United Kingdom

Community-led organizations like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), COUNTER (the standard for usage metrics) and OA Switchboard (information exchange for OA publications) are committed to providing reliable, not-for-profit services and standards essential for a well-functioning global research ecosystem. These organizations operate behind the scenes, with low budgets and limited staffing – no salespeople, marketing teams, travel budgets, or in-house technology support. They collaborate with one another and with bigger infrastructure bodies like Crossref and ORCID, creating the foundations on which much scholarly infrastructure relies.

UKSG Annual Conference 2024

Open infrastructure and standards: small bodies, big impact

The UKSG Annual Conference is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants and intermediaries. The conference combines high-quality plenary presentations, lightning talks and breakout sessions with entertaining social events and trade exhibition.

UKSG Annual Conference 2023

The UKSG Annual Conference is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants and intermediaries.

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In this breakout, we present a unique collaborative evaluation project where the University of Sussex Library and Bloomsbury joined forces to explore and assess the library’s publishing practices. This partnership, where colleagues from Bloomsbury’s Open Research, Textbook Editorial, and Metadata teams delved into the operations of an open textbook pilot publication, was an opportunity for meaningful knowledge exchange and honest dialogue about strengths, weaknesses and the path ahead. In this session we’ll highlight how we approached the collaboration, outline the valuable discussion points and recommendations that came out of the project, and reflect on the value of the critical friend.

With a little help from my (critical) friends': how collaborating across the publishing divide can help you do more than just get by

Over 23% of the Open University (OU) Students have declared disability. AS a result, and since 2008, the OU Library regularly collaborated with publishers to improve the accessibility of electronic resources. This session will look at how and why the OU library work with publishers, the Internal research the OU did with our disabled students and how we use that to inform how we work with publishers on accessibility.

How OU Library work with publishers to improve disabled students experience

This session will explore how Lancaster University Library has developed and implemented it’s vision for facilitating a culture of open research, with a particular focus on Open Access Monographs. The talk will provide an overview of how the library has developed the necessary infrastructure to facilitate this vision, including developing consortia and collaborative options for Open Access Monograph Publishing with other organisations. The session will also outline how the library has partnered with academic colleagues to develop it’s Open Research Service and make Open Research possible and easy.

Making it possible and making it easy: Research Culture and Open Access Monographs

In the wake of the global mental health crisis, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for mental health services has reached unprecedented levels, leaving universities grappling with the challenge of providing adequate support. Libraries have emerged as crucial allies in this endeavor, acting as knowledge hubs and offering vital resources to address the pressing mental health needs of students and researchers.

Empowering minds: libraries leading the charge in student mental health

Scottish Universities Press (SUP) is a library-led publishing initiative involving 18 institutions. SUP was formed in response to changes in the Open Access policy landscape and to harness the benefits of working collaboratively at scale. In this session we will outline the approach to establishing SUP, sharing tips and lessons learned. We will cover the practical challenges we have experienced as librarians becoming publishers and discuss how wider challenges in the OA landscape have impacted our efforts. We will also outline the opportunities of institution-led publishing as we have experienced them and explore the wider anticipated benefits as we move to scaling up SUP.

Developing Scottish Universities Press: a practical guide to library-led publishing

Its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats shape the academic library in terms of what it is and does, how it is seen, where it excels and struggles, and its potential for advancement or decline. The session will identify key factors influencing academic library status and positioning. It will analyse the overlap, interplay and occasional contradiction between the different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and will outline a framework of ten proposed strategic directions. The session will aim to enable attendees to advance the position of their libraries by leveraging their strengths, addressing weaknesses, taking the opportunities presented to them and mitigating significant threats they confront.

The position and prospects of academic libraries: a SWOT analysis and strategy framework

Academic researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to make data and software FAIR in order to support the sharing and reuse of non-publication outputs. Currently there is still a lack of concise and practical guidance on how to achieve this in the context of specific data types and disciplines. This presentation details recent and ongoing work at the University of Sheffield to bridge this gap. It will explore the development of a FAIR resource with specialist guidance for a range of data types and will examine the planned development of this project during the period 2023-25.

Practical steps towards an open research culture: Building support around FAIR data & software at the University of Sheffield

The UN SDG Publishers Compact, launched in 2020, was set up to inspire action among publishers to accelerate progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, asking signatories to develop sustainable practices, act as champions and publish books and journals that will “inform, develop and inspire action in that direction”. This Lightning Talk will discuss how our new Bristol University Press Digital has been developed as part of our mission to contribute a meaningful and impactful response to this call to action as well as the global social challenges we face.

Responding to the UN SDG Publishers Compact – Bristol University Press Digital

Researchers face more pressure to share their research data than ever before. Owing to a rise in funder policies and momentum towards more openness across the research landscape. Although policies for data sharing are in place, engagement work is undertaken by librarians in order to ensure repository uptake and compliance. We will discuss a particular strategy implemented at Loughborough University that involved the application of conceptual messaging frameworks to engagement activities in order to promote and encourage use of our Figshare-powered repository. We will showcase the rationale behind the adoption of messaging frameworks for library outreach and some practical examples.

Advocating for data sharing: messaging frameworks for repository engagement strategies

This talk will outline how a completely accidental occurrence led to brand new avenues for open research advocacy and reasons for being. This advocacy has occurred within student communities such as trainee teachers, student psychologists and (especially) those soon losing access to subscription-based library content. Alongside these new forms of advocacy, these ethical example of AI use cases has begun to form a cornerstone of directly connecting the work of the library to new technology.

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Next from UKSG Annual Conference 2024

With a little help from my (critical) friends': how collaborating across the publishing divide can help you do more than just get by

Similar lecture

Leveraging an open infrastructure and tapping into an open service: examples of established workflows and approaches for open access books

Downloads