Paper Abstracts

Author: Heather Morrison, University of Ottawa School of Information Studies

The open access (OA) article processing charges (APC) project is a longitudinal study of the minority of fully OA journals (27% in 2016) that have APCs. The global average APC shows little change; in USD, 906 in 2010, 964 in 2016, 974 in 2017. The average masks currency differences and the impact of a growing market; new APC journals often start with an APC of 0. Traditional commercial scholarly publishers are entering the OA market: the largest OA journal publishers’ portfolios in 2017 were Springer, De Gruyter, Elsevier, and Wolters Kluwer Medknow. However, these are a small portion of OA journal publishing which is still marked by a very long tail and extensive involvement by very small, often university or society publishers. APC pricing shows a wide range and variability. The APC market can be described as volatile.

Keywords: OA, APCs, economics

Authors: Milena Angelova, Technical University of Sofia
Vishnu Manasa Devagiri, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Veselka Boeva, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Peter Linde, Blekinge Institute of Technology
Niklas Lavesson, Blekinge Institute of Technology

Finding experts in academics is an important practical problem, e.g. recruiting reviewers for reviewing conference, journal or project submissions, partner matching for research proposals, finding relevant M. Sc. or Ph. D. supervisors etc. In this work, we discuss an expertise recommender system that is built on data extracted from the Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) instance of the institutional repository system DiVA. The developed prototype system is evaluated and validated on information extracted from the BTH DiVA installation, concerning thesis supervision of researchers affiliated with BTH. The extracted DiVA classification terms are used to build an ontology that conceptualizes the thesis domain supported by the university. The supervisor profiles of the tutors affiliated with the BTH are constructed based on the extracted DiVA data. These profiles can further be used to identify and recommend relevant subject thesis supervisors.

Keywords: data mining, DiVA, expertise retrieval, knowledge management, natural language processing

Authors: Juan Pablo Alperin, Simon Fraser University
John Willinsky, Stanford University
Brian Owen, Simon Fraser University
James MacGregor, Simon Fraser University
Alec Smecher, Simon Fraser University
Kevin Stranack, Simon Fraser University

As the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) enters its third decade, it faces the responsibilities of supporting the more than 10,000 journals using its software and are dependent on PKP continuing to develop the code. In the fall of 2017, PKP, with the support of the Arnold Foundation, contracted the consulting services of BlueSky to Blueprint, with its principal Nancy Maron embarking on an exploration of PKP’s standing and prospects among a sample of those involved in scholarly publishing, including current, former, and potential users of its software (Maron 2018). This paper presents BlueSky’s findings and PKP’s responses in what may serve as a lesson on the maturing of, and challenges faced by, an open source software project seeking to sustain increased global access to research and scholarship.

Keywords: Scholarly publishing; Open access; Open sources software

Author: Jan Pokorný, National Library of Technology, Prague

This paper will describe a method for machine-based creation of high quality subject indexing and classification for both electronic and print documents using tables of contents (ToCs). The technology described here is primarily focused on electronic and print documents for which, because of technical or licensing reasons, it is not possible to index full text. However, the technology would also be useful for full text documents, because it could significantly enhance the accuracy and relevance of subject description by analyzing the structure of ToCs.

Keywords: text mining, computer-generated subject headings, computer-generated keywords, machine learning system, library automatization

Authors: Nuno Freire, INESC-ID
Pável Calado INESC-ID, IST, University of Lisbon
Bruno Martins INESC-ID, IST, University of Lisbon

In the World Wide Web, a very large number of resources is made available through digital libraries. The existence of many individual digital libraries, maintained by different organizations, brings challenges to the discoverability, sharing and reuse of the resources. A widely-used approach is metadata aggregation, where centralized efforts like Europeana facilitate the discoverability and use of the resources by collecting their associated metadata. The cultural heritage domain embraced the aggregation approach while, at the same time, the technological landscape kept evolving. Nowadays, cultural heritage institutions are increasingly applying technologies designed for the wider interoperability on the Web. This paper presents a study of the current application by cultural heritage data providers of technological solutions in use for making structured metadata available for re-use in the Internet. We investigated the use of both linked data and technologies related with indexing of resources by Internet search engines. We have conducted a harvesting experiment of the landing pages from websites of digital libraries that participate in Europeana, and collected statistics about the usage these particular technologies. These technologies allow for representing structured data within HTML, or for structured data to be referred to by links within HTML or through HTTP headers capabilities. We conclude with a discussion of future work for establishing a solution for cultural heritage aggregation based on the current situation and the available technologies.

Keywords. metadata, cultural heritage, search engines, linked data, World Wide Web

Author: Matthew Wells, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

In certain digital gaming subcultures, specific games are extended and enhanced by players who create “mods”, or modifications, that add new artwork, new scenarios, and even new rules. “Modders” meet in online communities that foster engagement through the discussion and self-publication of mods, and these can keep interest in a given game going years after it is released. These DIY efforts could be adapted by academic publishers, particularly those focused on design research, to encourage sustained engagement with scholarly materials. This article discusses the history of modding, provides examples, and sketches one online modding community in detail. It then makes the argument that modding is a form of end-user engagement of the sort advocated by scholars such as Gerald Fischer, and compares modding to other online academic publishing efforts, such as webtexts.

Keywords:  games, modding, mods, programming

Authors: Ina Smith, Academy of Science of South Africa
Susan Veldsman, Academy of Science of South Africa

Exploitation of the digital revolution offers great potential for less affluent and least economically developed countries (LEDCs) and for the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, LEDCs typically have poorly resourced national research systems. If they cannot participate in research based on big and open data, the gap could grow exponentially in coming years. They will be unable to collect, store and share data, unable to participate in the global research enterprise, unable to contribute as full partners to global efforts on climate change, health care, and resource protection, and unable to fully benefit from such efforts, where global solutions will only be achieved if there is global participation. Thus, both emerging and developed countries have a clear and direct interest in helping to fully mobilize LEDC science potential and thereby to contribute to achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The initiative described here (African Open Science Platform or AOSP) is directed towards minimising a divide between emerging and developed countries in what is arguably the most important current opportunity to enhance the power and efficiency of the scientific enterprise and its contribution to societal benefit.

Keywords: Open science, open data, African Open Science Platform

Author: Elisabeth Heinemann, Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland (MWS)

This paper develops the concept of network sustainability. To become and stay sustainable, distributed research infrastructures need to satisfy present needs while at the same time be flexible and resilient to meet future requirements. For this it is not enough to merely build a sustainable economic model and be technically viable. Research infrastructures that can understand, address and shape future needs have a sustainable community network. Clear characteristics of a research infrastructure with a sustainable network are that partners gain access to other networks and interest groups, that knowledge, information and expertise is shared freely among partners, that the infrastructure increases partners’ visibilities and vice versa, and that partners are enabled to stay current and state-of-the-art. This is shown on OPERAS (open access in the european research area through scholarly communication), a research infrastructure for open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities, and its partner Max Weber Stiftung (MWS), a German research foundation.

Keywords: network sustainability, research infrastructure, scholarly communication, SSH, integration

Authors: Denisse Albornoz
Maggie Huang
Issra Marie Martin
Maria Mateus
Aicha Yasmine Touré
Leslie Chan

Open Science is becoming a popular policy object around the world. We question the extent to which Open Science is becoming an “empty” rhetoric tool that serves as a instrument to strengthen powerful institutions and the discursive hegemonies that sustain them. This study sought to identify key narratives about Open Science in policy, and critically assess the extent to which they affect multi-layered domination and inequality schemes that pre-exist in scientific knowledge production. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of Open Science policies stemming from Europe, North America, Latin America and Africa to understand how narratives about Open Science policies are produced, reproduced and by whom; and in turn whose interests are neglected in this process. We found that OS policies are predominantly stemming from Europe, and promoting a technocentric and modernization approach to Open Science that risks widening power imbalances in scientific production.

Key words: Open science, infrastructure, epistemic governance, framing theory, policy analysis

Authors: Sergey Parinov, CEMI RAS, RANEPA
Victoria Antonova, Higher School of Economics

Recent research information systems development allows a transformation of citations in research papers’ full-text into interactive elements. Such interactivity in some cases works as an instrument of direct scholarly communications between citing and cited authors. We discuss this challenge for research e-infrastructure development including opportunities for improvements in research cooperation and in collaboration mechanisms of global research community.

Keywords: Citations as interactive elements, scholarly communication, cooperation, collaboration, shared mental models

Authors: Aspasia Togia, Alexander TEI of Thessaloniki
Eleftheria Koseoglou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Sofia Zapounidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikolaos Tsigilis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

OA infrastructure is necessary for implementing open access and open science in any country. Open access infrastructures in Greece have been steadily improving over the past years, as more and more stakeholders follow international trends and participate in European networks and projects. The aim of the present paper is to give a description of the Greek OA infrastructure with emphasis on Institutional Repositories and OA journals. Building upon previous literature (Banou & Kostagiolas, 2007; Chantavaridou, 2009; Georgiou & Papadatou, 2010) and relying of data collected from a number of sources, the article presents both quantitative and qualitative information relating to the state-of-the-art of OA in order to identify current trends and future challenges. Data gathered from directories and aggregators were verified to ensure that IRs, OA journals and digital collections are still active. We collected information about specific features, such as the type of content, the metadata schemas in use, the copyright policy and the software in order to give a complete picture of the status of OA infrastructure in Greece.

Keywords: open access, institutional repositories, open access journals, academic institutions, Greece

Authors: Arianna Becerril-García, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico
Eduardo Aguado-López, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico

The Latin American region has an ecosystem where the nature of publication is conceived as the act of making public, of sharing and not as the publishing industry. International, national and institutional contexts have led to a redefinition of a project –Redalyc.org- that began in 2003 and that has already fulfilled its original mission: give visibility to knowledge generated in Latin America and promote quality of scientific journals. Nevertheless, it is mandatory to be transformed from a Latin American platform based in Mexico into a community-based regional infrastructure that continues assessing journals quality and providing access to full-text in benefit of journals visibility and free access to knowledge. A framework that generates technology in favor of the empowerment and professionalization of journal editors, making the editorial task in open access sustainable and that allows Redalyc to sustain itself collectively. This work describes the first Redalyc’s model, presents the problematic in course and the new business model Redalyc is designing and adopting to operate on.

Keywords: Redalyc, Open Access, Latin America

Authors: Sarita Albagli, Ibict – Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology
Anne Clinio, Liinc – Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Information and Knowledge Studies
Henrique Parra, Unifesp – Federal University of São Paulo
Felipe Fonseca, Ubalab

The paper presents a critical analysis of the possibilities and limits of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, proposed by Elinor Ostrom and team, specially addressing the mutual relations between natural and knowledge commons. It results from an action-research project on the role of open science (OS) in development, carried out in the municipality of Ubatuba, on the North Coast of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2015-2017. The work involved: systematizing the literature on the IAD framework; mapping and selecting literature representative of other theoretical and conceptual approaches; critically using and adapting the framework to the case studied. The project provided the opportunity to observe how these dynamics take place in a relatively small-scale (while heavily interconnected) context. While the IAD framework helped us to analyse the institutional, political, and governance issues affecting knowledge production and circulation, we observed the higher complexity of our action arena, shedding light on the fact that natural and knowledge commons are the two dimensions of the same “commoning” process.

Keywords: Commons, Open Science, Institutional Analysis and Development, Ubatuba, Brazil

Authors: Andre Luiz Appel, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Ivonne Lujano, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
Sarita Albagli, Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

The objective of this study is to investigate how Open Science (OS) values and practices have influenced open access (OA) journals publishers in Latin American and the Caribbean (LA&C). Our key questions regarding this issue are: a) to what extent are these practices being adopted by LA&C journals? b) what are the corresponding decision-making processes of scientific publishers? c) are there any public policies in LA&C currently supporting the adoption of these practices? d) what are the possible impacts of these practices (e.g., increased number of articles submissions, greater visibility, indexing of journals, and others)?. In order to answers these questions, we conducted a survey with a sample of LA&C journals obtained from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) database. From a population of 1,900 journals distributed among 19 LA&C countries listed by UNESCO, we randomly selected a sample of 322 based on a confidence interval of 95% and a margin of error of 5%, distributed per country proportionally. We distributed questionnaires over e-mail in the beginning of March and received a total of 55 full responses. The results reveal that much journals are somewhat aware of or informed about most of open science practices being discussed, but just some of them have already successfully implemented some practices.

Keywords: open access, open science, open access journals, Latin America and the Caribbean, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Authors: George Chen, Knowledge GAP – University of Toronto
Alejandro Posada, Knowledge GAP – University of Toronto

This paper attempts to illustrate the implications of a simultaneous redirection of the big publishers’ business strategy towards open access business models and the acquisition of scholarly infrastructure utilizing the conceptual framework of rent-seeking theory. To document such a transformation, we utilized financial databases to analyze the mergers and acquisitions of the top publicly traded academic publishers. We then performed a service analysis to situate the acquisitions of publishers within the knowledge and education life-cycles, illustrating what we term to be their vertical integration within their respective expansion target life-cycles. Implications of higher education institutions’ increased dependency towards the companies and increased influence by the companies on the institution and individual researcher were noted from the vertical integration of products. Said vertical integration is analyzed via a rent theory framework and described to be a form of rent-seeking complementary to the redirection of business strategies to open access. Finally, the vertical integration is noted to generate exclusionary effects upon researchers/institutions in the global south.

Keywords: knowledge production, rent-seeking, scholarly infrastructure, concentration, inequality

Authors: Rebecca Hillyer, Stellenbosch University
Angela Okune, UC Berkley
Denise Albornoz, University of Toronto
Alejandro Posada, University of Toronto
Leslie Chan, University of Toronto

The current discourse around Open Science has tended to focus on the creation of new technological platforms and tools to facilitate sharing and reuse of a wide range of research outputs. There is an assumption that once these new tools are in place, researchers – and at times, members of the general public- are able to participate in the creation of scientific knowledge in more accessible and efficient ways. While many of these new tools have indeed assisted in the ease of collaboration through online spaces and mechanisms, the narrowness of how infrastructure is imagined by open science practitioners tends to put the use of technology ahead of the issues that people are actually trying to solve, and fails to acknowledge the systemic constraints that exist within and between some communities. Drawing on an analytical framework grounded in Actor Network Theory (ANT), this paper highlights the need for inclusive knowledge infrastructures, particularly in the context of sustainable development. Three case studies from the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet), are outlined in order to illustrate the importance of moving beyond a definition of infrastructure as merely a technical or physical entity. These cases demonstrate how more sustainable and nuanced forms of collaboration and participation can be enabled through broader understandings of knowledge infrastructures.

Keywords: inclusive knowledge infrastructures, open science, collaboration, actor network theory, decentralization, research tools, participatory design