NISO Professional Development Events, April and May 2021

April 2021

NISO Webinar

Meaningful Metrics (First of Two)
Wednesday, April 14, 2021, 11:00am - 12:30pm (Eastern Standard Time, US & Canada)

It’s time to revisit metrics. How can they be made more meaningful and illuminative? Publishers, librarians, and their vendors use similar vocabulary (such as usage) but what they mean by their terminology (downloads, referral, etc.) and how they interpret it may differ. What data needs to be collected? How long is it retained? What are appropriate data-sharing practices? How should providers measure use of open educational resources? Or use of open access monographs? Can we come to agreement on the meaning of the behavioral data that may be automatically gathered in? In short, how can we make metrics more meaningful?

Participants in this two-part webinar will examine and discuss these issues and more from a variety of perspectives. Confirmed participants in this initial segment include Rebecca Kennison, Principal, K|N Consultants representing HuMetricsHSS, Brian Cody, Founder, Scholastica, Marie Mcveigh, Head of Editorial Integrity, Web of Science, Clarivate; Rachel Borchardt, Science Librarian, American University; and Stacy Konkiel, Senior Data Analyst, Altmetric.

NISO Virtual Conference

Hot Topic: Preprints
Wednesday, April 21, 2021, 12:00 Noon - 4:00pm (Eastern Standard Time, US & Canada)

Research during the pandemic accelerated discussions surrounding the value of preprints. Preprint services, such as the venerable arXiv and more recent bioRxiv, are accepted steps in the publication pathways. Are existing models sustainable? What issues are there with regard to infrastructure? Should there be some process for validation or rejection?  How much understanding of the limitations of preprints is properly communicated to journalists or other interested parties? This virtual conference follows up on the 2019 preprint event sponsored by NISO. What progress has been made?

Among others, confirmed participants include Alberto Pepe, Director of Product, Wiley; Bruce Rosenblum, Vice President, Content and Workflow Solutions, Atypon; Kathryn Funk, Program Manager, PubMed Central, NLM; Kyle Lo, Research Scientist, Semantic ScholarAllen Institute for Artificial Information (AI2); Leslie McIntosh, CEO, Ripeta; and Richard Sever, Assistant Director, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Co-founder of medRxiv and bioRxiv. 

NFAIS Forethought Strategic Summit

Transforming Content Through Transformed Systems
Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 10:00am - Thursday, April 29, 2021, 2:30pm (Eastern Standard Time, US & Canada)

Join us for talks by John Shaw, SAGE Publishing, Lauren Kane, Morressier, Mark Gross, DCLabs, and Chris Shillum, ORCID! 

Historically, scholarly publishing has focused on technology and platforms that primarily supported the handling of text. Systems were built to facilitate submission, review, editing, formatting, organization, storage, distribution, and discovery. Resources were poured into these systems and they became increasingly sophisticated.

Now, we are seeing the emergence of technology and systems optimized for support of the new content types, formats, and interactions that are of increasing importance and visibility in scholarly communication. Traditional publications are still with us, but users need and expect more.

New systems are required, but those striving to justify and build them face numerous challenges. Transformation requires extensive advance planning and buy-in from a variety of internal stakeholders. And it’s complicated. For example, over time, there may have been home-grown customization —  who remembers now what that code  or its associated metadata looks like? How many schemas might have been brought in at different times? How do you manage — and meet — the needs of multiple stakeholders, internal and external? Collaborative effort is essential even before any new system is introduced.  

In this program, we will explore the challenges from both a management and a technology perspective to consider how the information community can develop systems that continue to add value to scholarly communication and success.

May 2021

NISO Webinar

Meaningful Metrics (Second of Two)
Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 11:00am - 12:30pm (Eastern Standard Time, US & Canada)

It’s time to revisit metrics. How can they be made more precise and illuminative? Publishers, librarians, and their vendors use similar vocabulary (such as usage) but what they mean by their terminology (downloads, referral, etc.) and how they interpret it may differ. What data needs to be collected? How long is it retained? What are appropriate data-sharing practices? How should providers measure use of open educational resources? Or use of open access monographs? Can we come to agreement on the meaning of the behavioral data that may be automatically gathered in? In short, how can we make metrics more meaningful?

Participants in this two-part webinar will examine and discuss these issues and more from a variety of perspectives.