Open Infrastructure Research Articles

Infra Finder: a New Tool to Enhance Transparency, Discoverability and Trust in Open Infrastructure

Infra Finder: a New Tool to Enhance Transparency, Discoverability and Trust in Open Infrastructure

One Year of Mandatory Reusable Packaging in Germany: Opportunities and Obstacles from the Perspective of Consumers and Companies

Since the beginning of 2023, the so-called reusable packaging obligation has been in place in Germany in order to reduce the amount of waste from takeaway packaging. Catering companies will then be obliged to offer reusable packaging as an alternative to disposable plastic takeaway packaging. As part of the pilot project ‘Mehrweg Modell Stadt’ (‘Reusable city model’), an open infrastructure for reusable cups is in trial in Mainz and Wiesbaden. The project was subjected to a scientific monitoring process, which included the implementation of quantitative surveys among various stakeholders within the value chain, namely consumers, catering companies, and other companies engaged in the project. This was conducted over two time periods: August 2023 to September 2023, and February to March 2024. The results show a discrepancy between consumers’ attitudes and their actual behavior: Despite a high level of sustainability awareness and perceived positive benefits of reusable packaging, perceived barriers stand in the way of actual use. The biggest challenges for companies are the lack of consumer demand, practical handling and hygiene requirements. The results of this quantitative social research provide important insights for the development of targeted measures to promote the use of reusable packaging in takeaway catering and contribute to the discussion on closing the attitude–behavior gap along the entire value chain.

A growing network of open infrastructures and federated services with Thoth

A growing network of open infrastructures and federated services with Thoth

IOI and Infra Finder

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) is a non-profit initiative specialising in undertaking research on infrastructure tailor-made for open science and in discussing their findings with stakeholders to increase the investment in, and adoption of, open infrastructure. With a team of eight based in Europe, the USA and Africa, IOI also supports the adoption of open infrastructure through research-based funding pilots such as the IOI Fund. Its most recent tool is a collaboratively developed, openly available database designed to help institutions identify and evaluate open infrastructure solutions. This database, the Infra Finder, at the time of its launch contains structured information on 57 infrastructure providers that can be compared in a side-by-side view.
 First published online: April 23, 2024.

KÜLTÜREL TURIZMIN DOKUSUNU ORTAYA ÇIKARMAK: İSTANBUL'DA TURISTLER VE DENEYIMLER, MEMNUNIYET VE ETKILEŞIM ARASINDAKI BAĞLANTIYI İNCELEMEK

This study introduces a novel approach to cultural tourism in Istanbul by quantifying satisfaction and engagement as measurable values. The complex dynamics of cultural tourism in Istanbul is examined, with a specific focus on the interplay between tourist experiences, satisfaction levels, and the extent of engagement with the city’s cultural offerings. Employing a quantitative research design, the investigation surveys tourists in Istanbul and employs rigorous statistical analyses to derive meaningful findings. Drawing insights from a sample of 230 respondents, the research presents the findings based on different aspects of cultural tourism, including tourist experiences, satisfaction, and engagement. Departing from traditional qualitative assessments, our research employs regression analyses to systematically explore the relationships between tourist experiences and these quantifiable dimensions. This innovative model offers a structured perspective on the impact of tourist experiences, providing unique insights into the intricate dynamics that shape cultural tourism in Istanbul. This methodological novelty advances the empirical understanding of cultural tourism and establishes a robust foundation for future research endeavors. The character of Istanbul as a cultural tourist destination is intricately shaped by the nuanced interactions between tourists and the city’s tourism infrastructure. These interactions, characterized by a symbiotic relationship, meet travelers’ expectations, and frequently surpass them, laying the foundation for a heightened sense of happiness. Satisfaction, a pivotal component of cultural tourism, is intricately linked to the authenticity of experiences. Istanbul’s open infrastructure and unwavering commitment to preserving cultural heritage contribute significantly to the happiness and satisfaction of its visitors. Moreover, the dynamic facet of cultural tourism, termed engagement, transforms visitors into active participants in the cultural narrative. Engaged visitors seek deeper connections, fostering an upward spiral of satisfaction and positive experiences. The implications of these findings presented in the results obtained carry substantial weight for stakeholders in Istanbul’s cultural tourism landscape, offering valuable insights that can inform strategic decisions and contribute to the sustainable development of cultural tourism in the city. Keywords: cultural tourism, tourist satisfaction, Istanbul.

Summary Report APE 2023, 10--12 January, Berlin, Germany Berlin Re-Visited: Building Technological Support for Scholarship and Scientific Publishing

This paper summarizes the 18th Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) Conference: Berlin Re-Visited: Building Technological Support for Scholarship and Scientific Publishing, held as a hybrid event 10 and 11 January 2023, and organized by the Berlin Institute of Scholarly Publishing (BISP), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing publishers, researchers, funders, and policymakers together. This year’s conference theme “Out with the old, in with the new!” was discussed and presented in keynote speeches, the APE lecture, and several panel discussions. Current challenges within scholarly publishing, e.g., with research integrity, trust, and research assessment, have much to do with the old ways of doing things. To move science forward, new technologies and innovations, like the decentralized web, FAIR digital objects, and blockchain technology are needed to shape new paradigms. In many sessions it was stressed that not just new technologies are needed to move science forward, but human collaboration and partnerships as well. The changing role of the journal and the importance to recognize more diverse research outputs, beyond the journal article, was a topic of importance. Not only research assessment reforms and improved collaboration amongst different stakeholder groups are needed to address this, new publishing systems, better metadata, and open infrastructures as well. A session presenting different start-ups showcased how Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and software technology can be used to tackle problems in e.g., finding relevant funders and peer reviewers, and detecting image plagiarism. It was also discussed what publishers can do to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Collaboration, data transparency and sharing best practices amongst researchers, funders, and policy makers are key. Another important topic during this year’s APE was how publishers can support Early Career Researchers: establishing new workflows and infrastructures that enable publication of a wider range of research outputs, and broader recognition of these outputs, will incentivize ECRs. This year’s APE was concluded with the APE Award Ceremony. The winner - Vsevolod Solovyov from Prophy - has used AI to enhance the current peer review system and made a very important contribution to improving the scholarly communication system.

Moving from piecemeal to systematic: Reprioritizing how academic libraries approach research information management

This paper is based on a lightening talk given at the 2023 NISO Plus conference. The authors explore how research information management (RIM) workflows at universities are increasingly intersecting with library workflows, particularly regarding compliance with federal funding and preservation of the institution’s scholarly record. This paper outlines one academic library’s plan to shift from thinking about library-supported RIM services as a piecemeal approach to a more systematic approach that prioritizes open infrastructure. Though in its early stages of implementation, the authors seek to examine current RIM systems and services at their institution, expand on the current findings of U.S. activities brought forth in reports produced by OCLC and Lyrasis, and to identify local opportunities for library-supported RIM tools/services that are open and transparent. Specifically, this paper emphasizes the implementation and adoption of persistent identifiers, such as ORCID, but discussion will also cover other RIM systems and services.

Thoth Archiving Network

Watch VIDEO. Small and scholar-led presses make up much of the “long tail” of publishers without an active preservation policy in place, putting their significant contributions to the scholarly record at risk. As a recent study dissecting the archiving and preservation status of Open Access books suggests, there is “reason for concern for the long tail of OA books distributed at thousands of different web domains as these include volatile cloud storage or sometimes no longer contained the files at all” (Laakso, 2023). And while large-scale publishers have existing agreements with digital preservation archives, such as CLOCKSS and Portico, small presses often languish without financial or institutional support, alongside challenges in technical expertise and staff resources (cf. Barnes et al. 2022). There are similar concerns over the long tail of open access journal publishers and projects like Project JASPER are working on preservation options for OA journals with no current preservation in place. The Thoth Archiving Network, a recently-launched community initiative developed under the remit of the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project, seeks to address this gap and help small and scholar-led book publishers with finding ways to preserve their publications for generations to come. The Thoth Archiving Network would not solve every issue, but it will be an initial step towards essential community infrastructure, allowing for presses to use a push-button deposit option to archive their publications in multiple repository locations. This will create an opportunity to safeguard against the complete loss of their catalogue should they cease to operate. With this presentation, we would like to provide an overview of the first steps taken so far to establish the Network, with a proof-of-concept now in place that provides a simple dissemination workflow for small publishers to archive their monographs in a network of participating institutional repositories (Internet Archive, Figshare/Loughborough, and, soon, DSpace/Cambridge). Several universities have already expressed their interest, and the team working on the Thoth Archiving Network would like to extend an invitation for more university repositories to take part, particularly from outside the UK. The Thoth Archiving Network receives funding from the Research England Development Fund and Arcadia under the Open Book Futures project grant, which has been awarded to significantly expand and accelerate uptake of the open infrastructures developed in COPIM.

The role of global open data infrastructure in a changing policy, technology, and research environment

Watch VIDEO. The proliferation of open data sharing policies (such as the wide-reaching NIH policy and Nelson Memo in the United States) reflect a growing push for greater collaboration, transparency, and accountability in scientific research. They assert that the open sharing of data underpinning research is essential to achieving the benefits of open science, that researchers and the general public have a right to access that data, and that the value of shared data lies in its (re)usability. As the scientific community rallies to meet these new requirements, research data infrastructures like Dryad, an open data publishing platform and community, face myriad opportunities and challenges. In this talk, the presenters will summarize the impact that new policies, evolving researcher and institutional needs, coordinated support for open infrastructure, and other changes in the landscape are having on the Open Data movement and those that support it; provide insight into Dryad’s experience addressing challenges like increasing file size and complexity, and simplifying data deposition workflows; explore the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging new technologies such as machine learning, automation, and distributed data storage; outline the ongoing relevance of non-specialist data infrastructures in the rapidly evolving research landscape, and how their role will have to change through collaboration and partnerships.

AI for All?

Research in artificial intelligence (AI) is heavily shaped by big tech today. In the US context, companies such as Google and Microsoft profit from a tremendous position of power due to their control over cloud computing, large data sets and AI talent. In light of this dominance, many media researchers and activists demand open infrastructures and community-led approaches to provide alternative perspectives – however, it is exactly this discourse that companies are appropriating for their expansion strategies. In recent years, big tech has taken up the narrative of democratizing AI by open-sourcing their machine learning (ML) tools, simplifying and automating the application of AI and offering free educational ML resources. The question that remains is how an alternative approach to ML infrastructures – and to the development of ML systems – can still be possible. What are the implications of big tech’s strive for infrastructural expansion under the umbrella of ‘democratization’? And what would a true democratization of ML entail? I will trace these two questions by critically examining, first, the open-source discourse advanced by big tech, as well as, second, the discourse around the AI open-source community Hugging Face that sees AI ethics and democratization at the heart of their endeavour. Lastly, I will show how ML algorithms need to be considered beyond their instrumental notion. It is thus not enough to simply hand over the technology to the community – we need to think about how we can conceptualize a radically different approach to the creation of ML systems.

Insights into Delivering a Robust and Comprehensive Names Classification for a Living Atlas Using Diverse Taxonomic Sources

The Atlas of Living Australia*1 (ALA) is a collaborative, digital, open infrastructure that pulls together Australian biodiversity data from multiple sources, making it accessible and reusable. The ALA helps to create a detailed picture of Australia’s biodiversity for scientists, policy makers, environmental planners and land managers, industry, and the public. It does this by aggregating data that records occurrences of species within Australia's diverse environments. To enable the most effective use of occurrence data, records need to be placed consistently in a replicable and systematically generated taxonomic hierarchy. At the core of the ALA's taxonomic hierarchy are the Australian national species lists*2 (NSLs) for animals, vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, lichens, and algae. There is an ever-present lag between newly published species and their addition to NSLs, making it challenging to validate the names of these species when they are received in data. The ALA nevertheless needs to be able to represent these species. Because the ALA is presenting data for research, it also needs to be able to handle informal names, including unpublished names and spelling errors. The ALA needs to reflect the challenges to Australia's biodiversity, including highlighting threatened and sensitive species, as well as noting threats from potential biosecurity species. Newly identified sensitive and threatened species often appear on various government conservation lists before they are added to NSLs. By their nature, potential (but not current) invasive and vagrant species do not appear on NSLs, nor do foreign species that may be held in Australian collections. Even after 10 years of operation, all these issues still challenge automated systems such as the ALA because of scale and complexity. Considering these challenges, the ALA has been re-evaluating how it constructs its taxonomic hierarchy. We will discuss how the ALA is using NSLs and other resources to develop a fit-for-purpose taxonomic hierarchy, and how that process incorporates data quality control, data assurance, and source transparency.

Open Standards, Open Infrastructures, and Author Inclusion: Transitioning to Open eBook Usage Data

Open Standards, Open Infrastructures, and Author Inclusion: Transitioning to Open eBook Usage Data

Systematic Literature Review of Open Infrastructure BIM

Representation and modeling using the building information modeling (BIM) methodology of civil works have become the subject of increasing attention in recent years, thanks to the potential offered by Open Infrastructure BIM (I-BIM). However, the complexity of infrastructure works, i.e., the variety of construction and technological systems, makes Open I-BIM very complex and challenging. The lack of systemic knowledge on the subject is another challenging factor. The aim of the following research work is to provide a synoptic overview of the existing scientific research, accompanied by the most recent studies in the field of computer modeling, its applications, and the main opportunities that Open I-BIM offers to the infrastructure sector. After a thorough review of 198 scientific articles published between 2013 and 2023, this study systematically presents a holistic review and critical reflection on the current status of the use of Open BIM in the infrastructure sector, with a focus on the development of the tools and methods used. The outcome of this work constitutes a systematic review of the literature with a bibliometric analysis on Open I-BIM, which is able to provide a knowledge base for identifying research trends, common problems, and the potential of developed methods.

Crystal search - feasibility study of a real-time deep learning process for crystallization well images.

To avoid the time-consuming and often monotonous task of manual inspection of crystallization plates, a Python-based program to automatically detect crystals in crystallization wells employing deep learning techniques was developed. The program uses manually scored crystallization trials deposited in a database of an in-house crystallization robot as a training set. Since the success rate of such a system is able to catch up with manual inspection by trained persons, it will become an important tool for crystallographers working on biological samples. Four network architectures were compared and the SqueezeNet architecture performed best. In detecting crystals AlexNet accomplished a better result, but with a lower threshold the mean value for crystal detection was improved for SqueezeNet. Two assumptions were made about the imaging rate. With these two extremes it was found that an image processing rate of at least two times, but up to 58 times in the worst case, would be needed to reach the maximum imaging rate according to the deep learning network architecture employed for real-time classification. To avoid high workloads for the control computer of the CrystalMation system, the computing is distributed over several workstations, participating voluntarily, by the grid programming system from the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). The outcome of the program is redistributed into the database as automatic real-time scores (ARTscore). These are immediately visible as colored frames around each crystallization well image of the inspection program. In addition, regions of droplets with the highest scoring probability found by the system are also available as images.

The Application of Open Science Potentials in Research Processes: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Abstract The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive literature review of the dimensions of open science in research processes. A total of four databases and snowball searching were used for the comprehensive literature review during 2011–2020; then, we were able to find 98 studies based on the inclusion criteria. Also, we used thematic method to review the relevant studies and identified three categories of dimensions in the research process, namely (1) the publication and sharing category including open access, open data, transparency and reproducibility, citizen science, and crowd sourcing; (2) the infrastructure and cultural category including open infrastructure, open education, open tools, budget mechanism, open culture, and communication; and (3) governance and evaluation including policies, governance, and the ethical principles associated with open science. Open science emphasizes the efforts to open and make the scientific research process more inclusive so as to engage the inside and outside actors in the research process.

Paying forward to future generations: how infrastructure can do more

Abstract When infrastructure is done well, it forms the fabric beneath us that enables individuals, businesses and communities to experience more prosperous and inclusive living for current and future generations. In this brief commentary paper, I offer arguments and case examples from my recent book BIG FIXES: Building Bridges to an Inclusive Future. Unfortunately, as an infrastructure practitioner for over 30 years, I have observed a global shift among policymakers to exaggerate the benefits of investing in infrastructure without accountability and a framework for governance to assure positive long-term outcomes. In essence, infrastructure has fallen victim to short-termism. The central thesis of my book for readers and future contributors of Oxford Open Infrastructure and Health (OOIH) aligns well with the journal’s mission for infrastructure and health scholarship that fosters ‘Big Connections’. My argument is as follows. Is your vision of infrastructure about physical assets like roads, bridges, tunnels, power lines, water pipes, schools and hospitals? If so, then it is too narrow. There is an urgent need for policymakers, investors and scholars to widen their perspective to consider infrastructure as a gift that current generations pay forward to future generations. The infrastructure decisions of our forebearers act like ripples on a lake, radiating out in time and space. These ripples can amplify benefits into the future, like favorable tailwinds. But equally, where short-sightedness has taken root in the past, the consequences of earlier infrastructure decisions (or none at all) can saddle future generations with the burden of headwinds—slowing, dragging upon efforts to improve. When a society invests in infrastructure, they express hope and optimism for the future. However, that aspiration implies a big bundle of expectations, including health and economic well-being and sustaining and building trust between people and the institutions created to serve them. Moreover, as environmental and social issues grow in importance, society has less room to be complacent with nonresponsive infrastructure blocking adaptation and innovation to support new growth. These are examples of the lens to view ‘Big Connections’ referred to by OOIH.

Building Open Infrastructure for Research and Publishing

Building Open Infrastructure for Research and Publishing

Reimagining the future of transport and forever open road program

Transportation has a very wide effects either economic or social on human life. Millions of people are also working directly or indirectly for this industry. So, it is a mandatory for governments to evaluate their aspects on transportation construction, management, control and maintenance by increasing mobility. Also new technological developments and researches caused some changes in the expectations at many fields by new design and management approaches. The European Commission have supported some researches within Horizon 2020 program for new innovations to develop a highly efficient and effective cross modal transportation. In this paper recent developments at FOX (Forever Open Infrastructure Across all Transport Modes) program seeks to develop general methods for all transport modes and FOR (Forever Open Roads) program have reviewed. There are also benefits of FOR program that developed by Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) have mentioned and the outcome elements as automated, autonomous and resilient roads of the program have described.

The development logic and future mission of open science

<p indent="0mm">Open science has become a trend in the international academic community, which will set off a new technological revolution. However, what is open science? Why is open science needed? How to achieve open science? At present, there are still some differences in the cognition of open science related issues. It is necessary to sort out the development logic of open science from a higher position, more systematic and holistic perspective, analyze its scientific connotation, and deconstruct its missions and tasks. After more than <sc>20 years</sc> of evolution, open science has formed a unique logical system and scientific category. (1) From the perspective of appearance logic, science has a natural public attribute, and the sharing of scientific achievements, the voice of public participation in science, the improvement of scientific research efficiency and the response to global common challenges all require a more open scientific ecology. (2) From the perspective of theoretical logic, scholars’ definition of open science has changed from narrow and abstract to broad and concrete, and the boundary between open objects and open areas has been continuously extended. However, the research on the theoretical and practical route of open mode is still in the exploratory stage. (3) From the perspective of value logic, the value of open science to the development of science and technology and social progress continues to expand, including the discovery and dissemination of truth through openness and sharing, and the promotion of a virtuous circle of scientific research. (4) From the perspective of practical logic, leading from Europe, a series of open science reform initiatives have been launched around the world, mainly including open science policies, open infrastructures, and open science evaluation. Based on the logical examination, open science will promote earth-shaking changes in knowledge sharing mechanism, scientific organization paradigm, scientific resource allocation mode and scientific evaluation system, and it undertakes particularly important missions and tasks. First of all, it is not easy to realize the missions of open science. It faces many challenges due to the inherent development paradigm of science, conflicts among multi-stakeholders, data security, intellectual property rights and ethics. Moreover, the transition to open science is a multi-level and multi-stage systematic project. It is necessary to establish a decision support system, build an open science culture, and realize the opening of scientific resources and the whole process of science from three aspects: System guarantee, concept opening and scientific opening. In addition, the achievement of open science goals and tasks requires the joint efforts of multiple stakeholders, including scientific communities, funding agencies, academic institutions, publishing institutions, libraries, and the public. In terms of organization, open science practice includes open sharing practice and open innovation practice, whose development and optimization need to be empowered by emerging technologies. By analyzing the problems and challenges in the development of open science in China, combined with the national conditions to make recommendations, China should: (1) Promote the construction of new scientific evaluation and incentive mechanism guided by top-level design; (2) construct multiparty collaborative open science organization system driven by scientific needs; (3) strengthen platform construction, empower open science organization paradigm with emerging technologies; (4) take global governance as the mission and promote the construction of a new pattern of open science national cooperation.

Supporting Open Infrastructure through commercial partnerships

Watch the VIDEO. One of the key issues with open infrastructure within the scholarly communications and open science spaces is finding solutions for long-term sustainability. One important approach to this is ensuring that these infrastructures are also adopted and supported by the commercial sector, as in the case of key platforms we take for granted today, such as Linux. This can lead to significant benefits both for the scholarly community in terms of dependability and lower cost, and to companies in terms of lower risk, shared costs, and broadening impact on society. This presentation will present the approach taken by Ubiquity, a for-profit publishing services and open science platform, to base all of its products on open infrastructure. By deploying and contributing both financially and through open source code to infrastructure such as Open Journal Systems, Samvera repositories and OPERAS Metrics, Ubiquity is able to both strengthen these platforms for the wider community and to benefit significantly from their use. A cost-benefit analysis based on the Ubiquity example will be included to make the case for investment in open infrastructure by commercial companies. This will be further balanced by a discussion of ways to establish trust between the scholarly community and commercial providers, and the kind of guarantees these providers need to make based on our experience.