Upcoming SSP Focus Group to investigate open data, science, and scholarship

Open access. Open data. Open science. If you hang around the publishing industry for a bit, you likely will hear plenty of references to “open” (meaning access or transparency) in reference to accessibility, methodology, metrics, or evaluation. However, it’s not just publishers that openness affects—it can influence peer review, science literacy, taxes, funding, the way scientific studies are performed and recorded, and more.

In order to help publishers, librarians, and industry professionals and stakeholders navigate the current “open” waters the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is hosting a focus group on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C.

“With the shift to digital publishing, the rise of platforms for sharing and consuming publications and data, and taxpayers insisting on transparency in where their money is going, the research enterprise (publishers particularly) needs to innovate around staying relevant while meeting this demand—hence the focus on ‘open research’ broadly from both the humanities and biomedical perspectives,” said Sara Rouhi, Director of Business Development at Altmetric, who is moderating the event.

The day will consist of panel discussions, audience discussions, and smaller breakout groups (topics of discussions and breakouts, as well as an agenda of the day and a list of the panelists, are included below). The topics and panelists intentionally were selected to provide an outlet from which a variety of voices and viewpoints from across the industry will be heard.

“Getting all these voices together in one room on this specific topic is tough and rare,” said Rouhi. “I’m unaware of any other gathering that will have this mix of perspectives, fields, and organizations represented. The new ‘breakout roundtable’ format will also allow attendees to deep dive into a specific topic area based on interest.

“Attendees hopefully will leave with a lay of the land with respect to ‘open’ from the publisher, researcher, and funder perspective, as well as an overview and challenges and opportunities they need to take back to their own organizations to wrestle with internally. The day is meant to provoke real conversations around changing business and dissemination models.”

Registration for the event is now open.

Panelists:
Kristen Ratan – Co-Founder, Collaborative Knowledge Foundation
Philip Bourne – Associate Director for Data Science, NIH
Meghan Byrne – Senior Editor, Public Library of Science
Dot Porter – Curator of Digital Research Services in the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Jean Bauer – Associate Director, The Center for Digital Humanities, Deputy University Librarian’s Office, Princeton University

Topics for the breakouts:
Funders as Levers (Bourne)
Open Access/Open Source (Ratan)
Library as Open Publisher (Dot Porter)
Reuse of Open Data (Bauer)
Open Data Across Disciplines (Byrne)

Agenda

10:00–10:15 – Introductions/overview for the day
10:15–10:40 – Intro to “Open”: Where did we come from and where might we go?
10:40–11:00 – Audience discussion: What are your organizations doing to go “open?”
11:00 – 11:30 – Panel discussion: Trials and tribulations of “open” across the disciplines
11:30–12:00 – Open discussion with panelists and audience
12:00-1:00 – Networking lunch
1:00–1:15 – Small group break out overview: Table topics above
1:15–2:00 – Small group break out discussions with panelists
2:00–2:30 – Small group reporting to broader audience
2:30–3:00 – Discussion
3:00–3:15 – Break
3:15–3:40 – Panel discussion: Where is “open” heading next?
3:40–4:00 – Final group discussion and closing