Parallel Session 6

Parallel Session 6 – Evaluating the Impact of Open Science on Research Libraries

Moderator: Cécile Swiatek Cassafieres, Library of University of Paris Nanterre, France
Location: Tassos Papadopoulos – Room 102 (1st Floor)

6.1) Digital infrastructure for a scalable exchange of sensitive and proprietary usage and impact metrics across public and private stakeholders

Presenter: Ursula Rabar, OPERAS, Switzerland

This presentation shares the potential for digital infrastructure to support the exchange and processing of sensitive and proprietary usage and impact metrics generated by publishers, libraries and distributors. Services provision usage data for open science; yet, opportunities exist to improve the granularity and quality of usage data by moving from the data harvesting economy towards a future supported by shared open infrastructures, secure data brokerage, machine-based dataflows and third-party auditing.

After researching and documenting the challenges, use cases and supply chain for OA book usage data from 2015-2021, the OA Book Usage Data Trust effort is developing governance building blocks for a sustainable infrastructure modelled on a certifiable European IDS (International Data Space) model. This model ensures that organizations wanting to participate in data sharing meet the highest security standards and that usage data exchange would be trusted and support ethical, non-harmful data use.

It also builds towards an understanding of a) similarities across the usage and impact data supply chain for articles, data, and books; b) the unique characteristics and similarities of usage and impact related vocabularies across multi-disciplinary scholarship, and c) emerging principles to guide the trusted public/private exchange of usage data at scale.

About the OA Book Usage Data Trust (OAEBUDT) effort

The OAEBUDT effort aims to foster a secure, multi-party exchange, aggregation and benchmarking of book usage related data, to increase trust in usage metrics, improve data quality, and reduce reporting and compliance resource-burdens related to OA usage data. With Mellon Foundation support, the project is developing ethical data use guidelines to inform OA book usage data sharing agreements and technical requirements to support data exchange between public and commercial OA book usage data creators.

6.2) Exposing Open Science Strategies in Western Balkan LibGuideseld

Presenter: Emina Adilović, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Study explores educational Open Science strategies through analysis of academic library guides in the Western Balkan region. The research question is guided by investigation that includes examining how LibGuides define and present open access content, identifying the resources and support they offer for researchers, and assessing the overall effectiveness of these strategies within the local academic context. The study utilizes the mixed-methods approach, combining a collective case study and both quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The collective case study, incorporating LibGuides from four countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Montenegro), aims to provide both an understanding of individual instances as well as to draw comparisons, identify patterns across the region, and offer a holistic view of diverse approaches in the support of open knowledge. The incorporating quantitative analysis will offer a more comprehensive understanding of the extent to which 1. number of citations, resources and user engagement, 2. frequency of activity, practical guidelines, inclusion of collaboration opportunities and referring to local resources, contribute to the overall support for Open Science practices. Concurrently, qualitative analysis seeks to evaluate the quality, user-friendliness, and contextual relevance of information presented, offering a view of both the content and the user experience within these platforms. The expected results include the identification of commonalities and differences in strategies across the selected LibGuides, shedding light on the effectiveness and adaptability of these approaches within the Western Balkan context. Ultimately, it offers a deeper understanding of how Open Science is conceptualized and promoted in specific regional academic settings, proposing practical implications for research libraries seeking to enhance LibGuides engagement.

6.3) Research libraries at the forefront: empowering Open Science decision making with the OpenAIRE Graph

Presenter: Giulia Malaguarnera, OpenAIRE

Research Libraries are at the forefront of scholarly research communication by tracking the resources, services and tools that can support responsible research assessment and facilitate decision-making by providing concrete argumentation for investing in Open Science. Upholding the values of openness and transparency, Research Performing and Funding Organisations (RPOs and RFOs) have been seeking non-commercial alternatives to research databases that will help them perform their analysis by providing valuable resources and arguments that eventually will lead to effective and efficient decision-making on the institutional level.

The OpenAIRE Graph is an open resource that can support this effort as it is shaped by the research community and currently counts over 242 Mi, of which 81 Mi open access, research products (publications, data, software) from repositories, CRIS systems, and trusted resources.

In this presentation, we will examine the vital role that research librarians can play in enhancing these resources by looking closely at the OpenAIRE Graph case. We explore their contributions in defining a common metadata schema, reporting missing information, providing resources, and linking persistent identifiers (PIDs) such as affiliations, projects, and research products. We will also demonstrate how research librarians can use the OpenAIRE Graph and guide their research communities towards trusted resources and strengthen their networks by verifying data.

We also demonstrate how the OpenAIRE Graph provides the backbone for the OpenAIRE ecosystem and portfolio of services, all designed to support the work of RPOs and RFOs:

  • The OpenAIRE Provide Community enforces the OpenAIRE Guidelines, designed to provide a public space to share the research community work on interoperability. This community regularly validates the entries and their updates in the OpenAIRE Graph, and can track visualisations, downloads and data usage via the Usage Count.
  • Initiatives like OpenCitations and OpenAPC are an integral part of the OpenAIRE Catalogue. They utilise the OpenAIRE Graph data and, in particular, OpenCitations enriches it with bibliometric information (by interconnecting and integrating open bibliographic and citation data with the OpenAIRE Graph and the EOSC Resource Catalogue) and Open APC with publication costs (APC and BPC).
  • The OpenAIRE MONITOR service provides analysis and statistics from the OpenAIRE Graph and is curated by researchers and developers. It showcases dashboards with dynamic visualisations of Open Science activities, research outputs and performance, including Research Impact, funding and collaborations indicators on demand. This service facilitates the data elaboration at Institutions, University Alliances or Networks, Research Initiatives, and at RFOs. It can also be used for creating National Monitors for Countries that want to track progress towards open access. OpenAIRE is currently developing a National Open Access Monitor for Ireland.
  • The active OpenAIRE curator community, fixes affiliation duplicates in OpenOrgs, collaborating closely with ROR, the registry for research organisations

This presentation ultimately aims to illustrate how the services and tools in the OpenAIRE catalogue can be utilised by research librarians to support informed decisions on Open Science policies and practices on the institutional level as well as showcase the power of community in curating, sustaining and powering open tools.

54th LIBER Annual Conference