Open access (OA) monograph publishing is becoming increasingly important as new funder mandates - including UKRI's long-form OA policy - bring books and chapters into scope for compliance. For institutions, the challenge is not only financial but also strategic: how to engage with a rapidly evolving set of business models that vary in cost, transparency and sustainability. This case study describes how the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford developed a structured workflow to assess and support OA monograph initiatives. Beginning as a one-year pilot project and now moving into 'business as usual', the work combined horizon scanning, evidence-based evaluation and collaborative decision-making across library committees. A key output was the development of an open monograph scheme evaluation form, providing consistency and transparency in decision-making. The study highlights both the benefits and limitations of different OA models, the tensions around funding and the lessons learned for building sustainable support. It offers practical insights for other libraries navigating similar challenges.
The current academic publishing system faces many well-identified issues. Not only is it slow and costly, but it is also an opaque system that produces a substantial amount of non-reproducible results. Peer Community In (PCI) is a non-profit organization that allows research communities to organize the open and free peer review of preprints on different thematic platforms. The authors of preprints that are recommended by these platforms can then choose to submit them to any journal or to Peer Community Journal (PCJ), a diamond open access journal, which publishes any and only PCI-recommended preprints. Because PCI follows the highest standards for evaluations and openness, many institutions and journals publicly recognize PCI-recommended preprints as being of similar value to accepted journal articles. This two-step process hence decouples the evaluation of research articles from their publication, while offering a free open access publication venue for its recommended preprints. Doing so allows researchers to reappropriate the publishing system, and the increasing number of submissions, publications and communities shows a growing demand for such alternative publishing models. Ongoing developments aim to further increase the robustness and reproducibility of published research via increasing requirements and checks at submission and promoting the use of registered reports.
This case study provides an in-role reflection by the Graduate Engagement Leads for Open Research at the University of York. It uses the methodologies of reflection in practice and reflection-on-the-future to explore the challenges, such as gaps in provision and knowledge between different disciplines, and opportunities, such as instigating new initiatives, that the Leads have faced. The case study integrates personal reflections on how the role has changed the Leads’ outlooks and knowledge of open research, and how they hope to promote an open research culture in their professional and academic work. It also reflects on the anticipated future impacts of the role, such as through updating online resources for training and advocacy, as well as reflecting on how the role has influenced our approach to open research. Through reflecting on the role, it is hoped that this case study might provide a model for how PhD candidates working in open research and scholarly communications library teams can promote open research communities of practice and help to ensure their longevity.
Metascience is the scientific study of research itself, ensuring that the systems, policies and processes shaping research serve to improve it on a holistic level. Systems change theory offers a way of addressing long-term problems by examining the structures from which those problems arise, rather than focusing solely on their symptoms. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in metascientific analyses aimed at ensuring the ecosystem underpinning academic research aligns with the principles of integrity, truth and curiosity. In this article, I examine the current focus on reform in the global research environment, including how to discourage questionable and dishonest research practices and how to reduce the burden on professional staff in higher education. I argue that these challenges reveal the interconnectedness and complexity of the research ecosystem, and that systems change theorists have already developed tools and concepts well-suited to addressing such complexity. I conclude that, while these resources remain under-utilized, they have the capacity to support efforts to ensure that metascience achieves its aims of ensuring effective use of research funds, fostering research integrity, and making a meaningful contribution to civil society.
At Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), library apprentices took part in a role-play designed to simulate the full publication process of a scholarly article, from data collection to repository deposit. The focus was on open access and open research data, conveyed through realistic scenarios and role exchanges. The library apprentices acted as a BFH research team, while library colleagues assumed roles such as publisher, peer reviewer and open access advisor. The format made open access licences, data archiving and publisher communication tangible. With a custom-designed workbook and situational elements such as simulated article processing charge payments, key challenges and procedural steps became accessible. By simulating scientific research work using known data and subsequently publishing the manuscript, as well as working with realistic roles and different people embodying these roles, the apprentices gained comprehensive insight into the topics of open access and open data within a single day. The role-play has proven to be a highly effective format, not only for teaching open access and open research data, but for experiencing them collaboratively and allowing sufficient scope for spontaneous discussions and suitable learning sessions that respond to the participants’ individual questions.
This article explores the transformative role of the digital library at the University of Wales Trinity Saint students engage exclusively with online resources. It highlights the collaborative efforts of academic liaison librarians and digital skills advisors in delivering a fully digital library service that is both inclusive and future ready. Emphasizing the importance of digital literacy, personalized support and curriculum integration. The article underscores how library services contribute directly to student success and employability. It argues that strategic investment in digital library infrastructure and support services enhances academic outcomes and prepares students for the evolving demands of the workforce. Ongoing challenges, including digital equity, accessibility and the ethical implications of AI are also addressed, while a future of expanded access, increased staff engagement and deeper integration into the academic experience is envisioned.
The growing threat of hijacked journals poses a significant challenge to the integrity of academic publishing. As an accurate scale of the issue remains unknown, practical methods for detecting previously unidentified hijacked journals are critically needed. This study employs a linkage analysis to investigate the outbound links of six known hijacked medical journals. The analysis successfully uncovered four additional suspected hijacked journals, demonstrating that analyzing their linkage structure can effectively map out their networks and lead to the detection of new ones. Our findings highlight the value of this method in expanding the current blocklist of detected hijacked journals and mitigating their harmful impact on scholarly communication. It appears that the same hijacker(s) may be responsible for the network of hijacked journals, and any approach to bulk analyze these journals could help detect new ones.
This article discusses the development of the Library collections concept at the University of Sheffield. It draws together several wider themes of collection management and seeks to conceive of library content as serving differing functions through different but related collection approaches. To do so effectively, it argues, it is necessary to compartmentalize collections accordingly. The idea of the facilitated collection is developed towards an operational collection whose chief focus is content supply. Alongside this, it shows how collective initiatives allow for the development of explicitly conservational collections. This improved understanding of core functions allows a research library to then think about how it presents the unique and distinctive content as an inside-out collection. By grounding this work in the collection development plan at Sheffield, it is hoped that its specific application will be demonstrated.
The peer review system, once a noble aspiration, now lags behind the accelerating demands of modern science. This opinion piece calls for a decisive departure from that peer review system and advocates for a return to a more accountable, editorially driven model of scholarly evaluation. Scientific editors - already vested with decision-making authority - should no longer outsource their judgement to external referees. Instead, they must reclaim their rightful role as the primary arbiters of scientific merit. Too often, editorial judgement is diluted by ritualized consultation, where peer review delays innovation, rewards consensus and obscures responsibility. I argue for a future in which academic editors decide independently, sign their decisions and are recognized - publicly and professionally - for the intellectual stewardship they provide. By linking editorial work to scientific databases such as Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar, we can incentivize rigour, transparency and accountability. This model would not erode scientific integrity but elevate it, replacing bureaucracy with responsibility. It is time to shed the cloak of anonymity and return authority - and credit - to those best positioned to shape the scientific record; the academic editors
In 2014, I wrote 'A quiet culture war in research libraries-and what it means for librarians, researchers and publishers', arguing that there existed an ongoing conflict within the academic library profession over whether the library's most important role is to support its local institution or to advance global priorities (specifically, progress towards open scholarship). Here I reassess the landscape ten years later, finding that this conflict has both persisted and deepened, and offer two predictions: first, that the broader systemic conflict between competing business models will not be resolved by libraries, authors or publishers, but rather by institutions and funders, and second, that the end result will be a system characterized by coexisting models of pay-access and open-access publishing.
White Rose Libraries (WRL) is a collaboration between the university libraries of Leeds, Sheffield and York. WRL runs two shared repositories to host research outputs and electronic theses which, between them, represent one of the biggest institutional repository services in the UK. Starting from 2021 WRL undertook the repositories renewal project to look for the next iteration of the repository platforms. In this case study we discuss the motivation for the repositories renewal project and the process that was undertaken. We talk about outcomes of the project-which was a conscious decision to retain and further develop the open source EPrints platform-and highlight some of the lessons learned from the project. We reflect that the open source research repository market has remained largely static for some time and intend this as a provocation for institutions and platform developers to further engage in defining the requirements for future repositories and setting a course to get there.
An increase in the development of scholar-led diamond open access (DOA) journals might be part of the future of academic publishing. However, a successful outcome to such an endeavour would require a broad range of well-published and early career academics to publish in them. Higher education institutions and their academics compete in a global prestige market. Therefore, the problem of the prestige economy may need to be overcome in order to encourage academics to publish in newly created scholar-led DOA journals. Contributions to publishing in and editing scholar-led DOA journals need to be recognized, and endorsed, by managerial staff and/or higher education institutions. Moreover, people can be affected by a status quo bias, are loss averse, often prefer to remain consistent with previous decisions and are motivated to avoid the potential for regret. The prestige economy may be reinforced by these effects when authors select a journal as an outlet for their work. Moreover, existing attitudes, habits and an author’s self-concept can affect how they select a journal. These cognitive effects could be targeted by a professional development intervention aimed at increasing the likelihood of authors selecting a scholar-led DOA journal as an outlet for their work.
This article provides a summary of the library-based diamond open access (OA) publishing services offered by Edinburgh Diamond at the University of Edinburgh and the Open Journals Service at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The article, based on a presentation given at UKSG 2024, looks at similarities and differences observed by the managers of the two services and, although Edinburgh Diamond also publishes books, will focus predominantly on journal hosting. It also looks at the advantages of running a hosting service, before reviewing some key factors to consider: skills and personnel, financial and business models and overall sustainability. This article concludes by looking to the future and what the two services hope to achieve.
This article examines the differences in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts between library collection development and archival practices, highlighting the unique challenges faced by archives, including dark archives, in achieving inclusive and balanced collections. The article also includes a case study describing the coverage audit performed by CLOCKSS in order to uncover areas where further development is needed in order to advance DEI in its archiving practices.
Higher education institution (HEI) libraries in the UK undertake a variety of interlibrary loan (ILL) and document supply operations, against a current background of increasing budgetary pressures. This article considers the foundations in so-called library privilege exceptions in copyright law that underpin the long-standing practice of ILL, aiming to address recurring issues and questions around what is permitted within the legislation, and which limitations apply. The focus is on addressing the ILL situation as it exists for non-profit UK HEI academic libraries, including looking at some perceived 'grey areas'.
The transition of many academic journals from the subscription model to open access shifts payment for publishing services from readers to producers of knowledge. Although this transition makes publications openly accessible to readers globally, many authors and institutions worldwide face financial barriers to publishing in the journals they choose at affordable prices. In response, cOAlition S (an international consortium of funding organizations advocating for open access) commissioned Information Power to develop a globally equitable and sustainable pricing model for academic publishing. We recognize that many stakeholders prefer a scholarly publication ecosystem without charges of any kind, and particularly author-facing charges, for open access publishing. While charges remain part of the scholarly communication landscape, then we feel strongly that open and transparent data should be used to calculate more equitable prices that reflect local purchasing power. This article presents the model that has been developed, the guiding principles and tools developed to support implementation, along with background explanations of the key challenges to developing a framework that ensures authors contribute in line with their means. It also discusses stakeholder feedback and explores potential applications of the framework in achieving a fairer and more inclusive scholarly publishing landscape.
University journals (UJs), understood as scholarly journals published by or associated with universities, play an essential role in the dissemination of academic knowledge, serving as a vital platform for scholarly communication. They reflect the diverse regional practices of academic communities and address the unique academic needs of scholars. Despite their significance, UJs remain underexplored in the existing literature, particularly in terms of their sustainability, visibility and impact within the evolving academic publishing landscape. This study employs a semi-systematic review of 105 publications to investigate the principal trends, challenges and opportunities associated with UJs. A semi-systematic approach was adopted to integrate theoretical, empirical and descriptive studies drawn from a range of disciplines. A search of the Dimensions Plus, OpenAlex, Scopus and Web of Science databases, supplemented by manual exploration, yielded a diverse set of sources. In order to ensure a comprehensive analysis, the inclusion criteria were designed to encompass studies focusing on a range of key aspects, including the operational models, funding structures, editorial practices, peer-review processes and technological infrastructure of UJs. The review highlights the interdependence of financial, technological and editorial challenges, advocating for integrated strategies that address these issues in a holistic manner.
This case study explores the role of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) in increasing the visibility and accessibility of Ukrainian academic journals. Ukrainian journals face numerous challenges due to economic constraints and the ongoing war. The article presents how open infrastructures play an important role in supporting journals during conflict, invasion or major disruption, using DOAJ as a case study. It analyzes what has worked and what could have been improved in DOAJ’s approach, including its collaborative efforts with the Supporting Ukrainian Editorial Staff (SUES) project, the Open Ukrainian Citation Index (OUCI) and Research4Life as initiatives to increase the visibility, transparency and impact of all digitized Ukrainian academic journals, despite the ongoing war with Russia. Recommendations are presented to increase the quality and visibility of Ukrainian journals and to guide open infrastructures in supporting journals from conflict areas.
TikTok is the video-sharing social media platform of the moment. Young people, most often of the age of undergraduate students, are its primary users. Creating a library TikTok profile and sharing video content on the platform is consequently an excellent way for academic librarians and their libraries to engage with their student users. This case study explores the strategy employed at the Ferriss Hodgett Library at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University for creating and sharing engaging videos on our library’s TikTok and other social media channels. Providing a critical evaluation of TikTok use and discussing themes and ideas for video content alongside best practices, this article outlines how short-form videos can be leveraged via TikTok and other video-based platforms to make the academic library and its staff more relevant and approachable, and lay the foundation for building stronger and more meaningful relationships with students.
