Researchers’ Behaviours, Needs and Expectations:

Some Challenges

Michael JubbResearch Information Network

The Changing Face of Learned and Professional Society Libraries

5 August 2009

Some propositionsthe volume of research undertaken worldwide has increased, is increasing, and will continue to increase

and more of it will be done collaboratively

researchers are both producers and consumers of research outputs

but they don’t necessarily share the same interests

Governments invest in research because they believe it has a positive impact on society and the economy

and they want to maximise that impact

the costs of research, and of higher education, have increased, are increasing (and ought to be diminished?)

cost-effectiveness an increasingly-dominant theme in current economic climate

The Role of Information in Research: a crude model

defining a set of research questions, issues or problemsidentifying relevant existing knowledgeaccessing, analysing, and evaluating existing knowledge and datadesigning a methodology for generating new knowledgeapplying the methodology and discovering new knowledgecombining old and new knowledge to answer research questions and to enhance understandingdisseminating the outcomes of research in a form that is both sustainable and retrievable

Information in the Research Processgather

evaluate

create

analyse

manage

transform

present and communicate

The Research Process:Animal Genetics

The Research Process:Transgenesis and Embryology

The Research Process:Epidemiology

The Research Processdiffers even in apparently similar areas of work, and also between teams………

Composition of Research Groupsbig science vs small science

small teams typical in life sciencesamorphous and overlapping associations with other teams“primary research engagements tend to be local”

divisions of expertise, labour and knowledge exchange

PI/leader, senior researchers/lecturers, associates, computational specialists, postdocs, PhDs, technicians………dangers of surveys that look at individual responses divorced from context

Key issues

Skills

Services

Content

Who provides what and how?

Is that provision sustainable?

What are researchers’needs?

How can they best be met?

Content: what do researchers want to find and use?

Research Resources Yes No

Journal articles 99.5% 0.5%

Chapters in multi-authored books 97.0% 3.0%

Organization’s web sites 90.8% 9.2%

Expertise of individuals 90.1% 9.9%

Conference proceedings 85.8% 14.2%

Monographs 83.3% 16.7%

Datasets – published or unpublished 62.0% 38.0%

Original text sources, e.g. newspapers, historical records 61.5% 38.5%

Preprints 54.7% 45.3%

Non-text sources, e.g. images, audio, artifacts 47.0% 53.0%

Other 18.0% 82.0%

Content: user expectations and needs

published and non-”published”grey literature, reports, working papersdata: raw or refined? mine or yours?websites, blogs, wikis, emails

quality-assured and non-”quality-assured”?the good-enough source and/or version?pre or post-publication peer review?

digital and non-digitalperdurance of the book?role of digitisation

Data sharing: motivations and constraints

Evidence of benefitsCitation esteem and good evaluationExplicit rewards AltruismReciprocityEnhanced visibilityCultural/peer pressuresOpportunities for collaboration, co-authorshipEasy-to-do

No clear benefits/incentivesCompetition; desire to extract maximum valueDesire for/fear of commercial exploitation Access restrictions desired or imposed Legal, ethical problemsLack of time, funds, expertise Sheer size of datasetsNowhere to put it

Content: who provides?changing roles of

researchers and research institutionspersonal websites, repositories etc

publishers and aggregatorsdirect relationship with authors and readers

who aggregates?

librariesfrom ownership to licensing

consortia as aggregators?

Content: costs and sustainabilitycontinued growth in the volumes of research constrained university budgetssustainability of the publishing business under challenges of

“green” OA“gold” OA

1.9

3.4

0.70.1 0.2 0.1

6.4

0.53

0.82

0.17

0.03 0.05 0.03

1.63

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7 .0

8.0

9.0

Researchfunders (peer

rev iew noncash cost)

Academicsubscriptions

Othersubscriptions

Author-sidepay ment

Adv ertising Membershipfees &

indiv idualsubscriptions

Total cost

£ B

illi

on

s

Current Funding Difference between scenarios

Increases in research funding and article production over 10 years: funding

Sources of funding and other contributions

00

-318

-273-758

-288

935 00

-983

-556

-1,600

-1,400

-1,200

-1,000

-800

-600

-400

-200

0

200

£ million

Researchproduction*

Publishing&

Distribution

Accessprovision

User searchand print

cost

Reading Total

Impact of moves to e-only and gold OA publication

move to gold OApublicationmove to e-onlypublication

Increases in research funding and article production over 10 years: costs

Publishing and distribution costs

Real terms increase of £1.6bn (25%)

1 .9 1 .8

3.7

1 .0 1 .0 0.8

6.4

0.5 0.5

1.0

0.5 0.3 0.2

1.6

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Non-cashpeer rev iew

Direct fixedcost

First copycost

Variable cost Indirect cost Surplus Total cost

£ B

illi

on

s

Current funding Difference between scenarios

Services: user expectations and needs

researchers as creatorsquality assurance and enhancement

distribution and marketing

researchers and others as consumersquality assurance

search and navigation services

access, 24x7 and permanent

links and interoperability

text mining (published text as data)

funders and research institutionsassessment and evaluation services

Services: who provides?publishing services

still needed?

competition from other providers

search, navigation, access & preservation overlapping roles of

search engines

individual libraries and consortia

individual publishers, aggregators etc

Services: sustainabilitysearch, navigation and access

invigorating competition or wasteful duplication?levels of usage of services provided by publishers and libraries

sustainability/preservation of digital contentroles of publishers and librariesgrey literature, websites, blogs, wikis, emails…….

increasing interest in assessment and evaluation services

RAE/REF in the UK; ERA in Australia

Skills, expertise and competences: user expectations and needs

specialist research skills and specialist information skills

what’s easy, and what’s notand how that changes

‘information literacy’ approaches and their limitations

enhanced needs in some areaseg business, management and communication skills; bibliometrics

Skills, expertise and competences:who provides?

differences of view as between researchers, librarians and publishers

changes in views over time

de-skilling, up-skilling and complementarity

Skills, expertise and competences:sustainability

continuing need for professional/skills development for both researchers and information providers and specialists

generic and specialist skills

complementarity

engagement and communication

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

1. Users (creators and consumers) they are (or should be) the drivers

but we are only beginning to understand how they use information resources and services

imperfect understanding of the digital information environment; but they want content and services that

are quick and simple to use

are as comprehensive and interoperable as possible

provide for both quality-assured and non-quality-assured content

there’s an increasing demand for assessment and evaluation services

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

2. Providersgrowth in concentration of resources and services

growth in overlaps (and competition?) between different types of provider

researchers and research institutions

libraries and library consortia

publishers and aggregators

search and navigation services

complementarity and skill sets

Some conclusions: seeing through a glass darkly

3. Sustainabilityconstraints on university funding, and need for a value proposition

while research volumes continue to increase

growing interest in the overall costs of the scholarly communications process, and in the (cost-) efficiency of the research process as a whole

growth in support from Governments and funding agencies for “gold” OA policies; and from universities and research institutions for “green” OA

growing concerns about the pace and the costs of transition

A particular view………..from Microsoft

Questions?

Thanks

Michael Jubbwww.rin.ac.uk