BizResearch

UK: Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications (Finch Group Report)

Source: Research Information Network (UK)

From Executive Summary:

This report tackles the important question of how to achieve better, faster access to research publications for anyone who wants to read or use them. It has been produced by an independent working group made up of representatives of universities, research funders, learned societies, publishers, and libraries. The group’s remit has been to examine how to expand access to the peer-reviewed publications that arise from research undertaken both in the UK and in the rest of the world; and to propose a programme of action to that end.

We have concentrated on journals which publish research results and findings. Virtually all are now published online, and they increasingly include sophisticated navigation, linking and interactive services. Making them freely accessible at the point of use, with minimal if any limitations on how they can be used, offers the potential to reap the full social, economic and cultural benefits that can come from research.

Our aim has been to identify key goals and guiding principles in a period of transition towards wider access. We have sought ways both to accelerate that transition and also to sustain what is valuable in a complex ecology with many different agents and stakeholders. The future development of an effective research communications system is too important to leave to chance. Shifts to enable more people to have ready access to more of the results of research will bring many benefits. But realising those benefits in a sustainable way will require co-ordinated action by funders, universities, researchers, libraries, publishers and others involved in the publication and dissemination of quality-assured research findings.

Click here to read the full report

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Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession 2010

Source: American Economic Review (2011)  Vol. 101(3)

CSWEP is a subcommittee of the American Economics Association charged with addressing the status of women in the economics profession. It publishes a three-times-a-year newsletter, organizes sessions at the annual meetings of the AEA and the regional economics associations, runs mentoring workshops, and publishes an annual report on the status of women in the economics profession.

The 2010 CSWEP surveys were sent to 121 economics departments with doctoral programs and 151 non-PhD departments. Most of schools represented in the non-PhD survey came from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (2000 edition) “Baccalaureate Colleges—Liberals Arts” list, as fewer than ten are schools with economics departments offering an undergraduate and master’s-only economics degree.

Selected findings from the surveys

The fraction of first-year PhD students, ABDs, and newly completed PhDs in all PhD granting departments who are women is about one-third. The ABD fraction increased slightly between 2009 and 2010 to a new high. Assuming about five years to complete a doctorate in economics, this suggests that on average the pipeline is not very leaky, at least through completion of the doctorate.

However, the fraction of first-year PhD and ABD students and the fraction of new PhDs who are women at top 20 PhD granting departments are at least 5 percentage points lower than the corresponding figure for all PhD granting departments.

The female shares of untenured assistant professors and tenured associate professors are essentially constant between 2009 and 2010 at close to 28% and 22%, respectively. The female share of tenured full professors up-ticked to 10.7%, a new all-time high for this survey for the second year in a row.

In terms of non–tenure track faculty, results show that this category is disproportionately female in 2010. Among all PhD granting economics departments in the United States, the female share of non–tenure track faculty is approximately double that for the female share of all tenured/tenure track faculty (33.0 versus 17.5%).

See find this article online current staff, students and faculty should use Article Finder which can be found on the A-Z list of library databases within Portal.

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Academic Reputation Survey

Thomson Reuters launches Academic Reputation Survey for 2011

 Research analytics and decision support citation data services provider Thomson Reuters, US, has announced that it has launched its Academic Reputation Survey for 2011. The survey, which will remain open until May 20, 2011, claims to be the largest of its kind ever undertaken by the company.

 Survey respondents are asked which institutions they consider the best in terms of research, teaching and by other factors such as geographical region. The assessments gathered through the survey will be combined with other key variables to form a comprehensive profile for each institution.

 The survey forms part of Thomson Reuters Global Institutional Profiles Project, an initiative that will create data-driven profiles of globally significant research institutions. It also will help inform the Times Higher Education's influential World University Rankings and represents the largest single reputation survey used in the rankings to date.

 Thomson Reuters Global Institutional Profiles Project combines reputational feedback, scholarly outputs, citation patterns, funding levels, and faculty characteristics across disciplines in one comprehensive database. The dataset can be packaged and analysed to different specifications, giving organisations custom information for evaluating and benchmarking their performance and supporting efforts to secure research funding.

Source: http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/science/academic_reputation_survey_2011

 

Making the grade 2011: a study of the top 10 issues facing higher education institutions

Source: Deloitte

Investments in tertiary education have been linked to economic benefits in countries around the globe. Yet, in recent years, spending on higher education has come under increasing pressure. Tighter national budgets have reduced sector funding, weak market conditions have diminished endowment value and economic hardship has resulted in lower enrolment levels. At the same time, educational institutions must meet a host of costly demands to stay competitive – from self-service administration options and technology upgrades, to newer infrastructure and enhanced faculty recruitment programs.

Amidst shrinking resources and rising demands, it is becoming clear that higher education institutions can no longer maintain the status quo. To achieve their mandates and serve their constituencies, they must transform the way they do business.

To help, Deloitte education practitioners around the world collaborated to create Making the grade 2011: A study of the top 10 issues facing higher education institutions. In this report, educational institutions will find essential strategies they must consider as they seek to address their challenges, as well as some fresh thinking on key institutional drivers. Beyond simply helping colleges and universities survive current economic hardship, these strategies can help institutions reinvent themselves to meet evolving educational needs.

Click here to read the full report

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UK providers build global position in financial services education and training

UK providers of education, training and accreditation are well placed to equip professionals with skills and qualifications that are internationally mobile. TheCityUK's new report Financial Services Education and Training 2010 draws attention to the UK’s growing global reach. Some 29 professional institutions with a combined membership of 962,000 cover a range of disciplines in financial and professional services including banking, insurance, capital markets, accountancy, legal services, dispute resolution and surveying. 

• Professional institutions combined membership of 962,000 includes 186,000 members based overseas
• International students in UK universities reach high of 368,000 in 2009, with China and India the largest source of international students
• UK attracts 10% of students worldwide studying for a degree in a foreign country  

 

Click here to see the full range of reports produced by TheCityUK

 

 

No Refuge: Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession

The average salary for a full-time faculty member was only 1.2 % higher in 2009–10 than in the previous academic year, the lowest year-to-year change recorded in the fifty years of this comprehensive annual survey from the AAUP (American Association of University Professors).

The survey shows the amount of change in overall salary levels in the various categories of institutions. This year’s results show that the overall average salary level declined at nearly one-third of colleges and universities, with greater frequency at baccalaureate and associate’s degree colleges. Average salary levels increased only very slightly at another third of institutions: about 20% of all institutions reported an increase in overall average salary that was 1% or less, and an additional 15% reported increases of between 1 and 2%. Taken together this means that two-thirds of all colleges and universities reporting data reduced overall average salary or increased it by 2% or less, well below the rate of inflation.

No central data source provides comprehensive coverage of the faculty hiring process, but there are indications that new faculty appointments have been dramatically reduced during the 2009–10 academic year. The American Historical Association (AHA) reported in January 2010 that the number of jobs listed through its various outlets had fallen by 24%  to 806 positions, the smallest number in a decade. Further, an AHA survey of those departments that did list faculty openings found that 15% of those searches were subsequently called off.

The American Economic Association (AEA) reported a decline of 19% in academic listings in its Job Openings for Economists in the past year. In departments with PhD programs, listings were down by 8%, while in non-doctoral departments new position listings were down 31%. The American Mathematical Society reported a decline in faculty job listings of 13% for 2009 compared with the previous year.  The greatest reductions were reported by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Advertised faculty openings in English language and literature decreased by 35%, and MLA listings in disciplines other than English were down by 39%. The two-year total decline in position announcements amounts to 51% in English and 55% in foreign languages—the largest decrease recorded by the MLA since it created the Job Information List thirty-five years ago.

Click here for the full report

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New centre for research and development in open access communications

Open Access
The Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access (SHERPA) team at the University of Nottingham has announced the formation of the Centre for Research Communications (CRC).

Based at the University of Nottingham, CRC will house the portfolio of open access projects, services and initiatives currently undertaken by the University. These include the home of the SHERPA partnership; the open access services RoMEO, Juliet and OpenDOAR; the Repositories Support Project (RSP), and the University contribution to the European and international projects DRIVER, Dart-Europe and NECOBELAC. In addition, CRC will also explore innovative research and development activities across the whole field of research communications.

The formation of CRC is yet another boost to the growing open access movement. As demonstrated by the recent award of open  access institute of the year award, Nottingham University is now at the forefront of supporting and informing changes in the way that research is communicated around the world.

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/

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Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology

British Universities have world-class reputations and they are vital to our social and economic future. But they are in a tight spot. The huge public investment that sustained much of the sector is in jeopardy and the current way of working is not sustainable. Some are predicting the end of the university as we have known it.

The Edgeless University argues that this can be a moment of rebirth for universities. Technology is changing universities as they become just one source among many for ideas, knowledge and innovation. But online tools and open access also offer the means for their survival. Their expertise and value is needed more than ever to validate and support learning and research.

Through their institutional capital, universities can use technology to offer more flexible provision and open more equal routes to higher education and learning. We need the learning and research that higher education provides. But this will take strategic leadership from within, new connections with a growing world of informal learning and a commitment to openness and collaboration. By exploiting this role, universities can harness technology as a solution and an indispensable tool for shaping their vital role in the future.

Click here to read the report

Are you optimizing costs or just making false economies?

Are you optimizing costs or just making false economies?
CFOs should look beyond slash and burn to sustainable savings that transform businesses.

Read a fascinating range of articles from KPMG which include:

 

• Greek Tragedy. The true cost of understanding IT
• Dubai's Sovereign Wealth Fund
• Asia Biotech Giant
• Investing in a downturn
• Islamic Finance
• The Future of Private Equity

 

Picture: Creative Commons: FlickR: Tanakawho: Urban labyrinth

Open access scholarly publishers association launched

Announcing the launch of the open access scholarly publishers association, OASPA

14 October 2008, London. The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, OASPA, announces its official launch today in conjunction with an OA Day celebration hosted by the Wellcome Trust in London.  The mission of OASPA is to support and represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journals publishers globally in all scientific, technical, and scholarly disciplines through an exchange of information, setting of industry standards, advancing business and publishing models, advocating for gold OA journals publishing, education and the promotion of innovation.

From having first emerged as a new publishing model over a decade ago, OA publishing has become an embedded feature of the scholarly publishing landscape: The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists over 3500 peer-reviewed journals; a growing number of professional organizations offer OA publications; university libraries increasingly support OA publishing services; funding organizations support and encourage OA publishing; and a long tail of independent editorial teams and societies now publish their titles OA

http://www.oaspa.org/press.release.html

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What's hot in scholarly publishing? A website from the Society for Scholarly Publishing

- Cuil? Search me.
- The Importance of Being First
- Microsoft's Free Tools for Scholarly Research
- Open Access Doesn't Drive Citations

These are just some of the recent postings on Scholarly Kitchen. Here you can keep up to date with scholarly publishing issues with the Society for Scholarly Publishing's blog.

The Society for Scholarly Publishing has established the Scholarly Kitchen blog to:

1. Keep SSP members and interested parties aware of new developments in
publishing
2. Point to research reports and projects
3. Interpret the significance of relevant research in a balanced way (or
occasionally in a provocative way)
4. Suggest areas that need more input by identifying gaps in knowledge
5. Translate findings from related endeavors (publishing outside STM,
online business, user trends)
6. Attract the community of STM publishers interested in these things
and give them a place to contribute.

RSS Feed link to subscibe:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScholarlyKitchen

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UK continues to punch above its weight in world class research

The UK has increased its share of published research in the world's most influential scientific journals and offers the best return globally for R&D investment, a report published today by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has found.

The study provides an annual benchmark for the Government and others to assess how the UK is performing alongside the 25 world leading research economies - including the G8 nations, India and China.

The report, which analysed 17 million papers and 22.5 million citations in 8000 of the world's leading scientific journals, found that the UK contributes nine per cent of papers produced annually and a 12 per cent share of citations, placing it second only to the USA in world rankings.

To read this report - which includes sections on business research - go to:

http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/IntComparativePerformanceUKResearch.pdf

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London Business School - top in SSRN institution ranking

Social Science Research Network

SSRN is a free web resource for scholarly social science literature   (registration is required.

SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences.

Each of SSRN's networks encourages the early distribution of research results by publishing Submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world.

The SSRN eLibrary consists of two parts: an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 188,200 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 151,200 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. The eLibrary also includes the research papers of a number of Fee Based Partner Publications.

You can search the whole database or go into one of the more specific research areas and browse the recent additons.

Institution ranking

If you go into: Management Research > Top Papers > Top Institutions > Top International Business Schools

Here you will find the ranking which on 11/06/08 showed the top schools by number of downloads, the top10 being:

1 London Business School
2 IESE Business School
3 City University London - Sir John Cass Business School
4 Tilburg University - Center and Faculty of Economics and Business Administration 5  Erasmus University Rotterdam
6  University of Toronto - Joseph L. Rotman School of Management
7  Stockholm School of Economics
8  University of Amsterdam - Business School
9  University of Zurich
10 INSEAD

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Challenging the purpose of business schools

Howard Thomas, Dean and Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School opens this special issue of the Journal of management development which focuses on the future of business schools. Despite the fact that the current business school model has been extremely successful, recent years have seen an increasing amount of literature questioning the roles and purposes of business schools.  These recent criticisms prompted Michael Hay of London Business School and Eric Cornuel to specify the theme “Challenging the purpose of business schools” for the EFMD Deans and Directors Conference in 2007. The content presented in this special issue have largely been selected from papers and presentations made at that conference. Michael Hay, as conference Chair, argues that “put at its simplest, the purpose of a business school is to create value through three types of value, namely, academic value, through research and its dissemination; personal value through their teaching and public and social value in the form of knowledgeable and skilled graduates and through the way in which they engage in the societies in which they are based”. Overall these essays are offered to stimulate and open up debate about the future development of business schools and their curricula. The next decade is sure to present many challenges to business schools as they seek to re-define their purpose, visions and strategies to promote success for their schools.

The special issue of the Journal of management development (Vol.27:4) is available to current London Business School students, faculty, staff and alumni from Emerald Management Xtra which can be found on the A-Z list of library database (via Portal)

Cases from ECCH

ECCH has decided that it will no longer require a letter of authorisation for students wishing to purchase cases directly from us.  They have lifted this restriction in order to remove an unnecessary obstacle in the student ordering process.

N.B. Teaching notes remain unobtainable to students.

What is the ECCH?

ECCH is an independent, non-profit, membership based organisation with charitable status. It is dedicated to promoting the case method of learning. The ecch case collection of management case studies and journal article reprints is the largest in the world. It is a unique and accessible resource for business school and university teachers worldwide.

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Top gurus - ranking in the Wall Street Journal

"Managers everywhere these days worry about innovating, motivating workers and global competition. So it's no surprise that writers and consultants who tackle these subjects place near the top of The Wall Street Journal's ranking of influential business thinkers."

The Wall Street Journal has compiled  list of the most influential management thinkers.

It can be read in the Wall Street Journal Online of May 5th which provides short profiles of three of the top five: Gary Hamel, Howard Gardner and Thomas Friedman.

The report was compiled by Thomas H. Davenport, a management professor at Babson College, and H. James Wilson, a senior researcher at Babson's executive research centers. The duo compiled a similar ranking for their 2003 book, "What's the Big Idea?" co-written with Laurence Prusak.

Click here for information on their methodology.

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New video on benefits of rights management for authors

Auhor Rights

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently released a new, short video to help librarians effectively engage disciplinary faculty and researchers on the topic of author rights. The two-minute video presentation explains in simple, graphic terms the potential for wider exposure of scholarly articles when authors retain key rights.

To find out more and to link to the video  click on the link below.

http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/08-0317.html

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Are MBA programs out of sync with the needs of business in the 21st cen­tury?

Lessons for Business Schools
by Andrea Gabor

New books and revisited history illuminate the irrelevance of today’s MBA — and ways to make it compelling again.

"Are MBA programs out of sync with the needs of business in the 21st cen­tury? Have they failed to keep pace with global and technological change? Are they too theoretical and removed from the day-to-day challenges faced by managers and entrepreneurs? And do they encourage the silo-ing of such functions as finance and marketing rather than instilling in their students a multidisciplinary view? These questions are taking on greater importance as the business environment be­comes ever more globalized and competitive. “This is one of those punctuated-equilibrium moments,” says Joel Podolny, dean of Yale’s School of Management. “There’s lots of experimentation, and we have to adopt new models to meet 21st-century challenges.”

From: Spring 2008 issue of strategy+business by Booze Allen Hamilton To read in full click here.

strategy+business media publishes a quarterly magazine, this web site (www.strategy-business.com), books, and ancillary publications. Its mission is to provide executives with commentary, research, and practical ideas that bridge the gap between theory and practice in contemporary global business.

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Open Access gathers momentum - with Harvard

Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement

Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted a policy this evening that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online.

Peter Suber, an open-access activist with Public Knowledge, a nonprofit group in Washington, said on his blog that the new policy makes Harvard the first university in the United States to mandate open access to its faculty members’ research publications.

Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard who proposed the new policy, said after the vote in a news release that the decision “should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated.”

Links:

Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog

Open Access News

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Benchmarking business libraries across Europe and the world and **Win an Ipod Nano**

Libraries across the globe are turning in large numbers to LibQUAL+™, the survey instrument for gathering and analysing service quality data. Information is gathered on levels of service library users feel they are currently getting (perception) and what they would ideally like to receive (expectation). Such data and its analysis helps ensure developments in Library services are based on user priorities above all other measures.

London Business School is currently surveying its faculty and students, as part of a cohort of European Business School libraries.

London Business School faculty and students (only) can complete the survey via this link:  http://portal.london.edu/?serv=LibQUAL+survey

Your help would be appreciated and you may **Win an Ipod  Nano**

Most researchers prefer existing peer review systems, says PRC study - 30 Jan 2008

Most researchers prefer existing peer review systems, says PRC study - 30 Jan 2008

The Publishing Research Consortium (PRC) has published a new study titled ‘Peer Review in Scholarly Journals - perspective of the scholarly community’. According to the study, most researchers are not in favour of changing the current system of peer review for journal articles, as it is believed to help improve scientific communications and increase the overall quality of published papers. Alternatives such as 'open peer review' (where papers are available for public comment prior to publication) were not popular in the new study, which covered over 3,000 senior authors, reviewers and editors from around the world. However, some were interested in post-publication review, where a published paper is opened up for public comment, as a useful supplement to, but not a replacement for, traditional peer review.

The Publishing Research Consortium is a group of associations and publishers, which supports global research into scholarly communication in order to enable evidence-based discussion. The Consortium seeks to promote an understanding of the role of publishing and its impact on research and teaching.

Click here to download the report.

The news excerpt above was taken from Knowledgespeak.com

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