Library Publishing Task Force Report

January 2020

Group members:

• Sophia Austin, AMBS
• Amanda Hurford, PALNI, Chair
• Olivia MacIsaac, Butler University
• Heather Myers, Anderson University
• Sue Wiegand, St. Mary's College

Executive Summary

PALNI currently hosts a shared instance of Open Journal Systems (OJS) and other platforms that comprise the PALNI Press. The Library Publishing Task Force (LPTF) was created to explore how to develop a more robust publishing service model by addressing structure, needs, and plans for the future. The LPTF identified benefits to library publishing, recommended a continuing membership in the Library Publishing Coalition, identified responsibilities and procedures for journal publishing, and surveyed PALNI directors to define the need for an ongoing team. Based upon the majority of survey responses indicating interest in library publishing services, the LPTF recommends that an administration team be established for library publishing services. This team can support existing library publishing work, bolster interest in developing programs, address barriers, develop highly desired services, support OER publishing work in the Lilly Endowment PALSave grant, and monitor best practices in library publishing.

Background

In 2015, a PALNI Publishing Services Proposal was produced by the Institutional Repository Advisory Group, suggesting that PALNI set up shared instances of popular open source publishing platforms Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Conference Systems, Open Monograph Press, and Omeka to create the PALNI Press. The proposal further suggested that pilot projects be started on each of those platforms.

When PALNI Scholarly Communications Director Amanda Hurford was hired in 2017, PALNI began providing its supported institutions with increased capacity to create and host open access publications on OJS. This service is currently in the pilot stage, with two journals being hosted by the PALNI Press: ​Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology​ (AMBS) and the ​Journal of Integrative Behavioral Science​ (Grace College).

In order to build expertise for the service, PALNI joined the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) in 2018 when a membership special was announced. The LPC is a community-led membership association of academic and research libraries and library consortia engaged in scholarly publishing.

In May 2018, the Library Publishing Task Force was created in order to explore how to create a more robust publishing service model by addressing structure, needs, and plans for the future of the PALNI Press.

The Library Publishing Task Force

The charge of the Library Publishing Task Force is to:

Examine responsibilities and procedures to support the services offered by the PALNI Press (in particular, journal hosting through the Open Journal Systems platform), and consider the need for and scope of an ongoing team to administer and support library publishing at PALNI-supported institutions. The Task Force will also closely examine the benefits of PALNI’s Library Publishing Coalition membership and make a recommendation regarding its renewal.

The task force started with a literature review, and defining “library publishing”. As described by the Library Publishing Coalition, library publishing is:

“The set of activities led by college and university libraries to support the creation, dissemination, and curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works. Generally, library publishing requires a production process, presents original work not previously made available, and applies a level of certification to the content published, whether through peer review or extension of the institutional brand. Based on core library values, and building on the traditional skills of librarians, it is distinguished from other publishing fields by a preference for Open Access dissemination as well as a willingness to embrace informal and experimental forms of scholarly communication and to challenge the status quo. For example, an institutional repository containing only previously published materials, or digitization of previously published materials, would NOT be counted as library publishing. For example, an ETD program, production and/or hosting of journals, and hosting of original datasets WOULD be considered library publishing.” — Library Publishing Coalition

Findings and Work Completed

In February 2019, the LPTF Chair reported findings about the value of library publishing to the board. Some of the benefits cited were:

• Offer solutions to dilemmas created by budget pressures and high journal costs
• Help scholars regain ownership of the publishing process and products of their research
• Support author benefits to publishing open access
  • More readers, citations, access, engagement 
  • Retain copyright
  • Scholarship reaches audience quicker
  • Comply with mandates (funder, institutional)
• Offer a new model for existing journals to improve workflows
• Present and preserve academic outputs of the institution
• Help libraries become more active participants in the scholarly communications cycle and promote open access
• Develop increasingly deep partnerships with faculty, students, and campus entities engaged in publishing
• Reflect the value of the library back to the institution
• Respond to and anticipate campus needs
• Take a leadership role in advancing the mission of the institution

PALNI’s Communication and Marketing Director created an ​infographic​ illustrating these benefits. Completed work in the three major areas of LPTF’s charge was also presented to the board: 

1. Examine Library Publishing Coalition membership benefits and renewal recommendation

The LPTF made the following recommendation regarding the renewal of PALNI’s Consortial Membership in the Library Publishing Coalition: 

The PALNI Library Publishing Task Force recommends renewal of PALNI’s membership in the L​ ibrary Publishing Coalition.​ This membership provides access to LPC’s Shared Documentation Library, webinar series, and listserv where we can learn from the experiences of other programs and participate in the community of practice for library publishing. Another benefit of LPC is discounted conferencing rates to the Library Publishing Forum (available to member institutions) and the Force 11 Scholarly Communications Institute. Lastly, there is the opportunity for PALNI to shape the scholarly communications landscape by serving on groups within LPC, having voting rights in Coalition matters, and helping to support this member-driven community. All these benefits will prove beneficial for years to come, especially in the near future as we work to operationalize the PALNI Press service to PALNI supported-institutions.

2. Examine responsibilities and procedures for OJS

• Initial consultation and project setup
• Platform hosting and maintenance
• Data backup
• Provide and maintain documentation to use the system

The framework also identifies where work needs to be done in defining values, scope, workflows, and policies for basic level services. Additionally, the framework identifies the numerous other tasks potentially involved in library publishing for possible development beyond the basic level:

• Platform Support (Troubleshooting, Training, Workflow design help)
• Marketing & Design (Outreach materials and support, Theme planning and implementation, Graphic design, Site design, Development of Figures/Charts/Graphs)
• Editorial (Policy design, Editorial processes, Author agreements, Peer review support)
• Production (Layout and typesetting, Proofreading, Copyediting, Copyright review, Plagiarism detection, Print services)
• Discovery (Assigning document object identifiers (DOI), ISSN registration, Metadata creation, Application to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Search engine optimization, Accessibility compliance, Inclusion in institutional repository, Indexing in databases)
• Archival (Backfile conversion, Backfile upload, Digitization, Digital preservation)
• Analytics
• Community (Workshops, Interest group)

3. Consider the need for and scope of an ongoing team

To help decide whether or not an ongoing team is needed for publishing services across PALNI, the LPTF decided to administer a library directors survey. This survey focused on determining current library publishing activity, level of interest, barriers, and desired services to support.

Survey Results

Seventeen libraries participated in the survey sent out in February 2019.

Is your library currently participating in library publishing?

29% said that they were involved in library publishing of some kind, including ETDs and other student work, scholarly journals, student journals, and monographs. 71% are not currently participating.

Are you interested in developing library publishing at your library?

23% said that they are interested in developing library publishing, 31% said they might be, and 46% said they are not interested. All the respondents indicated that they would at least like to know more.

What are your barriers to library publishing?