A scientific publication system needs to provide two basic services: access and evaluation. The traditional publication system restricts the access to papers by requiring payment, and it restricts the evaluation of papers by relying on just 2-4 pre-publication peer reviews and by keeping the reviews secret. As a result, the current system suffers from a lack of quality and transparency of the peer-review evaluation process, and the only immediately available indication of a new paper’s quality is the prestige of the journal it appeared in. Open access is now widely accepted as desirable and is slowly beginning to become a reality. However, the second essential element, evaluation, has received less attention. Open evaluation, an ongoing post-publication process of transparent peer review and rating of papers, promises to address the problems of the current system. However, it is unclear how exactly such a system should be designed. The evaluation system steers the attention of the scientific community and, thus, the very course of science. For better or worse, the most visible papers determine the direction of each field and guide funding and public policy decisions. Evaluation, therefore, is at the heart of the entire endeavor of science. As the number of scientific publications explodes, evaluation and selection will only gain importance. A grand challenge of our time, therefore, is to design the future system, by which we evaluate papers and decide which ones deserve broad attention. So far scientists have left the design of the evaluation process to journals and publishing companies. However, the steering mechanism of science should be designed by scientists. The cognitive, computational, and brain sciences are best prepared to take on this task, which will involve social and psychological considerations, software design, and modeling of the network of scientific papers and their interrelationships. This Research Topic in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience collects visions for a future system of open evaluation. Because critical arguments about the current system abound, these papers will focus on constructive ideas and comprehensive designs for open evaluation systems. Design decisions include: Should the reviews and ratings be entirely transparent, or should some aspects be kept secret? Should other information, such as paper downloads be included in the evaluation? How can scientific objectivity be strengthened and political motivations weakened in the future system? Should the system include signed and authenticated reviews and ratings? Should the evaluation be an ongoing process, such that promising papers are more deeply evaluated? How can we bring science and statistics to the evaluation process (e.g. should rating averages come with error bars)? How should the evaluative information about each paper (e.g. peer ratings) be combined to prioritize the literature? Should different individuals and organizations be able to define their own evaluation formulae (e.g. weighting ratings according to different criteria)? How can we efficiently transition toward the future system? Ideally, the future system will derive its authority from a scientific literature on community-based open evaluation. We hope that these papers will provide a starting point.

This booklet provides a practical introduction to the practice of peer reviewing. Although it mainly focuses on paper reviewing for scientific events in computer science and business informatics, many of the principles, tips, tricks and examples can also be applied to journal reviewing and other scientific domains. Some can also be used when reviewing proposals for research projects or grants. In addition, many aspects of the book will benefit authors of scientific papers, who will gain deeper insights into how papers are reviewed and hence what to pay attention to when writing their own papers. The book is divided into three chapters, the first of which presents a brief overview of why peer reviewing is considered to be an important quality control instrument for scientific papers. In turn, the second chapter elaborates on the main principles a good reviewer should adhere to, including the most important aspects of personal attitude s/he should pay attention to when writing his/her review. Lastly, the third chapter features a series of (anonymized) real life examples of actual reviewing practice, thus illustrating practical tips and tricks regarding the most common “do’s” and “don’ts” of peer reviewing. The book offers a structured introduction and practical reference guide, including good and bad examples, for junior researchers in computer science and business informatics in particular, as well as for anyone interested in peer reviewing in general.“/p>

This book critically examines the historical developments and current trends in the scientific scholarly communication system, issues and challenges in scientific scholarly publishing and scientific data sharing, implications and debates associated with the influence of intellectual property rights on scientific information sharing, and new trends related to peer reviewing and measuring the impact of scientific publications. Based on thorough examination of published literature, the book illustrates the involvement of many stakeholders—scientists, science educators, university administrators, government entities, research funders, and other interested parties—in this complex and dynamic system. The discussion highlights the roles these stakeholders have to play, individually and collaboratively, to help transform the future of the scientific scholarly communication system.

​This book contributes to the current discussion in society, politics and higher education on innovation capacity and the financial and non-financial incentives for researchers. The expert contributions in the book deal with implementation of incentive systems at higher education institutions in order to foster innovation. On the other hand, the book also discusses the extent to which governance structures from economy can be transferred to universities and how scientific performance can be measured and evaluated. This book is essential for decision-makers in knowledge-intensive organizations and higher-educational institutions dealing with the topic of performance management.

Modern information and communication technologies, together with a cultural upheaval within the research community, have profoundly changed research in nearly every aspect. Ranging from sharing and discussing ideas in social networks for scientists to new collaborative environments and novel publication formats, knowledge creation and dissemination as we know it is experiencing a vigorous shift towards increased transparency, collaboration and accessibility. Many assume that research workflows will change more in the next 20 years than they have in the last 200. This book provides researchers, decision makers, and other scientific stakeholders with a snapshot of the basics, the tools, and the underlying visions that drive the current scientific (r)evolution, often called ‘Open Science.’

Peer review processes in scholarly publishing are often hidden behind layers of opacity, leaving authors--and even reviewers--with many questions about the process. Open peer review is one way to improve the practice. It can shorten the time between manuscript submission and publication, hold reviewers accountable for their work, make more apparent the hidden labor of reviewing and editing, allow for collaborative discourse between authors and reviewers, and more. Even with these benefits, open peer review is not widely accepted or understood. Few academic librarians have experienced it, and each implementation can be different; anything open is highly nuanced and contextual. Ultimately, when we discuss "open," we must discuss the stories around it. What is the aim? What are the pitfalls? What are the gains? And are we trying to simply replicate a broken system instead of reinventing it? Stories of Open: Opening Peer Review through Narrative Inquiry examines the methods and processes of peer review, as well as the stories of those who have been through it. Eleven chapters are divided into three parts: * Part 1: Orientation. This section offers a conceptual frame for the book, providing details about narrative inquiry as a methodology and the author's worldview and research approach. * Part 2: The Stories (The Story Middle). What is the standard experience of peer review in our field? This section shares stories told from a variety of viewpoints and roles--author, editor, and referee--and explores how these roles interact, the tension between them, and the duality and sometimes multiplicity of roles experienced by any one individual. * Part 3: Coda. These four chapters tie the stories to the idea of open and look in detail at the research method, as well as imagine how we might move forward--reflecting on our past stories to create future ones. When we open ourselves to others' experiences, we reflect on our own. Stories of Open offers questions for reflection at the end of many chapters in order to assist in the continued exploration of your own experiences with peer review, and encourages the use of these reflections in creating new and improved peer review methods. This book is also available as an open access edition at https://bit.ly/ACRLStoriesofOpen

If you work in a university, you are almost certain to have heard the term 'open access' in the past couple of years. You may also have heard either that it is the utopian answer to all the problems of research dissemination or perhaps that it marks the beginning of an apocalyptic new era of 'pay-to-say' publishing. In this book, Martin Paul Eve sets out the histories, contexts and controversies for open access, specifically in the humanities. Broaching practical elements alongside economic histories, open licensing, monographs and funder policies, this book is a must-read for both those new to ideas about open-access scholarly communications and those with an already keen interest in the latest developments for the humanities. This title is also available as Open Access via Cambridge Books Online.