Since 2014, the PUBMET international conference has served as a significant venue for gathering editors, publishers, librarians, journalists, policymakers, scholars and practitioners investigating and advancing scholarly communication in open science. Editors Lovorka Čaja Ivana Končić Martina Žugaj Technical editor Ivana Končić Linguistic advisor Martina Žugaj Design and typesetting Ivana Končić
Digital Library of the Belgrade City Library in the service of Citizen Science
Citizen science allows participants to directly contribute to research, increase their understanding of science, and learn about issues facing the entire community. However, a significant concern related to practising citizen science is the ability of amateur scientists, i.e., citizen science volunteers, to provide quality and accurate data. From a societal angle, it is essential to engage with societal actors in various formats that suit participants, evaluate two-way learning outcomes, and develop the transformative role of science communication. (3) Public libraries and their digital collections have an important role in fostering citizen science. By curating and providing access to verifiable sources of information public libraries empower citizens and non-academic researchers to collaborate on research projects, thereby democratising knowledge and promoting a culture of lifelong learning and scientific inquiry.
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Data retrieval, data cleaning and data merging
Introduction: Bibliometric analyses have become fairly frequent in today's science (Donthu et al., 2021; Klarin, 2024; Öztürk et al., 2024). They help map out research areas and evaluate the quality of scientific research. Most bibliometric analyses today gather their data from Web of Science or Scopus. Yet, the methodology sections on obtaining that data often leave us wanting, especially in the few cases where datasets from both databases were merged (Echchakoui, 2020). The aim of our research was to create a comprehensive database of all publications by Croatian clinicians, regardless of the research area, so we could map their areas of interest during the period 2005-2022, as well as study potential effects of Croatia’s European Union (EU) membership. Our focus on publications by clinicians rather than publications in clinical medicine led us to create a more complex data retrieval strategy, using affiliations instead of research areas.
Researchers’ open access publishing (OAP) attitudes and practices are shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including the characteristics of scientific disciplines and the overall settings in which authors and journals operate. They are influenced not only by the authors' awareness of the benefits of open access and financial aspects of publishing, but also by various micro-characteristic like requirements for academic promotion, institutional or governmental mandates, OA advocacy, and incentives for publishing in OA.
Open infrastructure for research integrity
Journal articles and books are generally considered the traditional published outputs that result at the end of the scholarly process and constitute the scholarly record. With rapid advancements in scholarly communication, the type and complexity of published outputs have increased significantly in recent times to include works such as datasets, software, conference presentations, as well as the elements that go into the creation of these outputs (e.g., peer reviews and preprints) (Lavoie et al, 2014). As such, the definition of the scholarly record has expanded to include published outputs, the inputs, the relationships between them, as well as the context around each output that can be inferred from the associated metadata. Preserving the integrity of such a comprehensive and constantly evolving scholarly record is a key component of the overall efforts to preserve research integrity. Open scholarly infrastructure plays an important role in this undertaking by providing trust signals that enable the assessment of the trustworthiness of published outputs. Crossref is a not-for-profit membership organisation that provides open scholarly infrastructure to enable the scholarly community to provide and deposit metadata about the content that they produce. This open and rich metadata provides a framework for detecting trustworthiness, thereby helping to preserve the integrity of the scholarly record.
The goal of the Innovation Lab is to design and implement repeatable and sustainable innovation processes to ensure innovation culture within OPERAS and foster innovative solutions for open scholarly communication in Social Sciences Humanities (SSH). To achieve this, the OPERAS Innovation Lab engages with the OPERAS Community, OPERAS Bodies and the Open Science Community as a whole, including Industry. The poster will present the current state of Lab’s implementation. The Lab offers two main services: the Observatory and the Accelerator. The Observatory performs innovation research and aims to produce knowledge on innovation in the SSH. The Accelerator facilitates innovation implementation in and around OPERAS through piloting solutions to the most pressing challenges in open scholarly communication in the SSH. The Lab’s operations are being communicated through its website (https://lab.operas-eu.org/), offering a wide range of materials discussing innovation and current activities of the Lab. The poster will highlight the role of assessing innovation within research assessment models in the SSH. Understanding and improving innovation assessment is one of the core tasks for the Lab and the team aims to engage the community to tackle this challenge collaboratively.
Reconciling open science practices and research assessment requirements in the process of establishing a national CRIS system in Serbia
Open science promotes transparency, open access, and reproducibility in research, ensuring that research outputs are openly available and reusable by others. However, traditional research assessment systems usually emphasize quantitative indicators, such as journal impact factors and citation counts, encouraging publication in ‘high-prestige’ journals and failing to fully capture the value of open science practices. Accordingly, a Current Research Information System (CRIS) tracking research outputs for assessment purposes does not necessarily encourage open science practices. This presentation explores the challenges and strategies involved in reconciling open science practices with research assessment requirements in Serbia during the process of establishing the national CRIS system eNauka.
Assessing scientific merit through data quality in a domain repository
A widespread open science publishing culture means the researchers involved should be rewarded for the merit contained in the research output they produce and share. A recent survey shows that “Open and FAIR data management and sharing” is the most deserving of reward. (Grattarola et al., 2024). Research assessment should prioritize quality, encompassing the entire spectrum of research outputs, including research data, computer code, and other. Evaluating the scientific quality of research data is crucial for including it as a legitimate scientific output, akin to the way literature is evaluated in the editorial and peer review publishing selection.
Autorska prava (c) 2025 Janez Štebe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Leveraging the OpenAIRE Graph for Transparent and Responsible Research Assessment
A key element of Reforming Research Assessment (RRA) practices is to move away from simplistic approaches based on bibliometric indicators and consider a wide variety of research activities. Existing large-scale data collections cover a broader range of research output such as publications, data, software, research methods, patents, data management plans and tools. The current challenge is the lack of a robust, high-quality open infrastructure.
Attitudes towards open peer-review in the Croatian Medical Journal
Background and aim: Traditional peer-review is anonymized and often criticized for being subjective, time consuming, not able to detect errors, and biased (Smith, 2006, Tennant, Ross-Hellauer, 2020). Coupled with the rise of open science, and the replication crisis, this has led to calls for more transparency and openness, including openness of peer-review and grant proposal evaluations. Open peer-review does not have a universal definition as there are myriad of practices represented under the term: open identities of the authors and reviewers, open review reports published alongside the article, open interaction and discussion between author(s) and reviewers, or open platforms where a review is facilitated by a different entity than the one where the paper is published (Ross- Hellauer, 2017, Bazdaric et al, 2021). Today, less than 2% of journals practice open peer-review (Responsible Journals, 2024), and the reasons for such a slow uptake are unclear, but attitudes of scientist likely play a role. Attitudes towards open peer-review were previously investigated with a validated questionnaire in a sample of Croatian scientists (n=541) that showed neutral and negative attitudes toward open peer-review and open peer-review in a small scientific community (Bazdaric et al, 2021). The goal of our study was to investigate attitudes of authors, reviewers and editors of the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ), a diamond open access journal, regarding open peer review. Methods: Participants (n=4347) were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire through Google forms, where they also indicated their consent to participate in the study. The survey was open from March to May 2024, and we sent two reminders 14 days apart. We used the validated ATOPP questionnaire (Bazdaric et al, 2021) and added extra questions related to the Croatian Medical Journal, altogether 41 questions (21 attitudes on Likert scale 1-5; 9 open science practices, 11 demography and publishing). The open peer-review scale has two factors: open peer-review (6 questions) and open-peer review in a small scientific community (2 questions). Results: We received a total of 254 answers (response rate 6%), out of which 120 (47%) were authors, 25 (10%) reviewers, 57 (22%) authors and reviewers, and 26 (10%) in multiple editorial and author roles (editors, editorial board members and authors) and 19 (7%) did not want to declare their role. Of all participants, 128 (50%) were female, and the median age was 50 years (min 27-max 83) years. Participants came from 35 countries, however a little over half were from Croatia (54%). Participants’ attitudes towards open peer review were neutral (median score 3.2 (25 percentile 2.7-75th percentile 3.8), while their attitudes toward open peer review in a small scientific community were negative (median 2.3 (25 percentile 1.5-75th percentile 3.0). There were no gender differences in both constructs (P=0.259 and P=0.719, respectively). Over a third of participants (136, 53%) expressed they would like to see open peer-review in the journal, and 96 (38%) stated they would like to know the identity of their reviewers in the CMJ. Conclusion: Authors, reviewers, and editors in the CMJ are still very cautious towards open peer-review, especially in small scientific communities which is in line with previous results on a Croatian sample of scientists. It is important to raise awareness among journal editors and government agencies to increase peerreview transparency in journals and projects.
DIAMAS tools and resources for Diamond OA publishing
The presentation discusses tools and resources for Diamond open access (OA) publishers (charging no fees to either readers or authors) and service providers, policymakers, funders, libraries and all those who practise and support Diamond OA publishing, released by the project Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication – DIAMAS (2022–2025). Diamond OA publishing initiatives play a crucial role in the research ecosystem. Along with offering equitable publication venues, they often support scholarly communication in native languages and foster multilingualism and bibliodiversity. However, they struggle with fragmentation, limited visibility, insufficient recognition in local and international research assessment systems and largely rely on a variety of fluctuating income streams and an unpaid workforce to carry out their work. DIAMAS activities and resources address these challenges.
Increasing Diamond Open Access Journals quality, visibility, and recognition through the Diamond Discovery Hub
As shown by the Open Access (OA) Diamond Journals study, which considers OA journals to be journals that are “free for the reader and for the author”, the landscape of academic publishing turns out to be much more diverse and rich than indicated by Research Assessment (RA) quantitative methods, such as the Impact Factor (IF). Indeed, RA policies relying mostly on the IF favour wellestablished journals supported by big publishers, and corresponding to a specific profile: Western, English-speaking, and primarily STEM focused journals. The Diamond OA model, on the other hand, represents a community-driven and scholar-led publishing model that is equitable and diverse (e.g. in terms of languages, and countries represented), capable of transforming the global publishing ecosystem towards a more equitable, diverse and scholar-owned future. In this sense, supporting and increasing Diamond OA journals’ quality and visibility means transforming not only the perception of the academic landscape but also the way RA policies are defined.
One is all, all is one? Embracing value-driven approaches in research assessment for a resilient academic future
In recent years, the call to reform research assessment has gained significant momentum, driven by a growing recognition that the current systems often fail to align with the original mission of universities. We see an ever broadening consensus worldwide to build alternatives for evaluation systems that are entangled in a productivity-driven culture, prioritising the simplistic use of bibliometrics and prestige over the integrity, quality, and broader impact of scholarly work.
Eastern Europe as a blind spot in the research assessment reform
Many Eastern European research institutions and organizations have joined the Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment, an international effort aimed at reforming how research is evaluated, including a move away from the crude use of metrics and rankings.
Research assessment and openness - a multifaceted relationship
Bianca Kramer will explore the multi-faceted relationship between research assessment and openness. Questions around openness shape the lenses through which we look at research assessment - considering both who and what we include in assessment of research and researchers, and how such assessments can be performed.
There is no Open Science without infrastructure and science community
This paper focuses on the role of national-level infrastructure in promoting open science principles, with a specific emphasis on Slovenia. It presents the latest measures implemented within the country to facilitate open science practices. The first part of the paper explores the specific measures adopted in Slovenia to promote open science. It highlights the ongoing development of regulations to implement scientific research following open science principles. The Slovenian Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act (ZZrID) and the Resolution on the Slovenian Scientific Research and Innovation Strategy 2030 (ReZrIS30) strongly emphasise open science and encompass various measures. The paper discusses the accessibility of research data addressed by the ZZrID and the Decree on the implementation of scientific research work in accordance with the principles of open science. Furthermore, it outlines upcoming actions in education and infrastructure solutions, as outlined in the Open Science Action Plan. The second part of the paper delves into the role of the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES), the Slovenian national research and education network (NREN). ARNES has played a pivotal role in the construction of two new national data centres dedicated to the permanent storage of research data. The paper analyses the benefits of these national solutions, which enhance infrastructure accessibility, simplify researchers' work, and provide a more efficient and secure environment for research organisations to store their data. The development of data storage services and the construction of data centres take into consideration existing best practices and collaboration with researchers and research organisations. The solutions offered by the data centres will support existing university repositories and align with the objectives outlined in the Open Science Action Plan. The integration of research funding and evaluation services into a centralised platform will be thoughtfully considered, taking into account the requirements of the research community. A key objective is to enable the implementation of services and infrastructure in accordance with OpenAIRE, where ARNES will play a pivotal role. As a mandated organisation in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and being in touch with best practices in the EU area as an NREN, ARNES is well-positioned to contribute to this endeavour. The paper also highlights the broader objective of improving research quality, efficiency, and responsiveness within the national open science ecosystem. It discusses the establishment of the Slovenian Open Science Community (SSOZ) as part of the tripartite European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) event, making Slovenia one of the pioneering countries in the European Union. The SSOZ, along with Slovenian representatives in the EOSC, has already addressed challenges related to the permanent preservation of research data, which will be comprehensively discussed in relation to the new data centres and associated activities. Additionally, there is a growing demand for education on repository usage and infrastructure upgrades. The Slovenian Open Science Community serves as a unifying platform for all major universities and research institutions in Slovenia, fostering collaboration among its members. It encompasses participants from various initiatives, such as the NI4OS project, which aims to promote the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) at a regional level. Furthermore, the community includes stakeholders from the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and similar European and institutional initiatives dedicated to advancing open science principles. Drawing from the experience of the case study, the paper critically highlights how the national infrastructure can simplify researchers' work. It emphasises the role of data centres in fostering sustainable and long-term data storage solutions aligned with the principles of open science. As an NREN, ARNES already manages public research infrastructure and offers solutions that facilitate research, such as data sharing and access to EuroHPC's supercomputing infrastructure. The establishment of new data centres by ARNES will significantly enhance the infrastructure for open science in Slovenia, providing primary conditions for implementing open science principles in research work. The implementation of planned professional training programs focused on utilising the infrastructure, along with workshops on open science organised by the Central Technical Library at the University of Ljubljana specifically for researchers in Slovenia, will serve as essential catalysts for enabling research activities that align with the principles of open science. With the infrastructure in place, these initiatives will empower researchers with the necessary knowledge and skills to embrace open science practices effectively.
Academic and Research Network of Slovenia
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Social responsibility in academic communication
Modern electronic publishing enables faster and easier access to information and scientific publications. Unfortunately, misleading publishing practices have adapted and become harder to identify. It is not only the publication in these journals and publishers that is questionable but also the citation of these sources. We find that such unverified and unreviewed scientific publications can negatively impact the society as a whole. Regrettably, even at the University of Maribor, we are seeing an increase in the use and adoption of such sources. As a result, the University of Maribor Library has compiled a private list of predatory publishers according to our own criteria, we provide further education, create LibGuides, and maintain a public list of open access sources. We also offer advice on checking journals, publishers, and conferences. This includes both students, who should be cautious in the selection and use of sources, as well as lecturers and researchers, who should be careful not just in the selection and use of sources but also in the selection of reputable journals for publication. The very process of submitting the final student theses to the institutional repository includes content similarity detection. Content similarity detection is also available to any University of Maribor researcher who wants to double-check their article before publication. Our practices of raising awareness about unverifiable sources will be presented in more detail on the poster.
The PATTERN project, officially known as "Piloting open and responsible Activities and Trainings Towards the Enhancement of Researchers Networks," is a comprehensive initiative funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme. Its primary focus is to advance open and responsible research and innovation (Open RRI) across Europe through training for researchers to enhance their capacity for effectively addressing societal challenges while promoting transparency and inclusivity in research. The project spans 42 months and involves a total of 19 organisations and institutions from 13 European countries, including the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Croatia, contributing to the development and implementation of training programs tailored for researchers at all career stages. PATTERN's training modules cover a diverse range of topics vital to open RRI, including open access, FAIR data management, citizen science, research integrity, gender equality, non-discrimination, inclusion in research, dissemination and exploitation of results, science communication, and management and leadership skills. By addressing these crucial aspects, the PATTERN project aims to equip researchers with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in today's dynamic research landscape. The project’s implementation began by systematic mapping and comprehensive analysis of contemporary educational opportunities for researchers on Open RRI, after which comes the development of innovative curricula, with an emphasis on inclusivity and fairness in the modules. Implementation and testing are integral components of PATTERN's strategy. The project intends to test its training modules through a variety of tailored activities conducted by nine core partners and five associated institutions, which will act as pilot institutions across Europe. PATTERN's expansive network includes Croatia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Turkey. This network, encompassing OpenAIRE members and National Open Access Desks (NOADs), ensures a broad and diverse reach for the project's training curricula. Crucially, PATTERN will establish a digital platform, where all training materials will be openly accessible, providing a solution for hosting and disseminating freely available training modules. This platform will not only facilitate knowledge sharing but also mobilise and moderate the research and innovation community. It will serve as a valuable resource for relevant bodies and institutions responsible for educating researchers, disseminating project results, and promoting OS practices in multiple languages. Based on the accumulated knowledge and insights, a series of policy recommendations will be designed and developed, targeting European Union bodies, national entities, higher education stakeholders, and research institutions, ultimately promoting open and responsible research practices at a systemic level. There is an ongoing demand for training and promotion of open science (OS) topics in Croatia among researchers, with a notable deficiency in formal OS education within Croatian higher education institutions. To bridge this gap and promote OS practices effectively, PATTERN leverages a wealth of expertise accumulated through EU projects that have laid the groundwork for comprehensive training programs designed to enhance researchers' competencies. The PATTERN project represents a pioneering effort to advance open and responsible research and innovation practices in Europe. With active participation from institutions such as the Ruđer Bošković Institute, PATTERN aspires to empower researchers and institutions alike. By developing comprehensive training modules, creating a collaborative platform, and providing policy guidance, PATTERN is poised to contribute significantly to the advancement of science and society in the European Research Area.
Building a connected open scholarly communication system requires unambiguously identifying research-related entities. It is not a simple task: for example, the same organization can have a range of names (eg. legal name, a shortened version, an abbreviation, in national language or in English), as well as varied metadata in other sources. Additionally, persistent IDs might not be helpful when several data sources (eg. ROR, ISNI, EC PIC) utilize various PID schemas to identify organizations. Due to this ambiguity, there are efficiency issues with information sharing, discoverability of research outputs, keeping track of activities, and ultimately building an integrated open scholarly communication system and OS services (Artini et al., 2022). A new tool called OpenOrgs was developed to address this old issue: the disambiguation of organizations engaged in the research process (Pavone, 2021) as well as the parentchild relationships between departments and organizations. OpenOrgs tackles the ambiguity in the data that OpenAIRE collects from several research organization registries (eg. ROR), as well as other sources including institutional repositories, scientific journals, and CRIS systems, and aggregates them to populate the OpenAIRE Graph (OpenAIRE Graph, n.d.). To make up for the lack of information and increase the organization's discoverability and recognition, OpenOrgs combines automated processes with human curation. Numerous data sources are used to gather and merge information on organizations. Their metadata are automatically compared and combined, then these suggested identities are manually checked by data curators assigned at a national or multi-national level. These two steps work as follows: 1. The deduplication algorithm (De Bonis, 2022) suggests a similarity between organizations that emerge in various sources by comparing their metadata (eg. the organization name, URL, country). 2. The automatic procedure is then verified by a manual curation process. By indicating whether two or more entities pertain to the same organization or not, data curators can clear up any ambiguity surrounding duplicates detected using the automated approach. Furthermore, they can themselves suggest new duplicates unidentified by the algorithm and make up for the information shortage by editing metadata description of the organization, compensating the lack of information from sources and enhancing the organization records' completeness and discoverability, for example by adding a persistent identifier, an alternative name (OpenAIRE, 2023), or establishing parent- child relationships (eg. university and departments). As of now, there are more than 70 registered data curators from over 40 countries, with more than 100,000 curated organizations. OpenOrgs offers a number of advantages for researchers, Research Performing Organizations (RPOs), Research Funding Organizations (RFOs), and all other stakeholders of Open Science services. It improves the findability of digital objects for academics and provides RPOs with a consistent showcase of the overall scientific production. It offers RFOs consistent data on the impact of resources. Finally, OpenOrgs offers functional and up-to-date services to all parties involved in Open Science. In the OpenAIRE ecosystem, OpenOrgs plays an important role. For example, OpenAIRE Explore displays the curated metadata from OpenOrgs, giving researchers quick and easy access to details about the organizations involved in the research process (OpenAIRE EXPLORE, n.d.). These data are also used by the OpenAIRE Monitor service, which tracks and monitors research activities and Open Science trends of organizations (OpenAIRE MONITOR, n.d.). This integration improves these organizations’ discoverability and recognition even more, fostering a more open and cooperative research environment. Therefore, rather than just a tool, OpenOrgs is a game-changer for the research community, and we believe it will contribute positively to build and maintain an integrated open scholarly communication system in the years to come.
Conceived in 2015 at the Scholarly Communications Institute, the Open Access Book Usage Data Trust (OAEBUDT) has grown into an international effort to develop and pilot a global data trust for OA monograph usage data. It progressed through three stages: • Project 1 (2018-2019): This project documented the challenges and opportunities facing the aggregation, analysis, and communication of OA book usage. • Project 2 (2020-2022): This project documented the data supply chain (Clarke and Ricci, 2021) and use cases related to OA book usage data (Drummond and Hawkins, 2021), developed infrastructure for usage data aggregation and provision, and identified community-based governance models to support a diverse, global data trust for OA monographs usage data. • Project 3 (2022-forward): In partnership with OPERAS and OpenAIRE, this project is developing the Governance Building Blocks for its Industrial Data Space (IDS) infrastructure, with an eye towards how such infrastructure can be extensible to usage and impact data for other scholarly outputs. Since 2015, with support from the Mellon Foundation, stakeholders have worked through the global OAEBUDT effort to foster the secure, multi-party exchange, aggregation and benchmarking of book usage-related data. This work aims to increase trust in usage metrics, improve data quality, and reduce reporting and compliance resource-burdens related to OA usage data. Prior work, such as facilitated stakeholder interviews and virtual design workshops, revealed diverse use-cases and staff roles interested in OA book usage data across libraries, publishers, and publishing platforms and services (Drummond and Hawkins, 2021). It also indicated a shared system-wide need for simplifying usage data curation, aggregation and management given the time and costs individual institutions allocate when combining COUNTER-compliant reporting alongside other usage data dashboards, and non-COUNTER compliant web- analytics. This reinforced the hypothesis that a “Data Trust” model could benefit those working with usage data by facilitating the aggregation and processing of data upstream according to shared, transparent community norms, thereby generating economies of scale (O’Leary and Hawkins, 2019), for example, reducing costs and resources used when aggregating and curating such data. Creating a data exchange ecosystem to unlock public/private usage data sharing would help minimise the time and resources used, plus provide more transparency to all the organisations involved in the data exchange process. While the term “usage data” is often used today to refer to web analytic reports that tally page visits and file downloads, the OABUDT works towards a future where linked usage data analytics regularly inform book publishing and scholarly communications operations. Clear ethical norms, privacy and security guardrails are required to unlock such data exchange for granular analytics. After researching and documenting the challenges, use cases and supply chain for OA book usage data from 2015 to 2021, the current effort is focused on developing governance building blocks for a sustainable infrastructure. These blocks are modelled on a certifiable European IDS that will help ensure that organisations wanting to participate in data sharing meet the highest security standards. In April 2023, an OA Book Usage Data Exchange Use Guidelines and Principles meeting gathered publishers, libraries, standards, and service representatives to draft principles and identify trust mechanisms for such an IDS infrastructure.The aim is to ensure that usage data exchange would be both trusted and support ethical, non-harmful data use. The principles and trust requirements drafted in this meeting are now being shared with the global open science community for consultation to ensure that they meet the needs of diverse OA book stakeholders and the research community at large. This poster will provide background to the OAEBUDT and a preview of emerging participation and ethical data exchange and use guidelines for the data trust.
Effects of European Union membership on the bibliometric indicators of Croatia’s research in the field of clinical medicine
Background: After the fall of communism, post-communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries struggled to advance to the level of Western European countries of similar sizes, both in quality and quantity of their publication performance. (Gui et al., 2019; Hu & Zhang, 2017; Jurajda et al., 2017) The same may apply to the field of medicine, where CEE countries still function on the basis of individual work and personal connections, with few publications in higher impact journals. (Jovanovic et al., n.d.) Being a researcher in a country with lower research performance has an effect on the extent of publication and the development of international collaborations. (Pina et al., 2019) Entering the European Union has made some difference in that field, as shown in the example of Malta and several other countries. (Makkonen & Mitze, 2016; McMillan et al., 2016) Aim: Our aim is to test the hypothesis that the quantity and quality of publications by Croatian authors in the field of clinical medicine have increased after Croatia’s accession to the EU. Methods: Bibliometric data for publications indexed in Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Scopus, and authored or co-authored by researchers with Croatian affiliations in clinical medicine were collected via the inbuilt export for two time periods: 2005-2013 and 2014-2022. Additional data will be collected through automated data extraction using Python, WoSAPI and ScopusAPI. The study sample was all publications with a Croatian affiliation indexed in WoSCC (n=113,695) and Scopus (n=122,932) at the time of the data extraction for the period between 2005 and 2022. Minimal sample size with the desired precision of estimate of 0.05 and confidence level of 95% was estimated at 385. However, we aimed to include all publications with a Croatian affiliation in clinical medicine in both databases. A list of all possible names for all types and forms of organizations dealing in clinical medicine was compiled using public domain records and lists, especially the list of registered subjects, provided by the government and public, government-run institutions. Names that shared the same relevant words, such as hospital, were grouped under a single term. Terms were then truncated to include all possible and relevant variants, e.g. hosp* for hospital, hospitals, hospice and hospices. Truncated terms, which included terms with two or more truncated and non-truncated words, were connected using a Boolean operator OR and put in brackets. Brackets were further combined to include only the results with Croatia in the affiliation, retrieving only works with a Croatian affiliation in the field of clinical medicine. The indicators that will be compared are author count, publication count, and citation count. An interrupted time-series analysis will be performed according to the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Resources for Review Authors. (Cochrane EPOC, 2017) The analysis will calculate pre- and post-intervention (membership in EU) coefficients and change in the slope of the annual value of indices, which may indicate if the intervention observed had an actual impact on possible changes. Additionally, the percentage of journal articles and reviews in all types of publications may indicate an increase in the quality of publications before and after Croatia accession to the EU. Expected results: We expect our analysis to show a positive correlation between the EU membership and quantity and quality of publications by Croatian authors in the field of clinical medicine, regardless of other influencing factors such as funding. We plan to have the results by the end of August 2023. Conclusions: The positive impact of EU membership on a small country’s quantity and perceived quality of publications may help Croatia’s decision-makers when deciding on joining other such communities, as well as decision-makers in similar countries considering EU membership. In addition, it might instigate others to conduct similar studies to see the full impact that formal international relations may have on science and scientific production.
Diamond Open Access landscape in Croatia - preliminary DIAMAS survey results
Open access scholarly publishing is a diverse realm, involving numerous stakeholders and various organisational models (Fuchs and Sandoval, 2013). However, one facet that has often been overlooked is the publishing activities carried out by scientific institutions themselves. Given that these institutional initiatives play a vital role in preserving the social, linguistic, cultural, and epistemological diversity within the European research landscape, the primary objective of the Horizon Europe project, "Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication" (DIAMAS), is to establish a unified European standard for the currently fragmented institutional publishing landscape (Mounier and Aspaas, 2023). This initiative aims to enhance efficiency, quality, and the overall practices of publishing activities and services across the European Research Area (ERA). The DIAMAS survey targeted 252 Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSPs) in Croatia and achieved a robust response rate of 77%. Half of Croatian IPSPs are affiliated with universities, faculties, and learned societies. IPSPs in Croatia primarily handle academic journals, academic books, and conference outputs. However, their services extend to encompass other research outputs, media, digital products, and non-academic content. On average, a Croatian IPSP publishes 1-5 scholarly journals, 11-100 scholarly articles, 1-10 academic books, and 1-20 conference proceedings annually. Multilingualism is a notable feature among IPSPs, with 82% practising multilingual publishing to engage wider audiences. Despite linguistic complexities and the need for human translators, the scientific community's commitment to extensive outreach remains evident. Croatia's Commitment to Open Access In Croatia, the academic publishing landscape is significantly shaped by universities and learned societies, staunch proponents of the non-profit model and early adopters of open access (OA). This dedication, supported by a national HRČAK platform hosting over 400 active OA journals and government subsidies, underscores Croatia's unwavering commitment to unencumbered knowledge sharing. The country's preference for not resorting to "article processing charges" reflects strong support for the diamond OA model. While a comprehensive national OA/OS policy is still in progress in Croatia, support for OA exists through different national laws and strategies. The government mandates OA and inclusion in the HRČAK portal for subsidised journals and OA repositories for graduation and doctoral theses. 64% of respondents reference some form of OA/OS policy, indicating the integration of OA principles into scholarly publishing practices over decades. Funding, Income Streams and Sustainability Government subsidies from the Ministry of Science and Education and other ministries are the primary sources for scholarly journals, with the average IPSP budget below €10,000. Voluntary efforts significantly influence Croatia's IPSP landscape, with 53% of respondents relying on unpaid staff, accentuating the country's unique and complex scholarly publishing ecosystem. The importance of voluntary work is underscored by IPSPs' reliance on in-kind support from parent organisations in terms of facilities, IT services, and staff salaries. Challenges to financial sustainability include the lack of funding continuity, irregularity, delays, and insufficient funding. Furthermore, changes in government funding eligibility without notice and price increases in printing and copy-editing pose challenges. Suggestions to address these issues include enhancing financial literacy, collaboration, and promotion of scholarly publishing. Editorial Quality, Technical Services, Visibility, Metrics and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) IPSPs actively participate in editorial management, with 71% involved in editorial board recruitment and other aspects. Regarding peer review, a double-anonymous peer review is preferred by 44%, followed by a single-anonymous peer review (15%). Some IPSPs have begun implementing open identities and open review reports. IPSPs predominantly offer editorial services voluntarily or as in-kind contributions. In contrast, production and IT services are mostly outsourced. Technical challenges arise from financial constraints, lack of human resources, expertise, and technical limitations. Croatian IPSPs aspire to have their journals indexed in WoSCC and Scopus databases. Other indexes such as DOAJ, DOAB, ERIH PLUS, PubMed, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Google Books, and OAPEN are also considered. While 44% of IPSPs are content with their current indexing status, some face challenges in meeting technical participation criteria. IPSPs utilise metrics such as submissions, acceptance and publication dates, visits, views, downloads, and Journal Impact Factor. EDIB measures are prioritised, with the main measures being a code of conduct and non-discrimination policies. Accessibility standards are often unknown, and 64% of IPSPs do not have accessibility policies. Gender Equality Plans (GEP) are implemented by 25% of IPSPs. In summary, the DIAMAS survey illuminates the intricate landscape of scholarly publishing in Croatia, revealing its commitment to diamond open access while highlighting challenges and opportunities for improvement.
institutional publishing service provider
Diamond Open Access - a robust, accessible and federated network for journals
While Diamond Open Access is widely considered the most progressive publishing form for Open Access journals, these journals face various challenges including (technological) standardisation, ensuring sustainability for journals, and juggling a broad set of workflows while depending largely on voluntary work. The CRAFT-OA project (Creating a Robust Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access) aims to help standardise Diamond Open Access journals by offering technological innovations available to all Diamond Open Access journals. In cooperation with the DIAMAS project, CRAFT-OA will foster a community of practice, further enhancing Diamond Open Access publishing by uniting the scholarly community behind common goals. The proposed poster will include an overview of the key objectives and phases of the project as well as a section dedicated to explaining how the project’s results will support diamond OA publishing and be made available via the capacity centre prepared jointly with the DIAMAS project. Specifically, it will explain how the results of DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA complement each other in that regard by providing all information, best practice guidelines, workflows and training materials relating to Diamond Open Access in one place.
DARIAH-HR digital tools in the frame of Open Science
Responsibility, ethics, inclusiveness, and the principles of Open Science are central to the advancement of scholarly research and publishing. By embracing these values, we can create a more transparent, collaborative, and accessible research ecosystem, as proposed by UNESCO (2022). However, there is a pressing need for effective tools that aid researchers in practising Open Science while addressing the specific requirements of disciplines such as the Humanities and Arts, especially in the context of the welldocumented prevalence of STEM disciplines over the Humanities in the development of Open Science and Open Access trends (Eve, 2014). The Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH-EU) consortium, formed by "researchers for researchers", is uniquely positioned to address this inequality while driving the development of an open ecosystem that naturally evolves from authentic community practices and needs (Tóth-Czifra, 2021). Croatia as a member country with its DARIAH-HR coordination office readily follows it in this endeavour by organising workshops, creating one-of-a-kind digital platforms and tools, etc. In this poster presentation we aim to introduce several digital tools designed or codesigned by DARIAH-HR for scholars in the fields of the Humanities and Arts (and broader): 1) a digital tool for the creation of thesauri, 2) a digital tool for creating registers, 3) a digital tool for generating GDPR-compliant forms for obtaining consent from data subjects and 4) a software for modelling, processing and representation of monumental heritage and culture of memory. While the first and second tools represent pioneering efforts to encompass the widest community of humanists and researchers in Croatia, the third and fourth tools provide in-depth solutions in their respective areas of focus, extending their reach to an international level and catering to a diverse audience that includes researchers as well as tourists. The digital thesaurus creation tool “tezaurus.hr” is designed to streamline the process of developing structured vocabularies relevant to the Humanities and Arts. The digital register development tool “DH Register” provides a user-friendly interface (currently in development) that enables researchers to create and curate registries, incorporating metadata standards while adhering to the requirements of the FAIR principles (as recommended in, e.g., Hahnel & Valen, 2020). The “Consent Form Wizard” (CFW) is a tool developed by the DARIAH-EU working group Ethics and Legality in Digital Arts and Humanities (ELDAH) to support humanities researchers within the European Union in obtaining valid consent for data processing in the context of their specific professional activity. “Monument Heritage Map” is a digital platform that allows the implementation of available data and methods for data collection, processing, multimodal visualisation and mapping of cultural monuments. When integrated into an Open Science framework, these tools provide researchers with efficient means to enhance knowledge organisation, resource sharing, and collaboration while upholding responsible research practices and promoting inclusivity within the academic community. Enabling researchers to create user-friendly thesauri and registers also facilitates the discoverability, interoperability, and accessibility of research outputs. Conclusively, it contributes to the development of a robust and interconnected research infrastructure. Through the presentation of these digital tools and their implications, this poster seeks to contribute to the discourse surrounding responsible and inclusive research in the context of the Humanities and Arts. It emphasises the significance of training, education, and capacity building for Open Science.
Article processing charges of health professions category journals in SCOPUS
Introduction and aim: Scientific journals are a key communication channel for the transmission of scientific information, and the publication of articles is mandatory in scientific advancements. Open access publishing enables greater visibility of scientific outputs but publication in open access is rarely free (Van Norden, 2013; Pourret 2022). The aim of this research is to examine the article processing charges (APCs) of journals in the Health professions category within the SCOPUS database, along with their respective business models (hybrid, OA or diamond OA). Methods: We collected data on journals using Scimago, DOAJ and Sherpa Romeo databases, as well as the homepages of journals and publishers. Using the SCImago Journal & Country Rank data for the year 2022, we filtered journals belonging to the field and category of "Health Professions (miscellaneous)". Data were gathered on the number of journals in Scopus, the type of journal (hybrid, open access, diamond journal) and the cost for publishing (APC) an original scientific article/review article in open access. Information about the type of the journal was collected in Sherpa Romeo/DOAJ databases, information on the APCs was found on the pages of the journal or publisher. Results: A total of 60 journals belonging to the category of Health professions in Scopus were identified, with 28 (47%) of them also in the Web of Science database according to Scimago. Of these 60 journals, 28 are hybrid journals, 32 are in open access (53%), including 10 in open access with an APC, and 22 completely free - diamond journals. The publication cost in all journals is in the range from €0 to €3,385.00, with an average median price of €788 (ranging from €0 to €2,895). The average APC is significantly lower in open access journals than in hybrid journals (median €881, ranging from €92 to €2466, versus €2895, ranging from €2045 to €2977), which is in line with previously published results in the medical field (Siler et al, 2018). Most of the diamond journals are in the 3rd (6 out of 22) and 4th quartiles (9 out of 22) or have only recently (3 out of 22) been included in the Scopus database. Limitations of the study: The study sample is small, and has only 60 journals, while there could be more journals connected with health professions in other Scopus categories. Information about waivers was not collected. Conclusion: Journals of the 1st and 2nd quartile, which are considered an important criterion for advancement in the biomedical field, are mostly hybrid journals and the APCs are very high. Consequently, the conclusion emerges that health professions do not have a large selection of journals for publishing in open access, and therefore it is necessary to educate authors to self-archive their articles.
Regulating the use of generative AI in academic research and publications
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a category of AI technology capable of producing various types of content, including text, images, audio, video, 3D models, simulations and synthetic data. Although it has been present for some time, it has been popularised in the recent months due to text and image GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, LaMDA, BlenderBot, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, some of which have already received new and upgraded versions. The main issue for the scholarly research and publications relates to the fact that because of the technology breakthrough the AI tools, based on machine learning models and usually fed with large volumes of data, no longer only assist researchers in recognising patterns and predicting, but also in generating content. This raises questions such as: On a general level, is it acceptable to use the generated content in academic publications? Does the use of such tools in research and publications violate academic honesty? Is a researcher violating another person’s intellectual property right when using these tools? This paper seeks to answer these questions with the aim of suggesting whether and to what extent there is a need for GenAI to be regulated within the academic institutions or beyond. Additionaly, the paper is aimed at investigating the models for such regulation as there are already some attempts to do so at various academic institutions in the world and many such processes are ongoing.
Application of ChatGPT in information literacy instructional design
Recent developments in ChatGPT have initiated a prompt response in the academic libraries’ community. This includes discussions on possible applications of AI text generators (Fernandez, 2023) and the implications of ChatGPT for academic libraries (Cox and Tzoc, 2023). In various segments of library services, ranging from reference services, cataloguing and metadata creation to content creation, ChatGPT can be used for natural language processing activities. In this paper, our aim is to investigate a specific application of ChatGPT in relation to Open Educational Resources (OER): instructional design for information literacy courses in academic libraries. The starting point for our research is using openly-licensed informational resources, i.e. ‘content infrastructure’ as facilitators in creating educational resources. It is widely recognised that large language models (LLMs), which use deep learning techniques to generate text based on prompts, greatly contribute to the speed of creating informational resources which comprise the content infrastructure (Wiley, 2023). However, ensuring the quality of the generated output and the requirement for review and improvements is an issue. Our analysis of the model will be conducted in three stages: 1. developing a strategy for producing information literacy syllabus using ChatGPT; 2. training the model according to predefined standards; 3. conducting the review process. In the first stage, the following guidelines will be applied: assign the model the role of a subject-matter expert (SME); provide context; instruct the model to use specific standards, i.e. “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” (ALA/ACRL, 2000) and direct the model to use a specific output format. The second stage, or model training, will consist of a series of structured prompts, including feedback and reflection prompts. In the third stage, two external reviewers will be included in the process, with the following profiles: 1. an academic library information literacy programme coordinator; 2. English language specialist (assistant professor, PhD level). The purpose of the review is twofold: to check for pedagogical accuracy and psychometric validity, as well as usability in the actual academic environment. The results will provide some insight into the benefits of strategic and well-planned use of ChatGPT technology in creating content, while also considering responsible and ethical use of the new technology in the academic library sector.
Where does the whole hype about artificial intelligence (AI) come from? Is it the first time? Do we really have a true, general AI? If not, how soon shall we have it? How much will technology change everyday tasks, complete job descriptions, entire professions? Does it apply to scientific publishing and how? What do scientists really need in publishing, what can be done by AI and what is the job for a human?
Why is Citizen Science important for libraries?
Citizen science, as part of open science, holds significant importance for its participants, including citizen scientists and professional scientists who engage in collaborative scientific research (Booney et al., 2009). However, the benefits that organizers of citizen science gain are rarely emphasized. These organizers can include governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, corporations, universities (Walker et al., 2016), as well as institutions such as libraries. Citizen science is important for libraries because it increases civic and research interests, scientific publishing, and scientific progress (Trouille, Lintott, and Fortson, 2019). Additionally, it helps libraries attract new users, enhance social cohesion, and improve the perception of library's social value (Cigarini et al., 2021). With the help of citizen science, libraries can enrich their collections and make them more accessible (Ignat et al., 2018), and librarians can develop new competencies. The presentation aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the specific ways in which citizen science can benefit libraries and how libraries can effectively utilize citizen science to achieve their goals. Therefore, the benefits of citizen science for libraries will be discussed in detail, with examples and practical insights provided to illustrate their potential impact. The presentation will include an analysis and experience of the National and University Library in Zagreb with carrying out citizen science activities and the advantages this institution had for librarian education. It will highlight the essential role of libraries as implementers of citizen science activities and the impact of such activities on the positioning of libraries in local society and the scientific community.
National and University Library in Zagreb
Addressing the challenges in scholarly communication
After twenty years of the open access movement, there has been growth in the uptake of open access, and some progress has been made in achieving its original goals; however, results have been far from satisfactory, with more than half of the research literature still closed (COKI, 2022; Curry, 2018). Moreover, new concerns have arisen, such as questionable quality and the reliability of peer review, in particular predatory publishing. There are also threats to equity, including stratifications of publishing as a consequence of the exclusionary character of the author-pays model of open access, and new risks of bias and exclusion in the means of transparent evaluation (Ross-Hellauer et al., 2022). It is argued that these challenges are the result of the uncritical narratives of openness and their narrow focus on access alone which fail to address inequitable power dynamics, systemic problems and the structural barriers in scholarly publishing and knowledge production (Perry, 2020; ibid.). These cha(lle)nges in the system of scholarly communication, coupled with recent advances in technology and the tectonic transformations in the information environment, require new (pedagogical) approaches and foci that would enable researchers and students to understand and navigate such a complex environment; for this, a holistic and integrative approach to scholarly communication and information literacy is needed (ACRL, 2013; Špiranec, 2015). Scholarly communication, including open access, is impossible without information literacy (Hebrang Grgić, 2016). As they are both concerned with (access to) information, open access and in particular critical information literacy largely share the same goals, ethical dimensions and values of (social and epistemic) justice, equity and democratisation. Indeed, they have been considered instrumental to achieving these, and even proclaimed a panacea and deus ex machina for the current scientific, social and political challenges and crises (Hebrang Grgić, 2016; Kapitzke, 2003). However, literature on the intersections and interplay between open access and information literacy has been limited. This paper seeks to intertwine these two concepts more strongly, for mutual exchange and benefit, by analysing their convergent aspects as well as the role information literacy has in the context of the complexities of the scholarly communication system and in achieving open access. The paper builds on the few empirical studies of the intersections between the two concepts (e.g. Hebrang Grgić (2016) which confirms the importance of ‘open access literacy’), but goes beyond their functional approaches, advocating a more holistic and critical approach to open access to help reinvent it and make a more substantial progress in open access. It argues that the transformations in the information environment and the scholarly communication system require not only basic skills and competences at the core of information literacy but also specific skills of, for instance, managing scientific data and publishing in open access sources. More importantly, what is also required is critical consciousness of all the aspects of the research process including the context, power relationships, and the privileged positions in knowledge production, publishing and dissemination, and an ability to evaluate the quality and reliability of information. The paper proposes critical open access literacy as a pedagogical methodology and strategy to confront the challenges and enable a critical understanding of the contemporary information environment and scholarly communication. In line with the tenets of critical information literacy, critical open access literacy is directed at an analysis and critique of the economic, social, political, legal and technological conditions, aspects and implications of open access and the overall scholarly communication system, as well as the power dynamics, tensions and flaws within them. This will empower students and researchers to navigate this environment successfully and potentially become champions of its transformation to make it more meaningful, reliable, equitable and democratic.
The role of scientific journals in times of war
In times of war raging on European soil, the academic community can help by doing what it knows best – documenting important evidence and publishing research. The experience of the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) editors during the Homeland War shows how a scientific journal can help during wartime (Marušić & Marušić, 2002). The CMJ published numerous scientific articles on various aspects of war (Marušić & Marušić, 2012; Marusic, Markulin, Lukic, & Marusic, 2006). To attract more authors to write about war and to improve the quality of the submissions CMJ editors introduced an authorhelpful prereview (Marusic & Marusic, 2001). CMJ editors worked with the authors to help them prepare their manuscripts until they were ready for an external peer review. Editorial staff working closely with authors formed the cornerstone of CMJ editors' work and became a unique approach in the world of medical journals (Marušić & Marušić, 2002, 2022). In October 2022, the directors of the postgraduate doctoral program Translational Research in Biomedicine (TRIBE), decided to use that experience and together with the editorial board of the ST-OPEN journal, which is now led by the former editors of CMJ, launch the Giving Voice project to help Ukrainian authors write reports about the war in Ukraine. We named the project Giving Voice because we wanted to give a platform to voices that often are not heard loud enough, particularly those that do not belong to academic elites: students, refugees, vulnerable and marginalized groups, and others whose lives have been disrupted by war. In collaboration with the ST-OPEN editorial staff, we are inviting interested authors from Ukraine to send us their manuscripts. ST-OPEN is an interdisciplinary journal so we welcome contributions from all scientific fields. We will re-employ the author-helpful prereview. Our help will include assistance with study planning, statistics, writing, and English language editing to make the obtained data publishable. Other experts who would like to become a part of our network of mentors are more than welcome. All articles will go through a formal external review process, so we cannot guarantee that all will be accepted for publication, but we will do our best to make them publicationready. Although many projects are aimed at helping the academic community in Ukraine, to our knowledge, our approach is unique. Additional details about the Giving Voice project, already published articles, and similar projects are listed on the project website (Sapunar, 2022). As members of the academic community, we can make a difference within our professional realm. We should not only be a simple service for publishing articles but also, perhaps more importantly, agents of change for the scientific community. As directors of the TRIBE doctoral program, we aim to educate scientists to solve research problems and write reports about them. We should not only try to provide future scientists with knowledge and skills or gather them around the key values – we should also help create enlightened agents of change and equip them with leadership qualities accompanied by social and moral accountability (Frenk et al., 2010). We will extend the same efforts to the authors and mentors who decide to take part in the Giving Voice project.