perspectives on scholarly communication Herbert Van de Sompel Los Alamos National Laboratory – Research Library Universitaire Stichting – Brussels - October 20 th 2002

herbert van de sompel It is -- at least -- legitimate to reflect on the possibility of a digital system for scholarly communication that is not merely a scanned copy of the paper system Houston, we got a problem

herbert van de sompel serials crisis: increasing journal prices limit, rather than broaden, access to scholarly research IP drain: faculty signs away copyright publication delay: journal system can not cope with increasing volume of scholarly output criticism of peer-review: suppresses ideas, outcome criticized inertia: system is self-stabilizing the journal system

scholarly communication

herbert van de sompel AR PUBPUB SUBSUB LIBLIB the information chain scholarly communication: traditional view

herbert van de sompel AR PUBPUB SUBSUB LIBLIB the information chain scholarly communication: traditional view digital?

herbert van de sompel forget about who has been doing what and how in the existing system; let’s look at what has to be done in a system for scholarly communication free our minds

herbert van de sompel registrationestablishing intellectual priority certificationcertifying quality/validity of research awarenessensuring accessibility of research archivingpreserving research for future use {Roosendaal & Geurts} systems for scholarly communication

herbert van de sompel registrationestablishing intellectual priority certificationcertifying quality/validity of research awarenessensuring accessibility of research archivingpreserving research for future use rewardingevaluating & rewarding performance {Roosendaal & Geurts} systems for scholarly communication

herbert van de sompel AR registration awareness archiving certificationrewarding value chain systems for scholarly communication

herbert van de sompel In a fully electronic scholarly communication system, each function of scholarly communication can be handled: in a discrete manner in a distributed manner by different parties in a digital, networked world …

herbert van de sompel content providers: open access discipline- specific eprint servers, institutional repositories, peer-to-peer research repositories, … service providers: value-added services that provide certification, awareness, and archiving, rewarding functions current agents of these functions (e.g., societies) can operate in disaggregated model new entrants in the system possible various business models possible disaggregated system: how?

herbert van de sompel disaggregated system Lower prices by increasing cost efficiency: –decoupling value chain forces market efficiency of individual links –introduces competition throughout chain, especially if eprints are in open access Reveal that academy contributes most of the value –academic labor & institutional investment drives content, certification, and archiving

Paul Ginsparg

the Open Archives Initiative

herbert van de sompel AR registration awareness archiving certificationrewarding interoperable grid OAI’s role

herbert van de sompel so far: harvesting of descriptive metadata but coming, harvesting of: references usage logs certification metadata rights metadata OAI’s role

technology law economy sociology scholarly communication

technology law economy sociology establish a technological basis that allows addressing the other issues.

scholarly communication, other ways?

herbert van de sompel other ways Discipline-based preprint systems; e.g. arXiv, NCSTRL, … Self-archiving approach Journals, the other approach; e.g. BMC Institutional repositories

herbert van de sompel institutional repositories Institutionally defined: content generated by institutional community Scholarly content: preprints and working papers, published articles, enduring teaching materials, student theses, etc. Cumulative & perpetual: preserve ongoing access to material Interoperable & open access : free online global

herbert van de sompel Local & immediate –Increases institutional visibility & prestige by clarifying institutional sources of research –Demonstrates institution’s value to public & private funding sources –Archives institutional production –Complements existing scholarly publishing model rationale for institutional repositories

herbert van de sompel rationale for institutional repositories Global & long-term –Key component in evolving disaggregated scholarly publishing model. –Part of global network of interoperable, distributed content repositories.

herbert van de sompel Registration: –Institutional repositories supply basic step of initial registration. Includes establishing priority. –Alternative registration mechanisms accommodate increased volume of research output. –Registered materials in open access institutional repositories: how?

herbert van de sompel Certification: –Repository “certification” essentially imprimatur of sponsoring institution/department (sometimes more, sometimes less). –Peer-review on top of registered content. –Disaggregation allows new mechanisms for certification in addition to peer review. institutional repositories: how?

herbert van de sompel institutional repositories: how? Awareness: –Service-level awareness tools enabled by OAI- compliance & interoperability. –Search engines index the descriptive metadata harvested from federated repositories. –Search engines can use other metadata in services: references, certification metadata, usage information, …

herbert van de sompel Archiving: –No final answer on digital archiving –However, disaggregation helps put institutions (libraries?) — rather than journal publishers — in charge of digital archiving. institutional repositories: how?

herbert van de sompel Rewarding: –Digital communication facilitates the generation of other metrics: –Citation databases not limited to selected journals –Usage information –Certification by which parties? institutional repositories: how?

scholarly communication, other ways: obstacles

herbert van de sompel Technical issues: global level (OAI, …) institutional level Unknown cost parameters Current journal system role in academic advancement Systemic inertia Faculty participation obstacles to implementation

herbert van de sompel overcoming faculty objection Impediment to formal publication: trend for publishers to accept that online posting is not prior publication. Develop discipline-specific policies. Intellectual property and data abuse issues: repository registration protects priority retain rights to eprint no more plagiarism online than offline machine readable rights

herbert van de sompel overcoming faculty objection Perceived quality: label & differentiate types of content reveal certification methods Undermines existing journals: repositories coexist with existing publishing system Increased work load: put library in charge of metadata tagging, formatting and reformatting, etc.

herbert van de sompel overcoming faculty objection Rewarding: Institutions must reward registration in institutional repository Funding agencies must reward institutions and scholars for registration in institutional repositories Other metrics must become available. OAI will facilitate their emergence

herbert van de sompel Initiate institution- & consortia-based pilot projects. Provide national funding. Support academy-friendly author/publisher agreements Support learned societies in establishing new roles in disaggregated model Define alternative rewarding strategies: institutional, funding agencies, … ACTION!

herbert van de sompel questions