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OPEN ACCESS & cIRcle: SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN CONTEXT
Barbara Sobol, Learning Services Librarian (Research) & Hilde Colenbrander, cIRcle Coordinator
Centre for Teaching and Learning Conference
UBC Okanagan, May 5, 2010
Engaging students in the scholarly publishing process Importance of evaluating online
information Role of open access and cIRcle Importance to teaching Importance to learning
What to make of information online?
How do we teach students the value of different types of information?
How do we convey that there is often a “hierarchy” of information?
How do we teach students that these evaluative skills are not only necessary for completing assignments but for interacting with the world of information?
Evaluating information is not easy
Peer Reviewed JournalNotable Publisher - SpringerJournal established in 1930
Article is about oil and cancer rates in the Amazon in an area where locals have a $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron. The authors find no indication that oil pollution is linked to cancer in the region. In the acknowledgements of the article – the study is funded by Chevron.
Evaluating information is a skill setAuthorityBias (Political, Religious, Personal)ComprehensivenessDate AppropriatenessMethodologyReliability of SourcesPublisher – Status & PrestigePeer ReviewedStatus and Prestige of Researcher/AuthorAffiliation(s)
These are the kinds of criteria that students need to be taught. Many of these criteria are highly subjective and discipline specific.
Potential approaches
Open Access provides a new/current avenue to broach the topic of information evaluation skills
Librarians can directly address these issues through course/discipline specific instruction
Faculty can integrate evaluative skills into lectures/discussions/assignments
What is Open Access?
Open access literature is: Digital information made available free-of-charge on the
web Refers particularly to peer reviewed research articles and
their preprints Not free to produce
OA started as a response to exponential journal price increases
OA is a response to growing demands for public accountability for tax dollars
OA makes scholarly information freely available around the world
What is cIRcle?
A web-based database for published and unpublished scholarly materials
Openly accessible to anyone: creators must be acknowledged and properly cited
Supports scholarship by enabling the easy sharing of research findings
Goal: To showcase UBC’s intellectual output Pilot project launched spring 2007 Full service spring 2009 cIRcle home page https://circle.ubc.ca
Are there other Open Access databases? ROAR (Registry of Open Access
Repositories) currently lists 1700+ repositories around the world Australia: 57 Brazil: 70 Canada: 56 Germany: 116 India: 55 South Africa: 22 UK: 171 USA: 331http://roar.eprints.org/
Why contribute to cIRcle?
Increased visibility and readership around the world Improved indexing and hence findability
Search engines: Google, Google Scholar, Yahoo, etc. Content harvesters: oaister.org
Multidisciplinary inquiry Serendipitous discovery and collaboration Classroom teaching tool Valuable recruiting tool Stable URLs Preservation and management of information assets Open Access mandates, e.g. CIHR
With acknowledgements to SMARTech at Georgia Tech
Public Health in the 21st Century: the Open Source Outbreak
Public Health 2.0: Jennifer Gardy @ UBC’s TED Terry Talks http://www.terry.ubc.ca/terrytalks/2009/11/03/public-health-in-the-21st-century-the-open-source-outbreak-jennifer-gardy/
Comparison of H1N1 and SARS outbreaks in terms of scientific response: Rapidly improving communications technologies Scientists’ changing attitudes: collaboration, open access to
research results, open data sharing
When scientific information about the virus spreads faster than the virus itself, we can beat the virus!
What can be contributed to cIRcle? Digital materials:
Research papers: pre- or postprints, or published versions (depending on copyright)
Conference and workshop papers Theses and dissertations Outstanding student projects (selected by academic
units) Unpublished reports and working papers Books, chapters and sections Datasets Learning Objects Multimedia and audio-visual materials Software
What about copyright?
For materials deposited in cIRcle: cIRcle requires a non-exclusive license to distribute Copyright owner retains copyright If you are not the copyright owner, you need permission
from the copyright owner/publisher to deposit your work in cIRcle
Note: Publishers’ Copyright Transfer Agreements/ Publication Agreements are critical!
Why is Open Access important to researchers? For authors – open access broadens
readership For governments – tax payer funded
research is available to public For institutions – demonstrates
output/impact/reach of university For researchers – funding agencies
and/or institutions are increasingly mandating open access of scholarly output
Source: Shearer, Kathleen. 2010. A Review of Emerging Models in Canadian Academic Publishing. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/24008
How is Open Access relevant in a classroom? Open access as a movement and as
something “new” provides an opportunity to engage students in these discussions Students develop an understanding of the
information landscape – direct evaluative skills
Students begin to view themselves as creators – as having agency within academic publishing
cIRcle can be used as a tool in this discussion
Why is this important to teaching? Evaluating information is a lifelong skill
that university students should be competent at
Within university, strong evaluative skills will improve student work; both in understanding and grades
Approaches to teaching evaluative skills Directly addressing the issue of
publishing Discussing open access and changes to
traditional publishing models – cIRcle can be used as a tool in this discussion
Discussing the different values of information
Open Access as teaching toolExamples from cIRcle:Electronic Theses & Dissertations
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17445 http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12919
Undergraduate Honours Essays http://hdl.handle.net/2429/23908
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7852
Faculty Research Papershttp://hdl.handle.net/2429/19587
Note: Scholarly level indicator, peer review indicator
Open Access as teaching toolOther Examples:
Canadian Journal of Sociology
ACME: International Journal for Critical GeographiesDOAJ - Directory of Open Access JournalsSSRN - BusinessRePEc – Working Papers in EconomicsarXiv.org – e-prints in Physics, Math, Computer Science
Open Access as learning tool “Students write differently – and better –
when they write for other students.”Catherine Prendergast, UIUC http://www.eui.illinois.edu/methods.html
“Nothing makes me strive for excellence more than knowing that anyone in the world could see my work.” (Andre Malan, UBC Undergraduate Student)
Discussion points
Questions about open access? Would you discuss open access in your
classes? Would you prefer a librarian to
discuss/introduce these topics with your classes?
Do you think that these topics could provide a bridge to addressing evaluative skills with students?
Questions about cIRcle? What benefits do you see for your students if
they deposit outstanding projects in cIRcle?