Education information FEATURE


lessons and then set a research task.’ This trend is quite new, she continued: ‘Ten years ago when I did a history degree, archive sources like this really were not around. Availability of this type of content is a real opportunity for researchers and students, opening up access to material that was previously inaccessible. All of what we digitise is rare or unique.’ She noted, however, that there could be challenges in navigating such a body of primary-source content. For this reason the publisher helps provide routes into content by commissioning expert essays and adding additional features that contextualise primary- source content. She said that users engage


‘The predominant groups using our resources


are undergraduates and graduate researchers involved in the humanities and social sciences from


institutions worldwide’ Jennifer Kemp, Adam Matthew


most positively with image galleries, thematic exhibitions and video content.


‘Contextualisation is very important,’ she explained. ‘We are also putting effort into making it as discoverable as possible and are starting to make content discoverable through Google. Often that is the first port of call for users.’


And then there are reference management tools and the additional insight that they can bring into related resources. Another of Digital Science’s portfolio companies, ReadCube, provides annotation features for papers and plans to enable users to share their annotations. Hannay sees an application for this in, for example a lecturer asking their students to read a research paper and including their own annotations to help explain points or raise questions for the students to explore. Digital Science’s Altmetric is embedded into ReadCube, as well as into many publisher platforms and tools, and Hannay said that this could also help students. ‘Altmetric is useful because it gives an idea of what other people are saying. It was done predominantly with researchers and authors in mind but it also has


www.researchinformation.info @researchinfo


a wider educational role in directing people to accompanying commentary in things like blogs.


‘Science isn’t a body of facts; it’s a way to


study the world,’ he continued. ‘It is important to develop critical thinking to determine what’s true. In some ways understanding a paper is the easy bit. It’s understanding the wider implications that is more difficult.’ Mark Siebert, senior manager of global academic relations at Elsevier, agreed: ‘Students are exposed to an abundance of research information that is available to them online, and learning how to discover, use and organise this information in a manageable way is a key issue. Many students are using social media as an additional discovery tool, and often organising their articles and chapters (from myriad sources) in new applications, often on mobile or tablet devices.’ He went on to say that there is an increased need to make sure that information retrieved is reliable. ‘The scholarly communication and peer-review system really helps provide that quality stamp – so it’s important to equip students with the knowledge about how to find and use reliable research.’ David Cox, head of digital publishing and development at Taylor & Francis, noted that publishers, aggregators, retailers and libraries are working very hard on trying to solve the issue


discoverability. ‘Many millions of pounds are being spent across the industry to gather, make consistent, and apply meaningful semantic metadata to content at the granular (article or chapter) level,’ he said. And there is another group that is key helping


of to students wade through the


information available to them, as Kiren Shoman, executive head of books at SAGE observed: ‘We must not forget the importance of faculty in helping students learn about tools and how to get the most out of their resources.’


The textbook


Of course, the textbook remains a key information tool for undergraduates – but even this has had a digital makeover. For many years textbooks have had companion websites. The level of material on these sites has grown over the years and often includes extra resources such as videos, simulations, case studies, tutorial material and self- assessment exercises.


‘It is also standard to have companion websites and they are seeing increasing usage. When we started to do companion websites at SAGE we embedded examples of relevant


journal articles and found that this really excited faculty. Where journal articles are integrated with textbooks, students really engage with them,’ said Shoman. And then there are e-books, and the ongoing question about whether they will replace print books. ‘Is print going to die? It’s true that we are in a digital revolution and there are a lot of opportunities but SAGE is still seeing really strong print performance,’ said Shoman. And this seems backed up by studies. For example, a recent report of US students by Outsell found that 86 per cent of students in the social sciences say that they prefer to access textbook content via print.


‘Our plan is not to lose print but to have


both. We worked with Tom Chatfield, a British writer and technology theorist who said that good print beats bad digital. One of the ways that we do this is by making sure that our digital components complement print. Chatfield also said that print needs to know digital and digital needs to know print,’ continued Shoman. Textbooks and other content in an electronic format does, however, open up new opportunities for universities. One of these is the inclusion of such resources in a university’s visual learning environment (VLE). ‘Sometimes institutions want materials embedded in their VLE and we have seen an


‘We must not forget the importance of faculty in


helping students learn about tools and how to get the most out of their


resources’ Kiren Shoman, SAGE


increase in interest in e-textbook sales at an institutional level. Some universities want to offer a lot of material for free because of increased tuition fees. This has not been a request from a huge amount of universities yet but it feels like a trend,’ said Shoman. ‘With fees, students tend to regard their experience of higher education as a transaction – I’ve paid all this money; now what service are you going to provide for me in return? Within that, many students are


JUNE/JULY 2014 Research Information 19


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