Research Data Services: Partnerships

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL)/Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Joint Task Force on Research Data Services (RDS) formed in 2020 with a two-fold purpose: (1) to demonstrate and commit to the roles research libraries have in stewarding research data and as part of institution-wide research support services and (2) to guide the development of resources for the ARL and CARL memberships in advancing their organizations as collaborative partners with respect to research data services in the context of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data principles and the US National Academies’ Open Science by Design framework. Research libraries will be successful in meeting these objectives if they act collectively and are deeply engaged with disciplinary communities. The task force formed three working groups of data practitioners, representing a wealth of expertise, to research the institutional landscape and policy environment in both the US and Canada. This report of the ARL/CARL RDS task force’s working group on partnerships highlights library RDS programs’ work with partners and stakeholders. The report provides a set of tools for libraries to use when assessing their RDS partnerships, including assessing partnerships using a partnership life cycle, defining the continuum of possible partnerships, and creating a catalog. Not all partnerships will last the entirety of a librarian’s career, and having clear parameters for when to continue or sunset a partnership can reduce ambiguity and free up resources. Recognizing the continuum of possible partnerships can provide the framework by which librarians can understand the nature of each group. From cyclical to seasonal to sporadic, understanding the needs of a type of partnership can help libraries frame their understanding and meet a group where they are. Finally, creating a catalog of partnerships can help libraries see the landscape of the organization, as well as areas for growth. This approach also aligns with OCLC’s 2020 report on Social Interoperability in Research Support: Cross-Campus Partnerships and the University Research Enterprise, which highlights the necessity of building and stewarding partnerships. Developing and providing services in a decentralized organization relies on the ability to build trusted relationships. These tools will help libraries achieve sustainable growth that is in concert with their partners, generating robust, clearly aligned initiatives that benefit all parties, their campuses, and their communities.

Humanistic Mentoring in Graduate Education

In a global health pandemic context, a group 16 of education Master's students met voluntarily with their tutors in a virtual research support seminar, during the Saturday mornings of the first and second semester of 2020. This study aimed to know to what extent did mentoring and human tutoring characteristics emerge in a virtual research seminar experience. Through a qualitative research approach that included the analysis of the conversations and dialogues of the recorded sessions, insights showed that some of these characteristics emerged naturally along with the sessions, but as time passed, emotional and personal aspects were appearing more often than some others, showing that students felt more comfortable talking about themselves and supporting their classmates, as well as expressing their academic doubts and project thoughts freely because of humanistic tutoring approach. Most of them achieved the goal of finishing their project chapters on time. The humanistic and professional characteristics of teachers emerged as the main factors to develop this humanistic tutoring approach.

Autoethnography and Other Self-Inquiry Methods for Practice-Based Doctoral Research

For some doctoral practitioner-researchers, the methods used within autoethnography and other self-inquiry-based research methods are appropriate for a practitioner dissertation as the phenomenon of inquiry is a central human, intrinsic, and experiential self-focused construct. The tenets of autoethnography and other self-as-subject research support the view that new knowledge can be discoverable from within the individual lived experience, and this chapter presents current trends and scholarship for the use of autoethnography and other self-inquiry research methods for practice-based doctoral research. The chapter also presents one case from a recent doctoral autoethnographer to illustrate the experience of a practice-based autoethnographic dissertation study within a practitioner doctoral program.

Research Support Services in Indonesian Academic Digital Libraries A Proposed Business Model and Prototype Design

Several studies have highlighted the critical role of academic digital libraries in providing research support services and improving research performance. Although several studies have discussed the value of realizing this role, a business model that can serve as a reference in carrying out this role is not yet available. This research aimed to propose a business model and a prototype design for Indonesia’s academic digital library for research support services. A focus group discussion was conducted involving nine experts to identify the key factors. They were then mapped onto a Business Model Canvas. The key activities in the business model guided the requirements gathering for developing a prototype. The requirements were obtained from the literature reviews with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method. The requirements were validated by interviewing library managers, research unit managers, and information technology managers. This research resulted in the academic digital library Business Model Canvas and the proposed prototype design, which consisted of a mobile application for member users and a back-office application to manage services by librarians. Further research on prototype implementation testing and the development of a successful implementation model is needed to strengthen this research.

Research Support through Programming: Developing an Automation-Assisted Literature Search

This case study describes the work of librarians at the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in developing a novel approach to supporting research through programming. Approached by researchers for assistance with a large-scale literature search that also involved text extraction, we utilized both traditional bibliographic indexes (Web of Science) and citation management tools (EndNote) and less-traditional tools like the programming language Python and a PDF extraction program (LA-PDFText) to approach different sections of the project. This article outlines that process and briefly discusses the potential for developing new services in business libraries around programmatic research support.

Open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences: Complex perceptions of researchers and implications for research support

Adoption of open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) is a work in progress, with lower engagement in HASS than most of the natural sciences. HASS research impacts how we live, how we learn and how we see ourselves, and research institutions should encourage and enable their HASS research communities to increase the prevalence of open access research outputs. Six experienced HASS researchers at a single academic institution in Perth, Australia, were interviewed to explore their perceptions and experiences of open access, and any barriers that they had encountered. Thematic analysis was used to code the transcribed interviews, and generate themes. This study found a wide variance in the adoption of open access practices among HASS researchers. Some participants are publishing via APC-based gold open access (in DOAJ listed journals), while other participants encounter multiple barriers to sharing more of their work as open access. Confusion about aspects of open access is evident. Even among participants who support open access, some have had poor experiences of open access publishing. This research also found that some participants hold extremely complex opinions on open access, which directly influence participants’ behaviour depending on which perspective they are considering. These perspectives are: research supervisor, editorial role at journal, funding assessor and global citizen. Within HASS a diversity of behaviours exists around open access, and research institutions need to tailor their research support services around open access and scholarly publishing for different communities of researchers.

Cartooning the Cambridge University Libraries

Comics and cartoons are valued in twenty-first century popular culture and are increasingly used as ‘Applied Comics’ to help communicate key messages and information in society. However, there is less evidence of cartoons and comics being used to communicate with and engage library users in learning, information literacy (IL) and research support. This paper explores case studies of how several different projects have utilised comics as a medium to deliver key messages about library services to support teaching and research at Cambridge University Libraries. The paper examines the use of comics and cartoons in a library context framed in a theory of comics and visual learning. The reception and output of the comics and cartoons with different audiences at Cambridge University Libraries is explored and the paper proposes that further research could be done to examine the potential of comics in communication and IL.

The Reputational Dividends of Collaborating with a Highly Reputable Agency: The Case of the FDA and Its Domestic Partner Agencies

What, if any, dividends do agencies reap from collaboration with a highly reputable agency, such as the FDA? Utilizing a dataset covering 30 U.S. federal agencies over a period of 34 years (1980–2013), we estimate the short and long-term reputational effects of interagency collaboration. Collaboration is measured by the number of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) in effect between each agency and the FDA, while agency reputation is assessed using an automated measure of media-coverage valence (positive/negative tone) for each agency-year. To account for potential reverse and reciprocal causality, we utilize cross-lagged fixed-effects models. We find evidence of moderate rises in reputation due to increased collaboration with the FDA. These effects persist significantly for two years, before decaying to null after four years. Employing similar analyses, we furthermore estimate reversed causality – of reputation on the level of consequent collaboration – finding no evidence of such effects.Research SupportMoshe Maor and Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Israel Science Foundation under grant 1002/11.

Information Literacy Skills among Library and Information Science Professionals: a forecaster of Research Support Services

PurposeThe present research aims to gauge the Information Literacy Skills (ILSs) of the University Library and Information Science Professionals (LISPs) of Pakistan and consider it as a forecaster of improved Research Support Services (RSSs).Design/methodology/approachThe purposive sampling method through a questionnaire was applied and administered (online and offline) to assemble data from LISPs of 219 universities of Pakistan. The questionnaire covered the eight factors of ILSs and four of RSSs.FindingsThe regression model illustrates that the predicted variation of ILSs in RSSs is statistically significant. The coefficient of determination (R2) indicates that ILSs predict 70% variance in RSSs. Furthermore, the beta coefficient demonstrates that the input value of “managing findings” toward improved RSSs is moderately high as compared to other factors of ILSs. Therefore, the study concludes that ILSs of LISPs are a prerequisite for their professional growth to improve their RSSs.Originality/valueThe research has discovered the whole levels of ILSs and RSSs of the university LISPs of Pakistan. The study recommends raising the ILSs of LISPs to provide more efficient RSSs.