In mid 2012 the Finch Report heralded the ‘’the most radical shakeup of academic publishing since the invention of the internet‘. By 2014 all publicly funded research was to be freely available to the public. To achieve this, Finch recommended support for ‘Gold’ open access publishing, where publishers receive their revenues from authors rather than readers, thus allowing journal articles to become freely accessible to everyone immediately upon publication.
Introducing Research Unbound
This approach leaves the role of the academic publisher largely unchanged, which is rather odd when we consider that the internet has disrupted so many business models, including newspaper publishing, music and travel. Why not journal publishing? After all, when Tim Berners-Lee invented the web he was aiming to support and improve scientific communication and the dissemination of scientific research. And it has been argued that researchers do not consume articles in the form in which the currently write them.
In January 2014 an article in Guardian Professional (Why open access should be a key issue for university leaders) argued that it was time senior leaders in higher education made openness their concern
the strategic and ethical questions that arise from the rapid and comprehensive advances in digital technologies – and particularly openness and its consequences – are for anyone in a leadership position, whether an academic programme convenor, a dean or a vice-chancellor. All universities are now digital, and all research and teaching will be shaped by continuing technological change
Gold and Green Open Access will remain a part of the publishing ecosytem but, as Gary Hall argues (On the unbound book: academic publishing in the age of the infinite archive)
publishing strategies are becoming more pluralistic and decentralised, making use of blogs, wikis and services like Figshare
Which brings us to Research Unbound, an IRISS contribution to creating such a decentralised and pluralistic world. Research Unbound is a platform (a blog, basically) on which researchers of all kind (academics, practitioners) may share their findings, in whole or in part. It is also a campaign to encourage the use of social media to share, engage and build networks.
At our launch event on 21 February 2014, Brian Kelly shared his practical wisdom on how social media can enhance your research activities. Among his many hints and tips was Socialbro for managing and analysing your Twitter network. Fergus McNeil, Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow and an active blogger (see Discovering Desistance), offered a measured assessment of ‘new’ versus ‘old’. While the traditional route to publication remains important, it can be many years before a researcher gets feedback, in the form of citations, whereas blogging can deliver immediate feedback and can help measure impact. Nina Vaswani, Research Fellow at the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice, talked about blogs as a form of reflective journal writing.
Research is a tangled, messy and complicated process and sharing the experience of this journey not only aids reflection and learning for the blogger, but also can help readers learn from the experience too. (from Nina’s blog post about the event)
Two of our contributors to Research Unbound (Marguerite Schinkel and Fiona Sherwood-Johnson) talked about why they are using this channel to share their research. The event generated lively and stimulating discussion, some of it captured via Twitter and summarised on Storify (or see and contribute to the whole #researchunbound stream on Twubs).
The role of social networking in the research process is neatly summarised by Nina Vaswani in her blog
In order for me to make a difference I need to produce high quality research that is relevant, useful and, equally importantly, accessible to my audience. I certainly don’t want my research gathering dust in some far corner of a university library.
We hope Research Unbound will play an important part in linking research and practice in social care.