23 November 2018
Dominic Broadhurst, University of Manchester
UKSG has often been at the heart of collaborative research initiatives which have developed solutions to industry-wide issues and promoted standards for best practice. Research and innovation is a key theme and activity area for UKSG and the communities it serves. To this end the UKSG Main Committee decided to set up a new sub-group to both plan and deliver a range of activities across these themes.
The new Research and Innovation Subcommittee is developing a series of initiatives for the scholarly communications sector, beginning in 2019. Initial activity will focus on three new key areas.
Innovation competition/award
UKSG will be introducing a new annual competition/award targeted at new professionals in the scholarly communications sector. Funding will be provided for individuals to develop ideas and concepts of benefit to our sector. Partner organisations we will be working with include the New Library Professional Network (NLPN) and Society of Young Publishers. This activity will have three main aims:
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to stimulate innovation and creativity in the scholarly communications sector
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to offer a development and career opportunity for new professionals
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to demonstrate the tangible support UKSG wishes to offer new career professionals
Potential ideas for these awards could include:
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setting up a new network eg NLPN, DILON
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further development of PG dissertation research, building on research
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development of a blog/social media service/tool
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development of an App
We also expect to be able offer winning competition entrants a mentor from a UKSG committee to provide support, potential hosting on UKSG website, and potential paid attendance at the UKSG conference 2020.
Further details on eligibility, how to enter, funding and support on offer will be made available in early 2019.
White paper series
We intend to fund and launch a new white paper series in 2019. The purpose of this white paper series will be to promote discussion within the field of open scholarship, and scholarly communication. White papers will be commissioned which take a thoughtful and provocative approach to the lifecycle of open scholarship, and to the open dissemination of scholarly outputs for knowledge gain, public awareness, and impact.
Successful proposals will be aimed beyond UKSG at a wide audience and intended for dissemination across the scholarly and publishing community. It is intended that the white paper series will comprise works of original research including a comprehensive literature review.
White papers will be published in an accessible and open digital file format, and made openly available on the UKSG website and other appropriate publishing platforms and channels under a Creative Commons Attribution and Share Alike (CC BY-SA) licence.
Intended dissemination channels will include one or more of the following;
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white paper plus executive summary and any case studies generated
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presentation (plenary or keynote) at annual UKSG conference
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Insights article
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further dissemination to the wider scholarly communication community (eg via UKSG, social media channels, webinars, etc)
Potential themes for white paper could include one of following, though all ideas for original and thought provoking ideas will be welcomed:
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innovative routes to open scholarship
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turning publishing on its head
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challenging rights ownership of the 'author accepted manuscript'
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revisiting and updating the green OA model
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the impact of technology and system developments upon the lifecycles of authorship, peer review, publication and dissemination
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the potential of artificial intelligence in open scholarship and publishing
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the role of next generation and shared service repositories in publishing
We will make a call for contributors in early 2019 and the successful proposal will be awarded a contract to author a white paper.
Sponsored conference place
This place, which is open only to an employee from a UKSG member body, will provide funding for the successful applicant to attend a related industry conference in 2019. Funding will include:
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conference fee
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travel
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accommodation
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receipted expenses
We anticipate applications to be open from February with candidates to submit a 500 word proposal. Full details will be available in early 2019.
This subcommittee has recently been reconfigured into a smaller agile working group which will oversee the launch and operation of these new activities in 2019. The working group currently comprises Dominic Broadhurst (University of Manchester), Mark McCullum (codeMantra), Laura Wilkinson (Crossref), and Jason Harper (University of Plymouth).
If you are interested in contributing to the group or have any ideas concerning either the work of the group or potential activities then please contact dominic.broadhurst@manchester.ac.uk.
Details on all activities will be made available on the UKSG website and communicated via all UKSG and relevant industry communications channels. We look forward to the involvement of the community and to these activities developing innovation and new thinking.