Library purchasing consortia in the UK: activity, benefits and good practice.

Following a brief introduction in Section 1, Section 2 sets out the operational context of library purchasing consortia. A range of key factors have shaped recent developments in the four LIS sectors under consideration (FE, HE, health and public libraries); some have exerted a common influence over all (e.g. information technology, European Commission purchasing directives, new central government, decline in bookfunds); some are sector-specific (e.g. purchasing arrangements, regional administrative frameworks, collaborative partnerships). The structure and markets of the book and periodical publishing industry in the UK are reviewed, with attention paid to historical as well as more recent practice that has had an impact on library supply. Although each component of the LIS purchasing consortia jigsaw displays individual characteristics that have evolved as a response to its own environment, the thread that links them together is constant change. Section 3 presents the results of a survey of identified library purchasing consortia in the four library sectors. It treats common themes of relevance to all consortia arising from information gathered by seminar input, questionnaire and interview. These include models of consortium operation, membership and governance, ‘typical’ composition of consortia in each sector, and links to analogous practice in other library sectors. Common features of the tendering and contract management process are elicited and attention paid to any contribution of procurement professionals. Finally, levels of consortium expenditure and cost savings are estimated from the published statistical record, which readily demonstrate in financial terms the efficiency of the consortial purchase model for all types of library in the United Kingdom. Section 4 presents the results of a survey of suppliers to libraries in the United Kingdom of books and periodicals, the two sectors most commonly represented in current contracts of library purchasing consortia. It sets out in some detail the operating context governing the highly segmented activities of library booksellers, as well as that pertaining to periodicals suppliers (also known as subscription agents). Detailed responses to questions on the effects of library purchasing consortia on suppliers of both materials have been gathered by questionnaire survey and selected follow-up interviews. Results are presented and analysed according to supply sector with attention given to the tendering process, current contracts under way, cross-sectoral clientele, and advantages and inhibitors of consortia supply. Further responses are reported on issues of how consortia have affected suppliers’ volume of trade, operating margins and market stability as perceived in their own business, the library supply sector and the publishing industry. Finally, overall conclusions are drawn and projections made as to future implications for both types of library suppliers. Section 5 synthesises findings, details enabling and inhibiting factors for consortia formation and models of best practice amongst consortia. The scope for cross-sectoral collaboration is discussed and found to be limited at present. Pointers are given for future activity

Credibility: A multidisciplinary framework

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61241/1/1440410114_ftp.pd

Measures of scholarly journal quality are not universally applicable to determining value of advertised annual subscription price

Both end users and authors commonly evaluate scientific journals based on several popular journal metrics. Such metrics, in particular the "impact factor," carry crucial weight in terms of which journals authors choose for submitting scientific works as well as to what titles an institutional library subscribes. While previous research has focused on the value of journals in terms of "price per page," no study has investigated the relationship between common journal metrics and the price a journal advertises for an annual subscription. In the present study, we took a linear modeling approach using Akaike information criterion to determine which journal metric (impact factor, Eigenfactor score, article influence score, total cites, or proportion reviews) was the "best" predictor of the advertised annual subscription price for scientific journals. Examining three differing scientific fields (aquatic science, sociology, and immunology) and accounting for for-profit versus not-for-profit status, we found results to be field-dependent. Total cites was the best predicting metric for the annual advertised subscription price for aquatic science and immunology, while the Eigenfactor score was the best predictor for sociology. We hypothesize the relationship with price changes with differing magnitudes of citation flows in a field. Clear from our study was that no single measure of journal quality is universally applicable to determine subscription "value."

Qualidade de revistas científicas: uma revisão sistemática da literatura

The evaluation of scientific activity is a fact that has grown and been well evidenced in the academic community in recent decades. Scientific journals, the main sources of information at the present time and responsible for the diffusion of knowledge through scientific publications, are the means of evaluating the scientific activity most viewed. During the digital age and the need for publication for the validation of studies, the increase in scientific production is imminent, which consequently entails the appearance of new journal titles. The emergence of these new titles spreads in the need of the evaluation of scientific journals. It is believed that it is necessary to propose parameters and quality indicators to assist in this evaluation. As is known, quality indicators already exist that aid in the evaluation of scientific journals, of which the impact factor and the Qualis Capes are the most used and emphasized in the literature. But to what extent can we consider the impact factor and the Qualis Capes as the main quality indicators of scientific journals and use them in large majority to classify the quality of a scientific journal. Based on the points, the research in question intends to carry out an analysis of the literature, more specifically a systematic review of the literature in order to answer the following question: what characterizes a scientific journal of quality according to the scientific literature? In advance, it can be concluded that the literature is still very restricted to the quality of scientific journals, using as main indicator the impact factor, but other indicators not less important are also gaining space. It is also perceived as an incipient subject, despite the great concern of authors of articles in publishing their manuscripts in renowned journals.La evaluación de la actividad científica es un hecho que ha crecido y ha sido bien evidenciado en la comunidad académica en las últimas décadas. Las revistas científicas, las principales fuentes de información en la actualidad y responsables de la difusión del conocimiento a través de publicaciones científicas, son los medios para evaluar la actividad científicas más vistas. En medio de la era digital y la necesidad de publicación para la validación de estudios, el aumento de la producción científica es inminente, lo que conlleva la aparición de nuevos títulos de revistas. La aparición de estos nuevos títulos se propaga en la necesidad de la evaluación de revistas científicas. Se cree que es necesario proponer parámetros e indicadores de calidad para ayudar en esta evaluación. Como se sabe, ya existen indicadores de calidad que ayudan en la evaluación de revistas científicas, de las cuales el factor de impacto y los Qualis Capes son los más utilizadas y destacados en la literatura. Pero ¿hasta qué punto podemos considerar el factor de impacto y los Qualis Capes como los principales indicadores de calidad de las revistas científicas y utilizarlos en gran mayoría para clasificar la calidad de una revista científica? Sobre la base de los puntos antes mencionados, la investigación en cuestión pretende realizar un análisis de la literatura, más específicamente una revisión sistemática de la literatura para responder la siguiente pregunta: ¿qué caracteriza a una revista científica de calidad según la literatura científica? De antemano, se puede concluir que la literatura todavía está muy restringida a la calidad de las revistas científicas, utilizando como indicador principal el factor de impacto, pero otros indicadores no menos importantes también están ganando espacio. También se percibe como un tema incipiente, a pesar de la gran preocupación de los autores por los artículos que publican sus manuscritos en revistas de renombre.A avaliação da atividade científica é um fato que tem crescido e sido bastante evidenciado na comunidade acadêmica nas últimas décadas. As revistas científicas, principais fontes de informação na atualidade e responsáveis pela difusão do conhecimento por meio de publicações científicas, são os meios de avaliação da atividade científica mais visionados. Em meio a era digital e a necessidade da publicação para a validação dos estudos, é eminente o aumento da produção científica, que consequentemente acarreta o surgimento de novos títulos de revistas. O surgimento destes novos títulos esparra na necessidade da avaliação das revistas científicas. Acredita-se que seja necessário propor parâmetros e indicadores de qualidade que auxiliem nesta avaliação. Como sabe-se, já existem indicadores de qualidade que auxiliam na avaliação das revistas científicas, dos quais o fator de impacto e o Qualis Capes são os mais utilizados e enfatizados na literatura. Mas até que ponto podemos considerar o fator de impacto e o Qualis Capes como os principais indicadores de qualidade das revistas científicas e utilizá-los em grande maioria para classificar a qualidade de uma revista científica? Partindo dos pontos supracitados, a pesquisa em questão pretende realizar uma análise da literatura, mais especificamente uma revisão sistemática da literatura a fim de responder a seguinte questão: o que caracteriza uma revista científica de qualidade de acordo com a literatura científica? De antemão, pode-se concluir que a literatura ainda está muito restrita à qualidade de revistas científicas, utilizando como principal indicador o fator de impacto, mas outros indicadores não menos importantes também estão ganhando espaço. Percebe-se ainda que é um tema incipiente, apesar da grande preocupação dos autores de artigos em publicarem seus manuscritos em revistas de renome

The Future of Scholarly Publishing

The formal scientific communication system is currently undergoing significant change. This is due to four developments: the digitisation of formal science communication; the economisation of academic publishing as profit drives many academic publishers and other providers of information; an increase in the self-observation of science by means of publication, citation and utility-based indicators; and the medialisation of science as its observation by the mass media intensifies. Previously, these developments have only been dealt with individually in the literature and by science-policy actors. The Future of Scholarly Publishing documents the materials and results of an interdisciplinary working group commissioned by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW) to analyse the future of scholarly publishing and to make recommendations on how to respond to the challenges posed by these developments. As per the working group’s intention, the focus was mainly on the sciences and humanities in Germany. However, in the course of the work it became clear that the issues discussed by the group are equally relevant for academic publishing in other countries. As such, this book will contribute to the transfer of ideas and perspectives, and allow for mutual learning about the current and future state of scientific publishing in different settings

Linked Research on the Decentralised Web

This thesis is about research communication in the context of the Web. I analyse literature which reveals how researchers are making use of Web technologies for knowledge dissemination, as well as how individuals are disempowered by the centralisation of certain systems, such as academic publishing platforms and social media. I share my findings on the feasibility of a decentralised and interoperable information space where researchers can control their identifiers whilst fulfilling the core functions of scientific communication: registration, awareness, certification, and archiving. The contemporary research communication paradigm operates under a diverse set of sociotechnical constraints, which influence how units of research information and personal data are created and exchanged. Economic forces and non-interoperable system designs mean that researcher identifiers and research contributions are largely shaped and controlled by third-party entities; participation requires the use of proprietary systems. From a technical standpoint, this thesis takes a deep look at semantic structure of research artifacts, and how they can be stored, linked and shared in a way that is controlled by individual researchers, or delegated to trusted parties. Further, I find that the ecosystem was lacking a technical Web standard able to fulfill the awareness function of research communication. Thus, I contribute a new communication protocol, Linked Data Notifications (published as a W3C Recommendation) which enables decentralised notifications on the Web, and provide implementations pertinent to the academic publishing use case. So far we have seen decentralised notifications applied in research dissemination or collaboration scenarios, as well as for archival activities and scientific experiments. Another core contribution of this work is a Web standards-based implementation of a clientside tool, dokieli, for decentralised article publishing, annotations and social interactions. dokieli can be used to fulfill the scholarly functions of registration, awareness, certification, and archiving, all in a decentralised manner, returning control of research contributions and discourse to individual researchers. The overarching conclusion of the thesis is that Web technologies can be used to create a fully functioning ecosystem for research communication. Using the framework of Web architecture, and loosely coupling the four functions, an accessible and inclusive ecosystem can be realised whereby users are able to use and switch between interoperable applications without interfering with existing data. Technical solutions alone do not suffice of course, so this thesis also takes into account the need for a change in the traditional mode of thinking amongst scholars, and presents the Linked Research initiative as an ongoing effort toward researcher autonomy in a social system, and universal access to human- and machine-readable information. Outcomes of this outreach work so far include an increase in the number of individuals self-hosting their research artifacts, workshops publishing accessible proceedings on the Web, in-the-wild experiments with open and public peer-review, and semantic graphs of contributions to conference proceedings and journals (the Linked Open Research Cloud). Some of the future challenges include: addressing the social implications of decentralised Web publishing, as well as the design of ethically grounded interoperable mechanisms; cultivating privacy aware information spaces; personal or community-controlled on-demand archiving services; and further design of decentralised applications that are aware of the core functions of scientific communication

Special Libraries, October 1982

Volume 73, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1982/1003/thumbnail.jp

Next Generation Connectivity: A Review of Broadband Internet Transitions and Policy From Around the World

Fostering the development of a ubiquitously networked society, connected over high-capacity networks, is a widely shared goal among both developed and developing countries. High capacity networks are seen as strategic infrastructure, intended to contribute to high and sustainable economic growth and to core aspects of human development. In the pursuit of this goal, various countries have, over the past decade and a half, deployed different strategies, and enjoyed different results. At the Commission's request, this study reviews the current plans and practices pursued by other countries in the transition to the next generation of connectivity, as well as their past experience. By observing the experiences of a range of market-oriented democracies that pursued a similar goal over a similar time period, we hope to learn from the successes and failures of others about what practices and policies best promote that goal. By reviewing current plans or policy efforts, we hope to learn what others see as challenges in the next generation transition, and to learn about the range of possible solutions to these challenges