Bookshelf

Welcome to the OPERAS Bookshelf

Current OPERAS Publications:

And some current highlights:

OPERAS Living Book

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“Multilingualism within Scholarly Communication in SSH. A literature review” by Ana Balula and Delfim Leão

It is undeniable that scholarly publication is boosted nowadays by the use of the English language, but this does not (and cannot) mean that the other languages have to be obliterated as scientific and cultural agents, equally valid and indispensable. Therefore, multilingualism is an expression of bibliodiversity that has to be protected and cherished, particularly in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), a field in which culturally and societally relevant studies are made in local languages, when approaching areas such as cultural heritage, education, migration, public administration. The main goal of this paper is to present a literature review in order to identify the main aspects influencing language selection and the use of multilingualism within scholarly communication, allowing for putting forward recommendations for future initiatives aiming at enhancing multilingualism, particularly in connection with the opportunities deriving from Open Science. 

Balula, A., & Leão, D. (2021). Multilingualism within Scholarly Communication in SSH. A literature review. JLIS.It, 12(2), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.4403/jlis.it-12672

OPERAS Vision Statement: “The case for an inclusive scholarly communication infrastructure for social sciences and humanities” by Maciej Maryl, Marta Błaszczyńska, Agnieszka Szulińska, Paweł Rams

The article codifies the vision that OPERAS wishes to pursue in its operations. It presents a vision for a scholarly communication research infrastructure for social sciences and humanities (SSH). The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the pressing need to access research outputs without the traditional economic and temporal barriers. This article explores the current scholarly communication landscape, assessing the reasons for the slower uptake of open access in SSH research. The authors discuss such frontiers as commercial interests, sources of academic prestige and discipline-specific genres.
This article defines and discusses the key areas in which a research infrastructure can play a vital role in making open scholarly communication a reality in SSH. The authors conclude that a scholarly-driven, inclusive, dedicated infrastructure for the European Research Area is needed in order to advance open science in SSH and to address the issues tackled by SSH researchers at a structural and systemic level.

Maryl M, Błaszczyńska M, Szulińska A and Rams P. The case for an inclusive scholarly communication infrastructure for social sciences and humanities [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2020, 9:1265 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.26545.1).

“Academic Libraries and Open Access Books in Europe. A Landscape Study” by Morka, Agata, Gatti, Rupert

The last fifteen years have witnessed the emergence of a new role for academic libraries. Besides fulfilling their fundamental task of providing access to knowledge, besides being called everything from temples of knowledge to disturbing heterotopias, libraries have become one of the crucial stakeholders in the open access book publishing space. They act as funders for OA book fees, they support collaborative funding schemes, and sometimes they assume the role of publishers themselves. In an attempt to create a sustainable publishing environment, in which OA books could blossom, it is therefore necessary to gain a sound understanding of how academic libraries work, how they deal
with open access initiatives, and what challenges they encounter. These questions remain at the very core of this report.
The landscape painted in this report is by no means exhaustive; there are many more countries in the European community, other than the fourteen we have looked at, that need further investigating. The sample that we have taken under closer inspection proved to be a lively and diverse organism that escapes any easy overarching classifications. In order to better understand the role of academic and research libraries in Europe regarding open access books, we have looked at several crucial aspects that would help us both identify common threads and pinpoint regional particularities.

Morka A, Gatti R. (2021, January 31). Academic Libraries and Open Access Books in Europe. A Landscape Study. Zenodo (http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4483773).

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Elisa Nury, Claire Clivaz, Marta Błaszczyńska, Michael Kaiser, Agata Morka, et al.. Open Research Data and Innovative Scholarly Writing: OPERAS highlights. Revue Électronique Suisse de Science de l’Information, Haute école de gestion Genève, 2022, Special DLCM issue, pp.96-102. ⟨hal-03214397⟩