Shaking up research: A workshop report for research infrastructure leaders
Find out what innovators, funders, and publishers say it takes to build research infrastructure that lasts. This report gives you their candid lessons on funding, access, metrics, and publishing.
150+
people registered, in person or virtually
47
organizations named among the attendees
4
panels on lifecycle, access, metrics, and publishing
Source: Trasande, C. The price point was reported by a panelist from ReadCube.
Get the report
Learn what makes research infrastructure last.
Key findings
Infrastructure can’t be a byproduct
Projects that build identifiers or tools as a side effect of research grants tend to vanish when the funding ends.
Access is more than a paywall
Price, time, format, and search all block readers. Lower price points and recommendations showed early promise.
Impact metrics lag the questions
Altmetrics proved narrower than hoped, and there’s no accepted definition of social impact, yet funders want it reported.
The article should carry its data
Panelists want figures that keep their data, scripts, and sources attached, so readers can explore them for themselves.
The report in brief
What the room learned
In November 2014, researchers, librarians, publishers, funders, and startup founders met in Cambridge, Massachusetts to ask how new players are shaking up research. This report captures the opening remarks on research infrastructure and four panels. Geoff Bilder argued that infrastructure can’t be a byproduct of grants. It needs trust, stakeholder governance, and a surplus to last. Panelists then covered tools for the research lifecycle, new ways to access scholarly content, metrics beyond citations, and the article of the future. One idea runs through all of it: solve your problem well and play nice with others.
The researcher writes code, puts it on a server, but when the funds dry up, the ‘infrastructure’ is gone.
What you’ll discover
Candid lessons from the people building, funding, and measuring research tools. You’ll see what works, what never does, and the questions to ask before you commit your budget.
- How to judge whether a tool or standard will outlast its first grant
- How to weigh new models for giving readers access to research
- How to ask better questions about impact metrics
We hoped altmetrics would give a broader picture of the citation universe – it doesn’t. Alternative metrics are actually very narrowly focused.
Made for leaders who back research tools
You decide which research tools, platforms, and standards get your institution’s time and money. This report is for:
- Library and research office leaders who choose and sustain the tools researchers rely on
- Funders and program officers who ask what happens to a project’s outputs after the grant ends
- Publishers and founders who want to build services the research community will trust
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