Presentation to 5th African Digital Scholarship and Curation Conference, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, 26 June 2013

1. The role of the university as publisher:
Implications for skills development
African Digital Scholarship Conference
University of KwaZulu-Natal, 26 June 2013
Michelle Willmers
Project Manager: OpenUCT Initiative
CC-BY-SA

2. PART ONE:
THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY AS PUBLISHER

3. Principle change in global scholarly
communication practice:
Change from predominance of journal article/book as sole artifact of knowledge
production and scholarly communication
> In which publishers were the purveyors of knowledge
> and Impact Factor as sole measure of impact
to
Dynamic, object-driven knowledge exchange facilitated by internet, new tools and new
approaches to scholarship
> In which institutions play active role in knowledge dissemination
> And there is a broad range of new tools, methodologies and metrics for generating
data on downstream use and impact

4. This revolution in scholarly communication playing out
against backdrop of intensified global competition in
higher education, with students and publication units
as central commodities.
In this system, scholarly communication and content profiling has
become a core strategic objective.
> Reflected in new global ranking systems
> The rise of the university as publisher

6. Scholarly communication is the creation,
transformation, dissemination and preservation of
knowledge related to teaching, research and scholarly
endeavors.

7. New model of scholarly
communication
Conceptual frameworks
Literature Reviews
Bibliographies
Proposals
Data sets
Conference papers
Audio recordings
Images
Interview transcripts
Books
Reports
Journal articles Technical papers
Notes
Presentations
Lectures
Interviews
Image CC-BY-SA Laura Czerniewicz

8. Rise of the enhanced journal (Holl 2012)
1. Extensive linking of external resources
• Reference linking (usually via CrossRef)
• Object linking (subject-specific databases link back to journals)
• Underlying data linking (data has own metadata and unique identifier – usually DOI from DataCite)
2. Multimedia content
•Incorporation of animations, simulations, sound, video
•Features particularly in digital humanities publishing
3. Ancillary tools
•Third-party data visualisation tools allow users to interact with data (e.g. Astronomy: CDS Aladin Sky Map)
4. Post-publication material
•Additional post-publication peer review (of all composite elements)
•Errata

9. Rise of open science
Replicable (transparency in method)
Reusable (results free for re-use and appropriation)
Replayable (tools available for appropriation)
Immediacy (more speedily available)
Granular in approach

14. These new scholarly communication models operate on principle of
knowledge generation and exchange taking place through the
linking and organisation of semantic building blocks
> Components of articles can be accessed and used independently of the whole
> Figures, tables, data and other composite elements carry own identifiers, which means
they can be linked and searched independently
Move towards more granulated, object-oriented
communication and sharing structure
> Institutions have a role to play in facilitating academics’ engagement in this space (in
collaboration with publishers and third-party service providers)

15. In this semantically driven, object oriented scholarly
communication paradigm, metadata is the passport to
participation.
In order for content to be findable and correctly contextualised, it needs
to be curated.
This is the job of both the academic and the institution.
We want to store things and put them somewhere safe so that they are
easy to find and when people come across them they know what they
can do with them. That’s curation.
Reviewing, curating and sharing. That’s publishing.

16. What needs to be in place in order for academics to be
able to participate in these new scholarly communication
frameworks?
1. Objects need to be curated
2. Objects need to be open and licensed (to people and machines)
3. Institutional support structures need to be in place
> To support the curation of knowledge objects is to support the scholarly
communication process

17. Foundational principles
1. Openness is a principle mechanism for optimal participation and
functionality
2. Academics need institutional support to engage in new kinds of
scholarly communication activity

18. So:
Where do we invest / position this support?

19. PART TWO:
IMPLICATIONS FOR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

20. 1. Develop strategic research management
“The field visits that were conducted as part of our
country visits confirmed that most universities,
including the most research active, do not have
adequate research management infrastructures in
place. Most universities in the region do not have
well developed and well functioning research
directorates.”
(Mouton et al. 2010)
> Policy guiding these new scholarly communication endeavors needs to be
embedded in and linked to institutional research policy framework

21. 2. Acknowledge and support skills development
of institutional support structures and
intermediaries

22. Scholarly Communication Stakeholders (Fairy & Owen 2013)
• Central IT
– Storage
– Computing resources
– Networking
– Programming / development
– Database
– Security
• Faculty Deans
– Budget input / allocation
– Researcher buy-in
– Reportage / R&I integration
• Legal counsel
– Guidance on IP, ethical and privacy considerations
• Library / IR
– Classification and ingestion
• Computing services
– Links to storage options and consortia
– Provide information on cost to institution
• Other
– Projects
– Sponsored programmes
– Institutional support structures

24. Extract from summary overview:

25. Source: University of Oxford DataPool Project

26. 2. Insert Library in the research process

27. • Consult and share best practice guidelines
• Promote the use of data citation with DOIs
• Introduce academics to new tools and platforms
• Consult early in the research process at grant and proposal stage
• Develop new posts that reflect the changing research environment
(e.g. Scholarly Communication Officers)
• Extend librarianship beyond service provision role (promote
conference attendance and scholarly engagement)
Librarians will need to demonstrate new services
and value-add to academics

28. 4. Explore regional collaboration and shared
e-infrastructure
Skills > capacity > scalability

29. Peer-reviewed research publications of eight African universities
(2007 compared to 2001)
Source: Bunting & Cloete (2012)

30. Regional structures provide a solution
(Banda et al. 2012)
• Eastern and Southern Africa in transition
– Becoming more interconnected
– Bandwidth prices going down
• Research and education community becoming more organised
– NRENs, UbuntuNet Alliance, AfricaConnect project
– Establishment of large-scale, federated e-infrastructure
– Access, collaboration, data sharing, resource sharing
– South Africa has already made significant investments in a wide programme of e-Infrastructure for
science, TENET/SANReN, SA NREN, CHPC, VLDS, SAGrid
– Grid sites and/or HPC clusters in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South
Africa, and many others in West and North Africa
> We need to build the capacity for engaging with these structures at
institutional level and develop more regional cooperative structures

31. References
Banda T, Ngwira M & Becker B (2012) e-Infrastructures and Applications in Sub Saharan Africa:
Challenges and Opportunities. CHAIN-REDS Presentation.
Bunting I & Cloete N (2012) Cross-National Performance Indicators: A Study of Eight African
Universitites. Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation
Fairy & Owen (2013) Developing an Institutional Research Data Management Plan Service. ACTI
EDUCAUSE Report, February 2013
Holl A (2012) Enhanced Journals: A Case Study with General Remarks. SURF Foundation Proceedings.
Available at: http://boac.ceon.rs/index.php/BOAC/12/paper/view/83/14
Mouton J et al. (2010) The state of public science in the SADC region. Johannesburg: Southern African
Regional Universities Association (SARUA)
Patrick M (2013) Survey results: Research data management knowledge and training needs among
University of Oxford research support staff. Blog post, 14 June 2013. Available at:
http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/damaro/2013/06/14/survey-results-research-data-management-knowledge-and-
training-needs-among-university-of-oxford-research-support-staff/

32. michelle.willmers@uct.ac.za
http://opencontent.uct.ac.za/
@scaprogramme