Key Perspectives was set up in 1996 to provide high quality market research and consultancy services to the scholarly information industry. Since then the company has worked on a wide variety of projects for many different organisations, building up an unrivalled view of the scholarly communications arena. Our particular strength is our broad and deep understanding of the research community in relation to scholarly communication.

We offer a professional and highly efficient service with client satisfaction our company's main objective.

In addition to our market research and strategic services, Key Perspectives has acknowledged expertise in the fields of open access and emerging markets. A wealth of related information can be accessed from this website.

If you think Key Perspectives could be of service to you, please feel free to contact either of Key Perspectives' directors.

Alma Swan's weblog, OptimalScholarship, can be found here.

An interview by the journalist Richard Poynder with Alma Swan about Open Access was published on 10th January 2008 and may be accessed here.

2008 Open Access Calendar
Free to download now

A 2008 Open Access calendar, created by Alma Swan, is now available on this website. Alma says "I hope you like it and that it will help to inspire you during the next year." We invite you to print and staple it together for your own use. Please feel free to download the pdf version here.

African scholarship and OA
Triennial meeting of the SARUA in Botswana

The leaders of universities in the Southern African Region gathered in Gaborone, Bostwana, on 20th November for the triennial meeting of the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) together with a two-day conference on Open Access. SARUA has a membership of more than 50 universities across the southern half of Africa.

The meeting was a busyone, both in terms of a packed programme and much discussion in the corridors. There was huge interest in Open Access from the vice chancellors, understandably since African scholarship suffers so obviously from the imbalances of the communication system to date. They see that Open Access will change things and help to level the playing field. Alma Swan was invited to make a presentation about Open Access and her slides can be found here. The meeting is discussed in more detail in Alma's blog.

Photo: Addressing the audience at SARUA's conference

The business of digital repositories
In A DRIVER'S Guide to European Repositories (2007)

A new book to be published by Amsterdam University Press, edited by Weenink, K., Waaijers, L. and van Godtsenhoven, K., is designed to help research-based institutions in Europe and those intending to participate in the forthcoming EU FP7 programme. A DRIVER's Guide to European Repositories addresses all the practical aspects of planning, establishing and operating research repositories and associated services. Alma Swan of Key Perspectives has contributed a chapter covering topics to do with the business aspects of digital repositories - such as making a business case, costs, staffing requirements, managing growth and change and other sustainability issues. A number of repository case studies across Europe were used to derive data to inform the study. You are welcome to download a copy of her contribution here. The book was published at the end of 2007.

The increasing importance of data
NEW STUDY on the publication and quality assurance of research data outputs

The volume of data output from scholarly research is growing rapidly. This brings to the fore a whole range of issues about how data is created, used, assessed and maintained. A new study, funded jointly by RIN, NERC and JISC will investigate the following areas: (i) the role that data outputs currently play alongside or as an alternative to conventional publications in the reseach communication process; (ii) the nature and range of arrangements for making research data as widely available as possible; (iii) current practice for ensuring the quality of data. The study will be guided by some of the foremost scholarly data experts in the UK and will be completed early in 2008. Key Perspectives is delighted to have been selected to work on such a timely and important project.

Exploring scholarly communications
NEW STUDY addressing key concerns within the scholarly communications process

In 2007 a study undertaken by JISC identified and ranked the issues that most concern scolars in the UK. Key Perspectives has been awarded the task of investigating scholars' top four concerns in more detail. The project will delve into concerns to do with accessibility, quality assurance, costs and copyright and consider them within the overall context of the current scholarly communciations landscape. The project will conclude by April 2008.

Open Access and the Progress of Science
ARTICLE published by American Scientist. Download your copy here

For many years Key Perspectives has been contributing to the debate about the evolution of scholarly communication. Recently Alma Swan was invited to write about Open Access for American Scientist. We invite you to download the article from our Open Access Archive by clicking here.

Validating Repository Content
A new project designed to highlight differences between article versions gets under way

The VALREC (Validating Repository Content) project got under way in May. This exciting and timely project aims to develop software tools to discover and certificate the differences between versions of a document in digital repositories and the final published pdf. This will be an important step forward in the evolution of respositories, providing users with an effective and reliable means of validating the articles they download.

The system of validation will perform three essential tasks: first, it will verify the basic facts of publication against the publication claims made in the repository metadata; second, it will identify any differences between the repository version of an article and the publisher's pdf; third, it will provide an authoritative digital certificate that attests to the publication of the postprint and any differences in content. This project is funded by JISC and will be conducted by Key Perspectives in partnership with the School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton, UK. The project is scheduled to take 18 months to complete.

There is an overview of the VALREC project on Alma's blog, and further information about the project, together with periodic updates, can be found on the project website.

EMBED
Embedding the institutional repository function within researchers' normal workflow routines

The EMBED project is investigating and testing a prototype service model for the accelerated development of institutional repositories. The idea is to design and cost an "optimised" service which embeds the institutional repository function within researchers' normal workflow routines.

The study has already ascertained what academic staff and researchers require from the service and will go on to assess the service implications for libraries in terms of human and technical resources. At the same time a prototype service will be developed to determine what is required to provide such a service . The project will report on the gaps between the prototype and optimised services, and will make recommendations on what libraries can do to ensure the rocess of populating and using institutional repositories is as closely aligned to researchers' normal ways of working as possible.

The project is being conducted by a team which includes Cranfield University, Robert Gordon University and Key Perspectives. Funding for the project is being provided by JISC.

How researchers use libraries
REPORT on researchers' use of academic libraries and their services

This is an important moment in the relationship between researchers and research libraries in the UK. The foundations of the relationship are being tested by shifts in the ways that researchers work. The rise of 3-research, interdisciplinary work, cross-institution collaborations and the expectation of massive increases in the quantity of research output in digital form all pose new challenges. These challenges are about how libraries should serve the needs of researchers as users of information sources of many different kinds, but also about how to deal with the information outputs that researchers are creating.

The study, conducted by Key Perspectives, was designed to provide an up-to-date and forward-looking view of how researchers interact with academic libraries in the UK. The final report synthesises empirical data provided by more than 2250 researchers and 300 librarians and qualitative inputs from an extensive programme of focus groups and telephone interviews. The co-sponsors - RIN and CURL - believe that the results will be useful in informing the debate about the future development of academic libraries and the services they provide to researchers.

You may download a free copy of the final report by clicking here.