Category Archives: Open Science

Innovation & Technology, Open Science, Science

OpenAlex: a free alternative to Scopus and Web of Science?

Scientific research tools such as Scopus, Web of Science or Dimensions have now become established. Many researchers have stored complex search queries in their favourite database. However, the cost of these platforms is a significant item in the budgets of libraries and research institutions.

What if there was a bold, free alternative to these expensive tools? Actually, there is, and there has been for some time, but only recently has it started to gain traction: OpenAlex.

OpenAlex can be defined as “a fully open catalogue of the global research system”. It has been maintained by OurResearch since around mid-2021 and the data comes from the Microsoft Academic Graph, Crossref, institutional repositories (via OAI-PMH) and much more. OpenAlex has access to a large amount of data and is based on persistent IDs (DOIs, ORCID, ROR, etc.).

Don’t be fooled by the minimalist interface and the absence of corporate design colours. OpenAlex concentrates on the essentials and does its job very well. Until a few months ago, queries could only be made via the API. Now it has a graphical user interface that is constantly being updated and improved. I have an account where I can save my queries. I find it simple and useful, but perhaps it is still too little for a researcher. However, development continues.

I then ran some tests and entered the name of TU Chemnitz to see the results:

Here the results from Scopus:

Very good. We have about 6,000 more results than Scopus. However, this does not mean that all the works displayed are actually related to Chemnitz University of Technology. Quality control still needs to be improved in OpenAlex. However, I was also impressed by the presence of some graphics.

If you are a researcher, I invite you to enter your name in OpenAlex and check that all the data is correct. It is also possible to calculate your own H-index with this script in Jupyter Notebook (if you need help, write to me).

I also tested this script, which uses the data from OpenAlex to show which co-operations TU Chemnitz has with other universities worldwide. Here is the result:

This is only a first approach to OpenAlex, and it is necessary to deepen the knowledge of the data structure and quality control. There is a lot of potential in it and its possibilities are currently limited, but it is an interesting project and it is worth giving it a chance.

Open Science

Do you know B!SON? – new tools make Open Science easy

In our case B!SON doesn’t stand for a wild animal, but for a recommendation service for
quality-assured Open Access Journals.

american bison

American Bison, Marco Verch, Creative Commons 2.0

Due to the enormous increase in the number of new publishing offerings, it is difficult for authors to make the most suitable selection. B!SON was developed by TIB Hannover and SLUB Dresden. The tool is open, free of charge and web-based.

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Open Science

How does Open Access influence science and how do I find the perfect journal or book?

The first question has been answered by a literature study conducted by the TIB Leibniz Information Centre for Technology and Natural Sciences on empirical papers 2010-2021. The following fields of impact were examined:

Attention in science, quality of scientific publications, knowledge transfer, productivity, use of publications, diversity and economic effects.

The results confirm the known advantages of OA in six areas of impact. Only the often-mentioned citation advantage of OA could not be clearly confirmed empirically – but neither could it be refuted.
At the same time, it was recognised that there is a need for further research, e.g. on the influence of OA on the career opportunities of researchers.

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Innovation & Technology, Open Science

Why your research career needs a Persistent Identifier

A Persistent Identifier is a kind of number plate that we wear in the web. After all, we use PIDs on a daily basis in our analogue world, such as when we are asked for our identity card number. Only here we are on the web. Fortunately behind a Persistent ID there is an organization that ensures its persistence over time. At this point someone might reply that the address of a website is a persistent ID. Wrong, because behind it there is not always an association to ensure its long-term durability.

A PID is “a code which remains constant as a means of identifying a digital object regardless of changes to its location on the internet”.

 

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Open Science, Science

Monitoring – Financing – Consultation: How the University Library supports Open Access

Monitoring
The National Open-Access-Monitor provided by the Central Library of the Research Center Jülich offers opportunities for analyses of publications, costs and citations with regard to Open Access in Germany. Currently, data concerning scientific articles marked by a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) are processed. The sources comprise i.a. the Web of Science and the database Dimensions.
Chemnitz University Library makes use of this monitor for the analysis of Open-Access publication numbers and costs but also for the assessment of the market and the allocation of costs between the different publishers. The results are of significant importance for the calculation of the Publication Fund of Chemnitz University of Technology, the conclusion of transformation contracts with publishers and the application for funding resources.

Fig. 1 Open-Access status Chemnitz University of Technology, 2017-2021, OA Monitor, Dimensions

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