Objective: To describe the process and challenges of creating a replication data archive at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) at Yale University. The Archive provides open access to research data, links data to publications, and ultimately facilitates reproducibility. Description: The ISPS Data Archive is a digital repository for research produced by scholars affiliated with ISPS, with special focus on experimental design and methods. The primary goal of the Archive is to be used for replicating research results, i.e. by using author-provided code and data. The Archive was launched in September 2010 as a pilot for Yale’s Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure (ODAI) to find solutions relating to storage, persistent linking, long-term preservation, and integration with a developing institutional repository. Results: Before data publication, Archive staff processes data and code files, including verifying replication, adding metadata, and converting to CSV and R. To date, the ISPS Data Archive has published over 750 files for about 45 studies. Conclusions: The development and implementation of the ISPS Data Archive, though outside the library, raises issues familiar to librarians: the need for clear policies from the institution; the challenge of finding support for the provision of high quality services; the complexity of working in close partnership with IT; the need to keep up with fast-paced changes in technology and in user expectations; and the challenge of bringing about change in community norms and practices. Alongside these practical issues, fundamental questions arise about the appropriate role of the university vs. the disciplines when it comes to data archiving, especially in light of the need to comply with requirements from funders and journals. Related publication: http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/212

This is the annual report for eScholarship@UMMS, the digital repository and publishing system managed by the Lamar Soutter Library for the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The report covers the period January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019.

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness.

This case study explores the evolution of the library published Journal of eScience Librarianship (JeSLIB), as it evolves to continue to serve librarians faced with the many challenges of a data driven environment. JeSLIB is an open access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The library publishes JeSLIB through its eScholarship@UMMS repository on the bepress Digital Commons platform. JeSLIB was at the forefront of thinking about the “library as scholarly publisher” and sought to fill a need for librarians to learn about new challenges related to scientific research data. The journal provides mechanisms for authors to confidently share their work under an appropriately selected Creative Commons license. JeSLIB is also committed to spreading the scholarly work of the profession, and uses Altmetrics to track where readers are sharing articles to. Additionally, the adoption of social media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter, has allowed the journal to interact with readers and authors in new ways. The journal’s team of librarian editors has acquired new skills and expertise in all facets of scholarly publishing to the benefit of the library. Running a publishing program can serve as a critical tool to help librarians cultivate new partnerships and roles. Since starting the journal five years ago, the editorial team has reworked its scope to include newer developments within data science. In thinking about reframing the journal to remain relevant and current, the editors recently conducted an extensive review and revision of the journal’s policies as well as updating the journal’s website. Through this presentation, the editors will share their experiences supporting open access of research, rethinking scholarly publishing, and advancing scientific communication.

Objectives: To describe the use of an institutional repository system to facilitate the publishing activities of an academic medical library. Methods: The Library launched its institutional repository in 2006 and developed a mature collection of peer-reviewed articles, posters, and conference proceedings. Beginning in 2009, the Library sought to expand the use of the repository and partnered with two academic departments, Neurology and Psychiatry, to publish electronic journals. In spring 2011 the Library began to explore the idea of publishing its own peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal. Planning and implementation considerations included: choosing a unique and appropriate name; infrastructure and hosting options; organizational and governance structure; roles and responsibilities; journal structure and content; aims and scope; editorial, peer review and other policies and procedures; and dissemination. Simultaneously the Library undertook the publishing of its first electronic book, where issues of presentation, page turning, photo placement, and indexing became significant. Results: The inaugural issue of the Journal of eScience Librarianship was published on February 15, 2012 via the journal management platform of the Library’s institutional repository, eScholarship@UMMS. JESLIB has been assigned ISSN 2161-3974. The medical school joined CrossRef so that article metadata could be deposited into their system and each article assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). Additional issues have been published, readership statistics and patterns are positive, and JESLIB is now indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals. In fall 2012, the Library published its first eBook, “A History of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which was authored by the medical school’s head of the Office of Medical History and Archives. Conclusions: Academic medical libraries can successfully publish as well as host online journals and books. Utilizing the institutional repository for publishing purposes offers a number of advantages. The repository provides a tested infrastructure for ingesting and sharing of documents. The repository administrator possesses strong in-house expertise, experience with embargoes, metadata, preservation and dissemination, and most importantly, has built strong relationships and trust with faculty and researchers. The open access platform leads to wider dissemination and maximum impact, backed up by reliable usage statistics. Helpful planning guides and other resources are available to assist libraries and academic groups in publishing open access peer-reviewed materials. Lessons learned include: utilize professional copy editing services; locking papers for revisions speeds up workflows.

In the January 2018, Syracuse University passed an Accessibility policy requiring WCAG 2.0 AA compliance with the American Disabilities Act. The university also received an Office of Civil Rights complaint that required a review of the the University’s most widely used sites, once of which was the institutional repository, SURFACE (surace.syr.edu). In this presentation, I will share the story of how the Syracuse University Libraries evaluated requirements necessary for WCAG 2.0 AA compliance, and detail changes made to the institutional repository. This will include considerations and conclusions, internal collaborations within the Libraries, workflows, and project management patterns. Findings disclosed will include challenges, successes, and practical workarounds regarding accessibility and the technology infrastructures of Digital Commons that were experienced, especially impacting the discovery, metadata, and interoperability of the IR collections. As time passed, and the principles of our department and university did, as well as the dynamic with the vendor, bepress/Elsevier. As advocacy is a core element of scholarly communication (SC) work, the discussion will draw to a close with a discussion of how definitions of access to information now takes on a whole new meaning, how this influences Open Access, and why this still matters.