Shake It Off: Journal of eScience Librarianship Edition

Abstract

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’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. In response to the changing scholarly communication landscape and developments in open access publishing, the Journal of eScience Librarianship must react accordingly in order to remain relevant. JeSLIB is proactively responding to shifts in community needs including reworking its scope, updating journal policies, acknowledging peer-reviewers, and changing the default Creative Commons Licensing terms. Through this presentation, the editors will share their experiences supporting open access of research, rethinking scholarly publishing, and advancing scientific communication.