Registration and Networking

Welcome Notes

The implementation of the LIBER Strategy – Powering Sustainable Knowledge in the Digital Age

In November 2017, LIBER launched its new strategy “Powering Sustainable Knowledge in the Digital Age”. The vision that has been set out is quite ambitious. In 2022 we see a world in which: Open Access is the predominant form of publishing; Research Data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR); Digital Skills underpin a more open and transparent research life cycle; Research Infrastructure is participatory, tailored and scaled to the needs of the diverse disciplines; The cultural heritage of tomorrow is built on today’s digital information. This presentation explains the strategy and zooms in on the way in which LIBER intends to implement Open Science. LIBER implements the strategy through various activities and projects. The work of the Steering Committees and the LIBER Working Groups will be explained, as well as the European projects in which LIBER participates. To help research libraries further understand and implement Open Science, LIBER published an Open Science Roadmap in July 2018. This roadmap describes how and why research libraries should be pioneers and champions for Open Science and gives concrete examples of how all libraries can actively contribute to the development of Open Science by raising awareness, provide training, opening up research collections to innovative research methods and developing supportive policies and infrastructures. The Roadmap is not a static document and will be updated on the basis of input and feedback from work in practice from LIBER’s members. Libraries who want to do more with Open Science can rely on LIBER for support.

Sponsor Talk: A data-based analysis of Open Access trend

Open Access is growing across the publishing landscape and OA articles can now be identified much more easily than before, but which is the real trend of Open Access? How OA is impacting the value of journals and which impact are OA articles producing? And again: is the Open Access reporting the same success everywhere and in all research areas? Clarivate paved the way for making OA much more discoverable, introducing it for the first time in the researcher workflow and will be here presenting contextualized data and results of such a consolidated experience.

It’s high time to rethink how we pay for Open infrastructure; it’s high time to act

Changes in the current scholarly communications policy, service and infrastructure ecosystem require us to rethink how we will sustain our open efforts in the future. Seed funding will help us innovate; however, are we as libraries ready to invest in maintaining and further developing good practices for years to come such as services we have come to depend upon to implement our policies such as DOAJ or SHERPA/RoMEO? Many of us in Europe are reliant on our ministries or on generous institutions for funding, but when governments or priorities change, how sure are we that this funding can or will continue? Furthermore, funders are increasingly introducing Open policies; what is their contribution to sustaining Open services/infrastructure? Or are we going to leave it to large publishers to purchase services and infrastructure to add it to their increasingly diversified portfolio, increasing our dependency on them? A range of Open Research initiatives is experimenting with new business models to help combat these challenges. Furthermore, a new collective partnership model such as SCOSS is stimulating change in this area. Such developments are changing mindsets as regards the way we finance Open Research. It is time to rethink how we fund the Open services and infrastructure that support Open policy and practice. Merely continuing to talk of the need to sustain service and infrastructure or taking a piecemeal approach will not cut it, we need to see a strategic vision and approach to help ensure the scholarly communications services and infrastructure are here for years to come.

Coffee Break

Sponsor Talk: Ideas for Knowledge Democratization

30 million daily news updates are published every day. 40 million social media posts are published every hour. How can relevant knowledge reach 21st-century learners through all this information? How will policymakers, practitioners, and members of the public hear about the reliable information they need to make evidence-based decisions? It is not enough for research just to be open. It also needs to find its way to those who can make use of it, in a format that meets their needs. We’ll be looking at new opportunities for researchers, libraries, and publishers to work together for one of the sometimes forgotten goals of the open science movement: helping research solve today’s real-world problems.

Scientometric frameworks for practical open science management: going beyond the rhetoric

Implementing open access policies in practice, or utilizing the possibilities of open science requires serious evidence-based planning for academic institutions acting within the market of scientific information. Scientometrics and bibliometrics naturally plays an outstanding role in informing these strategies, and are often being exploited by publishers for marketing purposes as well. We argue, however, that the most popular scientometrics-based arguments, – relying on concepts such as the „size of output” and „impact” – used to persuade research managers to agree on subscriptions, or to establish a subscription portfolio or an open-access deal, or even to promote Open Science facilities for research evaluation are mostly rhetorical, and usually miss the points or questions crucial to the „optimal” choices. In this presentation, we propose various scientometric frameworks to address the following two broad questions: (1) What „metrics” of the target community’s publication strategies provide best support for negotiating deals and for substituting subscriptions with OA-solutions (2) What can scientometrics offer for assessing or establishing the practical value of Open Science facilities (data sources, metrics tools etc.) for research evaluation.

From Open Access to Open Scholarship: UCL Press as a model for the Future of Scholarly Publishing

UCL Press is the UK’s first fully Open Access University Press, founded in June 2015. The presentation will look at Open Science as defined by the European Commission, which has identified the future of scholarly publishing as one of the 8 pillars of the emerging Open Science agenda. This talk will look at the implications of new publishing models for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences by describing the foundation and activity of UCL Press. UCL Press publishes research monographs, textbooks and journals, and is developing a new platform for journal publishing which will be piloted from the autumn of 2018 in a subject domain in the Social Sciences. The presentation will look at the impact the Press has made – both in terms of the impact of UCL Press titles and the global engagement with the University that has resulted from Press activity. The talk will suggest that every research intensive university would benefit from establishing an Open Access Press, a move which would bring publishing back into the academy, embracing the values of Open Scholarship in the process.

Sponsor Talk: Elsevier innovations in teaching medicine and bringing knowledge to citizens. The case of cervical cancer in the Amazon jungle

Elsevier mission is leading the way in health. As part of that mission, our company dedicates a substantial amount of efforts and resources on innovation. This time we would like to show why and how have we developed the most innovative solution for educating future doctors and helping them solving major regional problems. We will also show an example of that in Brazil. Connected to our company mission, statistics across the globe show improvements in incidence of cervical cancer in Brazil, this preventable disease still remains the number one cancer killing women in the Amazon. Elsevier is working closely with organizations in overcoming the regional challenges with the goal of improving outcomes and ultimately supporting the eradication of cervical cancer.

Lunch Break

Sponsor Talk: The role of scholarly publishers in an Open Science world

As a customer-focused organisation researchers are our ‘North Star’ and at the very core of our mission – we are committed to continually act in support of the goals of Open Access, Open Science and the library and research community, to advance research, discovery and learning. We see ourselves as an integral part of the scholarly research eco-system and Ben will outline Wiley’s approach and the role of a scholarly publisher.

The Jülich Open Access Barometer, a precursor for the Open Access Monitor Germany

According to the Open Access Strategy of Forschungszentrum Jülich, “the Central Library has the task of supporting the transition from subscription journals to open access and to control expenditures for subscription journals in such a manner that sufficient funds are available for gold open access publication fees (article processing charges, APCs)” 1 . To fulfil this task, the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich has developed an automated joint reporting of subscription and publication expenditure along with a number of other key indicators. Their visualization is presented as the Open Access Barometer 2 on the institution’s website and constitutes an example of the visibility and further use of the data. The purpose of presenting the information on the website is to advocate open access within our institution and to demonstrate the library’s efforts towards supporting our institution’s open access goals through the considered collection development. In an ongoing project funded by the Alliance of German Research Organizations and by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich is developing an Open Access Monitor for Germany. The concept and the visualization of the Open Access Barometer gave an example of the features integrated in the Open Access Monitor. While it is currently under construction, a beta version will be presented at the Budapest conference.

Sponsor Talk: Open, open access and discovery

Sending information “forth to the world” has become easier than ever, but it is still not trouble-free. The question today is one of discoverability. How can we ensure that those in need of relevant information can readily find it? It goes without saying that the subject of discoverability takes on additional significance in the context of open access. Open Access research is only impactful, after all, if it gets found. This is where discovery systems should come in. Users, after all, want to be assured that they have access to valuable open access content and the technology underlying the discovery system is paramount to user success. This presentation will look at the impact of ‘open’ in today’s library environment. The presenter will further discuss how ideas of ‘open’ are increasingly defining library technology and the industry’s approaches to content. The presenter will look at the underpinnings of an open environment, discovery technology and its relevance to discovering open access content.

Panel Discussion

Focused on practicalities of open access workflows in universities and research libraries. Participating: Paul Ayris, Brigitte Kromp, Diane Geraci, Liam Earney, Bernhard Mittermaier

Closing Notes