Building eResearch Services, Capabilities and Capacity

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is known for several flagship eResearch centres. It also has a number of mature, centralised research support services that address a several of areas of eResearch. The university has openly stated its aspiration to be an institution with a strongly embedded eResearch capability and to this end it has expressed the desire to establish a university-wide eResearch support service. However, articulating this desire is much easier than realising it. During 2008 QUT undertook a major review into eResearch that made recommendations on the development of university-wide eResearch support service and the building of eResearch capabilities and capacity throughout the university. The results of this review were reported last year at this conference. In 2009, QUT is progressing a second, follow-on project – Building eResearch Support Capability and Capacity. It has been designed to build upon existing strengths in HPC, repositories, data management, and the delivery of integrated skills for eresearch. The purpose of this presentation is to give an update on QUT’s journey, one year on from its first major report into eResearch. It will outline how the university is approaching this challenge, the current work being carried out and the strategies being employed. We will also discuss the lessons learned

Developing research data management services at QUT

QUT Library and the High Performance Computing and Research Support (HPC) Team have been collaborating on developing and delivering a range of research support services, including those designed to assist researchers to manage their data. QUT’s Management of Research Data policy has been available since 2010 and is complemented by the Data Management Guidelines and Checklist. QUT has partnered with the Australian Research Data Service (ANDS) on a number of projects including Seeding the Commons, Metadata Hub (with Griffith University) and the Data Capture program. The HPC Team has also been developing the QUT Research Data Repository based on the Architecta Mediaflux system and have run several pilots with faculties. Library and HPC staff have been trained in the principles of research data management and are providing a range of research data management seminars and workshops for researchers and HDR students

Changing user behaviour using a digital repository system

Griffith University is developing a digital repository system using HarvestRoad Hive software to better meet the needs of academics and students using institutional learning and teaching, course readings, and institutional intellectual capital systems. Issues with current operations and systems are discussed in terms of user behaviour. New repository systems are being designed in such a way that they address current service and user behaviour issues by closely aligning systems with user needs. By developing attractive online services, Griffith is working to change current user behaviour to achieve strategic priorities in the sharing and reuse of learning objects, improved selection and use of digitised course readings, the development of ePrint and eScience services, and the management of a research portfolio service

F.A.I.R. is fair for research: Australian initaitves to improve openness in the scholarly communications environment

Disruptive changes are transforming the scholarly communications environment. In an era of false reporting and fake news, quality information and verifiable data is essential. However, much of the world’s best publicly funded research remains hidden behind commercial publisher paywalls. Unlocking this research can help solve the world’s greatest research and social challenges, and result in a more informed society. This paper will explore how, within the Australian context, librarians are seeking to make research more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). The Australasian Open Access Strategy Group (AOASG) and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) have worked on a range of initiatives to improve the openness of research including the establishment and implementation of the F.A.I.R. Policy Statement – www.fair-access.net.au/fair-statement. The statement was created through consultation with a range of stakeholders, including government and funding agencies, providing opportunities for libraries to demonstrate leadership. A range of projects under a new CAUL Program for Fair, affordable and open access to knowledge, have been established. These include an improved repository environment, an exploration of researchers retaining rights to their research, and the consistent collection of open access costs. The AOASG is undertaking a communication campaign to increase awareness of the benefits of open access, establish communities of practice, and to progress critical areas for development through a range of complimentary projects. This paper will outline how strategic partnership, collaboration and leadership within the Australian library context can address challenges globally, resulting in a better information environment for all. The paper and presentation will aim to encourage coordinated innovation among stakeholders to progress the open access movement in similar ways the world over

An Account and Analysis of the Implementation of Various E‐Book Business Models at Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a leading university based in the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and is a selectively research intensive university with 2,500 higher degree research students and an overall student population of 45,000 students. The transition from print to online resources is largely completed and the library now provides access to 450,000 print books, 1,000 print journals, 600,000 e‐books, 120,000 e‐journals and 100,000 online videos. The e‐book collection is now used three times as much as the print book collection. This paper focuses on QUT Library’s e‐book strategy and the challenges of building and managing a rapidly growing collection of e‐books using a range of publishers, platforms, and business and financial models. The paper provides an account of QUT Library’s experiences in using patron‐driven acquisition (PDA) using e‐Book Library (EBL); the strategic procurement of publisher and subject collections by lease and outright purchase models, the more recent transition to evidence‐based selection (EBS) options provided by some publishers, and its piloting of e‐textbook models. The paper provides an in‐depth analysis of each of these business models at QUT, focusing on access verses collection development, usage, cost per use, and value for money

Strategies for gaining and maintaining academic support for the institutional open access repository

The impact of research can be measured by use or citation count. The more widely available that research outputs are; the more likely they are to be used, and the higher the impact. Making the author-manuscript version of research outputs freely available via the institutional repository greatly increases the availability of research outputs and can increase the impact. QUT ePrints, the open access institutional repository of research outputs at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, was established in 2003 and is managed by the QUT Library. The repository now contains over 39,000 records. More than 21,000 of these records have full-text copies attached as result of continuous effort to maintain momentum and encourage academic engagement. The full-text deposit rate has continued to increase over time and, in 2012 (August, at the time of writing), 88% of the records for works published in 2012 provide access to a full-text copy. Achieving success has required a long term approach to collaboration, open access advocacy, repository promotion, support for the deposit process, and ongoing system development. This paper discusses the various approaches adopted by QUT Library, in collaboration with other areas of the University, to achieve success. Approaches include mainstreaming the repository via having it report to the University Research and Innovation Committee; regular provision of deposit rate data to faculties; championing key academic supporters; and holding promotional competitions and events such as during Open Access Week. Support and training is provided via regular deposit workshops with academics and faculty research support groups and via the provision of online self-help information. Recent system developments have included the integration of citation data (from Scopus and Web of Science) and the development of a statistical reporting system which incentivise engagement

Someone has to pay: The global sustainability coalition for open science services (SCOSS)

The Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) movement is gaining momentum with an increasing number of scholarly outputs openly and freely available to researchers and the community. OA and OS cannot however, be free for everyone. Someone has to pay for the infrastructure and there has to be a supporting economy. While many commercial publishers are charging for OA, there are many OA and OS infrastructure providers baring the cost of providing infrastructure. Without funding, essential services that many are dependent upon to implement government and funder OA policies worldwide, are at risk of service degradation, reduced availability and even survival. Something had to be done. In response, the Global Sustainable Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) was formed in 2017 as a result of collaborations between key global stakeholders, with SPARC Europe as the co-ordinator. It aims to develop and apply a rigorous proposal and assessment process to provide guidance to the OA and OS community on what to fund. It uses a new financial crowd-funding contribution model seeking a three-year commitment for funding for the services it recommends. This will help improve the financial position, resilience and sustainability of these OA / OS infrastructure services and will help them on their way to find a mid to long-term sustainable solution for years to come. The first open science services to receive assistance were Sherpa RoMEO which is operated by the Joint Information Steering Committee (Jisc, UK) and provides summary information of journal and publisher OA polices; and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) which provides a list of over 10,000 peer-reviewed open access journals. Since launching in November 2017, a growing number of university libraries from across the globe are committing to fund Sherpa/Romeo and DOAJ for the next there years. This paper will provide an introduction to SCOSS and its purpose, governance, processes, and challenges and will give an update on institutional financial commitments to date

Survey of eResearch practices and skills at QUT, Australia

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a multidisciplinary university in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and has 40,000 students and 1,700 researchers. Notable eResearch infrastructure includes the QUT ePrints repository, Microsoft QUT Research Centre, the OAK (Open Access to Knowledge) Law Project, Cambia and leading research institutes. ---------- The Australian Government, via the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), is funding institutions to identify and describe their research datasets, to develop and populate data repositories and collaborative infrastructure, and to seed the Australian Research Data Commons. QUT is currently broadening its range of research support services, including those to support the management of research data, in recognition of the value of these datasets as products of the research process, and in order to maximize the potential for reuse. QUT is integrating Library and High Performance Computing (HPC) services to achieve its research support goals. ---------- The Library and HPC released an online survey using Key Survey to 1,700 researchers in September 2009. A comprehensive range of eResearch practices and skills was presented for response, and grouped into areas of scholarly communication and open access publishing, using collaborative technologies, data management, data collection and management, computation and visualization tools. Researchers were asked to rate their skill level on each practice. 254 responses were received over two weeks. Eight focus groups were also held with 35 higher degree research (HDR) students and staff to provide additional qualitative feedback. A similar survey was released to 100 support staff and 73 responses were received.---------- Preliminary results from the researcher survey and focus groups indicate a gap between current eResearch practices, and the potential for researchers to engage in eResearch practices. Researchers are more likely to seek advice from their peers, than from support staff. HDR students are more positive about eResearch practices and are more willing to learn new ways of conducting research. An account of the survey methodology, the results obtained, and proposed strategies to embed eResearch practices and skills across and within the research disciplines will be provided

Developing a Mentor Program at the University of South Florida

Describes the development of a mentoring program for librarians at the University of South Florida