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Incentivizing the Open Access Research Web: Publication-Archiving, Data-Archiving and Scientometrics

Incentivizing the Open Access Research Web: Publication-Archiving, Data-Archiving and Scientometrics
Incentivizing the Open Access Research Web: Publication-Archiving, Data-Archiving and Scientometrics
The research production cycle has three components: the conduct of the research itself (R), the data (D), and the peer-reviewed publication (P) of the findings. Open Access (OA) means free online access to the publications (P-OA), but OA can also be extended to the data (D-OA). The two hurdles for D-OA are that not all researchers want to make their data OA and that the online infrastructure for D-OA still needs additional functionality. In contrast, all researchers, without exception, do want to make their publications P-OA, and the online infrastructure for publication-archiving (a worldwide interoperable network of OAI-compliant Institutional Repositories [IRs]) already has all the requisite functionality for this. Yet because so far only about 15% of researchers are spontaneously self-archiving their publications today, their funders and institutions are beginning to mandate OA self-archiving in order to maximize the usage and impact of their research output. The adoption of these P-OA self-archiving mandates needs to be accelerated. Researchers’ careers and funding already depend on the impact (usage and citation) of their research. It has now been repeatedly demonstrated that making publications OA by self-archiving them in an OA IR dramatically enhances their research impact. Research metrics (e.g., download and citation counts) are increasingly being used to estimate and reward research impact, notably in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). But those metrics first need to be tested against human panel-based rankings in order to validate their predictive power. Publications, their metadata, and their metrics are the database for the new science of Scientometrics. The UK’s RAE, based on the research output of all disciplines from an entire nation, provides a unique opportunity for validating research metrics. In validating RAE metrics (through multiple regression analysis) against panel rankings, the publication (P) archive will be used as a data (D) archive. Hence the RAE provides an important test case both for publication metrics and for data-archiving. It will not only provide incentives for the P-OA self-archiving of publications, but it will also help to increase both the functionality and the motivation for D-OA data-archiving.
research assessment, metrics, RAE, open access, citation, downloads, impact, escience, cyberinfrastructure
Brody, Tim
153aca10-d72f-41d8-b704-684067e78cf0
Carr, Les
0572b10e-039d-46c6-bf05-57cce71d3936
Gingras, Yves
403ebefd-91d1-4e2b-89cc-be8fe4aaf591
Hajjem, Chawki
4bf0a8ac-941b-4573-bc97-8748e1356bc3
Harnad, Stevan
442ee520-71a1-4283-8e01-106693487d8b
Swan, Alma
d73a0e90-27d6-43ee-aafd-118902254de7
Dirks, Lee
8760b1e7-e90a-4e18-bc9c-065a435e41ed
Hey, Tony
f4e293d1-493d-4a14-9c89-9be45872531e
Brody, Tim
153aca10-d72f-41d8-b704-684067e78cf0
Carr, Les
0572b10e-039d-46c6-bf05-57cce71d3936
Gingras, Yves
403ebefd-91d1-4e2b-89cc-be8fe4aaf591
Hajjem, Chawki
4bf0a8ac-941b-4573-bc97-8748e1356bc3
Harnad, Stevan
442ee520-71a1-4283-8e01-106693487d8b
Swan, Alma
d73a0e90-27d6-43ee-aafd-118902254de7
Dirks, Lee
8760b1e7-e90a-4e18-bc9c-065a435e41ed
Hey, Tony
f4e293d1-493d-4a14-9c89-9be45872531e

Brody, Tim, Carr, Les, Gingras, Yves, Hajjem, Chawki, Harnad, Stevan and Swan, Alma , Dirks, Lee and Hey, Tony (eds.) (2007) Incentivizing the Open Access Research Web: Publication-Archiving, Data-Archiving and Scientometrics. CTWatch Quarterly, 3 (3).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The research production cycle has three components: the conduct of the research itself (R), the data (D), and the peer-reviewed publication (P) of the findings. Open Access (OA) means free online access to the publications (P-OA), but OA can also be extended to the data (D-OA). The two hurdles for D-OA are that not all researchers want to make their data OA and that the online infrastructure for D-OA still needs additional functionality. In contrast, all researchers, without exception, do want to make their publications P-OA, and the online infrastructure for publication-archiving (a worldwide interoperable network of OAI-compliant Institutional Repositories [IRs]) already has all the requisite functionality for this. Yet because so far only about 15% of researchers are spontaneously self-archiving their publications today, their funders and institutions are beginning to mandate OA self-archiving in order to maximize the usage and impact of their research output. The adoption of these P-OA self-archiving mandates needs to be accelerated. Researchers’ careers and funding already depend on the impact (usage and citation) of their research. It has now been repeatedly demonstrated that making publications OA by self-archiving them in an OA IR dramatically enhances their research impact. Research metrics (e.g., download and citation counts) are increasingly being used to estimate and reward research impact, notably in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). But those metrics first need to be tested against human panel-based rankings in order to validate their predictive power. Publications, their metadata, and their metrics are the database for the new science of Scientometrics. The UK’s RAE, based on the research output of all disciplines from an entire nation, provides a unique opportunity for validating research metrics. In validating RAE metrics (through multiple regression analysis) against panel rankings, the publication (P) archive will be used as a data (D) archive. Hence the RAE provides an important test case both for publication metrics and for data-archiving. It will not only provide incentives for the P-OA self-archiving of publications, but it will also help to increase both the functionality and the motivation for D-OA data-archiving.

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Published date: August 2007
Keywords: research assessment, metrics, RAE, open access, citation, downloads, impact, escience, cyberinfrastructure
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 264418
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/264418
PURE UUID: 9814ee67-948c-4c23-8063-424261a51e30
ORCID for Les Carr: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2113-9680
ORCID for Stevan Harnad: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6153-1129

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Aug 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:48

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Contributors

Author: Tim Brody
Author: Les Carr ORCID iD
Author: Yves Gingras
Author: Chawki Hajjem
Author: Stevan Harnad ORCID iD
Author: Alma Swan
Editor: Lee Dirks
Editor: Tony Hey

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