Accessing Research
It's not always easy to access research online.
You'll probably have come across [[annoyances like this:->access1]]
[[<img src="https://library-isr-dev.group.shef.ac.uk/questioning/voices/images/paywall.jpg" alt="Los Angeles Times website with alert stating You've reached your free article limit. Subscribe." width="100%" height="100%">->access1]]Or perhaps you've been faced with [[messages like this:->access2]]
[[<img src="https://library-isr-dev.group.shef.ac.uk/questioning/voices/images/access.jpg" alt="Website alert telling user to Access through your institutional login" width="100%" height="100%">->access2]]Or if you use ebooks, you might have even spotted an alert like this:
[[<img src="https://library-isr-dev.group.shef.ac.uk/questioning/voices/images/ebook.jpg" alt="Alert on ebook website stating your institution has access to 1 copy of this book. All copies are currently in use." width="100%" height="100%">->access3]]
<p class="u">[["All copies are currently in use"? What the heck! It's not even a real book!->access3]]</u>Frustrating, right? When all you want to do is find information that'll help your work, it's hard to understand why so much of it is locked away.
It's important to remember that, like most things in life, the business of scholarly knowledge is just that: a business. And academic publishers are here to [[make a profit->access4]].Academic publishing (the system which produces academic information) is a unique type of publishing in terms of its profitability and processes.
It's dominated by a few major players with profit margins unthinkable in any other sector.
<p class="u">[[Wow, really? What kind of margins?->margins]]</p>
<p style="text-align:right;">[[*That's capitalism, baby!* 🤑->capitalism]]</p>Well, for example, back in 2010, Elsevier (one of the big five academic publishers which dominate the market) reported profit margins approaching 40% - which <a class="external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> noted was "higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year."
To understand why this is the case, we need to consider <p class="section-title">[[The Stages of the Academic Publishing Process->stages]]</p>Yes, true, nothing new here.
But still - it's surprising how vast these profits are. For example, back in 2010, Elsevier (one of the big five academic publishers which dominate the market) reported profit margins approaching 40% - which <a class="external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> noted was "higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year."
To understand why this is the case, we need to consider <p class="section-title">[[The Stages of the Academic Publishing Process->stages]]</p>A large proportion of research is publicly-funded. So you, the taxpayer, are indirectly funding the creation of knowledge!
These research outputs are provided for free to academic publishers. Yep - the publishers don't pay the academics for their work.
<p class="u">[[So if they don't get money, what do academics gain?->prestige (video)]]</p>Some of its pitfalls include how slow it is. The volunteers are academics themselves, vying to get their own publications out, and busy with all manner of things. It's never going to be a quick turnaround.
It's also worth noting that - despite best intentions - peer review is a subjective and therefore inconsistent process. Different reviewers will inevitably have [[different opinions->peer3 (video)]] on a paper's strengths and weaknesses.And of course, reviewers are human. They are prey to the same varied moods, mistakes, <span class="d">[[biases->biases definition]]</span>, and prejudices as anyone else.
...Plus they're not actually paid for the work. They are, instead, compensated in the form of their normal institution or university wages - making this another hidden subsidy to publishers. See comedian Will Flanary again:
<p align="center"><iframe width="100%" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lt_b4VKBDhI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p class="u">[[Hah, brilliant! So what comes next?->publishing]]</p>
Following peer review, academic publishers will publish the journal articles, conference papers, books, and so on.
Institutions such as universities can then purchase this scholarly content through [[subscriptions->buying]]. Like all university libraries, the University of Sheffield Library pays millions of pounds every year so that students and researchers like you can actually access content - even if it's content that [[our own Sheffield academics have produced->produced]].It's complicated, but essentially it comes down to prestige and the need to publish for career progression. Doctor and comedian Will Flanary offers a humorous summary:
<p align="center"><iframe width="100%" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ukAkG6c_N4M" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
[[Moving on...->peer]]Once publishers have received content from authors, they then utilise other scholars on a volunteer basis to supply peer-review services.
"Peer review" describes a specific quality control process, in which experts in the field assess the research to decide if it is suitable for publication.
They will evaluate the methods used, the reliability of the findings, and the writing style. So far, so good. But keep in mind that peer review [[isn't a perfect process->peer2]].At the start of the process, scientists, scholars, lecturers, and so on, engage in research and produce journal articles (or other kinds of papers) in order to share their findings.
These researchers are [[paid employees->outputs]] of universities, research centres, and other academic institutions. *What are biases?*
- By biases - especially "implicit biases" - we mean the automatic thoughts or feelings that may influence our behaviours.
- Biases are (often problematic) associations which we have internalised without realising, and tend to reflect the culture of which we are part of.
- We would likely reject stereotypes and biases in our *explicit* beliefs and values. That is, we *say* we believe in fair treatment, but we might still unconciously treat people in biased, unequal ways.
<p class="u"><a href="javascript: window.history.back();">Okay, thanks.</a></p>The implications aren't great.
Because the results of publicly-funded research are hidden beyond paywalls, it can make them unreachable to members of the public who are interested in or could [[benefit from such research->paywalls2]].Hence scholarly information becomes a twice-paid product: bought first by taxpayers, and secondly by academic libraries.
In this way, academic publishers turn public funding into private income.
The current publishing model values <em>profit</em> over the communication over knowledge.
<p class="u">[[Well that doesn't seem fair.->paywalls]]</p>Of course! After all, a large part of the library's job is to provide you with access to academic information.
But just to warn you: your access doesn't last forever. Once you graduate, you'll lose the ability to read most of the research that you're able to look at now.
Then you're stuck in the same boat as most of the public - [[staring at those barriers once again->cancer]].Interestingly, things were done quite differently during the main phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many publishers (including major players in the industry, like Elsevier, Springer-Nature, and Wiley) removed all access restrictions on COVID-related research.
Sharing information between researchers and scientists across the globe, as quickly and easily as possible, was [[vital for combatting the virus->OA1]].Which begs the question: if that open access worked so well for COVID, why not apply the same logic to all challenges we face?
Why don't we freely share research on climate change, or food poverty, or mental health, or on other infectious diseases?
Many people are fighting for exactly that. Instead of this subscription model, they are advocating for an [[Open Access model of publishing->OA2]].<p class="section-title">The Open Access Movement</p>
According to <a class="external" href="https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/an-introduction-to-open-access" target="_blank">Jisc</a>, open access means
<blockquote>making research publications freely available so anyone can benefit from reading and using research.</blockquote>
When a publication is fully open access, there are no barriers (and no costs) to prevent you from reading, downloading, copying, or otherwise using it.
...Well, assuming that you're an exemplary student and always give proper attribution to the creator.
<p style="text-align:right;">[[*Naturally!* 😇->OA3c]]</p>
<p style="text-align:right;">[[*Umm...* 😳->OA3a]]</p><p style="text-align:center">**Instructions**</p>
- Click the **blue links** to progress through the tutorial.
- Click **dotted underline links** to read definitions.
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window.location.reload(false);
</script>Except otherwise noted, this work by the The University of Sheffield Library is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/<span class="hovertext" data-hover="Hello, this is the tooltip.">Text here</span>
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</div>...Look, I'm not mad at you, I'm just disappointed.
<p class="u">[[I'm sorry, mysterious narrator. How can we ever heal this rift between us?->OA3b]]</p>
Well for starters, you can [[keep reading->OA3c]] about open access.The first is often known as 🌱 **Green Open Access**. This is where academics deposit a version of their work in open access <span class="d">[[repositories->repos def]]</span> which are set up and run by universities, research centres, and other academic institutions.
They also publish as usual with an academic publisher, and after an <span class="d">[[embargo period->embargo def]]</span> set by the publisher, the works are [[made freely available->OA5]].In a second version, glamorously called 🏆 **Gold Open Access**, authors publish with a subscription publisher who provide immediate free access to their works - though they often require a one-off payment called an article or book processing charge (APC or BPC).
Unfortunately, this hybrid model - where the costs are transferred from the readers to the authors - has become [[the dominant form of open access publishing->OA6]], particularly in the UK.The resulting rising cost of Article Processing Charges (APCs) has made the hybrid model for open access publishing unsustainable.
Even more institutions and academics from the “Global South” can’t afford the hybrid model APCs. This [[discriminatory situation->OA7]] creates a global double-standard in scholarly dissemination.So, we know a bit about what open access is in general, but there are a few different ways of implementing it in practice.
There are [[two main routes->OA4]] to Open Access publishing.Like you, for example. Remember those digital barriers we looked at earlier?
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As a university student whose library pays for content access, you're often able to [[proceed beyond these types of roadblocks->paywalls3]].For example, you can access newspapers such as the LA times if you go via the <a class="external" href="https://find.shef.ac.uk/" target="_blank">library catalogue StarPlus</a>; and you can access many websites demanding institutional log-in by logging into MUSE beforehand.
As for ebooks, [[those are complicated->paywalls4]].When a library buys an ebook, the publisher often puts restrictions on how it can be used - such as preventing it from being read by multiple users at the same time.
(If they didn't apply these restrictions, it would be as though a library had purchased infinite copies of a book for the price of one - a great deal for libraries, less so for publishers.)
If you're ever having issues accessing an ebook at Sheffield, you can always <a class="external" href="https://libraryhelp.shef.ac.uk/faq/162172" target="_blank">consult our FAQ</a>.
<p class="u">[[Great, thanks!->paywalls5]]</p>
There are some cases where this lack of access can have really negative effects.
For example, a cancer patient might find that they cannot directly read papers about their illness, or about new treatments in development, because they can't pay the thousands of pounds required to access articles.
As a group of American patient and disease advocacy organisations said in a <a class="external" href="https://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Organizations-Open-Access-Letter.pdf" target="_blank">2020 letter to their president</a>, “information critical to health should no longer be held hostage by arcane publishing practices”.
<p class="u">[[Absolutely!->pandemic]]</p>Frustrating, right? When all you want to do is find information that'll help your work, it's hard to understand why so much of it is locked away.
That said - you *can* access newspapers such as the LA times if you go via the library catalogue <a class="external" href="https://find.shef.ac.uk" target="_blank">StarPlus</a>; and you *can* access many websites demanding institutional log-in by logging into MUSE beforehand.
As for ebooks, [[those are complicated->access 4 old]].When a library buys an ebook, the publisher often puts restrictions on how it can be used - for example, preventing it from being read by multiple users at the same time.
If they didn't, it would be as though the library had purchased infinite copies of the book for the price of one - a great deal for us, but not for them.
It's important to remember that, like most things in life, the business of scholarly knowledge is just that: a business. And academic publishers are here to make a profit.What's a respository?
- A digital repository is a place where virtual objects such as text, images and other data can be stored.
- An open access repository is where that content is made freely available to download and reuse.
- And an institutional repository is a repository for storing the research outputs of a specific institution, such as a university. Here at Sheffield, we share our <a class="external" href="https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/library/eresources/white-rose-research" target="_blank">White Rose Research Online (WRRO)</a> open access repository with Leeds Uni and York Uni.
<p class="u"><a href="javascript: window.history.back();">Okay, thanks.</a></p>Funny word, isn't it? According to the <a class="external" href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/embargo" target="_blank">Cambridge Dictionary</a>, an embargo is:
<blockquote>an order to temporarily stop something, especially trading or giving information.</blockquote>
In the context of academic publishing, an embargo refers to a period of time in which access to an academic work is restricted by the publisher.
In the context of green open access, many publishers have opted for a model where publications are pay-to-view for a fixed period (such as a year), but become freely available after the embargo ends.
<p class="u"><a href="javascript: window.history.back();">Okay, thanks.</a></p>So Green and Gold OA can't solve everything.
Whether its OA or subscription based publishing, some demographics remain systematically under-represented or marginalised.
We'll chat more in the other two games about how and why this occurs. For now, we can broadly say it's due to society-wide inequalities which are [[pervasive and endemic->OA8]].
But! There is a completely new approach to Open Access which lays the foundations for an innovative, equitable, community-driven, and academic-led new publishing ecosystem.
Say hello to the glitteringly named 💎 **Diamond Open Access**.
In this model, journals [[don't charge any fees->OA9]] to authors or readers.
Furthermore, in contrast to the huge, wealthy, international journals we've been discussing, Diamond OA journals tend to serve small, multilingual, and multicultural scholarly communities.
This helps to generate "bibliodiversity" - [[cultural diversity->OA10]] in the realm of books and publishing.Currently, Diamond OA is more prevalant in humanities and social sciences (HSS).
<a class="external" href="https://zenodo.org/record/4558704" target="_blank">According to a 2021 study</a>, 60% of Diamond OA journals are made up of humanities and social science publications.
This may be due to how academic publishing has evolved differently within the scientific and HSS disiciplines. Where science and medicine journals are often owned by commercial publishers, HSS journals are often owned by [[universities and societies who favour OA->OA11]]. No matter what you study, open access resources are fantastic for your university or personal research. And unlike subscription-based publications, you'll be able to read them freely even after you've graduated.
<p class="u">[[Nice! I'm glad I'll still have access to some things.->OA12]]</p>
<p class="u">[[Meh, whatever - pretty sure I'll never want to read academic texts again.->OA11b]]</p>Hey, you never know. You [[might miss 'em once you're out!->OA12]]<p class="section-title">Open Access Repositories</p>
Our insitutional respository here at Sheffield is <a class="external" href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/cdfiles/wrro" target="_blank">White Rose Research Online (WRRO)</a> - a collaboration between the universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York.
Other repositories focus on particular disciplines:
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<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Maths, physics, and other scientific disciplines"><a class="external" href="https://arxiv.org/" target="_blank">arXiv</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Biology"><a class="external" href="https://www.biorxiv.org/" target="_blank">bioRxiv</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Health Sciences"><a class="external" href="https://www.medrxiv.org/" target="_blank">MedRxiv</a></span></div>
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<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Engineering"><a class="external" href="https://engrxiv.org/" target="_blank">engrXiv</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Electrical engineering, computer science, and related technologies"><a class="external" href="https://www.techrxiv.org/" target="_blank">TechRxiv</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Social Science Research Network - social sciences"><a class="external" href="https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/" target="_blank">SSRN</a></span></div>
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<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Psychology, computer science, and other cognition-related disciplines"><a class="external" href="http://cogprints.org/" target="_blank">CogPrints</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Life sciences"><a class="external" href="https://plos.org/" target="_blank">PLOS</a></span></div>
<div class="column"><span class="hovertext" data-hover="Humanities"><a class="external" href="https://hcommons.org/core" target="_blank">CORE</a></span></div>
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<p class="help">**Help:** Hover over the names above to see which subjects they include.</p>
The <a class="external" href="https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/opendoar/" target="_blank">Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)</a> is a searchable database of Open Access repositories around the world.
<p class="u"><a href="javascript: window.history.back();">Okay, thanks.</a></p>If you ever do want to find OA resources, you can check out this <span class="d">[[list of repositories->repos]]</d> which covers many disciplines.
You also use a filter on <a class="external" href="https://find.shef.ac.uk/" target="_blank">StarPlus</a> to show you OA resources only. Just look on the left-hand side for *Availability → Open Access*, give it a tick, then hit *Apply Filters*.