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Research Guides

Scholarly Communication Initiative

The MSU Libraries' Scholarly Communication Initiative rolled out in 2015 to support Open Access, Author Rights, Open Education Resources, Copyright, Data Management, and digital preservation with an Institutional Repository.

Learning

Committee Education

The Open Access / Authors Rights Committee first worked towards developing a mutual understanding of issues in the scholarly ecosystem related to Open Access. To do this, as a group we read Peter Suber's Open Access (2012). Additionally, we collaborated with external specialists in scholarly communication to talk with our committee on disciplinary differences and concerns with Open Access. These speakers included Stacy Konkiel, who is formerly a data science librarian at Indiana University and now at Altmetric, and Micah Vandegrift, who is the Director of Digital Scholarship at Florida State University.

  • Following blogs, listservs
  • Attending webinars
  • Inviting experts to speak to the Committee via Skype sessions
  • Reading Peter Suber's Open Access

Teaching

Educating Others

After plans were approved for Spring 2015 to begin educating the Library's Faculty and Staff, the Committee prepared a one-hour presentation for the Coordinators and Professional Staff on February 5, 2015.

Next up, we prepared two sessions for the Boot Camp, one on Author Rights, and another on creating Environmental Assessments of attitudes toward open access at the Department Level. See our assessment tool and results of Step One.

Finally, after in-house training, we've developed workshops for the University community that are about or involve Open Access, which have included:

  • Who’s Citing You? Tracking the Impact of Your Research
  • ResearchGate and Academia.edu
  • Real-time Research Impact: Altmetrics 101
  • 5 Myths about Open Access
  • Becoming an Open Scholar
  • Publishing 101: Author’s Contracts and Rights
  • Evaluating Journals, including Open Access and "Predatory" journals

Moving Forward

Recommendations & Goals for FY 2016/2017

  • Build a Community of Practice Supporting Open Access in MSU Libraries
  • Open Access Week programming
  • Work with the Liaison Program to Assess and Select OA Monographs
  • Continued Assessment and Targeted Outreach
  • Explore development of tutorials
  • Increase Cross-Committee Collaboration

For more details, see our FY 2015/16 report.

Committee Charge

The Open Access/Research Committee will focus on the area of open access and author rights.  The Committee will develop a plan for educating the Library faculty/staff, as well as the University community, on the open access initiatives.  The Committee will recommend the ongoing serviceds needed in support of the initative, which could include workshops, tutorials, new systems, and cross-training of some faculty/staff.

Committee Members (FY16/17)

  • Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, Co-Char
  • Mary Ann Jones, Co-Chair
  • Christine Fletcher
  • Melody Dale
  • Deborah Lee
  • Melanie Thomas