Alma Swan Key Perspectives Ltd Truro, UK UUK Workshop on Research Information and Management London, 5 December 2007 OVERVIEW: The communication and effectiveness of research

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Increasing amount of research output Increasing formality Increasing time between submission and publication Increasing time between the initial finding / idea and the peer communitys response Key Perspectives Ltd The next 300 years

The last forty years Large-scale disenfranchisement Persistence of the gentlemans club Heavy reliance on publications (sometimes virtually alone) as a measure of an individual scholars worth Almost total reliance on a proxy metric of quality and impact Key Perspectives Ltd

The Age Of The Web New Web-based tools for dissemination: e-journals but there is usually still a subscription barrier Institutional / sub-institutional web sites Inst / department / author pages But these are suboptimal blogs and wikis Institutional digital repositories Key Perspectives Ltd

Institutional repositories Maximise the visibility of research outputs Maximise the impact of an institution Collect and curate ALL the research output Showcase the institutions work Will form the data layer of the future i2010 Vision Single Information Space Provide the locus for measurement, assessment and management (in association with information in the institutions CRIS) Key Perspectives Ltd

REPOSITORIES and other open content Ingest layer services Search / retrieve Aggregate / display Count / assess Peer review Other value adding Editorial Key Perspectives Ltd

Metrics and rankings Goodharts Law What to measure? Be sure that formal outputs will form one focus Many measures relating to those outputs Many target / ranking systems to come Maximising digital visibility will be key Key Perspectives Ltd

The U.Southampton conundrum… Key Perspectives Ltd The G-Factor (universitymetrics.com)

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Repositories… are vital to universities economies and to the UK economy as a whole. Professor J Drummond Bone Past President, Universities UK Key Perspectives Ltd

Universities and our prosperity Generic ways to create wealth The Knowledge Triangle: research education innovation Key Perspectives Ltd

OECDs conclusions Governments would boost innovation and get a better return on their investment in publicly funded research by making research findings more widely available …. and by doing so they would maximise social returns on public investments. OECD Report on Scientific Publishing, 2005 Key Perspectives Ltd

Economic impact of Open Access With the United Kingdom's GERD [Gross Expenditure on Research and Development] at USD 33.7 billion and assuming social returns to R&D of 50%, a 5% increase in access and efficiency [their conservative estimate] would have been worth USD 1.7 billion Houghton et al, 2006 Key Perspectives Ltd

What is going wrong? Australian Govt Productivity Commission report on Public Support for Science & Innovation: lack of effective linkages between research organisations (a.k.a. universities) and firms EU Innovation Reports: SMEs find it hard to get access to the basic research information they need to innovate Key Perspectives Ltd

Terence Dolak (SDR Pharmaceuticals) With a small oncology company … it is imperative that I have access to the literature. But small companies do not have the "deep pockets" necessary... The for-profit journal publishers have effectively barred access to key scientific information except to those who can afford their outrageous fees. Much of the most innovative work is being done at companies like mine that cannot afford to pay $30+ per paper or pay per-search charges in abstracts or journal collections. Key Perspectives Ltd

EU CIS studies Key Perspectives Ltd

Institutional sources are less frequently consulted than internal or market sources; and innovative enterprises find cooperation partners more easily among suppliers or customers than in universities or public research institutes. Key Perspectives Ltd

Open scholarship Immediate visibility benefits Immediate impact benefits Aligns with a universitys core missions Provides the raw material for measurement and assessment Provides the shop window to enable collaborations and partnerships Key Perspectives Ltd

Key Perspectives Ltd Thank you for listening