Small University Press : Gaining Visibility, Usage and Impact

Aim: Steps necessary to transform a small traditional university press to an open access publishing endeavour with international reach will be identified and described. The press used as an example could be considered “niche” in several ways, which could impose additional challenges: it covers humanities and social sciences, it is largely book based, and it belongs to the so-called scientific periphery, both geographically and linguistically. Methods: The current state of a University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences publishing activities are described, with special attention to its openness, output type (monographs and proceedings vs journals, digital/hybrid vs print only, English vs Croatian language), adherence to international standards (in digital formats, metadata, identifiers, content licencing, usage data etc), visibility and discoverability. These findings are put in the broader international context of HSS open access publishing, to gain knowledge about best practices, identify challenges and prioritise future developments. Recent developments within projects related to open access publishing in humanities and social sciences like OAPEN (1), Operas (2), Hirmeos (3), Knowledge Unlatched (4) and Open Edition (5) are being analysed, compared and taken as guidelines. Results and Discussion: Within the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences publishing, there are three diverse sets of publications: scholarly journals, student journals and books. Twelve scholarly journals (co)published by the Faculty are currently (more or less) active, while thirteen more are published by professional societies closely related with the Faculty and edited by Faculty professors. All of those journals are open access journals and are present on Hrčak – Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia. Still, within this group of 25 journals there are considerable differences in editorial and publishing practices as well as in international visibility and impact (for instance, 12 are indexed in Scopus, only 5 in WoS databases, and the coverage in many specialised databases and indexes is significant, but there is still considerable effort needed to expand this venue of visibility). Even though all journals are OA, only nine of them fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in DOAJ, while others were not able to fulfil the basic requirements for inclusion (6). Areas for which it was recognised that journals need assistance for improvement are: online support for editing and reviewing process (preferably via local support for Open Journal System), inclusion in CrossRef services (DOI assignment, Similarity Check, depositing open references), use of identifiers, format diversity and decisions on open access policies, copyright, plagiarism and licencing issues. As for 10 active student journals, issues of continuity in good editorial and publishing practices are of highest importance: without organised institutional support it will not be possible to achieve basic requirements for scholarly journals and maintain timeliness. While modes of publishing for open access journals are broadly accepted, books and their visibility and discoverability pose a greater challenge (7, 8). Unlike journals, book publishing at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences have until now been exclusively printbased. Without readily available national distribution platform for online open distribution like Hrčak for journals, the first decision should be related to technical infrastructure: whether to build own digital platform (using existing open source software like OMP – Open Monograph Press or newly developed Janeway), or taking part in existing platforms like Ubiquity, Knowledge Unlatched Open Sevices, OpenEdition or Open Book Publishers. Several issues are similar to journal publishing, especially the need to define open access policies, and open licences. The need for diversity in available formats besides pdf, provision of high-quality metadata and collecting usage data in standardised way are even more important than for journals, since books in HSS could have potentially larger and not exclusively academic audience. Also, providing structured and open reference data could have a great importance in tracking usage and impact, since it could enable visibility of citation data for documents that were previously under-represented in citation indexes. Conclusion: Small-scale university presses within the current digital publishing landscape are faced with many challenges. In most cases, they will not have enough capacity for own expertise. Therefore there is a clear benefit from national coordination and participation in international projects. References 1. OAPEN Open Access Publishing in European Networks : Organisation. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://www.oapen.org/content/organisation 2. OPERAS (open access in the European research area through scholarly communication). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://operas.hypotheses.org/ 3. HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://operas.hypotheses.org/projects/hirmeos 4. Knowledge Unlatched (KU). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/ 5. OpenEdition. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://www.openedition.org/?lang=en 6. DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals : Information for Publishers. Retrieved July 15, 2018 from https://doaj.org/publishers#advice 7. Neylon C, Montgomery L, Ozaygen A, Saunders N, Pinter F. (2018). The visibility of open access monographs in a European context : a report prepared by Knowledge Unlatched research. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1230342 8. Ferwerda E, Pinter F. (2017). A landscape study on open access and monographs : Policies, funding and publishing in eight European countries. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.81593

Small University Press : Gaining Visibility, Usage and Impact

Aim: Steps necessary to transform a small traditional university press to an open access publishing endeavour with international reach will be identified and described. The press used as an example could be considered “niche” in several ways, which could impose additional challenges: it covers humanities and social sciences, it is largely book based, and it belongs to the so-called scientific periphery, both geographically and linguistically. Methods: The current state of a University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences publishing activities are described, with special attention to its openness, output type (monographs and proceedings vs journals, digital/hybrid vs print only, English vs Croatian language), adherence to international standards (in digital formats, metadata, identifiers, content licencing, usage data etc), visibility and discoverability. These findings are put in the broader international context of HSS open access publishing, to gain knowledge about best practices, identify challenges and prioritise future developments. Recent developments within projects related to open access publishing in humanities and social sciences like OAPEN (1), Operas (2), Hirmeos (3), Knowledge Unlatched (4) and Open Edition (5) are being analysed, compared and taken as guidelines. Results and Discussion: Within the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences publishing, there are three diverse sets of publications: scholarly journals, student journals and books. Twelve scholarly journals (co)published by the Faculty are currently (more or less) active, while thirteen more are published by professional societies closely related with the Faculty and edited by Faculty professors. All of those journals are open access journals and are present on Hrčak – Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia. Still, within this group of 25 journals there are considerable differences in editorial and publishing practices as well as in international visibility and impact (for instance, 12 are indexed in Scopus, only 5 in WoS databases, and the coverage in many specialised databases and indexes is significant, but there is still considerable effort needed to expand this venue of visibility). Even though all journals are OA, only nine of them fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in DOAJ, while others were not able to fulfil the basic requirements for inclusion (6). Areas for which it was recognised that journals need assistance for improvement are: online support for editing and reviewing process (preferably via local support for Open Journal System), inclusion in CrossRef services (DOI assignment, Similarity Check, depositing open references), use of identifiers, format diversity and decisions on open access policies, copyright, plagiarism and licencing issues. As for 10 active student journals, issues of continuity in good editorial and publishing practices are of highest importance: without organised institutional support it will not be possible to achieve basic requirements for scholarly journals and maintain timeliness. While modes of publishing for open access journals are broadly accepted, books and their visibility and discoverability pose a greater challenge (7, 8). Unlike journals, book publishing at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences have until now been exclusively printbased. Without readily available national distribution platform for online open distribution like Hrčak for journals, the first decision should be related to technical infrastructure: whether to build own digital platform (using existing open source software like OMP – Open Monograph Press or newly developed Janeway), or taking part in existing platforms like Ubiquity, Knowledge Unlatched Open Sevices, OpenEdition or Open Book Publishers. Several issues are similar to journal publishing, especially the need to define open access policies, and open licences. The need for diversity in available formats besides pdf, provision of high-quality metadata and collecting usage data in standardised way are even more important than for journals, since books in HSS could have potentially larger and not exclusively academic audience. Also, providing structured and open reference data could have a great importance in tracking usage and impact, since it could enable visibility of citation data for documents that were previously under-represented in citation indexes. Conclusion: Small-scale university presses within the current digital publishing landscape are faced with many challenges. In most cases, they will not have enough capacity for own expertise. Therefore there is a clear benefit from national coordination and participation in international projects. References 1. OAPEN Open Access Publishing in European Networks : Organisation. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://www.oapen.org/content/organisation 2. OPERAS (open access in the European research area through scholarly communication). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://operas.hypotheses.org/ 3. HIRMEOS (High Integration of Research Monographs in the European Open Science). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://operas.hypotheses.org/projects/hirmeos 4. Knowledge Unlatched (KU). Retrieved July 10, 2018 from http://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/ 5. OpenEdition. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://www.openedition.org/?lang=en 6. DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals : Information for Publishers. Retrieved July 15, 2018 from https://doaj.org/publishers#advice 7. Neylon C, Montgomery L, Ozaygen A, Saunders N, Pinter F. (2018). The visibility of open access monographs in a European context : a report prepared by Knowledge Unlatched research. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1230342 8. Ferwerda E, Pinter F. (2017). A landscape study on open access and monographs : Policies, funding and publishing in eight European countries. Retrieved July 10, 2018 from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.81593

Two steps forward, one step back: promises and risks for bibliometrics in the humanities

In recent years, there is an increased pressure towards the humanities and social sciences to adopt assessment and evaluation procedures based largely or even primarily on bibliometric and scientometric indicators, following the pattern form STM research areas. Bibliometric assessment is often perceived as objective, unbiased and easily implemented (as opposed to peer review); therefore it can be appealing to funders and decision makers in science. In Croatia, bibliometric indicators are used for assessment and evaluation in various situations: individual career decisions and promotions, project funding and institution ranking. Criteria for such assessments are often debated and disputed, especially by researchers from the humanities and social sciences. It is important that all stakeholders (research funders and policy makers, university managers, researchers, as well as librarians and administrators assisting in evaluation procedures) are well informed and aware of proper uses and limitations of bibliometric indicators, and of relevant recent developments in bibliometrics. The aim of this presentation is to draw attention to special characteristics of publishing and communicating in the humanities that have important implications in bibliometric assessments, as well as to the limitations associated with existing bibliometric indicators and tools for gathering bibliometric data. New trends and emerging bibliometric indicators (book citations, library holdings, book publishers rankings etc.) that promise more precise and more appropriate assessment in the humanities will be presented

Tematski portali (subject gateways) i društveni bookmarking : putokazi na stari i novi način

U izlaganju će se usporediti alati različitih generacija koji mogu imati vrlo sličnu namjenu. Tematski portali okupljali su web izvore prema predmetima/područjima. Odabrani i grupirani prema unaprijed uređenim pravilima i kriterijima, takvi su izvori trebali biti idealno polazište i putokaz za svakog studenta ili istraživača. Danas mnogi korisnici (iz akademske zajednice, ali i šire) kao polazišno mjesto svog istraživanja biraju servise društvenog bookmarkinga (poput Del.icio.us, Furl, CiteUlike i sl.), alate koji pripadaju tzv. društvenom softveru ili Webu 2.0. Iako im to nije primarna namjena, takvi servisi omogućuju probiranje i preporuku kvalitetnih web izvora, te njihovo okupljanje prema predmetima/temama. Mogućnost grupiranja prema temi, kao i sustav preporuka su značajke koje povezuju tematske portale i društveni bookmarking, a razlikuju ih od tražilica općeg tipa poput Googla. Razlike u temeljnom konceptu, izvedbi, popularnosti i održivosti tih alata su velike. Svaki od tih alata također implicira različite poglede na ulogu i značaj knjižnica i knjižničara

The Progress of Open Access in Croatia

Promotion of open access in Croatia started early, encouraged by the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2002. Most activities were organized by librarians, information professionals and a small number of interested scientists. The Working group on open access (OA) within the Croatian Information Association was founded and that was an important moment for OA advocacy. The first projects leading to the realization of OA soon appeared: in 2006, the first institutional repositories were established, and Hrčak, the central portal of Croatian scientific journals was founded. To date, an increasing number of individuals and institutions are collaborating to promote OA (e.g. the Croatian Declaration on Open Access), as well as to build an infrastructure for its realization. The best example is the cooperation of many academic institutions in building Dabar – the network of digital academic archives and repositories. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the course of promotion and realization of OA in Croatia and to compare it to the European and global context

Dabar - infrastruktura za otvorenost u znanosti i visokom obrazovanju

Projekt „Dabar - digitalni akademski arhivi i repozitoriji“ pokrenut je 2015. godine kako bi se stvorilo sustavno rješenje za neke od važnih potreba hrvatskih akademskih ustanova i omogućila što veća otvorenost i vidljivost rezultata obrazovne i istraživačke djelatnosti koja se na njima provodi (prvenstveno: ocjenskih radova studenata, znanstvenih i stručnih publikacija, obrazovnih materijala i istraživačkih podataka). U izlaganju će se predstaviti najnovije funkcionalnosti i etape u izgradnji Dabra, prikazati trenutno stanje razvoja i aktivnosti radnih skupina, te analizirati prihvaćenost Dabra među akademskim ustanovama. Četiri godine nakon pokretanja Dabra, važno je ispitati na koji se način on kao komponenta znanstveno-obrazovne infrastrukture uklapa u cjelokupni infrastrukturni pejzaž i u kojoj mjeri ispunjava ciljeve s kojima je pokrenut. Pri tome je također važno uočiti i ukazati na one elemente u okruženju (zakonske, organizacijske, financijske i ostale) koji mogu predstavljati ili prepreku ili poticaj većoj prihvaćenosti akademskih repozitorija, a time i otvorenijoj, vidljivijoj i utjecajnijoj znanosti

Open access books in the humanities and social sciences

U okviru dosadašnjih tendencija za ostvarivanjem otvorenog pristupa znanstvenim informacijama glavnina inicijativa pokrenuta je u područjima prirodnih i biomedicinskih znanosti, a u fokusu su im znanstveni radovi koji se objavljuju u recenziranim časopisima i zbornicima. Tek u novije vrijeme u svijetu se javljaju projekti i inicijative otvorenog pristupa usmjereni na tekstove iz društvenih i humanističkih znanosti, a prate ih i brojne diskusije i razmatranja o primjenjivosti postojećih modela ostvarivanja otvorenog pristupa na društveno-humanističku literaturu. U žarištu rasprava je pitanje otvoreno dostupnih knjiga, s obzirom na to da je knjiga dominantni oblik znanstvenog priopćavanja u ovom području. Postavljaju se pitanja o načinima objavljivanja otvoreno dostupnih knjiga, načinima distribucije, korištenja i pokrivanja troškova izrade, stvaranja metapodataka i osiguranja kvalitete sadržaja, te važnosti podrške znanstvenih ustanova i financijera znanstvenih istraživanja. U članku se prikazuju neka moguća rješenja ovih pitanja i projekti u okviru kojih su ta rješenja do sada implementirana