Report on Knowledge Exchange workshop Sustainable Business Models for Open Access Services

The work on the sustainability of organisations which exist to provide services to the Open Access community, commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, identified that such organisations need to have a business-like approach and that the absence of rigorous attention to all aspects of the business may lead to sub-optimal performance and, potentially, failure. With this in mind, a Sustainability Index was drafted for consideration by attendees at the Knowledge Exchange workshop on sustainability in Utrecht (February 2014). Over fifty participants, representing Open Access service providers, IT-infrastructure and research funders, and users,worked to making past recommendations from KE work on Open Access actionable.

Review of Open Access Policy Dependencies

Knowledge Exchange analysed the extent to which OA policies are dependent on a number of non-commercial, compliance-enabling services used by researchers and institutions. This work offers clear evidence to policy makers on the importance of a number of non-commercial services to the successful implementation of OA policies. It also shows that many of these services are at risk and warrant further support in financial and/or governance terms. The summary report (available here) includes an analysis of a wide range of OA services and policies currently in use and presents: • an analysis of the common elements found in the current OA policies adopted by research funders and institutions • a set of case studies that illustrate the direct or indirect dependency of OA policies on key services • the views of stakeholders on the key services that enable compliance with OA policies • use cases, presented in accessible formats and language for a non-technical audience • a set of priorities for action if OA policies are to be successfully implemented

Open Access Business Models for Research Funders and Universities

This briefing paper offers insight into various open access business models, from institutional to subject repositories, from open access journals to research data and monographs. This overview shows that there is a considerable variety in business models within a common framework of public funding. Open access through institutional repositories requires funding from particular institutions to set up and maintain a repository, while subject repositories often require contributions from a number of institutions or funding agencies to maintain a subject repository hosted at one institution. Open access through publication in open access journals generally requires a mix of funding sources to meet the cost of publishing. Public or charitable research funding bodies may contribute part of the cost of publishing in an open access journal but institutions also meet part of the cost, particularly when the author does not have a research grant from a research funding body

Open access digest issue one

The first quarterly digest of news about Jisc’s work in open access (OA).

Open Personalization: Involving Third Parties in Improving the User Experience of Websites

Traditional software development captures the user needs during the requirement analysis. The Web makes this endeavour even harder due to the difficulty to determine who these users are. In an attempt to tackle the heterogeneity of the user base, Web Personalization techniques are proposed to guide the users’ experience. In addition, Open Innovation allows organisations to look beyond their internal resources to develop new products or improve existing processes. This thesis sits in between by introducing Open Personalization as a means to incorporate actors other than webmasters in the personalization of web applications. The aim is to provide the technological basis that builds up a trusty environment for webmasters and companion actors to collaborate, i.e. "an architecture of participation". Such architecture very much depends on these actors’ profile. This work tackles three profiles (i.e. software partners, hobby programmers and end users), and proposes three "architectures of participation" tuned for each profile. Each architecture rests on different technologies: a .NET annotation library based on Inversion of Control for software partners, a Modding Interface in JavaScript for hobby programmers, and finally, a domain specific language for end-users. Proof-of-concept implementations are available for the three cases while a quantitative evaluation is conducted for the domain specific language.

Knowledge Exchange Discussion paper on Open Knowledge

The development of an openly available layer of scholarly and scientific content requires access to all types of output from the scholarly and scientific process. Interoperable and sustainable infrastructure components are invaluable elements and the content should be clearly licensed for re-use. Open Knowledge will improve the discoverability and re-usability of content across the sectors, to the benefit of higher education and research and will help the (European) knowledge economy to move forward. In Autumn 2013, scoping sessions took place with experts to discuss their views around the value of making knowledge open and the steps which need to be taken to achieve this. These discussions are collected in the Knowledge Exchange discussion paper on Open Knowledge.

Open Citations and Responsible Metrics

Briefing Note for Jisc – Cameron Neylon – March 2016

Report from the Knowledge Exchange Event: Pathways to Open Scholarship

The report on the ‘Pathways to Open Scholarship’ conference, organised by Knowledge Exchange to celebrate its 10th anniversary, contains an overview of the views that invited speakers and experts in the audience expressed on Open Scholarship developments. Open Scholarship is not yet a reality of everyday research and education. The event reported on, addressed the concept of "open scholarship" by debating issues and key challenges with the aim to identify pathways forward. Four central themes which represent crucial dimensions of open scholarship have been explored: Benefits, risks and limitations of Open Scholarship; Success as a researcher; Technology; and Publishing and publication services. The report contains views, expectations, wishes and frustrations that experts have on open scholarship, as well as new and promising initiatives and approaches. The report is a starting point for future planning of KE activity and input for a range of consultation talks with respected experts and leaders in the research community in KE countries and beyond.

Generalization of the JTZ model to open plane wakes

The JTZ model [C. Jung, T. T¶el and E. Ziemniak, Chaos 3, (1993) 555], as a theoretical model of a plane wake behind a circular cylinder in a narrow channel at a moderate Reynolds number, has previously been employed to analyze phenomena of chaotic scattering. It is ex- tended here to describe an open plane wake without the con¯ned nar- row channel by incorporating a double row of shedding vortices into the intermediate and far wake. The extended JTZ model is found in qualitative agreement with both direct numerical simulations and ex- perimental results in describing streamlines and vorticity contours. To further validate its applications to particle transport processes, the in- teraction between small spherical particles and vortices in an extended JTZ model °ow is studied. It is shown that the particle size has signif- icant in°uences on the features of particle trajectories, which have two characteristic patterns: one is rotating around the vortex centers and the other accumulating in the exterior of vortices. Numerical results based on the extended JTZ model are found in qualitative agreement with experimental ones in the normal range of particle sizes.

Limited resources? Let the habitat priority planner help!

In this time of scarce resources, coastal resource managers must find ways to prioritize conservation, land use, and restoration efforts. The Habitat Priority Planner (HPP) is a free geospatial tool created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Services Center that has received wide praise for its ease of use and broad applicability to conservation strategic planning, restoration, climate change scenarios, and other natural resource management actions. Not a geographic information system (GIS) user? Don’t worry―this tool was designed to be used in a team setting. One intermediate-level GIS user can push the buttons to show quick results while a roomful of resource managers and stakeholders provide input criteria that determine the results. The Habitat Priority Planner is a toolbar for ESRI’s ArcGIS platform that is composed of three modules: Habitat Classification, Habitat Analysis, and Data Explorer. The tool calculates basic ecological statistics that are used to examine how habitats function within a landscape. The tool pre‐packages several common landscape metrics into a user‐friendly interface for intermediate GIS users. In addition, HPP allows the user to build queries interactively using a graphical interface for demonstrating criteria selections quickly in a visual manner that is useful in stakeholder interactions. Tool advocates and users include land trusts, conservation alliances, nonprofit organizations, and select National Estuarine Research Reserves and refuges of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Participants in this session will learn the basic requirements for HPP use and the multiple ways the HPP has been applied to geographies nationwide. (PDF contains 5 pages)

Group velocity of probe light pulse in an open lambda system

The group velocity of the probe light pulse (GVPLP) propagating through an open Lambda-type atomic system with a spontaneously generated coherence is investigated when the weak probe and strong driving light fields have different frequencies. It is found that adjusting the detuning or Rabi frequency of the probe light field can realize switching of the GVPLP from subluminal to superluminal. Changing the relative phase between the probe and driving light. elds or atomic exit and injection rates can lead to GVPLP varying in a wider range, but cannot induce transformation of the property of the GVPLP. The absolute value of the GVPLP always increases with Rabi frequency of the driving light field increasing. For subluminal and superluminal propagation, the system always exhibits the probe absorption, and GVPLP is mainly determined by the slope of the steep dispersion.

Lasing without or with inversion in an open four-level system with a phase-fluctuation driving field

The effect of exit rate and the ratio of atomic injection rate on gain behaviour has been investigated, and the effects of phase fluctuation on absorption, dispersion and population difference in an open four-level system have been analysed by using numerical simulation from the steady linear, analytical solution. The variation of the linewidth, Rabi frequency of the driving field, the exit rate or the ratio of atomic injection rate can change the lasing properties in the open system. The presence of finite linewidth due to driving-field phase fluctuation prevents the open four-level atomic system from obtaining a high refractive index along with zero absorption.