Scholarly Communications Training: Professional Development for the Next Generation of Scholars

Abstract

Many campuses are seeing increased needs for support in scholarly communications areas such as open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and related topics. This article discusses a professional development program that addresses scholarly communications needs for online and in-person graduate students and faculty at UNC Greensboro (UNCG), through a collaborative, interdepartmental effort that brings together librarians from the departments of Research, Outreach, and Instruction (ROI) and Technical Services. The authors provide a brief overview of the literature related to scholarly communications needs and training in academic libraries and discuss the UNCG program's inception, modules, format, assessment, and future directions.

Diversifying the Publishing Academy: Increasing Access to Scholarly Publishing Education for Graduate Students

“…The modules created were open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and scholarly communications basics (Craft & Harlow, 2020). Similar to Knievel's observation of the high use of the online tutorial, Craft and Harlow (2020) highlight the positive response to their workshop, continued requests for scholarly communication training, and the library's intention to grow the program.…”

“…Knievel (2008) notes that the tutorial "has so far been popular locally, nationally and internationally and serves as a clear indication of the importance and need for instruction in this area" (p. 185). Craft & Harlow (2020) describe the creation of a professional development program focused on scholarly communications needs of graduate students at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). Based on an increasing number of questions about publishing, copyright, and predatory journals, the UNCG librarians JLSC developed a series of scholarly communications workshops offered both in person and online (Craft & Harlow, 2020).…”

“…Craft & Harlow (2020) describe the creation of a professional development program focused on scholarly communications needs of graduate students at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). Based on an increasing number of questions about publishing, copyright, and predatory journals, the UNCG librarians JLSC developed a series of scholarly communications workshops offered both in person and online (Craft & Harlow, 2020). The modules created were open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and scholarly communications basics (Craft & Harlow, 2020).…”

“…Based on an increasing number of questions about publishing, copyright, and predatory journals, the UNCG librarians JLSC developed a series of scholarly communications workshops offered both in person and online (Craft & Harlow, 2020). The modules created were open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and scholarly communications basics (Craft & Harlow, 2020). Similar to Knievel's observation of the high use of the online tutorial, Craft and Harlow (2020) highlight the positive response to their workshop, continued requests for scholarly communication training, and the library's intention to grow the program.…”

Scholarly Communication Competencies: An Analysis of Confidence among Australasia Library Staff

“…There have been some initiatives to address this challenge. For example, Craft and Harlow 36 have documented a scholarly communication training program implemented at University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) Libraries that not only delivers information to the research community, including graduate students, but also improves the understanding of scholarly communication among library staff. UNCG has adopted a modular approach, which covers four main topics: open access, research identity management, scholarship metrics, and scholarly communication basics.…”