Session: eScholarship in Context
Session organizers: Laura Czerniewicz and Michelle Willmers
When: Tues, March 19th 11:00-11:30
New publishing models, products and services do not manifest in a vacuum, but in a multiplicity of contexts where critical considerations shape how they play out. The session will review the key contextual considerations pertaining to changing scholarly communication systems and tools considering:
· global power dynamics (the centre and the periphery, the post-colonial legacy etc);
· hierarchies of knowledge (applied versus “basic” research; disciplinary specificities etc);
· financial factors (funding incl state, grant giving foundations etc);
· policy frameworks ( science, higher education, disciplinary etc );
· infrastructure & capacity (IT; scholarly communication, e-infrastructure etc ); and
· value systems and cultural considerations (reward and incentives, drivers, research versus teaching).
These considerations play out in complex inter-relationships at the macro, meso, micro levels of the higher education and knowledge production systems within and across countries. Laura Czerniewicz will provide a brief overview of the holistic issues, while Michelle Willmers will draw on the research of the Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) to describe how these play at a the institutional level.
Presentations from Context session:
Tools in Context: Laura Czerniewicz