Tag Archives: Singapore

Open access in Singapore

Author: Yeo Pin Pin, Head of Research Services, Singapore Management University Libraries

Academic libraries in Singapore support Open Access and Open Science trends in the world. Some of the trends can be seen in the ACRL Scholarly Communication Toolkit. Let me outline how we have supported these trends in Singapore.

Open access repositories

Starting from 2005 with the first institutional repository (IR) by the National Institute of Education (NIE), the academic libraries in Singapore progressively launched their own IRs: Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2009, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) in 2010. The latest IR was launched by the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) in 2021.

The platforms used for the IRs are either open source on DSpace or commercial platforms like Digital Commons and Figshare. NIE, NUS and NTU use DSpace and engage a vendor to help them manage the technical side. SMU uses the hosted solution by Digital Commons and SIT uses Figshare. The library staff of the IRs in Singapore focus on supporting institutional policies, integration with internal systems, building content and promoting usage and engagement within the community.

Content in repositories

The IRs in Singapore showcase the research done at their institutions by having records, and the full text where possible, of publications by their researchers and faculty members. The IRs in Singapore also include theses and dissertations. The IRs in Singapore have good discoverability and downloads.

Some of the unique content available in NUS Digital Gems include the papers of Edwin Thumboo, Koh Kim Yam and the Earl of Cranbrook. The NIE IR has the manuscripts of Dr Muhammad Ariff Ahmad. The SMU IR has the oral history interviews and transcripts with the pioneers who set up SMU and the leaders who helmed SMU subsequently.

Historical newspapers from Southeast Asia published in Chinese, Jawi and English were digitised and made available open access in NUS Digital Gems. Recordings of musical performances from the NUS Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music are another unique offering in the NUS IR.

Growth in open access publications

Using the data in Lens.org, the growth in the number of open access publications in Singapore has been steady and has grown to 50% in 2021 from 11% in 2000.

Let us look at the breakdown by type of open access in Singapore using the data in Lens.org. Singapore started with more green open access publications than gold open access from 2000 to 2019. From 2020, the number of gold open access publications exceeded green open access. Bronze open access publications was 7% in 2021 with hybrid at 10%. We have not seen bronze open access increasing in proportion in Singapore, as found by Piwowar, et al (2018).

The above charts show the growth in percentage of open access publications over the past 20 years. The type of open access has also shifted, from mainly green with less gold open access to more gold and less green open access. From 2019, there were more gold open access publications than green open access publications in Singapore. This was possibly aided by funders allowing grant funding to be used for article processing charges and more awareness of the benefits of open access.

Open Data and Open Science

NTU was the first institution to have a research data policy which was effective in 2016. NIE also had their Data Management Plan and Research Data Management Policy in place by 2017 and revised by 2021. SMU crafted its research data policy in consultation with the library, the schools and the faculty and the policy was in effect from January 2020. SIT put in place their research data policy in 2021. The libraries in Singapore had worked with their respective research offices and key stakeholders to put in place the infrastructure to support the policies. The other institutions are working on their policies.

NTU Library has an Open Science & Research Services team to focus their efforts on creating awareness and advocating the best practices in open science among the NTU community. At SMU, we have a Data Services team to focus our efforts on providing services for accessing, managing and working with data for our community. The libraries in Singapore organise and conduct learning sessions about relevant topics on open science for their own community. Together we are also working to raise awareness about open science in Singapore through organizing events that are open to the academic community. Some examples were the webinar on Institutional repositories and sensitive data in 2020, and COAR Asia OA Meeting in 2021 organised by the Singapore Alliance of University Libraries’ Research Support Task Force.

Data repositories

NTU launched its data repository (DR) on the Dataverse platform in 2017, followed by NIE in 2018 using the same platform. In 2018, NUS enhanced its existing repository on the DSpace platform to take in datasets. In 2020, SMU launched its DR using the Figshare platform. In 2021, SIT launched its integrated repository for both papers and data using the Figshare platform.

There is recognition that not all data can be made open. Hence, NUS, NIE and NTU set up systems to store the data that was still in-progress or sensitive.

Research funders

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) put in place an open access mandate in 2013 and set up an IR to support their researchers to comply with the mandate. In 2016, the major research funders in Singapore introduced a common clause that required that the publications arising from their funded research be made open access within 12 months of the official date of publication in a suitable repository. The funders then allowed the use of the grants for Article Processing Charges. These changes provided incentives to researchers to make their publications open access and even gold open access.

Publisher agreements

NUS Libraries had negotiated deals with several publishers for discounts on the Article Processing Charges (APCs) for NUS authors. The Singapore Alliance of University Libraries (SAUL) has a committee working on negotiating with selected publishers for better terms and conditions for the group and exploring whether transformative deals would work in the Singapore context.

Conclusion

In Singapore, we follow the trends closely and then work within our own institution to implement those that suit the needs of our institutions. We also collaborate and learn from each other about best practices. Open access is on a strong footing now after steady growth over a decade. We are trying out some deals with publishers to make publishing open access and gold open access easier for our researchers.  We are supporting and promoting Open Data and Open Science and this area is still new for us, but we hope to make further progress in this area.

 

References

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2022). Scholarly Communication Toolkit. Available at: https://acrl.libguides.com/scholcomm/toolkit

Conrad, Lettie. (2022, January). 5 scholarly publishing trends to watch in 2022. Available at: https://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/scholarly-publishing-trends-2022/

Dempsey, Lorcan. (2022, April). Workflow is the new content. Presented at Digital initiatives Symposium. Available at: https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/presentations/2022/workflow-is-the-new-content.pdf

Hayashi, Kazuhiro. (2021). How could COVID-19 change scholarly communication to a new normal in the Open Science paradigm. Patterns, 2 (1), 100191. DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2020.100191

Ooi, Lian Ping. 2021. Open access and open science in Singapore. Presented at COAR Asia OA Meeting. Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/asiaoa2021/program/agenda/6/

Piwowar, Heather, et al. (2018). The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ, 6, e4375. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4375

 

Links for repositories in Singapore

Academic and Research Libraries – An invitation to join us at IFLA WLIC, Singapore!

The Academic and Research Libraries Section would like to invite you to attend their meetings, sessions and workshop at IFLA World Library and Information Congress – Singapore.

Workshop

Session 7 – Saturday 17 August, 09:00-12:30.  Nanyang Technological University

 Social media strategy in academic libraries – Implementation experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Libraries with the Academic and Research Libraries Section.  Further details at:

http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/ifla2013/

 

Standing Committee meetings

Session 41 – 17 August 2013, 15:15-17:45.  Room 304

Session 183 – 21 August 2013, 13:15-14:45.  Room 310

 

Joint Session : Knowledge Management and Academic & Research Libraries 

Session 98 – Monday 19 August, 9:30-12:45

Theme:  Agile management: strategies for achieving success in rapidly changing times.

Who is looking after your e-journals?: Telling tales about the keepers registry & your digital shelves.  Peter Burnhill, EDINA, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland UK

Implementing agile management through collaborative social computing.  Margaret Tan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

From search to discovery.  Tamar Sadeh, Ex Libris, Jerusalem, Israel.

Agile management: strategies for success in rapidly changing times.   Andrew Wells, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

MOOCs  in the library: addressing the changing needs of students and faculty in the age of online learning.  Mariellen F. Calter, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

The opportunities and challenges of MOOCs : viewpoints of Asia countries.  Joyce Chen, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.

 

Hot Topics in Academic and Research Libraries Session

Session 151 – Tuesday 20 August, 16:00-18:00, Session Room 3

Convergence of open access, open knowledge, and open innovation: towards libraries as an open knowledge service platform – Xialon Zhang (National Science Library, Beijing, China)

That was then, this is now.  A new era of research support.  Jenny Ellis (University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia)

Using social media to build an engaged community.  Gulcin Cribb and Yuyun Wirawati Ishak (Singapore Management University, Singapore)

An age of un-discovery?: copyright, curiosity and scholarly access to information in a digital world.  Ellen Broad (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, Netherlands)

 

The recipients of the 2013 Attendance Grant will receive their award at the Hot Topics session.  The Award, with generous sponsorship by ExLibris and Sage, is awarded to three information professionals from each of these regions: Africa, Latin America / Caribbean and Asia/Pacific Region. 

 

Announcement of Panelists – Social media strategy in academic libraries workshop, 17 August 2013.

 

You are invited to join us for a half day workshop on “Social media strategy in academic libraries – Implementation experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Libraries with the Academic and Research Libraries Section” on 17th August 2013, Saturday from 9:00am – 12:30pm at NTU Libraries.

The workshop, to be held at Nanyang Technological University [NTU], will include a panel of international librarians.  The panelists will share their experiences in implementing social media and the challenges faced.  Details of the panelists are:

Mike Berrington is Deputy University Librarian (Customer Services) at Nottingham Trent University (United Kingdom) where he has overall responsibility for all customer facing services. Mike is a post-graduate qualified librarian with more than 20 years’ experience in academic libraries and has presented nationally and internationally on a wide range of library management and technology related topics.

Janet Fletcher is the Director, Information Services at University of New South Wales Australia. She leads a large team of staff with a key focus in providing research and publishing support services to academic and research staff.  Such a focus has required the Library to design support services for students that do not require substantial staff time.  This includes installing physical and online self-service facilities to access and use the Library’s resources, facilities and services.  The Library has also found success in engaging with large cohorts of students via social media networks established across the University.

Gillian Nowlan is a Liaison Librarian for music, education, and media production & studies at the University of Regina. Gillian has been involved in the creation and management of the University of Regina Library’s social media accounts. She has also constructed policies detailing procedures for social media usage at the Library, and has worked closely with the University’s Social Media Committee to create best practices for social media use in an academic environment.   Gillian has presented at international conferences and has been awarded the Canadian Library Association Emerging Leader Award for her leadership and dedication to the profession. Her research interests include mobile technologies, information literacy, and social media and its applications in academic libraries and higher education.

Jarmo Saarti is the Library Director at the University of Eastern Finland Library and adjunct professor in the University of Oulu.  He has been the chair of the board of the National Repository Library in Finland and a member of the board of the National Library of Finland. He is specialized in the knowledge organization of fiction and in the management of libraries. His publications include more than 200 papers and he has written or edited about 30 books.

More details about the workshop can be found here:

http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/ifla2013/content-outline/

To register for this free workshop, please visit http://bit.ly/10uXGhe

Social media strategy in academic libraries – Implementation experiences at Nanyang Technological University [NTU] Libraries

You are cordially invited to join us for a half day workshop on “Social media strategy in academic libraries – Implementation experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Libraries with the Academic and Research Libraries Section” on 17th August 2013, Saturday from 9:00am – 12:30pm at NTU Libraries.

The workshop will be conducted by the New Media Team at NTU Libraries.  The team will discuss aspects of the Social Media strategy, learning points on winning user acceptance and examples of social media projects. They will then demonstrate how to create a vibrant user community using free or low cost social media tools for the second half of the workshop. Participants can bring along their notebook PCs and try out these tools immediately. The workshop will end with a panel discussion, drawing librarians from different countries, to share how various libraries implement their social media strategies and the challenges faced.

This class will be hands on, fast and definitely intense. You will walk away with a comprehensive understanding of how to come up with your own social media strategic and what are the tools available that you can deployed easily at a low cost and effectively.

To register for this workshop, please visit http://bit.ly/10uXGhe

More details about the workshop can be found here:-

http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/ifla2013/content-outline/

Getting to NTU Libraries: http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/ifla2013/getting-to-ntu/

Attendance Grant for IFLA Congress – Announcement of Recipients

The Academic and Research Libraries Section (ARL), with generous sponsorship by ExLibris and Sage, is offering THREE (3) Attendance Grants for the IFLA Congress in Singapore 2013 to an information professional from each of these regions: Africa, Latin America / Caribbean and Asia/Pacific Region.  Following an application process, we are pleased to announce the successful recipients:

Africa – Joseph A. Semugabi, who wrote: “I am currently employed at the Law Development Centre (LDC) as Librarian. LDC is an Academic Institution of Higher Learning involved with Professional Legal Training (Bar Course) for graduate lawyers intending to become advocates and practice law in Uganda. The institution also has a statutory function of conducting legal research as well as production of legal publications”.

Latin America – Sasekea Harris, who wrote:  “I am a young professional (31 years old), a member of IFLA and this will be my first attendance to an IFLA conference. In my capacity as an academic librarian at the University of the West Indies (UWI) I am a user and trainer of a number of ExLibris products namely: Primo, Aleph, SFX and Metalib. In this regard I believe I would be a fitting candidate to take part in the various ARL publicity events organized by ExLibris and Sage during the conference.”

Asia/Pacific – Aditya Nugara, who wrote:  “After several years working as a library assistant, I got a Fulbright scholarship to pursue my Master at the Graduate School Library and Information Science – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  With a Master in LIS, I came back home to Indonesia and work as a librarian at PCU, where I am now the Head of Library.  I started an interesting project named Desa Informasi (Information Village), an institutional repository designed to host the university’s intellectual outputs.”

We look forward to meeting our recipients in Singapore.  They will receive their Certificates at the Academic and Research Libraries Section’s Hot Topics Session in IFLA.  Details of the session will be provided once the Program is confirmed

Social Media Strategy in Academic Libraries – implementation experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Libraries

A half-day workshop on Saturday 17 August 2013

Fee : Free for IFLA delegates

Many libraries have created social media sites enthusiastically to reach out to their increasingly sophisticated audience. Within a university, it is not uncommon to see a myriad collection of QR codes, Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, blogs, Flick photos and YouTube videos set up by students, administrative staff and faculty.

Beyond using these ubiquitous tools for library promotion and information literacy, NTU Libraries decided to embrace social media more systematically and comprehensively to identify new niches for user collaborations and to create opportunities for enhancing or developing new library services. A key component of the strategy is to adopt a whole-of-organisation approach where all librarians understand the potential of these tools and leverage them effectively, turning every librarian into a consummate marketer of library services. A New Media Group was also formed to coordinate and drive the libraries’ social media initiatives.

The half day workshop will be conducted by the New Media team at NTU Libraries. During the first half of the workshop, the team will discuss aspects of the Social Media strategy, learning points on winning user acceptance and examples of social media projects. They will then demonstrate how to create a vibrant user community using free or low cost social media tools for the second half of the workshop. Participants can bring along their notebook PCs and try out these tools immediately. 

The workshop will end with a panel discussion, drawing librarians from different countries, to share how various libraries implement their social media strategies and the challenges faced.

Full details, including how to register, are available at the workshop’s blog

The workshop is being organised by Nanyang Technological University Libraries, in association with the IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section.

The Standing Committee meeting of the Academic and Research Libraries Section will also be held at Nanyang Technological University.  Details will be provided, once confirmed.

Announcement: joint session program for Academic and Research Libraries with Knowledge Management in Singapore, 17-23 August 2013.

Joint session:  Knowledge Management  and Academic and Research Libraries at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress

Monday 19 August, 2013.  09.30-12.45

Session theme:  Agile management: strategies for achieving success in rapidly changing times

We will explore the ways that libraries around the globe have displayed ‘agile’ approaches to respond to a range of challenges. The current challenges we intend to examine include the restructuring of education, alternative models of scholarly communication, the growth of private/for-profit institutions, the onset of new modes of delivery, knowledge management and content management, the expansion of online learning and the rise of MOOCs (massive open online courses), new spaces and new roles. We will give special focus to best practice in the Asia Pacific region.

Program details:

 Who is looking after your e-journals?: Telling tales about the keepers registry & your digital shelves.  Peter Burnhill, EDINA, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland UK

 Implementing agile management through collaborative social computing. Margaret Tan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

 From search to discovery. Tamar Sadeh, Ex Libris, Jerusalem, Israel.

 Agile management: strategies for success in rapidly changing times.  Andrew Wells, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.  

MOOCs  in the library: addressing the changing needs of students and faculty in the age of online learning.  Mariellen F. Calter, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

 The opportunities and challenges of MOOCs : viewpoints of Asia countries. Joyce Chen, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.