This week Professor Stephen Pinfield is visiting Sun Yat-Sen University in China. Whilst there, Stephen will be giving three lectures on recent research projects in which he has been involved and also discussing research collaboration opportunities. Stephen is hosted by old colleagues Miguel Nunes and Alex Peng, who are both Professors there; Miguel is Dean of the Information School.
The three lectures that Stephen is giving on his visit are as follows:
Open-Access Mega-Journals and the Future of Scholarly Communication (research conducted with Claire Creaser, Jenny Fry, Valérie Spezi, Simon Wakeling & Peter Willett):
Open-access mega-journals (OAMJs) represent an increasingly important part of the scholarly communication landscape. OAMJs, such as PLOS ONE and Nature’s Scientific Reports, are large scale, broad-scope journals that operate an open-access business model, and which employ a novel form of peer review, focusing on scientific ‘soundness’ only and not judgments of novelty or importance. This presentation will report the results of a major mixed-methods research study recently carried out on mega-journals, examining key issues including business models, peer review, and disciplinary community (and other stakeholder) responses to key developments. It will discuss some of the empirical evidence, theoretical models and practitioner responses generated by the project. The contribution of OAMJs to the wider Open Science agenda will also be considered.
Mapping the Future of Academic Libraries (research conducted with Andrew Cox and Sophie Rutter):
Academic libraries currently operate within and contribute to a rapidly changing environment. This presentation will summarise the findings of a recent report which aimed to map out the landscape in which libraries are now operating, summarising a set of major nexuses of trends which are transforming the role of libraries. A set of key challenges and opportunities libraries face in this context will be discussed, as well as how they can position themselves to best contribute to the work of their institutions in future. The need to create and communicate a compelling vision of the library’s current and future role in the institution is seen as crucial. At the same time, libraries and library professionals need to be ready to change, and to work in collaboration with others outside the library, whilst at the same time promoting the library’s own unique contribution. The report challenges traditional library ‘mantras’, such as relying on the library’s ‘strong brand’, which often go unquestioned, and suggests new paradigms for thinking about library futures which can feature in strategic planning. Follow up work by the research team on library orientations in relation to the future, strategic modelling, and libraries and AI will also be mentioned.
Research Data Management Maturity and University Libraries (research conducted with Andrew Cox, Mary Anne Kennan, Liz Lyon and Laura Sbaffi):
University libraries have played an important role in constructing an infrastructure of support for Research Data Management at an institutional level. This presentation will report a comparative analysis of two international surveys of libraries about their involvement in Research Data Services conducted in 2014 and 2018. The aim was to examine how services had developed over this time period, and to explore the drivers and barriers to change. Services in nearly every area were more developed in 2018 than before, but technical services remained less developed than advisory. Progress on institutional policy was also evident. However, priorities did not seem to have shifted significantly. Open ended answers suggested that funder policy rather than researcher demand remained the main driver of service development and that resources and skills gaps remained issues.
The three lectures that Stephen is giving on his visit are as follows:
Open-Access Mega-Journals and the Future of Scholarly Communication (research conducted with Claire Creaser, Jenny Fry, Valérie Spezi, Simon Wakeling & Peter Willett):
Open-access mega-journals (OAMJs) represent an increasingly important part of the scholarly communication landscape. OAMJs, such as PLOS ONE and Nature’s Scientific Reports, are large scale, broad-scope journals that operate an open-access business model, and which employ a novel form of peer review, focusing on scientific ‘soundness’ only and not judgments of novelty or importance. This presentation will report the results of a major mixed-methods research study recently carried out on mega-journals, examining key issues including business models, peer review, and disciplinary community (and other stakeholder) responses to key developments. It will discuss some of the empirical evidence, theoretical models and practitioner responses generated by the project. The contribution of OAMJs to the wider Open Science agenda will also be considered.
Mapping the Future of Academic Libraries (research conducted with Andrew Cox and Sophie Rutter):
Academic libraries currently operate within and contribute to a rapidly changing environment. This presentation will summarise the findings of a recent report which aimed to map out the landscape in which libraries are now operating, summarising a set of major nexuses of trends which are transforming the role of libraries. A set of key challenges and opportunities libraries face in this context will be discussed, as well as how they can position themselves to best contribute to the work of their institutions in future. The need to create and communicate a compelling vision of the library’s current and future role in the institution is seen as crucial. At the same time, libraries and library professionals need to be ready to change, and to work in collaboration with others outside the library, whilst at the same time promoting the library’s own unique contribution. The report challenges traditional library ‘mantras’, such as relying on the library’s ‘strong brand’, which often go unquestioned, and suggests new paradigms for thinking about library futures which can feature in strategic planning. Follow up work by the research team on library orientations in relation to the future, strategic modelling, and libraries and AI will also be mentioned.
Research Data Management Maturity and University Libraries (research conducted with Andrew Cox, Mary Anne Kennan, Liz Lyon and Laura Sbaffi):
University libraries have played an important role in constructing an infrastructure of support for Research Data Management at an institutional level. This presentation will report a comparative analysis of two international surveys of libraries about their involvement in Research Data Services conducted in 2014 and 2018. The aim was to examine how services had developed over this time period, and to explore the drivers and barriers to change. Services in nearly every area were more developed in 2018 than before, but technical services remained less developed than advisory. Progress on institutional policy was also evident. However, priorities did not seem to have shifted significantly. Open ended answers suggested that funder policy rather than researcher demand remained the main driver of service development and that resources and skills gaps remained issues.
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