As well as the recording above, please see this post for speakers’ answers to attendee questions. Presenters’ slides: Cameron Neylon, Ros Pyne, Lara Speicher and Christina Drummond.
We are pleased to announce the next OASPA webinar which will explore questions around the effects of open access on books and how OA ebook usage data can be improved to better answer such questions in the future.
Date: Monday 23rd November 2020
Time: 3.00 pm – 4.15 pm GMT (other timezones: 7.00 am Pacific Time, 9.00 am Central Time, 10.00 am Eastern Time, 12.00 pm Brasilia Time, 4.00 pm Central European Time, 4.00 pm West Africa Time, 5.00 pm South Africa Standard Time, 8.30 pm India Standard Time)
How does open access affect the readership of scholarly books? How can we use this information to encourage participation in and support for open access for books? What questions about the effects of open access on books remain unanswered, and how can we improve data about OA ebook usage so we can better answer these questions in the future?
This panel brings together participants from publishing, libraries and academia to report back on the work being done in this area and its value, and discuss where we need to go next. Join us live to be part of the discussion and ask your questions.
UCL Press launched in 2015 as the UK’s first fully open access university press, and has now published over 150 open access monographs. Gathering and sharing usage data is crucial for demonstrating the value of the Press to the institution and its authors, and for informing the open access debate. UCL Press has achieved over 3 million downloads in over 240 countries and territories around the world, demonstrating that open access books are accessed in significant numbers. This data can inform debates about the value of OA monographs, and how best to fund and support a transition to OA to ensure that long-form scholarship, so crucial for the arts, humanities and social sciences, can reach the greatest potential audience.
Springer Nature has been publishing OA books for almost a decade and recently celebrated the publication of its 1000th OA book. In 2019 Springer Nature made usage data relating to almost 4,000 books, including 281 OA books, available to COARD. Their goal was to better understand the extent to which usage of OA books differs from usage of closed books, looking not only at the number of downloads but also at their geographical distribution. The findings reported here for the first time show that for every book type, every discipline and across all time since publication, OA books are reaching more readers, in more countries.
The Exploring Open Access eBook Usage (OAeBU) project is a two-year pilot to develop a data trust intermediary to support industry-wide OA monograph usage analytics while respecting the data privacy and confidentiality needs of trust participants. Through December 2021, the project is developing infrastructure, policy and governance models to support a diverse, global data exchange platform for open access (OA) monograph usage data. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this project is led by PIs and advisors representing over two dozen university libraries, university presses, commercial , and international efforts.
Speakers
Lara Speicher (Head of Publishing at UCL Press), Ros Pyne (Director of Open Access Books at Springer Nature), Cameron Neylon (Director at COARD), and Christina Drummond (Data Trust Program Officer at the Educopia Institute) will explore open questions around the effects of open access on books and how OA ebook usage data can be improved to better answer such questions in the future.
Join us live to be part of the conversation. Link to the registration page: https://cvent.me/rMw770
Panelist biographies
Christina Drummond (@Educopia)
Christina currently serves as the Data Trust Program Officer for the OA eBook Usage Data Trust project having previously served as Educopia’s Director of Strategic Initiatives (2015-2017). Affiliated with Educopia since 2012, Christina has worked to develop capacity-building resources for Educopia’s affiliated communities while managing efforts relating to digital preservation [Identifying Continuing Opportunities for National Collaboration (ICONC), Chrysalis – Opportunities for New Types of Research Alliances], cultural heritage workforce and leadership development [NEXUS: Leading Across Boundaries, Mapping the Landscapes, Coalition to Advance Learning National Agenda Development], and data analytics [Developing a Pilot Data Trust for Open Access eBook Usage].
She currently serves as Co-Chair for the Professionalizing Data Stewardship Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance, sits on the Advisory Board for the Association of Rural and Small Library Leadership Institute, and serves on the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Data Policy Needs Survey and Toolkit working group.
Cameron Neylon (@CameronNeylon)
Cameron Neylon is Professor of Research Communication at the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University where he is co-lead on the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative. He is interested in how to make the internet more effective as a tool for scholarship. He writes and speaks regularly on scholarly communication, the design of web based tools for research, and the need for policy and cultural change within and around the research community.
Cameron Neylon is a one-time biomedical scientist who has moved into the humanities via Open Access and Open Data advocacy. His research and broader work focusses on how we can make the institutions that support research sustainable and fit for purpose for the 21st century and how the advent of new communications technology is a help (and in some cases a hindrance) for this.
Ros Pyne (@rospyne)
Ros Pyne is Director, Open Access Books and Book Policies at Springer Nature. She has worked in policy and strategy roles in open access since 2013 and has a particular interest in bringing OA to long-form scholarship and to the humanities. Ros sits on the Universities UK OA Monographs group and the advisory boards for the Mellon-funded Exploring Open Access Ebook Usage project and the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit; she is co-author of several reports on open access.
Note that previous OASPA webinar details and recordings can be found here.
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