Can I assist you to be more autonomous as a researcher? Strengthen your capacity so that you are more resilient to the commercial whims of those who govern the 'net. Offer assistance with the various services and platforms available to "share better"?
https://forms.gle/6uv8vE7Kt7ismedh6
Public access to research is improving, but restrictions hamper collaborative knowledge building and limit information exchange. I'm not here to revolutionise academic publishing. I'm just showing you a few different mechanisms to disseminate your work. We'll look at scholarly contributions through both traditional and alternative approaches.
Access to the world's library
In the 1990's. The internet was assumed to introduce a new era of academic publishing. Many hoped that the world's knowledge would be free of charge and available to anyone with internet access. Academics were encouraged to climb on board. An "Open Access" movement emerged that promised reduced cost, wider access and faster dissemination.Doubts have surfaced. While open-access (OA) publishing has advanced equitable access to scholarly works, OA does not automatically reverse the biases and norms of scholarship itself. OA has become co-opted by commercial entities, seeking profit from academic data and scholarly publishing algorithms. Become another business model for academic capitalism.
I think that the world has become beholden to "reductive indicators." (Gadd, E. 2020). What can be counted is now inscribing much of our collective efforts.- Lazy workarounds have evolved into stand-ins for identifying quality.
- Passion for a subject is suffocated by institutional norms and priorities.
Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have bought into reductive indicators. Managers want research outputs, particularly publications in famous academic journals and citations. Rather than focusing on the processes of conducting research or its positive effects on society. Easier to direct academic efforts by only counting what can be measured.
Academics can both improve their impact and make their work more visible.
Many HEI's in South Africa also host their own scholarly publishing and communications infrastructure. Most of the duties associated with disseminating, curating, and maintaining these institutional assets are assigned to the library and information services. Librarian’s knowledge of the external environment, their institutional role and their researcher focused role makes them well suited to the task. Whether it be hosting a research repository, running journals on OJS, or sharing resources created by the academic developers or colleagues, intended to support better use of available infrastructure
However, communication of research, beyond the walls of academia, is a responsibility that usually falls onto academics themselves. Who are increasingly expected to take responsibility for the "impact" of their outputs.
Fortunately, there are many options available to share better. To promote your thoughts, connect with others and discuss ideas. Some involve institutional infrastructure and legacy publishers. While others involve social media, web services and data collection.
This isn't only a "how-to" guide. You can expect a critical perspective on the scholarly communication system to run through the resource. I hope you'll notice how scholarship is (and isn't) being disseminated and preserved for future use. Digital Footprints is a site that makes sense of these resources.
I'm hoping to assist researchers to disseminate their hard work with the general public and increase its impact. These resources have been divided into 4 themes. Four a months worth of work (or 30 day), you can set up your own academic infrastructure. You'll get started with improving your scholarly profile and scholarly communications. You'll learn about community or open software and other non profit institutional packages.
Yes, researchers need more resources from admin and funders. Universities also naturally, wants to boost their standings. But there's also a need to do something different. To push back against the academic publishing machine!
References
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