Scholarly Publishing Commons^™

Open Research Information - How To Support Publishers To Make Metadata Openly Availble, Bianca Kramer

FORCE 2026

Research information, or scholarly metadata, is important for decision making around strategic priorities, distribution of resources, and evaluation of researchers and institutions. It is also used to assess the effect of policies, and to find and assess research results. Open research information (free to access and free to (re)use) is increasingly valued for fair assessment and equitable decision making, and is also important in digital sovereignty.


The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information calls on organizations performing, funding and evaluating research to make openness of research information the default, work with services and systems that support and enable open research …

Mapping Themes, Aligning Strategies: Institutional Research Analytics With Bertopic And Genai, Danping Dong, Pin Pin Yeo

FORCE 2026

Libraries and research offices are increasingly tasked with making sense of unstructured institutional data, such as research publications and strategic documents. These insights help inform decision-making and leadership planning. This session shares how SMU Libraries leveraged BERTopic, an open-source topic modeling tool, together with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, to extract meaningful insights from faculty publications and support institutional sensemaking.

In one use case, we applied BERTopic to university-authored publications to surface thematic groupings related to research about Asia. Generative AI tools were then used to summarize each cluster into human-readable narratives, enabling research landscape mapping, identification …

The Spring 2026 Issue, Destiny Dehart, Sara Gonzalez, Crystal Walker, Karen Winstead, Anthony Toledo, Lauren Nimon-Viola, Tristan Mioduszewski, Fatima Al Jaberi

Fonds and Feathers

The theme of this issue is "we explore what matters" – what matters to us, what matters to archives, and what matters to libraries. Different voices are reflected by writers in the formats of poetry, artwork, research, and articles.

Proper Imposters: Four Novellas, Allison Faix

The Southeastern Librarian

Authors: Chaya Bhuvaneswar, Mauricio Montiel Figueiras, Jason Ockert, & Jeff Parker

Pensacola: Panhandler Books, distributed by University of Florida Press, 2025

ISBN: 9780991640485

206 pp. $24.95 (Pbk)

Southeastern Librarian 74(1) Spring 2026 (Full Issue), John H. Barnett

The Southeastern Librarian

Complete issue of the Southeastern Librarian, Volume 74 Number 1, Spring 2026

Government Documents For All, Tim Dodge

The Southeastern Librarian

The Government Documents for All column for the Spring 2026 issue of The Southeastern Librarian

Member Spotlight, Blair Jones

The Southeastern Librarian

Member Spotlight no. 4 for the Spring 2026 issue of the Southeastern Librarian. The spotlight shines on Crystal R. Gates, Chief Executive Officer of the North Little Rock (Arkansas) Public Library System.

Character Demographic Assessment In An Academic Library's Graphic Novel Collection: Implications For Collection Development, Bridgette L. Whitt

The Southeastern Librarian

This article presents an analysis of the main character demographics across a graphic novel collection housed at the Paul Meek Library, University of Tennessee at Martin. The study evaluates the presence of specific identified character traits such as race, ethnicity, ability, emotional or psychological themes, and the settings of the 451 evaluated titles. The assessment also evaluates the genre distribution of fiction, nonfiction, and biographical content and how often the novels were set outside of the United States. The goal of this study was to better understand the narrative scope and representation within the graphic novel collection, with a focus …

The President's Column, Laura Slavin

The Southeastern Librarian

SELA President Laura Slavin's column for the Spring 2026 issue of the Southeastern Librarian

Mob Rule In The Ozarks: The Missouri And North Arkansas Railroad Strike, 1921-1923, Kristine Stilwell

The Southeastern Librarian

Author: Kenneth C. Barnes

Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2025

ISBN: 9781682262627

304 pp., $24.95 (Pbk)

Building Community At An Academic Library With Bilingual Story Trails, Laura Bright, Janice S. Lewis

The Southeastern Librarian

A story trail is an activity that combines exercise and literacy as visitors read sequentially displayed book pages while walking. Story trails are often set up outdoors along existing paths and feature rotating selections of children’s picture books. Many story trails are set up and maintained by community groups, public libraries, or schools. Academic libraries can use story trails as opportunities to promote literacy, foster a sense of local community, support families, and encourage healthy habits. The authors of this article use City of Greenville (North Carolina) StoryWalks® created by staff at East Carolina University’s Joyner Library as an example …

Chet Atkins: Mr. Guitar, David W. Young

The Southeastern Librarian

Author: Don Cusic

Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2025

ISBN: 9780820373393

464 pp. $24.13 (Hbk)

Cultural Humility In Libraries: A Call To Action And Strategies For Success, Megan Callaghan

The Southeastern Librarian

Authors: Shannon D. Jones & Beverly Murphy, eds.

Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024

ISBN: 9781538162156

196 pp. $39.95 (Pbk)

News From The States, Blake Denton

The Southeastern Librarian

Library news reports from SELA member states

From Print To Pixels: Preserving Alabama’S Historic Newspapers Through Digitization, David Ferrara, Melissa Young

The Southeastern Librarian

This article presents a case study of the Alabama Digital Newspaper Project (ALDNP), a grant-funded initiative to digitize Alabama’s historic newspapers. It outlines the establishment and history of ALDNP, including its accomplishments, and the challenges faced and overcome by University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections (UALSC) staff. This case study details ALDNP’s workflows, including title selection, metadata creation, technical standards, and microfilm digitization. This article also highlights outreach efforts, including collaborations with regional archives, student workers, and community educators. In addition to providing details on the accomplishments of ALDNP, it also outlines potential areas for growth and expansion. Detailing a …

Editor's Notes, John H. Barnett

The Southeastern Librarian

The Southeastern Librarian editor's column for the Spring 2026 issue

Sela Leadership: Officers, Executive Committee, State Representatives, Committees, Sections, Round Tables, And Ad Hoc Committees, John H. Barnett

The Southeastern Librarian

List of SELA Officers, Executive Committee, State Representatives, Committees, Sections, Round Tables, and Ad Hoc Committees for the Spring 2026 issue

From Review To Synthesis: A Step-By-Step Methodological Guide To Systematic Reviews And Multilevel Meta-Analyses, Meilan Hu, Paye Shin Koh, Xun Ci Soh, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We provide a step-by-step guide on conducting a quantitative systematic review (i.e., meta-analysis) using the open-source programming language R, as well as conducting a multilevel meta-analysis, in contexts where effect sizes are non-independent (e.g., multiple studies from the same lab). Quantitative systematic reviews offer researchers a method for synthesizing large bodies of literature, helping clarify inconsistent findings, identify research gaps, and refine theoretical models. However, existing tutorials often assume prior knowledge and/or experience, often overlooking foundational concepts. To address this gap, a comprehensive walkthrough of the systematic review process is presented, covering pre-registration, literature search and retrieval, screening, risk of …

Faculty Focused, Student Supported: Managing Faculty Research In Your Institutional Repository, Ellen Amatangelo, Kelsey Bradshaw, Jillian Peterson, Allejah Young

Faculty Publications

The focus of BYU Library’s Faculty CV Project is to provide a simplified avenue for faculty members to add their scholarly work to our institutional repository, thus making it more accessible to a broader audience. Our project highlights effective strategies for collaborative communication across campus units, along with the use of practical project management tools to track project status. In addition, the Scholarly Publishing Unit provides training and support for managing the increasing demand for scholarly research by utilizing student employees, as well as faculty research assistants. This further supports our institution's goal of providing more experiential learning opportunities.

Alternative Text Guidelines For Authors, Emily Hills

The Piedmont Publishing Symposium

No abstract provided.

Accessibility In Digital Publications, Ana Bichanich, Emily Hills, Corey Parson, Michelle Wallen

The Piedmont Publishing Symposium

Presented at the 2026 Piedmont Publishing Symposium.

May 20-21, 2026

Wofford University

Accessible Publishing Assistant Position Description, Emily Hills

The Piedmont Publishing Symposium

No abstract provided.

Medical Journals As Complex Adaptive System (Cas) Reports: Reframing Journals As Structured Detection, Interpretation, And Feedback Systems In Healthcare, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background Healthcare operates as a complex adaptive system (CAS) characterized by distributed agents, nonlinear interactions, and emergent behavior. Effective adaptation depends on mechanisms capable of detecting and redistributing signals from across the system.

Objective To conceptualize the medical journal as a structured CAS report and to examine its role in supporting system awareness among clinicians.

Conceptual Model Recurring journal sections—including original research, reviews, editorials, clinical cases, perspectives, humanities, and letters—function as distinct sensing and signaling channels. Together, they provide a multi-dimensional representation of system activity.

Implications Journals serve not only as repositories of knowledge but as adaptive communication nodes that …

Sharing Research Posters With The World: Clinical Education Posters Can Demonstrate Global Diffusion And Conceptual Portability--Evidence From Readership Maps, James Espinosa, Alan Lucerna

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Background

Traditional academic metrics emphasize citation counts and journal impact factors as measures of scholarly influence. These metrics often overlook the early and informal diffusion of ideas across global clinical communities. Educational posters and case-based teaching materials frequently circulate through digital repositories, yet little attention has been paid to how readership analytics may illuminate patterns of knowledge diffusion across healthcare systems.

Objective

To explore the concept of conceptual portability and to introduce readership mapping as a framework for understanding how clinical ideas travel across diverse global contexts.

Methods

We examined readership analytics from an institutional digital repository hosting clinical posters …

Research "Junkification" Is Caused By Researchers, Not Journals, Simon Sebastian Groome, Jose C. Yong, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Concerns about declining research quality have increasingly been framed as “junkification,” whereby academic output expands in volume while declining in epistemic value. A recent paper by Rhodes and Linnenluecke (2025) attributes this trend to changes in publishing, arguing that research quality erodes as journals and publishers become increasingly oriented toward output quantity and metrics, driven by monetization. In 2009, Nobel Laureate James Watson remarked that scientific publishing in the mid-twentieth century was both easier and of a higher standard than today (Web of Stories, 2017). If publishing is much easier of late, as Rhodes and Linnenelucke (R&L) argued, then how …

Writing As A Process Of Inquiry In Autoethnography For Meaning-Making: Reflections And Some Points For Consideration, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

This article explores writing as a process of inquiry and meaning-making in the autoethnographic tradition, offering reflections on the recursive, emergent, and dialogical/dialectical nature of writing, along with some points for consideration. Drawing on perspectives from qualitative research and narrative inquiry (Riessman, 2008), I argue that autoethnographic writing serves as a method of inquiry and/or discovery, generating ontological, epistemological, and axiological-driven cultural meaning that functions as a site of reflection, interrogation, and re-storying of lived experiences. This recursive, often messy, and reflexive act allows researchers to excavate, analyze, and interpret their lived experiences. Rather than viewing writing as a final-stage …

Reforming Academic Publishing To Support The Sustainable Development Goals: A Call For Leadership, Seán Lacey

Publications

Paywalls and high article processing charges in academic publishing restrict access to scientific knowledge, limiting who can produce, use, and benefit from research. These barriers disproportionately affect researchers and institutions in low- and middle-income countries, reinforcing global inequalities in research capacity and evidence-informed policymaking. Addressing these challenges requires determined system leadership to reform funding models, expand equitable open access pathways, and ensure publicly funded research is freely available. Without coordinated action, the promise of inclusive, globally shared scientific progress central to the Sustainable Development Goals will remain unrealised.

The Impact Of State And Federal Policies On Academic Researchers: Findings From A National Survey, Dylan Ruediger, Chelsea Mccracken, Jonathan Barefield

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Key findings

● State and federal policies targeting divisive concepts or DEI are shaping research agendas at scale and across disciplines. Twenty percent of all respondents, and 29 percent of researchers working in states with divisive concepts or similar laws, reported having avoided certain research topics because of state laws and policies.

● Eight percent of respondents representing a wide range of disciplines reported having had a federal grant cancelled in 2025.

● Eleven percent of respondents reported that federal and state policies restricting research activities are compelling them to seek employment out of state, to leave the academy, or …

Book Review: Social Justice Design And Implementation In Library And Information Science Edited By Bharat Mehra, Ellie F. Kawada

School of Information Student Research Journal

Social Justice Design and Implementation in Library and Information Science, edited by Bharat Mehra, is an engaging volume that explores the pursuit of social justice in its many forms in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The included chapters cover case studies of social justice implementation in library services, theoretical frameworks for subversive methods of research and education, and the future of library advocacy for social justice. While the volume is centered on English-speaking countries and lacks the perspective of paraprofessional library staff, the themes and examples presented in the book are invaluable to any LIS students, professionals, …

Decolonizing The Academic Library: Examining The Successful Indigenization Of Ubc And Unm’S Library Services, Emily T. Villars

School of Information Student Research Journal

This article examines decolonization and indigenization initiatives at two academic libraries: the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of New Mexico (UNM). It asks how these institutions have implemented indigenization in their libraries and what lessons can inform broader reconciliation work across North America. Through a comparative lens, it analyzes how national and organizational frameworks, such as the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA-FCAB) Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations and the American Indian Library Association’s (AILA) organizational goals, can shape these efforts. The study highlights three core strategies: decolonizing access and classification, transforming library spaces, and expanding …