Introduction

Once researchers complete a project they need to make a series of decisions about how they share it. The list of questions to ask can seem endless in an area where they can often benefit from advice and support, and they may well turn to library staff for assistance. Library staff, including those new to the area, can develop their knowledge of scholarly communication by assisting them. Much of this chapter focuses on the publish and promote stages of the research lifecycle.

This chapter looks at the publication process and how researchers can overcome common barriers to sharing their work, select the right publisher for their project, and promote their work to a wider audience. It is a chapter of checklists, which librarians can use to work through some of the key decisions with their researchers. Although this chapter refers to researchers publishing their work, ‘publishing’ encompasses more than traditional, formal publication. Researchers have many publication venues to choose from, including journal articles, blogs and conference presentations; although the choice of format is influenced by external factors it is still one of the biggest decisions they have to make.

What follows is an overview of each of the stages in the publication process, the decisions facing the researcher and how librarians can support their communities, but first it is a good idea to take a step back and explore the reasons why researchers publish their work.

Why do researchers need to publish?

It is important for researchers to progress in their careers and those who wish to stay in academia will seek to take on increasingly senior roles within their research group or wider institution. To many in academia, formal publication is still seen as the gold standard of research outputs and academics at any stage of their career are expected to accumulate publications on their CV. If one of these makes a good impact it can enhance a researcher's reputation and help to make them more desirable to other institutions, as well as counting highly in assessment exercises such as the REF. Even if a researcher is not intending to pursue an academic career they may still find that their employability is enhanced if they publish their work.

Introduction

Librarians have many skills and wide-ranging knowledge, which makes them ideally placed to support members of their research community in carrying out every stage of their projects, though many information professionals are less confident about using their skills when working on their own research. When undertaking personal research projects, library staff experience the same challenges that researchers come across daily so those with this experience are well placed to understand researchers’ needs. This can help the library to provide more effective services and training at a time when it is most necessary. However, novice researchers who have never worked on a research project of their own before can find it intimidating, especially if they are unsure where to begin or how research fits in with their wider role.

This chapter looks at different types of research, outlines some of the reasons why librarians should consider conducting their own projects and the skills they can develop in doing so, discusses some of the main barriers to conducting research, and suggests ways of getting involved in research and sharing findings. It concludes with a case study from a librarian who works on external projects and a handy seven-step guide to developing a research plan. At the end of the chapter readers will have a better idea of how they can adapt the research process to suit their circumstances and have a basic plan for their first project.

Different types of research

Librarians can get involved in many types of research, no matter their current role or career stage. As discussed in Chapter 2 on RDM, terminology has a great deal of power and the term ‘research’ is no exception. There is a perception that only work which appears in peerreviewed journals, formal reports, academic texts or major academic conferences is worthy of being called research, but this is not true. Other venues and types of research also have value. Researchers in the library community use and share their work through many outputs, which address all sorts of areas within the profession.

Some people are in a position to be able to take time off to undertake an academic research project, and sometimes librarians who have an element of academic responsibility in their role, such as lecturers at a library school or those working in academic institutions and pursuing tenure, can do this.

Introduction

This chapter explores research data management (RDM), an area of growing importance within research support and one which is a good fit with the existing librarian skill set. For those thinking of moving into research support, being able to offer advice to researchers on how to collect, store and share their information makes the ideal first step. Librarians from all backgrounds are confident in their information organisation skills and RDM offers an excellent way to extend this into research support roles. Data management runs through the whole project research lifecycle, from the planning stage to managing and publishing. As there are new funder requirements for sharing accompanying data after a project, extra attention must be paid to preparing data for others to use in their work.

The chapter outlines what we mean when we talk about research data, considers how it can be organised and stored securely, and discusses ethical considerations to be considered and how to prepare data for sharing. It concludes with a look at the importance of creating a data management plan (DMP) – a living document which draws all of these areas together. The chapter includes a practical exercise, which aims to teach researchers about the value of metadata using Lego. First we must establish what we actually mean by the term ‘research data’.

What is research data?

Or should that be what are research data? The word data is the plural of datum – a single unit of information – although the plural is much more widely used. Data is any information that is gathered, whether it is numeric in nature (quantitative data) or information that cannot be measured by numbers (qualitative data). It is collected by individuals and organisations all over the world in many forms for various reasons – governments look at information on how many people are entering the workforce, businesses analyse their sales data and universities measure student satisfaction rates.

Research data is one example of this wealth of knowledge and is simply information that is used and produced during the process of research. This could be anything from documents a historical researcher uses to results produced by a scientific experiment.

Anyone working in the information sector who has taken even a casual interest in developments in academic libraries over the last few years cannot have failed to notice the terms ‘scholarly communication’ and ‘research support’ appearing with increasing frequency. They suddenly seem to be everywhere, often linked with terminology such as open access, research data management, publication strategy and copyright transfer agreement. These all sound like terms information professionals should be familiar with but what do they actually mean and what is the general fuss all about?

This book attempts to answer these questions and more by exploring what those working in academic libraries really need to know about scholarly communication and research support. The increase in the availability of roles in this area is no coincidence but the result of a perfect storm of conditions, which has called into question the way in which scholarly research is published and shared. In an age of misinformation and fake news it is becoming increasingly important to promote access to high-quality research outputs such as those produced by universities, learned societies and other institutions worldwide so that people are able to make informed decisions. Those who are members of these organisations are able to access this knowledge but it is not so simple for others. Although the growth of the internet should help to democratise access to this type of information, in practice this is not always the case. Publishers are protective of the work they produce and often seek to restrict access by charging subscriptions or other fees to read the content. This results in a further inequality in access to information – hardly a step forward in knowledge sharing! Those who fund the projects which produce research outputs have questioned the current system for some time and many now mandate that outputs should be shared with a wider audience. This call for change is echoed by members of the public, who argue that they should be able to access research which in many cases they have funded through taxation, and those in the research community who are unhappy about the current system and its reliance on their (often free) labour. The abundance of new rules surrounding these changes and the increased workload they cause provide an opportunity for librarians to offer help and support to researchers, resulting in a visible increase in the roles advertised.

Introduction

Metrics and the measurement of impact is another area of research support which academic librarians are likely to be familiar with. Those who have experience of stock selection and weeding will have looked at the usage statistics of various titles while those working to deliver new services will undoubtedly have had to justify the impact they have on users to secure further funding. In recent years the emphasis on research impact has increased exponentially, partly because of the global financial climate where all money spent must be justified. Because of these increased pressures, and the threat of formal research assessment exercises such as the REF, busy researchers have been required to add yet another stage to their project by measuring its effect and demonstrating their personal impact. There is also a new pressure to show the impact that research projects have in the world beyond the academic institution, for example how they inform policy and practice. However, impact is a difficult concept to measure and with so many metrics available researchers may struggle to choose the most appropriate ones for their needs.

This chapter discusses the importance of these issues and outlines how libraries can work to ease the pressure on researchers. At the end of the chapter, readers will have a clear understanding of what metrics are, the most common types of metrics and how they contribute to the wider measurement of impact. Readers will be able to outline the limitations of metrics as an assessment method and be better equipped to work with their research community to create a more balanced picture of impact. Metrics are most commonly discussed at the promote stage of the lifecycle as this is where the measurement of impact become important to individual researchers. They are often factored into the publish stage when authors select a suitable title to approach with their output. This chapter also contains an activity where readers can prepare their own impact report using a range of metrics.

What are metrics?

Metrics are numerical measures used to assess the quality and impact of research. In the context of scholarly communication this means evaluating research outputs, the work of individual academics, the success of a particular publisher or the body of work produced by an institution as a whole.

If you have made it to this concluding chapter – well done! Whether you read the book from cover to cover or just dipped into the sections you needed to read I hope you found it helpful. Readers will have gathered that there have been a great many changes to the way in which scholarly outputs are produced and shared in recent years, and there are likely to be many more in years to come. This has resulted in challenges for researchers and the librarians who support them, not least in working to understand a particular mandate or regulation before it is changed. This book has outlined some of the basics of scholarly communication and research support and highlighted the current debates that make this such an interesting area to work in.

Those who have read more than one chapter will have noticed some common themes emerging across the topics discussed, and the conclusion is a good place to draw these threads together. One of the most prominent themes is the balance between the skills and the personal attributes needed to work in this area. Having an awareness of areas such as different funder open access policies is important when advising researchers, and this knowledge can be developed over time. Research support is still an emerging specialism in many libraries and staff are not usually expected to have a detailed knowledge of it before they begin working in a new job in this sector. Far more important are the personal attributes needed, chiefly the ability to adapt to changeable circumstances. This is a fast moving area and those working within must be able to respond effectively to multiple changes. Being able to demonstrate characteristics such as adaptability, having good communication skills and the ability to work through change, and having experience of advocacy, is crucial to making a successful career in this area.

Another common theme is the variety of ways in which institutions interpret the term ‘scholarly communication’ and the resulting levels of support they provide. The way in which an institution perceives the process of sharing research and its starting point can heavily influence the services staff provide to their research community (see Chapter 1). Readers should reflect on what meaning their local institution ascribes to scholarly communication, why, and what services the library should provide as a result.

Introduction

Staff in academic libraries have supported researchers for as long as they have been in existence. The nature of this research varies from undergraduates working on set assignments to senior lecturers producing their latest peer-reviewed journal article. Each type of user requires a different level of support and library staff have adapted their services accordingly. However, in recent years there have been several major changes to the way original research is funded and assessed, resulting in new challenges for researchers and new opportunities for library staff. Academic libraries are increasingly advertising for research support staff but what does this role actually entail? This chapter outlines some of the key changes for libraries and researchers in order to demonstrate how and why librarians can play a key part in supporting their research communities. At the end of this chapter readers will have a more detailed understanding of what is meant by the terms ‘scholarly communication’ and ‘research support’, how the job of the researcher and the library is changing in the 21st century and the various ways in which institutions can offer support to their community.

What's in a name?

Although the terms ‘scholarly communication’ and ‘research support’ are often used interchangeably they actually have different meanings. The American Library Association's Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) defines scholarly communication as ‘the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use’ (ACRL, 2003). This definition explains scholarly communication as a process – it is the way in which researchers share the outputs of the work they have done once they have been completed. These outputs are referred to as scholarly because they are produced within the sphere of academia. Researchers often work in an academic setting such as a university to answer a question or investigate a problem through methods such as conducting experiments or analysing historical documents. They use the results of their work to produce an output such as a peer-reviewed journal article, which is typically aimed at an audience of other researchers and academics.

Introduction

Open access is likely to be the area of research support which most library staff are familiar with, even if they do not fully understand the landscape. Although it has been steadily growing in popularity for some time, open access has come to the attention of most people through mandates set down by publishers and research funders. It is potentially one of the most disruptive changes to the publishing world in recent years and therefore affects many libraries and their users, particularly as a method of accessing previously hidden research findings. As it focuses on the publication and sharing of outputs open access is most commonly considered at the publish and promote stages of the research lifecycle and many researchers leave thinking about it until they are almost at the end of their project. It would be advantageous for them to consider it at an earlier stage as part of their plan, so they can make the appropriate arrangements. There is a place for open access at the discover stage of the research lifecycle as researchers will have increased access to a range of information which they can include in their work. Librarians with a knowledge of this area can advise researchers on decisions they should take relating to open access.

Once they have read this chapter readers will understand the basic concepts of open access, its benefits and how they can be applied to their local research communities. Although open access is a complex and fast moving area, having this basic grasp of the philosophy will help library staff to engage with researchers on this important issue and better understand how they can play a fundamental role in its support.

What is open access?

Unlike many other terms used in this book, open access has a concrete definition. Put simply, open access is the process of making scholarly output freely available for anyone to view online. Although advances in technology have made it easier than ever before to access a wealth of information, for many people there are still barriers to obtaining informed, scholarly information. Open access has arisen as a response to traditional publishing models where readers are charged, either in time or money (when content is held behind a paywall), to view the outputs of research.

Introduction

Of all the chapters in this book, this is potentially the most important. Library staff can work to develop their knowledge of the scholarly communication landscape but how do they put this into practice by securing a role and which jobs are they qualified to undertake? One of the main challenges to this is deciphering the language used in job advertisements in the sector as it is often unfamiliar and off-putting. This chapter aims to demystify this language, outline the range of positions available and highlight the specific skill sets required for those who want to work in scholarly communication. In a different approach from other chapters it begins by looking at some of the formal research undertaken into the skills used in scholarly communication work and how they align with those specified in current job advertisements. It features a range of case studies from people who work in research support roles and an exercise that encourages readers to undertake a focused audit of their current skills. At the end of the chapter readers will have an increased understanding of the range of jobs available, the skills needed to secure them and a plan to develop them.

Scholarly communication skills in theory

In recent years various groups have done a great deal of work in determining the skills necessary to work in research support positions, producing a range of core competency documents. The first of these was the 2012 report commissioned by Research Libraries UK (RLUK) (Auckland, 2012), which has become one of the most influential documents of its type. The report was developed in recognition of the changing role of academic libraries as their research support function became more prominent. It outlines 32 skills and areas of knowledge needed to work in this area. For example staff should be able to manage and manipulate information effectively, and relate funder mandates to assessment exercises like the REF; they also need a working knowledge of metadata schemata. The report emphasises the importance of staff building relationships with researchers and academics, having strong communication skills and the ability to design and deliver effective training on a range of changeable procedures.