OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) : Addressing Bias in Research Analytics

A conversation on the challenges of bias in research metrics and how libraries could respond.

IBM 704 mainframe at NACA in 1957. Public Domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_mainframe 

Today’s universities and scholars increasingly rely upon an array of indicators about research activities to support institutional decision making, competitive analysis and economic development, impact assessment, and individual and institutional reputation management. But increasing reliance on big data also brings the responsibility of asking questions about how biases may be baked into frequently used research metrics resources.

For instance:

  • What do researchers and institutional leaders need to know to use research analytics responsibly?
  • What is the role of the library?
  • Who can libraries partner with?
  • How can we support scholars who may be affected by bias?
  • And how can these biases negatively impact institutional climate?

We will explore these questions in this RLP event. Sheila Craft-Morgan will kick off out conversation by sharing her perspective as the research impact librarian at Ohio State, with extensive experience in institutional research. Allegra Swift will follow sharing about the Library’s collaboration with the Office of Compliance and Integrity and Research Ethics Programs at UC San Diego. We will then have ample time for discussion and sharing among all participants.

Participants are encouraged to come prepared to listen, contribute, and participate, including sharing about your own institutional efforts (even if these are still emerging). This is a rich opportunity for us to learn from each other and to find mutual support for efforts that challenge us all.
This discussion will not be recorded or shared after the fact, but we summarized the discussion in a blog post in the OCLC Research blog, Hanging Together, as part of their blog series on bibliometrics and research impact.

Dates (two sessions available)

Thursday, 16 February 2023 | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm EST (UTC -5) (Europe/North American East Coast friendly time)
Thursday, 16 February 2023 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm EST (UTC -5) (North American West Coast/Asia Pacific friendly time)

All affiliates of OCLC Research Library Partnership organizations are invited to participate. Registration page.

IFLA STL/Author Carpentry Workshop on Predatory vs. Legitimate Journals

Publish by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Join UC San Diego Scholarly Communications Librarian Allegra Swift and Annelise Sklar, the Assistant Director of the Scholarship Tools and Methods Program and Librarian for Political Science, Law & Society, International Studies, and International Government Information as they present “Identifying Reputable OA Journals,” a 90-minute hands-on workshop.  This workshop is the first in a two-part series featuring the Author Carpentry curriculum founded at Caltech.

Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2022 There are two times available and registration is necessary.

Time: 7:00am – 8:30am PST Registration and 3:00pm – 4:30pm PST Registration

Author Carpentry is a researcher-to-researcher training and outreach program in open authoring and publishing, scholarly identity and reputation, and research impact. Inspired by the Modern Scientific Authoring lesson proposed by Software Carpentry founder Greg Wilson, Author Carpentry was envisioned by founder Gail Peretsman-Clement to complement and extend the research pipelines covered in Software and Data Carpentry. Author Carpentry picks up the “last mile” of the research process: writing, reporting, review, dissemination and licensing, impact measurement, and establishing author identity and reputation. This section will focus on dissemination, deception, and diversity through a publishing literacy lens. Please contact Allegra or Annelise with any questions.

This workshop is sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Science & Technology Libraries Section.

CNI 2022 Project Briefing slides and Recording

Thanks to the Coalition for Networked Information for posting our project briefing (along with Regina Gong‘s MSU update) on the work UC San Diego Library has been doing to advance affordable course materials and Open Educational Resources (OER) on this campus.

Cook, D.B., Gong, R., Martin, L., & Swift, A. (2022, March 22). CNI Spring Meeting. Open Educational Resource Program Development: A View from Two Institutions. (Conference Presentation).

The image above features a few UC San Diego OERs published with guidance from UC San Diego Library Scholarly Communication.

  • Schneewind, S. “An Outline History of East Asia to 1200, second edition” (2021). Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9d699767
  • Murphy, T. W. (2021). Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet. Location: eScholarship. http://dx.doi.org/10.21221/S2978-0-578-86717-5 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9js5291m

The CNI presentation is also posted to @eScholarship : Cook, D.B., Gong, R., Martin, L., & Swift, A. (2022, March 22). CNI Spring Meeting. Open Educational Resource Program Development: A View from Two Institutions. (Conference Presentation). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xc007br

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING: Opportunities for Authors

UC San Diego Library’s 2021 Open Access Week Virtual Event

November. 3rd at 2:30-3:30 pm [PST]

Learn about open access publishing opportunities through the UC’s transformative agreements (open to UC authors) and other avenues open to all authors. 

The UC San Diego University Librarian, Erik Mitchell, will give an update on the UC Transformative Agreements and where we are in the process of increasing sustainable journal subscription access and OA publishing discounts or full-coverage for UC authors. 

Allegra Swift, UC San Diego Scholarly Communication Librarian, will discuss OA publishing avenues for authors whose chosen publishing venue or format is not covered by the UC agreements.

The event was recorded (see the Library’s YouTube channel) and transcripts and slides are shared here.

Questions? Contact Allegra Swift.

Join the UCSD Rady School for a virtual OER Webinar on June 4th

In partnership with the Library and UCSD CALPIRG Affordable Textbooks Campaign, the UC San Diego Rady School of Management will host a webinar next Friday, June 4th at 11 AM PST titled, Adapt Your Course Materials and Save Students Money. While business-flavored, the content is cross-disciplinary as we’ll learn about UCSD student body textbook costs and access concerns, introduce quality open-access material tailored to the varying fields of business & management, and offer options for publishing your own materials.

We hope this webinar will serve as a starting point for establishing affordable and equitable course materials across your departments and campuses. We look forward to seeing you next Friday for this impactful learning opportunity! Zoom registration Link

Can’t make it? The recording and slides will be posted here.

This past year, in an effort to lower course material costs for our students, members of our faculty implemented various resources available to them to offer their materials… I thank those who have adapted … and helped students by lowering their out-of-pocket costs. However, in order to advance in this collective effort, I believe we need the involvement of campus partners. 

Estefania Perez
UC San diego rady school of management Undergraduate Education Program Assistant

Metrics: Ethics and Survival session materials

Image credit: Humane Metrics Initiative at https://humetricshss.org/

Slides, transcript, and bibliography from the session for the UC San Diego Research Ethics ProgramEthics and Survival Skills” online course on Feb 10, 2021 focusing on issues with the current academic evaluation system and tactics for survival and transformation.

2021 Open Education Week Events

These virtual events are open to all and hosted by the UC San Diego Library and the UCSD PIRG Students.

UC SAN DIEGO STUDENT OPEN EDUCATION INITIATIVES & CALIFORNIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OER EFFORTS

March 3, 2021 on Zoom at 11:30 pm – 12:30 pm PST

Recording, slides, and resources can be found here: White, S., Jhaveri, A., Swift, A., Calia, C. N., Pilati, M., & Dillon, D. (2021, March 30). 2021 OE Week UC San Diego Student Open Education Initiatives & California’s Higher Education Collaborative OER Efforts. Retrieved from osf.io/vjnq4

Textbook and course material affordability has been an obstacle to students’ success even before the pandemic but even more crucial to address as students have been experiencing increased financial instability. UC San Diego student groups and local community college faculty are leading initiatives to address these inequities and set the system right.

Sky-lauryn White and Aanvi Jhaveri, student representatives for the UCSD CALPIRG, and Cianna Calia, Chair of the  UCSD Students for Open Access, will discuss their initiatives, a UC Open Textbook Grant Program through the UC Regents that would incentivize faculty to use open textbooks and a course-marking initiative. The PIRG students will disclose the results of their faculty survey and debut their student testimonial video. These innovative and dedicated students are partnering with faculty, the Library, and the campus bookstore to bring equity and access to all.

Michelle Pilati, Psychology Professor at Rio Hondo College and Faculty Coordinator for the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) OERI, is a former statewide academic senate president for the California Community Colleges, will discuss the interrelatedness of OE and the California public school systems, UC system Chancellor’s Offices, and CA legislators.

Dave Dillon, Distance Education Coordinator, Counseling faculty, Professor, #oer textbook author at Grossmont College (UC Santa Cruz alum) will discuss how Z-courses have positively impacted students, many of whom transfer to UC San Diego.

Related Guide: OER for Students

UC FACULTY AUTHORS OF OPEN ACCESS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: TAKING ACTION FOR A MORE EQUITABLE AND AFFORDABLE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

March 8, 2021 on zoom at 4:00 pm -5:30 pm PST

Recordings, slides, and resources can be found here: Swift, A., Jhaveri, A., White, S., Forman, F., Glusko, R. J., & Styler, W. (2021, March 30). 2021 OE Week: UC Faculty Authors of Open Access Educational Resources: Taking Action for a More Equitable and Affordable Student Experience. Retrieved from osf.io/fhecy

Faculty concerned about high-priced educational materials that do not meet their curricular needs have taken to creating open access educational resources to reduce cost for their students, to have more control over the content they assign in class, and to provide accessible resources to learners and institutions around the world. Learn from faculty who use and create open educational resources, what support they have in the process, and about the impact on their pedagogical practices and their students’ academic and personal well-being.

We’re asking UC San Diego open educational resources authors share:

  • Your motivations for publishing educational materials in open access
  • The process you undertook, why you chose the publishing platform you did
  • And any impact on students, other instructors, and/or the community

Faculty concerned about high-priced educational materials that do not meet their curricular needs have taken to creating open access educational resources to reduce cost for their students, to have more control over the content they assign in class, and to provide accessible resources to learners and institutions around the world. Learn from faculty who use and create open educational resources, what support they have in the process, and about the impact on their pedagogical practices and their students’ academic and personal well-being.

Panelists:

  • Will Styler (Linguistics, UC San Diego)
  • Fonna Forman (Political Science and Founding Director of the Center on Global Justice, UC San Diego)
  • Bob Glushko (Cognitive Science Program, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego alum)
  • Sarah Schneewind (History, UC San Diego) (pre-recorded interview) 

Related Guide: OER for Faculty

Geisel Library under construction (an2_a1096_250_18), Robert Glasheen Photograph Collection. MSS 154. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb8874924d

International OA Week 2020 at UC San Diego and Beyond

The theme of 2020 OA Week is “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.” Events held around the world during the week of October 19-25 will most likely be virtual and some even open to all – which is exactly how the UC San Diego Library will produce our offerings, online and open access! While we can not meet on campus in-person, we can take the opportunity to collaborate and share across campuses.

Join us for our virtual events described below, follow #OAWeek on Twitter to see the great things happening all over the world, and follow us on Twitter @UCSDScholCom where we’ll post recorded interviews of scholars (faculty, PhD and undergraduate students) talk about OER creation, publishing #openaccess, and the student experience in sharing OA scholarship.

Open Access Week 2020 banner from SPARC

Oct. 20, 2020 from noon – 1:00pm PST

“Predatory” Publishing: Addressing Bias and Avoiding Pitfalls

An open access virtual workshop for researchers given by librarians from University of California at San Diego, Temple University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at San Francisco. See this page for a longer event description. Please see this page for recordings, slides, and resources.

October 22, 2020 from noon to 1:00 pm PST 

Building Structural Equity and Inclusion: Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials

An open access virtual workshop for instructors given by UC San Diego Librarians; Allegra Swift, Laura Schwartz, and Dominique Turnbow. See this page for a longer event description. Please see this page for the slides and resources from the presentation.

Openness can be a powerful tool for building more equitable systems of sharing knowledge. Rebuilding research and scholarship to be open by default presents a unique opportunity to construct a foundation that is fundamentally more equitable. Yet today, structural racism, discrimination, and exclusion are present and persistent in places where openness is a core value. As a global community, it is important to understand that the systems and spaces of the present are often built upon legacies of historic injustice and that addressing these inequities is a necessity.  

We need to examine who these spaces and systems are designed for, who is missing, who is excluded by the business models we use, and whose interests are prioritized. As we work together to rebuild these structures, we need to commit to moving from conversations to concrete commitments and to hold one another accountable for making real progress.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion must be consistently prioritized year-round and integrated into the fabric of the open community, from how our infrastructure is built to how we organize community discussions to the governance structures we use. International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress to build more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. 

SPARC 2020 News August 31, 2020

“Predatory” Publishing: Addressing Bias and Avoiding Pitfalls

Oct. 20, 2020 from noon – 1:00pm PST

Find slides, recording, transcript here

#oaweek2020 @UCSDScholComm

An open access virtual workshop for instructors given by Librarians from University of California at San Diego (UC San Diego, Temple University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at San Francisco.

“Mind the Gap,” CC BY (2.0) Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom

“Predatory” publishing, especially in the health sciences, is an ongoing concern and it is essential for researchers to be able to recognize deceptive publishing practices. It is important, though, not to oversimplify what constitutes predatory practices. While using tools like “blocked” or “approved” lists helps researchers avoid predatory publishers, these lists can reinforce power dynamics that exclude marginalized, non-western viewpoints. Come to this session to learn how to balance publishing in high quality open access journals while staying aware of the biases in scholarly publishing. This event is geared towards researchers but is open to all.

Learning Objectives:

Following this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the characteristics of deceptive publishing practices in order to avoid their tactics.

2. Understand the inherent and hidden biases in the publication industry in order to challenge their own assumptions.

3. Differentiate the limitations of simplistic lists of deceptive journals and publishers.

4. Assess publishing venues using reliable criteria and resources while avoiding bias.

Related UC San Diego Library research guides:

Resources for choosing and evaluating journal publishing venues : Includes the library’s evaluation tool for making values-based decisions without bias..

Resources for evaluating book publishing venues

Related research and information:

Harrison W. Inefuku. “Globalization, Open Access, and the democratization of knowledge.” Educause Review (July 2016). [open access]

Harrison W. Inefuku and Charlotte Roh. “Agents of diversity and social justice: Librarians and scholarly communication.” In Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Policy and Infrastructure, edited by Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). [open access]

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies 101 (Alamri): Privilege & Bias in Scholarly Publishing – a UC Merced Library course guide.

The Knowledge G.A.P. research and publications

Session recordings from the OA Scholarly Publishing 2020 Conference: Open Access in a time of Global Challenge

Scholarly Communication Institute 2019 projects and teams

[We’ll post slides and recordings in November 2020.]

Building Structural Equity and Inclusion: Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials

October 22, 2020 from noon to 1:30 pm PST for International Open Access Week 2020, “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.”

An open access virtual workshop for instructors given by UC San Diego Librarians; Allegra Swift, Laura Schwartz, and Dominique Turnbow.

Digital Book by EFF-Graphics / CC BY 3.0 US (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/deed.en)

Building Structural Equity and Inclusion: Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials

An open access virtual workshop for instructors given by UC San Diego Librarians; Allegra Swift, Laura Schwartz, and Dominique Turnbow.

October 22, 2020 from noon to 1:00 pm PST for International Open Access Week 2020, “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.”

While many of the benefits of using openly licensed materials remain constant, their importance is amplified as students are facing decreased bandwidth and access, and increased financial and emotional obstacles due to the pandemic. We will identify the issues of exclusive practices and discuss opportunities to improve our pedagogy to engage students and contribute to a more positive, holistic, and successful academic experience.

Registration link for this free online session. Join us as we explore strategies for ensuring your students can access and engage with the resources you need to support your instruction.

Benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER):

  • Immediate and sustained access. Students, faculty, and researchers are dispersed across the globe. OER do not require VPN or subscription access. Students will have access at the start of their course and well beyond for future reference.
  • Free to use. OER can be read, adapted, modified, and shared at no cost to the reader. Freedom from financial burdens are especially important and appreciated during this time of economic instability.
  • Adaptability. Many instructors are faced with loss of access, for a variety of reasons, to their teaching materials as we’ve had to rapidly shift to online teaching. Quality educational materials can be adapted to fit your needs if they are openly licensed.This workshop is even more important as we anticipate that we will remain in distance learning mode until at least the fall, and want to do all we can to ensure continuity of access and affordability for our students.

Related guides and research:

UC San Diego Library Guides: OER for Faculty and OER for Students

NAACP Advocacy to Promote Use of Open Education Resources Resolution

Equity & Openness : Perspectives from North American colleges and universities

COVID-19 Reflection: How OER contributes to our equitable education system

Everyday Social Justice: Using simple words to talk about equity and oppression

Registration link

Related UC San Diego Library Guides

Related research and information:

We’ll update this post with slides and recording after the event.