Changing Face of Information: Support Services for Scientific Research

David J. Brown

• Publisher: De Gruyter Saur
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783110645538
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110651508
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The health of scientific enterprise has become a critical political and social issue as nation states tackle austerity, diversity, global challenges, whilst simultaneously supporting a competitive and innovative national economy. A key asset in achieving such ambitions is for a scholarly information system which enables the fruits of the research effort to be disseminated efficiently. As the information support system struggles with adapting from a print-based to a digital process, the dysfunctionality current within STEM publishing in particular becomes evident. New ways of supporting research are emerging which require a new approach to publishing, an approach which takes on board the many demographic, social, technical and administrative changes taking place in both science itself and society. A radical strategic assessment is required and this book tracks key aspects required for any new future strategy.

This book provides a catalogue of issues to which a future STEM information industry will need to adapt. They range from the effects of technology on the neurological processes of research to the growing use of technology to speed up the exchange of information among groups and collaboratories; from considerations about quality control yet maintaining intellectual ownership; from changing from an elitist STEM system favouring academics to a more democratic process with wider appeal. There is the neglected non-academic market and its need to share in the results of the research effort, often through partnership and being part of a 'hive mind'. This is the large world of the unaffiliated knowledge workers, of which academia is numerically but a small part.

The many changes taking place in scholarly information dictate that the future is unlikely to be a smooth and gradual evolution from the past. Radical new approaches are required, a revolution which takes on board the perfect storm of changes listed in this book. Just as such changes have changed the face of industries such as music and retail in recent years, so similar dramatic changes are likely to result in a restructuring of STEM into a more technologically-focused industry within the next decade. The implications for the current STEM stakeholders are profound.

1 INTRODUCTION

REASONS FOR INVESTIGATING THIS TOPIC

In recent years, funding agencies and the media have focused on commercial and operational challenges facing the scientific publishing system, usually referred to as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). By contrast, comparatively little attention has been given to longer-term strategic issues. There is concern about the rationale behind an industry amounting to $25.2 billion a year, of which almost $10 billion is from journals, and which generates profit margins of 35–40% for the handful of leading academic publishers who dominate the sector. These margins are sometimes far greater than those of global tech companies which have come under recent public scrutiny, such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Besides concern about haemorrhaging science funds away from the research sector into a few profitable commercial operations, there is also a related worry about reliance by these publishing companies on a paywall business model which restricts access to those sitting behind academic walls, at the expense of serving a wider science-aware community. The current system is elitist and highly delineated. Commentaries by pundits in STEM are assessed to see whether they offer solutions to resolve such commercial concerns.

Other concerns focus on optimising research output formats to meet emerging new user demands in a digital world; on attracting participation from groups having wider, more practical or applied but nevertheless relevant skill sets; in ensuring an equitable quality control system is in place which judiciously eliminates noise and information overload; and in identifying the status and role of STEM as a utility within society. In theory, participation by knowledge workers and a more ‘research aware’ public could enhance R&D efficiency and generate additional outcomes and resources which would in turn feed back into providing support for future funding activities in research. A virtuous circle would be created.

If appropriate changes are required to the communication system what would this mean for the health of the scientific information process and the commercial viability of the current stakeholders involved? There are problems which prevent a healthy STEM publication system being introduced. The dysfunctionality of the present STEM publication system has been highlighted by The Guardian journalists Monbiot (2011) and Brown (2009); by academics such as Gowers (2014), Murray Rust (2014) and Allington (2013); by independent observers such as Susskind (2015); by government agencies such as the UK Office of Fair Trading (UKOFT 2002); by Jisc, and within the Finch report (RIN 2012); and by American commentators such as Neilsen (2009), Esposito (2013) and Shirky (2008), among many others. These informed commentators pointed to the many weaknesses facing STEM in adapting to a rapidly changing socio/technical and business environment and to the alleged avarice of several STEM publishers.

The benefit in analysing this topic is that it is both timely and significant. New source of revenues could be tapped if business models could be introduced which push all right buttons required by a digital research community and which could also make available science results to a new science-aware audience. The challenge is to bring the changes which are likely to occur within one approach whilst ensuring that the objective of achieving a sustainable and viable business proposition for the industry as a whole can be met.

Some vital questions need to be answered. For example, how can a viable commercial future for STEM be reconciled with the growing political pressures to achieve openness? How can needs to disseminate highly technical, esoteric research results be combined with broadening the reach of these results in dumbed-down versions suitable for a more general but interested audience? How can book and journal publishing survive in the face of totally new formats for research dissemination which are based on raw datasets and non-text media, and what agencies will emerge to support new forms of data accreditation and dissemination? How can social media and social networking be integrated effectively into a traditional formal approach to STEM? As will be explained in the following report, scientific communication is currently in a volatile and vulnerable state, which raises many questions on how it can be structured over the next decade.

The need for the current system to be fixed is highlighted by the results of an Ithica S&R “Survey on UK academics” (Ithica 2016) which reported “There is a growing interest from academics in reaching audiences outside those in academia with their research [findings]”. Compared with an earlier Ithica study in 2012, there was a significant increase in respondents who said that non-academic professionals, undergraduate students and the general public are all important audiences to target with research findings. These wider communities of potential users have not been considered in traditional marketing strategies adopted by STEM publishers. An academic, insular rather than open, democratic position has been the norm. A translation of content to include the essence of the expert’s conclusions, whilst enabling a vast community of disenfranchised knowledge workers to be reached, is lacking in scale.

The above were the starting points, providing both the stimulus and setting for the for this analysis’ conceptual framework.

SCOPE FOR THIS REPORT

Several practical issues are covered in this analysis.

• This is primarily a UK-focused research project even though the issues are global. Comparative international data in this area is often lacking. It is recommended that future iterations of this project would add to the available international statistical evidence. In the meantime, it remains a weakness of the STEM system that quantified, quality data about market aspects of the business is currently lacking and needs to be addressed in a coordinated and systematic way.
• This project is both commercial and strategic as well as academic in its approach. A commercial assessment of market size, trends and business models informs on how far STEM has become dysfunctional and identifies the extent of change currently occurring. The strategic focus addresses the viability of new digital means of communicating specialised information and how users are changing. Future investments in the STEM infrastructure will be dictated by how confident organisations are that there is a socially acceptable, commercially viable and strategically sustainable business model underlying the output of research results in future. These issues are tackled through the prism of a commercial and business approach whilst also recognising that an academic approach, which includes independent and structural rigour, is also relevant.
• This book’s content is based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stm, STM, S&E or STEM) rather than broader scholarship, albeit that there is also a fragmented approach within STEM disciplines in their respective adoptions of digital information systems. A physicist is different, in information terms, from a humanist; a biologist from an econometrician. Even within individual scientific disciplines there are different informational sub-cultures.
• It is an independent, impartial study, based on the experiences of the author who has been part of organisations which are involved in all stages of the research cycle – from publishing (at Elsevier Science, Pergamon Press), librarianship (the British Library), intermediaries (Ingenta, Faxon; Blackwells) to consultancy (DJB Associates), authorship (of books with de Gruyter and editor of an independent monthly newsletter) and postgraduate researcher (University College London). Relying on any single existing stakeholder to make balanced assessments would suffer from traditional cultures distorting the picture. Impartiality is important at this juncture, particularly when feelings are running high over activities of certain stakeholders. For example, threats of boycotts against commercial journal publishers – currently in vogue – reflect more the failings of the system rather than promoting realistic solutions and sustainable and unbiased strategies for the future.

AIMS

The aim is to review the trends towards greater democracy and openness within scientific research and STEM communications.

There is a triple aspect to this aim – the first is to evaluate external developments, encapsulated within the terms “perfect storm” or “tsunami”, and are analysed both in terms of implications on UKWs specifically and the STEM industry generally. Secondly, information needs and habits of so-called unaffiliated knowledge workers (UKWs) in the UK are assessed. Finally, these assessments are placed within the context of the present STEM information system and its future structure.

All three aspects are linked. An analysis of the STEM information process will inform whether it is fit for purpose in a rapidly changing information world. Notably, it assesses implications which the current structure of STEM has on those communities which are not included in the mainstream STEM effort.

At stake is the health of science communication during the upcoming decade as stakeholders cope with a combination of disruptive technologies and social change. It raises questions about the development of effective UK national science, research and information policies, as well as how extensively a mantle of democracy could enshroud these.

In conclusion, recommendations based on the analyses which have been described as part of the above activities are offered. The intention is to produce recommendations for scientific information and research communications to move forward using viable and sustainable platforms which meet different requirements from both old and new stakeholders and for both established and new market sectors.

OBJECTIVES

Derived from the above aims, the objectives for this study includes:

• Describing the impact on the STEM industry in migrating from print through hybrid to digital publishing
• Providing an analysis of relevant statistical sources on demographic trends
• Monitoring usage patterns of STEM research outputs
• Identifying public concerns expressed by recognised experts regarding the current STEM publication process, and assessing their relevancies
• Exposing the culture conflict between meritocracy or elitism and democracy in STEM information exchange
• Bringing together publishing, financial and policy concepts which provide understanding about the extent and direction of emerging trends in STEM communications
• Reviewing the emerging technical options for STEM which developments in IT and the Internet are creating
• Reviewing the impact which social media and social networking has in transforming the communication and publication processes
• Assessing the impact of the various open access (OA) routes on facilitating ease and freedom of access
• Evaluating the impact that the changing nature of STEM communications will have on existing stakeholders (notably publishers, librarians and intermediaries)
• Reviewing the position of learned societies as providers of innovative STEM services
• Pinpointing the role which unaffiliated knowledge workers (UKWs) currently have in the STEM information process
• Assessing the extent and nature of information needs of knowledge workers
• Identifying factors which prevent knowledge workers from engaging in science research on as equal a basis as academics and those in corporate R&D
• Establishing policies and strategies to enable unaffiliated knowledge workers to be more fully integrated into the overall scientific research system
• Providing a strategic vision which enables STEM to migrate from a traditional mode to a creative, open and interactive service in the future

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• FOREWORD
• OVERVIEW
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• 1 INTRODUCTION
• 2 LITERATURE ANALYSIS
• 3 ENVIRONMENTAL AGENTS FOR CHANGE
• 4 STEM DYSFUNCTIONALITY
• 5 UNAFFILIATED KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
• 6 UK LEARNED SOCIETIES
• 7 ASSESSMENT
• 8 CONCLUSIONS
• 9 APPENDICES
• Index