Fourteenth International Conference on Grey Literature
Tracking Innovation through Grey Literature
29-30 November 2012
National Research Council, CNR Rome, Italy
Abstracts
Session One: Tracing the Research Life Cycle
Customized OAI-ORE and OAI-PMH Exports of Compound Objects for the Fedora Repository Alessia Bardi, Sandro La Bruzzo, and Paolo Manghi; Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione, CNR, Italy
In order to address the needs of modern researchers to share and access research outcomes, Digital Library Systems (DLSs) evolved to manage new types of documents and collections which surpass the traditional publication-metadata document model to incorporate further entities involved in the research life-cycle. For example, enhanced publications [1] enrich the representation of traditional publications with other objects, such as metadata descriptions, research datasets, cited publications, etc. To cope with such representational requirements, modern Digital Library Management Systems (tools supporting DLS construction, ref. DELOS Digital Library Manifesto [2]) tend to offer data models capable of expressing DLS document models as “labeled graphs of information objects”. As a consequence, DLSs evolved also in the way they export their objects to third-party applications. Typically, objects are organized into “packages of interlinked information objects”, known as compound objects, and exposed through the standard APIs of the Open Archives Initiative protocols, which enable single or bulk access to compound objects respectively as OAI-ORE (RDF) aggregations [3] and OAI-PMH (XML) metadata records [4]. The Fedora Repository is a well-known DLMS platform [5], whose object data model is designed to represent arbitrary DLS document models by encoding them as graphs of content model objects, i.e., special Fedora objects declaring the “type of the objects” in a Fedora instance, i.e., the expected structure, relationships, and behaviors (Fedora methods) of the objects. This paper presents OAIzer, an extension of Fedora which is capable of exporting compound objects conforming to a given portion of the underlying DLS documentmodel through the OAI-PMH or OAI-ORE protocols. The component implements a mechanism based on the concept of “OAI view of a Fedora document model”, that is a “sub-structure” of the document model which developers can provide to customize the shape of their compound objects. OAIzer interprets OAI views to automatically deploy web APIs capable of exporting compound objects compatible with the given structure and according to the preferred OAI protocol. OAIzer is compared with other solutions for exporting compound objects in Fedora, namely oreprovider[1]and Fedora2ORE[2]. The former adopts an object-oriented approach, where ORE aggregations consist of sets of Fedora objects, the sets being identified by adding to the objects a pointer/reference to the relative ORE aggregation. The latter adopts instead an objectnavigation-oriented approach, where ORE aggregations consist of one Fedora object together with the objects reachable by navigating its relationships up to a given depth. The first solution is easy-to-use, but binds the aggregation logic to DLS applications and disregards document model relationships between objects. The second solution is independent from DLS applications and generates aggregations by following relationships between objects, but DLS developers can only define the boundaries of aggregations in terms of navigation depth rather than in terms of their preferred document model “sub-structure”. Finally, both solutions do not support OAI-PMH exports of compound objects.
Grey literature in the digital culture and practices of the new global scholar: the case of molecular biology Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri; Département d'Informatique de l'Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
Molecular biology positions itself as a cutting-edge field within the new globalized modalities of scientific communication, which is characterized by data sharing, collaborative work, all supported by a distributed IT infrastructure. The recent announcement of the new generation of high-speed sequencers of the human genome, for the end of 2012, reinforces the field’s cutting-edge position. This method – genome sequencers – will be used to conduct genetic tests for cancer research. The digital culture and practices of molecular biologists have been studied, given their innovative nature (Gallezot, 2002) (Morris, 2005). These digital practices are related to Big Science, indicating a paradigm change in the practice of science itself. However, while studies have been conducted on the structuring practices of molecular biology, they haven’t focused on grey literature. We know that researchers in molecular biology rally research data, genome information, publications and many other sources of knowledge. That being said, the importance and place of grey literature in the process of knowledge production remain unknown. This is precisely what we will investigate in the context of this work. Our methodology rests on qualitative research based on a dozen semi-directive interviews with researchers in molecular biology, paired with an ethnographic observation. The goal is to identify the share of grey literature in the researchers’ informational habits and behaviour. We are containing our study to the CRCL French research laboratory[1], in Lyon. The lab’s size (350 people), the recognized quality of its research and the plurality of studied topics allow us to investigate our own questions, while always taking into account the specific context – the CRCL laboratory – in which our research takes place. Analyzing the interviews will not only help us to identify the amount of grey literature present in the information practices of researchers in molecular biology. We will also be able to know what kind of grey literature these researchers produce and distribute. In the end, we will be able to estimate grey literature’s specific contribution to the research life cycle and to the researchers’ innovation process.
Grey in the Innovation Process Keith G Jeffery, STFC-Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, United Kingdom and Anne Asserson, University of Bergen, Norway
The research lifecycle has multiple objectives materialised as outputs, outcomes and impacts. Typical outputs are research publications (including grey literature), patents and products such as research datasets and software, many kinds of art or prototype engineering artifacts. Outcomes include patent licence income, value of a company set up to exploit the output or trained research staff. Impacts include employment creation, a commercial product that saves lives or labour or development of a new field of knowledge and research such as genomics since the 1950s. Commonly research in progress may be documented as grey literature – such as technical reports, laboratory notebooks or instructions for operating new equipment. There is a decision point when grey literature is produced. One can innovate academically. The output is peer reviewed publications; the outcomes include developing trained researchers; the impact leading to a new field of research. This route provides academic recognition. Alternatively one can innovate along the wealth-creation route. The output could be a patent; the outcome license income or a new company; the impact employment, dividends to shareholders or a new ‘wonder product’. This route provides wealth and possibly improvement in the quality of life. If research is published this usually precludes following the wealth-creation route since the novel idea is now in the public domain and not protected by patent(s). Increasingly research funding and research performing organisations wish to demonstrate that the research they fund or do leads to impacts of relevance to society. Tracing of impacts back to the original research is not easy, partly because the eventual impact may not be known for many years. The key is an accurate recording of the research lifecycle including important dates so that the innovation cycle from idea to impact and back to further ideas can be demoinstrated. Recent work – especially in UK in the JISC-funded MICE project – has produced a taxonomy of outputs, outcomes and impacts. In parallel an extension to CERIF (Common European Research Information Format – an EU recommendation to member states) has been developed and approved by euroCRIS. This extension re-users typical CERIF entities of persons, projects, organisations, publications, patents, products but relates them (with temporal validity and appropriate role) to the production or utilisation of outputs, outcomes and impacts. Naturally grey literature is a key component within this model.
Characteristics and use of grey literature in scientific journal articles of Algerian University of Science and Technology teachers and researchers in STM fields Lydia Chalabi, Research Center of Scientific and Technical Information, CERIST, Algeria
Scientific research includes research activities, for creating new knowledge in the form of research output. This production search are governed either by a formal mode of communication and trade, such as, books, scientific journal articles, or an informal mode of communication as theses, conference proceedings and research reports that is called grey literature. However, with new technologies and the advent of open access to information, production and dissemination of scholarly publications, knows a revolution: diversity, speed and wide availability. In addition, nowadays, a strong need to evaluate the effectiveness of basic research appeared. Scientific research must meet the current modes of communication and understanding new and emerging needs, such examples, a global and large communication and competition between researchers, institutions, countries. In Algeria, despite the inadequacies of financial resources, documentaries, and the presence of some constraints, like economic, impeding the realization of research works, academic institutions and research have not escaped the Algerian context of globalization. Indeed, the latest results of the evaluation of research institutions and ranking Algerian emerging disciplines (for Thomson Reuters in January 2012) reveal the presence, although limited, of the scholarly output of researchers from Algeria in the prestigious international databases, which is encouraged to determine the incentives of that and support it. In this respect, our paper focuses on the presence and characteristics of the grey literature in the scientific literature, a pillar of scholarly communication, of Algerians teachers and researchers at Algerian University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB) first Algerian university in terms of publications (Thomson Reuters in January 2012) and in the most emerging STM (Science, Technology and medicine covering applied science) field, governed by the traditional system of scientific publishing. This study is the first of its meaning, it can be seen as a contribution to stimulate interest in an issue that we consider important to the Algerian researchers, both concerns in the assessments of research institutions to decide how to orient and improve their acquisitions, information policy, and information dissemination. It also contributes to study the impact of open access on publication of Algerian researchers. To achieve these objectives, we made two assumptions that will form the basis for the collection of information (1)Grey literature is used in the research of Algerian researchers, particularly in scientific articles. (2) The Algerian researchers use, much more, the open access grey literature retrieved on the web. Our methodology is based on a qualitative study (semi-structured interviews) with Algerian researchers in the field of STM (Physic, biology and chemistry) USTHB University (ranked first Algerian university in terms of greater number of scientific publication by Thomson Reuters).
Usage of grey literature in the research life cycle in Korea Seon-Hee Lee, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, KISTI, Korea
This paper reports a case study on the usefulness of grey literature service in Korea. Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) has been collecting the technical reports of national research and development projects through National Science & Technology Information System (NTIS) and the conference proceedings through Article Contribution Management System (ACOMS). The researchers are supposed to upload their technical reports and conference proceedings on the systems via the internet by themselves. Then the grey literatures uploaded are being serviced to public at a portal system so called National Digital Science and Technical Library (NDSL). Researchers therefore can access to the latest research results of other people’s projects through the NDSL service. In this paper, an impact interview and close observation were conducted with 24 researchers in the field of nanotechnology and life science who define the research life cycle and evaluate the usefulness of the service in each stage of the cycle. The usage statistics of the NDSL service is also included in the assessment. The usage of the technical reports and conference proceedings is increasing and the researchers use the grey literatures in every stage of their research cycles consisting of idea building, funding, experiment and analysis, result creation, and evaluation in order to obtain information on the latest research trends. The NDSL grey literature service is also being used by the R&D researchers to recognize and avoid duplication of the same topic studies with other researchers and to distribute their research results to the colleagues effectively.
TextRelease Program and Conference Bureau Javastraat 194-HS 1095 CP Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel./Fax +31(0) 20-331.2420 Email conference@textrelease.com
