Katie CorkerTogether with 12 colleagues from across the research assessment and scholarly publishing ecosystem, today we propose four criteria for innovation friendly bibliographic databases. The full piece is here: https://upstream.force11.org/criteria-for-bibliographic-databases/
Criteria for Bibliographic Databases in a Well-Functioning Scholarly Communication and Research Assessment Ecosystem
Bibliographic databases should support innovation and experimentation. Here, we offer four criteria for innovation-friendly bibliographic databases. We urge the global research community to use databases that support and do not hinder innovation in scholarly communication and research assessment.
The problem: "Researchers might expect that bibliographic databases are simply faithfully cataloging the scholarly corpus as it is published, but in actuality, many databases play an active role in choosing what to index and what to avoid. Some databases, notably Web of Science and Scopus, have built their brands on being highly selective, using bespoke (and often opaque) selection processes to determine what research 'counts' and gets to be included in a database."
In contrast, we propose four criteria that characterize innovation-friendly bibliographic databases.
1. Recognize the broad variety of use cases for bibliographic databases and the need to offer flexibility to address different use cases in appropriate ways.
2. Accommodate diverse approaches to scholarly communication.
3. Acknowledge the importance of open peer review reports and other markers of trust.
4. Ensure involvement of the research community in the governance of the database.
We hope that our criteria generate discussion, but also action towards supporting databases that are better aligned with these criteria. We assert "The future success of a bibliographic database will depend on its ability to work with the community to support innovation in scholarly communication."
Thanks to @gin, Caitlin Carter, @JACoates, @KellyCobey, @katiecorker, @lizziegadd, @MsPhelps, Rebecca Lawrence, Eva Mendez, @cameronneylon, @jannepolonen, Bodo Stern, and @LudoWaltman
The piece is written by us as individuals, not on behalf of any of the many movements that we support and lead, including CoARA, DORA, HELIOS Open, cOAlition S, the Barcelona Declaration, the Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Schol. Comm, the INORMS research evaluation group, and ASAPbio.