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Special Issue "Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science"

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A special issue of Publications (ISSN 2304-6775).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2022) | Viewed by 14506

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jadranka Stojanovski

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
2. Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: scholarly communication; open science; research assessment

Iva Grabarić Andonovski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: peer review; open science; scholarly publishing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The current Special Issue of Publications is dedicated to PUBMET2022, The 9th Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science.

The PUBMET conferences aim to provide a forum for the community involved in scholarly communication and the dissemination of knowledge, inviting researchers, information and communication specialists, librarians, editors, publishers, teachers, students, research funders, policy makers, repository managers, and other stakeholders involved in scholarly communication to discuss the current changes, development, and advancements in scholarly communication from the perspective of Open Science. The PUBMET conference is open to individuals who are interested in learning more about and sharing research results and experiences on the practices in Open Science.

The current Special Issue invites submissions of research that reflect both practical and technical innovations, which serve the implementation of Open Science. The following topics will be addressed in the present publication:

Assessing the quality of research processes, research outputs and publication channels;
Re-designing Open Access—rights-retention strategies and alternatives to paid OA;
FAIRness of Open Science;
Potential of public engagement with science and environmental activism;
Raising efficiency and effectiveness in scholarly communication.

Prof. Dr. Jadranka Stojanovski
Iva Grabarić Andonovski
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Publications is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript.The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this Special Issue will be fully waived.Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

research quality
re-designing open access
FAIRness of open science
citizen science
environmental science activism

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

The Landscape of Scholarly Book Publishing in Croatia: Finding Pathways for Viable Open Access Models

Iva Melinščak Zlodi

Publications 2023, 11(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11010017 - 16 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1411

Abstract

(1) Background: Open access to scholarly works is globally recognized as a goal to be achieved as soon as possible; however, there is not yet a general understanding of how to achieve open access for books. In considering the most appropriate models of transition, an accurate and detailed insight into national and regional specifics can be of great importance. The aim of this research is to show the current state of scholarly book publishing in Croatia: recognising the key stakeholders, their characteristics, and the current level of open access to scholarly books. (2) Methods: The existing data from two different sources were used: the data about the public subsidies for book publishers by the Ministry of Science and Education and the data on published books from the Croatian Scientific Bibliography CROSBI, both for the period from 2018 to 2021. (3) Results: In the four-year period, 224 Croatian publishers were awarded subsidies to publish 2359 book titles. The majority of the publishers received support for only a small number of titles and relatively low amounts of subsidies. More than half of the titles are published by small private commercial publishers. However, the uptake of digital publishing among commercial publishers is very modest. Open access to scholarly books is almost entirely in the domain of non-commercial publishers. Most open access titles are available on the websites of their publishers. (4) Conclusions: The analysis of the data from these two sources have resulted in an overview of the current state of book publishing in Croatia. Such an overview provides a good basis for designing future measures and creating a national open science plan and can also be a useful contribution to international discussions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of European Universities That Participate in Library Crowdfunding Initiatives for Open Access Monographs

Mirela Roncevic

Publications 2023, 11(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11010009 - 17 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1183

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify the traits of 100 European universities across 26 countries that did or did not support one particular library crowdfunding initiative for open access (OA) monographs over the past few years. By relying on the rankings of four sources, including THE, ARWU, QS, and Leiden, the study identifies some of the traits of the universities that have shown strong interest in the model by already taking part in an established library crowdfunding initiative, as well as those that may play a vital role in its sustainability. The study’s results show that the institutions that are likely to participate in library crowdfunding initiatives for OA monographs may be defined as highly ranked and produce research in quantity, quantity, relevance, and timeliness. The study’s key revelation is the high academic standing of the institutions that rarely participate in one crowdfunding initiative. These institutions may not be as “international” in their outlooks, but they stand out for their high-quality and significant research output. As such, they may accelerate the model’s adoption with more consistent participation in library crowdfunding. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

Open AccessArticle

Leveraging Open Tools to Realize the Potential of Self-Archiving: A Cohort Study in Clinical Trials

Delwen L. Franzen

Publications 2023, 11(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11010004 - 20 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1034

Abstract

While open access (OA) is growing, many publications remain behind a paywall. This limits the impact of research and entrenches global inequalities by restricting access to knowledge to those that can afford it. Many journal policies allow researchers to make a version of their publication openly accessible through self-archiving in a repository, sometimes after an embargo period (green OA). Unpaywall and Shareyourpaper are open tools that help users find OA articles and support authors to legally self-archive their papers, respectively. This study leveraged these tools to assess the potential of green OA to increase discoverability in a cohort of clinical trial results publications from German university medical centers. Of the 1897 publications in this cohort, 46% (n = 871/1897, 95% confidence interval (CI) 44% to 48%) were neither openly accessible via a journal or a repository. Of these, 85% (n = 736/871, 95% CI 82% to 87%) had a permission to self-archive the accepted or published version in an institutional repository. Thus, most of the closed-access clinical trial results in this cohort could be made openly accessible in a repository, in line with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. In addition to providing further evidence of the unrealized potential of green OA, this study demonstrates the use of open tools to obtain actionable information on self-archiving at scale and empowers efforts to increase science discoverability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Automatic XML Extraction from Word and Formatting of E-Book Formats: Insight into the Open Source Academic Publishing Suite (OS-APS)

and

Publications 2023, 11(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications11010001 - 29 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1278

Abstract

Due to resource constraints, most Diamond Open Access journals publish fewer than 25 articles per year, and 75% of journals are not able to provide their content in XML and HTML, primarily providing only PDFs. In order to keep up with larger commercial publishers, a high degree of automation and streamlining of processes is necessary. The Open Source Academic Publishing Suite (OS-APS) project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aims to achieve this. OS-APS automatically extracts the underlying XML from Word manuscripts and offers optimization and export options in various formats (PDF, HTML, EPUB). The professional corporate design, e.g., of the PDFs, is managed automatically using templates or creating one’s own using a Template Development Kit. OS-APS will also connect to scholarly-led and community-driven publishing platforms such as Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Monograph Press (OMP), and DSpace: the software will be able to be integrated into a wide range of publication processes, whether at small, low-resource commercial Open Access Publishers, or institutional and Diamond Open Access Publishers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Citizen Science in Europe—Challenges in Conducting Citizen Science Activities in Cooperation of University and Public Libraries

Alisa Martek

Dorja Mučnjak

and

Dolores Mumelaš

Publications 2022, 10(4), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040052 - 13 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1363

Abstract

Citizen science has many definitions but it is commonly known as collaboration between professional scientists and the rest of society. Although there have been cases of its implementation in the past, the term became globally known in 2012. Citizen science activities cover a wide range of academic disciplines and vary widely in what is required of the activity participants in terms of knowledge, time commitment, travel, and the use of technology). For the past ten years, libraries have often introduced citizen science in order to encourage greater interaction between science and society as a form of their services or specially organized activities. The types of libraries that often conduct citizen science are academic, public, and research libraries. Each of these library types has a specific user population; academic libraries have students and scientific and teaching staff; public libraries have the local community; and research libraries have researchers. However, libraries usually carry out CS activities separately, and very rarely in cooperation with other types of libraries. Some collaboration challenges are related to its complexity, the uncertainty regarding research cocreation, and participant retention strategies. Such cooperation is one of the aspects explored by the LIBER project CeOS_SE Project—Citizen-Enhanced Open Science in Southeastern Europe Higher Education Knowledge Hubs. The main goal of the project is to raise awareness of mainstream Open Science and CS practices in Southeastern (SE) Europe. As a project partner, the National and University Library in Zagreb, in cooperation with the University Library of Southern Denmark, conducted a survey that included other European countries in addition to SE Europe to examine and collect good practices of civil engagement in university libraries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Challenges of Promoting Open Science within the NI4OS-Europe Project in Hungary

Ákos Lencsés

and

Péter Sütő

Publications 2022, 10(4), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040051 - 09 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1209

Abstract

National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe (NI4OS-Europe) is a Horizon 2020 project related to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). One of the project objectives is promoting EOSC and open science in 15 Central and East European EU states and EU-associated countries. This paper describes the variety of promoting activities carried out in Hungary as part of the NI4OS-Europe project by the Governmental Agency for IT Development (KIFÜ). Identifying good practices will give us the chance to find the best communication channels and methods to promote open science and to manage expectations of funders, researchers and librarians. The audience diversity of organized NI4OS events was analyzed in this study. The anonymized dataset based on registration forms was filtered by profession. Results suggest that events are generally visited by more librarians than researchers. The only exception is the third forum where the main Hungarian research fund as co-organizer might have attracted researchers’ attention. This suggests that librarians are considered to be in charge of open science issues in general. Usage data of the open science news feed were also studied. The 130 posts between May 2021 and April 2022 and 2500 visitors until the end of June 2022 give us the chance to learn about the characteristics of the most visited posts. We can conclude that the focus of communication is on open and FAIR data management, while other areas receive less attention. The results show that despite more international posts being published, the target group is more interested in local information. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Measuring and Promoting the Success of an Open Science Discovery Platform through “Compass Indicators”: The GoTriple Case

Stefano De Paoli

Emilie Blotière

Paula Forbes

and

Sona Arasteh-Roodsary

Publications 2022, 10(4), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040049 - 08 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1004

Abstract

Previous research on indicators for measuring the success of Open Science tends to operate at a macro/global level and very rarely addresses the need to measure success at the level of a single project. However, this previous research has the merit of arguing for the definition of indicators that offer an alternative to more traditional bibliometric measures or indicators that focus on mere performance. This paper is the outcome of work conducted for a specific project that aims to build a discovery platform for social sciences and humanities, the platform GoTriple. GoTriple is designed taking inspiration from Open Science principles and has been built through a user-centered approach. The paper details the practice-led work conducted by the GoTriple team for assessing the meaning of the term success for the project and to identify indicators. To this end, this paper proposes the concept of compass indicators and presents how the project team arrived at the definition of this concept. The paper also highlights a distinction between compass indicators, which are modest measures, and key performance indicators, which tend to be tied up with measurable objectives. Compass indicators are defined as indicators that do not aim to achieve a specified numerical target of success but rather explain the journey of a project toward achieving certain desirable outcomes and offer insights to take action. Compass indicators defined for the project embrace areas such as diversity, inclusivity, collaboration, and the general use of the platform. In the final discussion, the paper offers reflections on the potential relevance of the notion of compass indicators and closes with a discussion of the next steps for this work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Adoption of Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines across Journals

Inga Patarčić

and

Jadranka Stojanovski

Publications 2022, 10(4), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040046 - 28 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1982

Abstract

Journal policies continuously evolve to enable knowledge sharing and support reproducible science. However, that change happens within a certain framework. Eight modular standards with three levels of increasing stringency make Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines which can be used to evaluate to what extent and with which stringency journals promote open science. Guidelines define standards for data citation, transparency of data, material, code and design and analysis, replication, plan and study pre-registration, and two effective interventions: “Registered reports” and “Open science badges”, and levels of adoption summed up across standards define journal’s TOP Factor. In this paper, we analysed the status of adoption of TOP guidelines across two thousand journals reported in the TOP Factor metrics. We show that the majority of the journals’ policies align with at least one of the TOP’s standards, most likely “Data citation” (70%) followed by “Data transparency” (19%). Two-thirds of adoptions of TOP standard are of the stringency Level 1 (less stringent), whereas only 9% is of the stringency Level 3. Adoption of TOP standards differs across science disciplines and multidisciplinary journals (N = 1505) and journals from social sciences (N = 1077) show the greatest number of adoptions. Improvement of the measures that journals take to implement open science practices could be done: (1) discipline-specific, (2) journals that have not yet adopted TOP guidelines could do so, (3) the stringency of adoptions could be increased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Scholars’ Domain of Information Space

Danijela Pongrac

Mihaela Banek Zorica

and

Roman Domović

Publications 2022, 10(4), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040043 - 22 Nov 2022

Viewed by 748

Abstract

This article addresses Croatian scholars’ information behavior and how they use technology to acquire information in three areas of their work: teaching, research, and administrative activities. Our study aims to find which communication channels scholars utilize to find and share knowledge. Are they using communication channels targeting a broader audience, i.e., formal–explicit communication, or those targeting a narrower one, i.e., informal–implicit communication? The questionnaire used included four questions regarding scholar activities, with nine possible communication channels, scored on a seven-point Likert scale. Considering many channels for each area of activity, a reduction was made through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to determine latent components in various channels. In finding information for teaching activities, the main communication channel is informal and implicit, while for research and administrative activities, it is formal and explicit. PCA shows a distinction between social and technical domains of science in terms of how scholars collect material for administrative tasks. A further communication channel is reduced to two factors for all questions, where the first factor has formal–explicit and the second has informal–implicit characteristics. This work is part of a larger study aimed at determining the mechanisms of information diffusion within academic institutions, utilizing the Information space model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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Open AccessArticle

Building National Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs) in Southeast Europe: Supporting Research and Scholarly Communication

and

Publications 2022, 10(4), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications10040042 - 08 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1397

Abstract

The Horizon 2020 project National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe—NI4OS Europe supports the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by integrating 15 countries in Southeast Europe into the governance structure of this new pan-European research environment. Through a qualitative secondary analysis of the data collected during the project, the paper focuses on the main instrument developed by the project with the aim of enabling the integration of the partner countries in the EOSC—a network of national Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs)—and explains how the concept of NOSCI and a wide range of related activities, tools, services, and resources foster research and open scholarly communication. The paper has three main sections: the first identifies challenges to scholarly communication in Southeast Europe, the second describes the methodology used to deal with these challenges revolving around the concept of NOSCI, whereas the third presents a set of indicators to track the change generated by project actions and discusses the impact of this methodology and project outputs in the area of scholarly communication. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward a New World in Scholarly Communication: The 9th PUBMET2022 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science)

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