NEWS AND ANALYSIS News in Brief
Information access builds bridges for engineers
RCUK’s initial lack of open access clarity is ‘unacceptable’, says House of Lords The UK’s House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has criticised Research Councils UK (RCUK) for failures in communicating its open-access (OA) policy. Its report describes the previous lack of clarity about RCUK’s policy and guidance as ‘unacceptable’.
‘The need to continually support engineers from the start to the end of their careers is essential’
a third
The results were very positive, with around of engineering researchers
stating
they had already been published in an open- access journal, while 87 per cent said they would continue to submit articles to a journal if it converted to an open-access model. Based on this feedback, we felt confident that the engineering ‘market’ was ready for an open-access element to be added to the IET’s journals. In doing this, it helps spread research and intelligence to people who may not previously have been able to access it
through subscription. This is often people who are already working in engineering and are looking to learn from the world’s leading researchers in order to develop their own skills and move their careers upwards. A career in engineering is becoming a more attractive path for young people, and with governments beginning to show an increased backing of science subjects we can start to close the skills gap. The need to continually support engineers from the very start to the end of their careers is an essential part ofthe process and, by combining resources and effort, together we can support the already considerable progress made to date.
Stephanie Fernandes is principal policy advisor for education and innovation and Tim Hamer is director of knowledge at The Institution of Engineering and Technology
The report recommends that RCUK updates its policy guidance and all its communications to reflect the anticipated ‘journey to compliance’ and its flexibility over embargo periods. It also says that, given the widespread confusion over the policy, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills must review the effectiveness of RCUK’s communication about OA to ensure that lessons are learnt. RCUK says that will be considering the recommendations carefully as it revises its policy guidance and devises the terms of its 2014 review. It is currently inviting feedback on a revised policy.
interoperability between scholarly systems, has been a hard nut to crack. Rather than trying to harmonise the whole of the scholarly metadata landscape, the project decided to focus on a particular case – the ability to track research outputs across systems. We then started to ask what would be the essential, minimum and common fields required to allow the tracking of research outputs. After
discussions with research funders,
institutional repository managers and research managers, it was clear that being able to efficiently and consistently track research outputs was a common problem. Time and effort could be saved if this could be resolved. Funders want to track outputs associated with their grants, universities want to track outputs associated with their researchers, researchers
www.researchinformation.info @researchinfo
want to have their admin burden reduced, and track their own outputs. Publishers, data archives, repositories, funders and others want to provide services based on good quality metadata.
In surveying the landscape, we found that metadata implementation has been mixed. Some repositories have customised their metadata fields according to their requirements but not necessarily followed known metadata schemas to do so. Some may have adopted known schemas and others have simply opted to accept the default ‘out of the box’ metadata from the software solution. The use of schemas and also vocabularies associated with particular fields (restricted set of keywords/classifications) has been patchy at best.
So, given the patchy adoption of APR/MAY 2013 Research Information 9
SAGE study will address library value in the developing world A research study is investigating the value of libraries across the developing world. The project by SAGE – ‘Library Value in the Developing World’ – will investigate the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff at 12 institutions in countries classified by the World Bank as low- and middle-income economies (with a GNI less than $4,035). The aim of the study is to provide the academic library community in developing countries with a better understanding of the connections between academic libraries and academic departments, and to identify practical ways to enhance these relationships. The results of the research project will be published in the summer of 2013.
SkyRiver integrates with its sister Innovative Interfaces and ends legal action against OCLC All operations of SkyRiver Technology Solutions will be integrated into its sister company Innovative Interfaces. The SkyRiver cataloging service will become part of Innovative’s product suite. In addition, Innovative has decided to withdraw the claims of the anti-trust suit against OCLC that was filed in 2010 and is currently pending in federal court in Ohio.
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