An examination of the copyright clearance activities in UK Higher Education

Reports results of a questionnaire survey of 57 persons with copyright clearance functions in UK Higher Education Libraries and beyond. research project supported by the 2000 Elsevier/LIRG Research Award, entitled “Clearing the Way: copyright clearance in UK Libraries”. Examines the questionnaire responses and case study interviews with regard to the copyright clearance process. Provides an overview of clearance in UK HEIs, namely: who clears rights and where; what materials were being cleared and for what purpose; and what licences and clearing houses were used. It then examines the clearance procedures themselves: receiving requests from internal customers, tracing rights holders, sending requests, rights holder response times and chasing, refusals and unanswered requests, and the terms of permission, including cost. Concludes that copyright clearance is a complex, time-consuming activity for libraries, and that the problems could be addressed on many levels

Citations count: the provision of bibliometrics training by university libraries

The use of citation analysis as an indicator of research quality is gaining momentum: in the higher education (HE) sector. League tables are increasingly relying on citation data to inform their rankings of universities. In the recently published Times higher education World University Rankings, citations were given the heaviest weighting (32.5%) of the total for each university assessed. The forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) was originally to be based solely on citation data. This idea has now been dropped, but citation data will still be supplied to all sub-panels- they will decide whether and how it is used. Overseas institutions have been using citation data to make recruitment and selection decisions for a long time. Many higher education institutions in North America, Asia, and parts of Europe require applicants to academic posts to supply their h-index (an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar based on the set of their most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people's publications). Increasingly, UK-based institutions are making research quality assessments based on citation counts. Despite its critics and its limitations- and there are many- citation analysis looks set to stay. [continues...

Responsible metrics: what's the state of the art?

Presentation given at the FORCE2019 conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday 16 October, 201

Copyright clearance for the digital library: a practical guide to gaining electronic permissions for journal articles

Provides a practical guide to gaining copyright clearance for making electronic copies of journal articles based on experience gained on the eLib project, Project ACORN. Includes tips on identifying and contacting copyright owners, elements to include in letters of approach, chose tactics, and dealing with refusals and charges

UK university policy approaches towards the copyright ownership of scholarly works and the future of open access

Purpose: Considers how the open access policy environment has developed since the RoMEO (Rights Metadata for Open Archiving) Project’s call in 2003 for universities and academics to assert joint copyright ownership of scholarly works. Investigates whether UK universities are moving towards joint copyright ownership. Design: Analyses 81 UK university copyright policies are analysed to understand what proportion make a claim over i) IP ownership of all outputs; ii) the copyright in scholarly works; iii) re-using scholarly works in specific ways; iv) approaches to moral rights. Results are cross-tabulated by policy age and mission group. Findings: Universities have not asserted their interest in scholarly works through joint ownership, leaving research funders and publishers to set open access policy. Finds an increased proportion of universities assert a generic claim to all IP (87%) relative to earlier studies. 74% of policies relinquished rights in scholarly works in favour of academic staff. 20% of policies share ownership of scholarly works through licensing. 28% of policies assert the right to reuse scholarly works in some way. 32% of policies seek to protect moral rights. Policies that ‘share’ ownership of scholarly works are more recent. The UK Scholarly Communication Licence (UK-SCL) should have an impact on this area. The reliance on individual academics to enforce a copyright policy or not to opt out of the UK-SCL could be problematic. Concludes that open access may still be best served by joint ownership of scholarly works. Originality: This the first large-scale analysis of UK university policy positions towards scholarly works. Discovers for the first time a move towards ‘shared’ ownership of scholarly works in copyright policies

Clearing the way: copyright clearance in UK libraries

Reports on the results of a research project supported by the 2000 Elsevier/LIRG Research Award into Copyright Clearance in UK Libraries. It provides brief summary of its key findings including who is clearing rights and where; what is being cleared and for what purpose; the clearance process; licences and clearing houses; the cost of clearance; and organisational clearance services. It then discusses of some of the ways the clearance situation could be addressed in the UK

IPR issues facing open access

The UK JISC-funded RoMEO Project is investigating the IPR issues related to the ‘selfarchiving’ of research papers by academics and the subsequent disclosure and harvesting of metadata about those research papers using the Open Archives Initiative’s Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). During the first phase of the project we performed online questionnaire surveys of four key stakeholder groups: academic authors, journal publishers, OAI Data Providers and Service Providers. We have also performed a very interesting analysis of 80 journal publishers’ Author Copyright Agreements. The principle outcomes of the project are, firstly, the development of some simple rights metadata by which academics might protect their research papers in an open access environment, and secondly, a means of protecting the rights in all that freely available metadata that may soon be available

Meeting the library needs of distance learners without additional funding

States the problem of incorporating distance learning (DL) library services without additional funding. Describes the work of a Distance Learning Working Group at Loughborough University Library. Activities included an analysis of the characteristics of DL courses and students at Loughborough; a comparison of library services to on- and off-campus students; a survey of DL students and academics; and a benchmarking exercise comparing DL library services at Loughborough with those at local and peer group institutions. Key outcomes of the research are presented. Details the suggested methods of funding the Working Group’s recommendations

Academics and copyright ownership: ignorant, confused or misled?

Academics and copyright ownership: ignorant, confused or misled

Managing copyright clearance services in HE libraries

An investigation of centralised copyright clearance services in Higher Education Institutions based on the findings of a research project into copyright clearance in UK libraries. Based on a questionnaire survey and five case study interviews, it examines the reasons why services were established; how they were funded and staffed; and their overall remit. The relationship between the service and the HEI is looked at, as well as some of the problems clearance services face. Provides good practice guidelines in the establishment and management of services