Contents and Leader


Research information


December 2019/January 2020 l Issue 105 Learning curves


Rebecca Pool asks: are libraries coming around to learning analytics?


Tools of the trade Interview 8


Five industry experts give us the latest low- down on user experience


12


Magdalena Skipper reflects on her career and her work as editor-in-chief of Nature


Introducing attribute release 16


Tim Lloyd discusses the key to patron privacy in an era of single sign-on


A look at prediction markets 18 Jacqueline Thompson, Marcus Munafo and Ian Penton-Voak introduce a new tool to help assess research quality


Monographs ‘central to research


Sophie Goldsworthy and Ben Denne sift through 5,000 responses from HSS researchers


Open book: a librarian’s view 22


Szabi Steiner describes efforts to encourage data sharing at City, University of London


20 4


Content marketing and OA adoption


23


Sabine Louet says the industry needs to create accessible articles to encourage open access articles


Future-gazing with STM


Artificial intelligence; real impact


Michael Upshall reports the results of a survey on the use of Ai in academic publishing


Inspiring affiliation wows delegates


26


Major socially-conscious partnership announced as part of keynote speech at Charleston Library Conference


News


A parade of particulars from around the industry


27 24


Jo McShea rounds up the 50th annual STM conference, held last month in Frankfurt


25


I’m writing this in downtown Charleston, where I’ve been lucky enough to attend the 39th library conference in this glorious South Carolina city. Several technology sessions at


the event were based around user experience (UX), the concept of making sure that industry software and systems are fit for purpose and encompass all stakeholders. On page 8 of this issue five industry experts update us on the latest developments in UX, and make some predictions for the future. In our other set-piece feature,


Rebecca Pool delves into the world of learning analytics – an area that has attracted great interest in many sectors of education but only more recently in the world of academic libraries. The keynote speech at Charleston


was from Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, who announced an affiliation with a superb, socially- conscious organisation called Better World Books, which uses a revolutionary business model to collect used books from libraries, publishers and universities – and then resell, donate and recycle them. To date it has saved more than 300 million books from landfill. There’s more on page 26; it’s truly inspirational stuff. Oh, that front cover. For those not


Editorial and administrative team Editor: Tim Gillett tim.gillett@europascience.com +44 (0) 1223 221040 Specialist reporter: Rebecca Pool Design: David Houghton/Zöe Andrews Partnership & events executive: Charlie Mitchell charlie.mitchell@europascience.com


Advertising team Advertising manager: Mike Nelson mike.nelson@europascience.com +44 (0) 1223 221039


Corporate team Managing director: Warren Clark


Research Information is published by Europa Science Ltd, 4 Signet Court, Cambridge, CB5 8LA l ISSN 1744-8026 Tel: +44 (0) 1223 211170 l Fax: +44 (0) 1223 213385 Web: www.researchinformation.info


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While every care has been taken in the compilation of this magazine, errors or omissions are not the responsibility of the publishers or of the editorial staff. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial staff. All rights reserved. Unless specifically stated, goods or services mentioned are not formally endorsed by Europa Science Ltd, which does not guarantee or endorse or accept any liability for any goods and/or services featured in this publication.


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www.researchinformation.info | @researchinfo December 2019/January 2020 Research Information 3


of a certain age, the image is of a certain rock star whose band was called the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and whose first album was called Are You Experienced? Tenuous and obscure, I know. Sorry.


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Leader: Tim Gillett South Carolina musings


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