Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

The Future of Research Communication

Karen PhillipsJanuary 2011

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

The future of research communication

● Growth of research investment ● Research geography and by discipline● Role and funding of library● New models of publishing and product

types● Changes in technology

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Key factors

● The global landscape of research● The role of the library● Changes in format of research published● Changes in technology

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Global research Academic libraries Research papers library content spend

USA 3,617 2,959,661 $2,375m (NCES)

Japan 1,064 796,807 $319m (LibEcon)

UK 166 784,895 $371m (Lisu)

China circa. 2,703 573,486 -

France 95 548,279 $108m (LibEcon)

Canada circa. 90 414,248 $237m (CARL)

Australia 221 267,134 $236m (CAUL)

India circa. 490 237,364 -

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Research output

● 3.5% pa increase in quantity of research articles published

● Growth in number of journals likely to slow down • Journals sold as collections to library consortia• Difficult to generate revenue from adding a new journal

● Increasingly competitive to get published

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

The role of the library● Primary information resource for academic

institutions● Budget holder for acquiring academic research

content● Guide to researchers and students in navigating

an huge quantities of research knowledge

● We think that it is likely to keep it’s role as a filter between excess information and useful knowledge• Increasingly complex landscape, students and researchers

are going to need support

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

New models for publishing research - Open Access

● Growth in open access as an alternative model of research communicationTop three OA publishers are growing fast:

- BMC (18k articles in 2009, +21%)

- PLOS (6k articles in 2009, +50%)- Hindawi(4k articles in 2009, +75%)

- 8% of articles published - 4% of articles indexed by ISI 2009

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

New Models - SAGE Open

● More government OA mandates coming● Stagnant or declining university serials

budgets: OA eliminates price barriers● Declining department budgets: social

scientists increasingly require outside funding to support research

● More support for OA at university level: COPE

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

New formats for publishing research

In an online environment will new formats emerge for publishing research?

- Something between a research article and research monograph

- New product combining content types

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

New formats for content

Concise summaries of cutting-edge research, 50 to 125 pages

• bridge between journal articles and a contextual literature review

• report of analytical techniques

• new or emerging topic

• case study or clinical example

• core concepts explained for students

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Changes in technology

● Improved accessibility/discoverability of research

● Richer functionality• User engagement• Increased mobile delivery• Semantic enrichment • Targeted and personalised sites

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

User engagement & personalization

● Commenting, discussions● Sharing: bookmarking, facebooking,

tweeting, emailing, blogging● Publisher in turn can communicate with

better understanding of end user

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Community sites

● Methodspace

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

Semantic Web

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

ECM May 2010 Los Angeles | London | New DelhiSingapore | Washington DC

The future of research communication

● Growth of research investment ● Research geography and by discipline● Role and funding of library● New models of publishing and product

types● Changes in technology