By Bertil F Dorch, Charlotte Wien, Jonathan P Tennant, Olivier Pourret, Dasapta Erwin Irawan, Jonathan P Tennant

There are major challenges that need to be addressed in the world of scholarly communication, especially in the field of environmental studies and in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Recently, Sonne et al. (2020) published an article in Science of the Total Environment discussing some of these challenges. However, we feel that many of the arguments misrepresent critical elements of Open Access (OA), Plan S, and broader issues in scholarly publishing. … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Bertil F. Dorch, Charlotte Wien, Daniella Bayle Deutz*, Dorte Drongstrup, Evgenios Vlachos

Researchers are increasingly being assessed by the height of their h-index, h. To guide researchers on the publication strategies most likely to lead to an improvement in h, we analyzed the research output of the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Our aim is to investigate the importance of the following seven variables in their academic careers: h-index, number of publications, number of citations, international collaborations, local collaborations, field specific journal publishing and high journal impact factor journal publishing. … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Jakob Povl Holck, Bertil F. Dorch,, Bjarke Jørgensen, Alexandra Alvis, Vanessa Haight Smith, Gwenaelle M. Kavich, Kimberly A Harmon, Thomas Delbey, Kaare Lund Rasmussen

Efforts to read medieval manuscript waste recycled as bookbinding material in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have resulted in the chemical analysis of four books housed at the University Library of Southern Denmark and the Smithsonian Libraries in Washington DC. Four green coloured book bindings have been investigated by optical microscopy, micro X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Jakob Povl Holck og Steffen Hope

The authors of the article analyze two medieval manuscript fragments, attached to the binding of Tycho Brahe’s Epistolarum astronomicarum libri (1596, Rara L 31, University Library of Southern Denmark) and De nova stella (1573, J.1, Karen Brahes Bibliotek, Roskilde Kloster/Roskilde Bibliotekerne) respectively. [In danish] … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Mette Brandt Eriksen, Tove Faber Frandsen, David Mortan Grøne Hammer & Janne Buck Christensen

The study, Fragmented publishing: a large-scale study of health science aimed at investigating, if there is a tendency of an increased number of publications per study in a large dataset from health science over time. The prevalence of fragmented publishing, where authors expand the number of publications by e.g. salami slicing, is a known phenomenon. Splitting data or results into several publications is in general considered a questionable research practice. … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Bertil F. Dorch, Jakob Povl Holck, Kaare Lund Rasmussen & Majken Brahe Ellegaard Christensen

Can we make a copy of Tycho’s “De Nova Stella” that can in fact survive a nova? At first, this may seem at best a nerdish, if not distinctly foolish question. However, it is also both a technological and a philosophical question: in fact, answering questions like this is linked to both technical, physical and sociological problems related to the long-term preservation and curation of objects from current and past civilizations. … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Charlotte Wien, Najmeh Shaghaei, Jakob Povl Holck, Anita L. Thiesen, Ole Ellegaard, Evgenios Vlachos, Thea Marie Drachen

A central question concerning scientific publishing is how researchers select journals to which they submit their work, since the choice of publication channel can make or break researchers. The gold-digger mentality developed by some publishers created the so-called predatory journals that accept manuscripts for a fee with little peer review. The literature claims that mainly researchers from low-ranked universities in developing countries publish in predatory journals. We decided to challenge this claim using the University of Southern Denmark as a case.
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By Jakob Povl Holck

Is it possible to apply modern optical quality control technologies from the food industry to the advanced analysis of text fragments in old book covers? This was recently put to the test as the Danish company Newtec Engineering in Odense volunteered to help the University Library of Southern Denmark with advanced hyper and multispectral imagery – an endeavor that should lead to the reading and identification of “rare bites” of 16th century prints. As a rule, fragments of all sorts of materials, including medieval manuscript pieces, were used by the bookbinders of the time to reinforce book covers. [In Danish] … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Else Marie Hansen & Thomas Kaarsted

Two general tendencies both point to a positive connection between grades, library use and students’ finishing their study. First: the students doing their Master’s degree who get high grades (10 or 12) tend to use printed and electronic materials to a greater extent than those who get lower grades. This tendency fits in with an international pattern. Secondly: there are clear differences in the use of library materials between the five faculties. Master’s students from the Humanities use the printed materials at the Library to the greatest extent. Master’s students from the Faculty of Health are those who use the electronic resources most. If we look more closely at the Faculty of Health, the survey shows that the Master’s students who got the highest possible mark (12) used the printed materials at the Library least of all students. [In danish] … Continue reading Continue reading →

By Thomas Kaarsted

Beginning in 2017 three major institutions on the island of Funen, Denmark, collaborated on a Citizen Science project: “A Healthier Funen” (AHF). The partners were a university, a university hospital and a regional broadcaster. The project invokes citizens to vote for the allocation of research funding. In the case study presented here, we analyze the Citizen Science aspects of AHF and the roles of libraries as collaborators, we examine the results and the reach of the project, and we argue that this strand of Citizen Science could be a possible new trend for Library, Faculty and media collaboration. … Continue reading Continue reading →