Why Discovery is a Mess

Simon Inger Consulting

Why Discovery is a Mess

STM Digital Publishing

Me:

www.simoningerconsulting.com

1996

Springer had RedSage Elsevier had completed TULiP program CatchWord had its launch clients HighWire had its launch clients Wiley contracted with a division of

Mitsubishi to build its first platform Bill Gates said “Content is King”

– Which got a lot of publishers excited


Content is King vs Context is King

ContentEvery publisher

BothEBSCO, ProQuest,

Elsevier (Scopus), ACS (CAS), NIH (PMC/PubMed)

ContextGoogle / Scholar

PubMedLibraries


Multiple incarnations

Then Primary incarnation on

publisher platform Maybe secondary

incarnation (embargoed) in aggregator database

Now Primary incarnation on

publisher platform Aggregator Institutional repository Subject repository ResearchGate SciHub


Incarnations Downloaded

7


Over half of downloads are free!


With some variation by country


The Rise of Library Technology

Libraries want to be the starting point– fear of deskilling and disintermediation– perhaps best qualified on content selection

If not the starting point, then link server technology guides along the way– manages multiple incarnations

Discovery and Delivery

Library Web Pages

RDS, A&I

Link Server/Resolver

Target

GoogleToCSocial Media

Articles: discovery options

Delivery

Discovery

Durham Research

Online


Discovery Survey


Librarians are different




The Game so far (level 1)

End users don’t have the same discovery tool preferences as librarians– But librarians control much of the navigation

and buy the target resources It’s often harder to find Gold OA than

Green OA articles if you are operating within a library environment– Making something free on a publisher site

often means it becomes no more discoverable by the majority of readers


What about books?

Delivery

Discovery

Durham Research

Online


Major Players in Discovery

Library Technology – Resource Discovery Services

Google Scholar / Google A&Is

– Clarivate Analytics– Elsevier– EBSCO– ProQuest


Discovery Options

Comprehensive but complicated Fast, simple, free, but not guaranteed Library-focussed but less comprehensive


Sci-Hub

High % of current articles now in Sci-Hub– > 58,000,000

Simple interface, no log-in barrier means it is used by individuals even within subscribing institutions

Are big aggregations the answer?


What to do (the easier stuff)

Keep up good relations with major discovery organisations (A&I, Google Scholar, Library RDS vendors) Act on poor download statistics! Work with library technology companies

(especially ProQuest and EBSCO) to make sure libraries know how to include OA journals in their indexes– Tell libraries that these journals exist!


What to do (the bigger stuff)

Library tech companies need to cooperate more Need solution to hybrid OA problem Need to improve selection and marketing

of OA journals Benefit from more standardised access

control Remove barriers not add to them!


The Problem is Evolving Faster than the Solution

Education

Why Discovery is a Mess