Abstract: Researchers are extremely interested in increasing the impact of their individual scholarly work, and may turn to academic librarians for advice and assistance. Academic librarians may find new roles as consultants to authors in methods of self-archiving and citation analysis. Librarians can be proactive in this new role by disseminating current information on all citation analysis tools and metrics, as well as by offering strategies to increase Web visibility of scholarship to interested faculty. Potential authors of journal articles, especially those faculty seeking greater research impact, such as those seeking promotion and tenure, will find practical suggestions from librarians invaluable. Citation analysis tools continue to improve in their coverage of social and behavioral science fields, and emerging metrics allow more flexibility in demonstrating impact of published journal articles.
From the body of the paper:
New research guides and finding aids should be made available from the library Website to assist faculty and others in keeping up with the most current strategies about open access, and then assisting them in quantitatively demonstrating the increased impact that may result....
By now, it has become fairly well accepted that open access associated with greater Web visibility increases research impact. A plethora of quantitative studies are available as part of a helpful Webliography that librarians may share with researchers. This Webliography, published by the “Open Citation Project” is updated regularly, and is a one-stop shop for anyone looking to bolster the argument that “open access increases research impact.” ...Subject specialist librarians can prepare discipline-specific information on self-archiving and matters of impact. This information can be disseminated from the library via the Website, or through personal consultation between librarian and researcher....
For more than a decade, many librarians and scientists have persistently made the case that self-archiving is the open access strategy that would prove most effective for the rapid and widespread dissemination of peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. Stevan Harnad, first in his “subversive proposal” and still today, continues to advocate for self-archiving of preprints and postprints in repositories as a mechanism to increase Web visibility. This has often been called the “green” road to open access. This mechanism of increasing visibility is outside of the traditional publishing system, and only requires authors to retain rights, and to deposit their own work in a digital repository of their choice. Librarians must understand the potential of self-archiving to transform the scholarly communication system for many disciplines....
Depending on the university, librarians might not only be expected to lead the discussion on self-archiving, but also to assist researchers with the actual process of depositing scholarly work in appropriate digital repositories. Those working at libraries developing institutional repositories will also take on the task of encouraging faculty to participate in the population of the institutional repository....
Comment. Some librarians use preservation as the hook to get faculty to deposit new articles in the institutional repository. It's an honest argument and I hope it works. But librarians should also use impact as a hook. (I know that many already do.) It's an honest argument as well and one supported by plentiful data. Publishing faculty need preservation and impact, but far more of them know they need impact than know they need preservation. In that sense the impact argument is closer to the surface of faculty interests. But because the two arguments are compatible, there's no need to choose. Have the impact argument ready when you need it --and put it on the library web site, as Mullen recommends.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/13/2008 02:49:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
