) y Plum Analytics (PlumX). Los resultados evidencian que los indicadores alternativos aun están en periodo de desarrollo y necesitan normalización; de lo cual se concluye, que la evaluación científica requiere la complementación de modelos métricos clásicos junto a métricas alternativas que permitan identificar las dinámicas sociales y de comunicación que se generan en la comunidad científica más allá del impacto y la citación.This research is an analysis of the scientific activity in Information Science (CI), based on the epistemological and historical context of the discipline, to identify trends in the use of information in formal and informal publishing platforms. Based on the implementation of bibliometric iand alternative indicators, it is intended to establish: How does the integration of altmetric indicators in scientific evaluation make it possible to identify trends in disciplinary research? And, if it is valid to say that altmetrics is a reliable and useful tool for the scientific evaluation of scientific domains. Visible production in Web of Science during the 2012-2016 period is taken as a reference to identify the scientific dynamics of research in the CI, from a sample of 1224 records in which bibliometric indicators of production, citation or impact and altmetric indicators recovered from the ResearchGate (RG) and Plum Analytics (PlumX) platforms are used. The results show that the alternative indicators are still under development and need to be standardized; from which it is concluded that scientific evaluation requires the complementing of classical metric models with alternative metrics that allow identifying the social and communication dynamics generated in the scientific community beyond the impact and citation.Profesional en Ciencia de la Información - Bibliotecólogo (a)Pregrad