Candidate Statements

 Research Example 1

My authorship of an OER (open education resource) textbook and two articles models the integration, in [Disciplinary] education, of the [National Disciplinary Learning Standards]. The textbook and the two articles fuse my teaching and research. Over several semesters, a [University / Unit Name] collaborator and I revised a required [Type of] course [(Name of Course)], to integrate [National Disciplinary Learning Standards] instruction. For that course and for courses at other universities that accept it as a model, we wrote an open textbook, [Title of OER]. My [Journal Title] article [(Reference to Item Location in Dossier)] describes an assessment we developed for this course, which we use to document student learning and identify instructional revision needs. My [Journal Title]  article [(Reference to Item Location in Dossier)] documents the full course revision process we followed, including the design and implementation of learning supports (i.e., [National Disciplinary Learning Standard], open textbook, series of assignments), and how we used qualitative and quantitative assessment data to fine-tune the course and, consequently, the textbook. Within the Promotion & Tenure Standards and Procedures of [Name of School], textbooks generally count as minor publications that we consider within teaching achievements. That is a logical classification, but, as my annual faculty evaluations from the journalism school’s dean have noted, my textbook is an indispensable element of my research. I’m pleased to note that it has had more than [Number] unique visitors since [Year] when we began tracking its analytics.

Research Example 2

Focus of the program

My [Bolick] program of research reflects my professional responsibilities pertaining to open education and open access such that my professional performance drives my research agenda and my research informs my professional performance. Empowerment, ownership, and access are therefore motivating principles here as above. My open education research turns the prominent position of libraries as centers of open education advocacy back towards library professionalization by examining cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices among Library and Information Science (LIS) professors and students. My open access research is both activist and practical in nature; it asks that scholars and practitioners consider ownership and access in their approaches to research, publication, and professional practices.

Major Accomplishments and Significance of Contributions

Despite arriving at KU without a significant research presence, I have rapidly established a program of research, as evidenced below. In early 2017, with colleagues at North Carolina State University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, I collaborated on the development of a successful proposal for the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant (LG-72-17-0132-17) to design a book-length open introduction to scholarly communication librarianship, a rapidly growing core librarian competency that impacts every facet of academic library work but is under-taught in Library and Information Science (LIS) terminal degree programs. The $48,808 awarded in this grant funded surveys and workshops to engage directly with two primary stakeholder groups: LIS graduate program faculty and scholarly communication practitioners. These activities demonstrate the extent to which the resource is needed, informed its design and components, and established partnerships and promotional activities that will accelerate its creation and implementation. In April 2020, the first article reporting on this research, “Finding Our Way: A Snapshot of Scholarly Communication Practitioners’ Duties & Training” was published in the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. In late 2018, a proposal for the book, titled Scholarly Communication Librarianship and Open Knowledge, was accepted by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) New Publications Advisory Board. In addition to co-authoring the first of three units of the book, I am a co-lead editor of the whole, which encompasses four section editors and over 50 contributing authors. Additionally, I am the lead author, with my IMLS co-principal investigators, of an invited article, “Community-Led Teaching and Learning: Designing an Open Educational Resource for Scholarly Communication and Legal Issues” in the September 2017 issue of Against the Grain, a journal/newsletter for librarians, publishers, and vendors. Building on the 2017 IMLS grant, in 2019 we were awarded a second, larger grant by IMLS (LG-36-19-0021-19), for $247,128 over three years to develop and populate a companion site to the book, which we are calling the Scholarly Communication Notebook (SCN, in development). My role in our collaboration is central; the core idea is mine, I brought on the significantly more senior collaborators, lead our weekly meetings, and take a primary role in the development of research instruments, communication, related articles and eleven related presentations to date.

My open access research is represented in “How open access is crucial to the future of science,” which appeared in January 2017 in the Journal of Wildlife Management. As the first author on this coauthored paper, I took lead on manuscript authorship, managed changes resulting from peer review, and responded to reviewer and editor questions. Prominent scholarly communication peers point to this article as a successful model for challenging misinformation about open access in the scholarly literature. Additionally, in 2017 I presented a poster titled, “Exploiting Elsevier’s Creative Commons License Requirement to Subvert Embargo,” at the Kraemer Copyright Conference in Colorado Springs, CO. This poster innovatively reconsiders Elsevier’s Article Sharing Policy, by turning one negative aspect of the policy, a restrictive reuse license, against another negative aspect: long embargo periods of up to 48 months. By careful adherence to the policy in a way not previously discussed in scholarly communication communities, nor intended by Elsevier, embargo-free copies of Elsevier-published articles may be immediately deposited and made available through institutional repositories. This is a win for authors, readers, and open advocates. Hosted in KU ScholarWorks, the poster has been viewed over 2300 times, downloaded almost 900 times, and cited 8 times. An article further exploring its application, “Leveraging Elsevier’s Creative Commons License Requirement to Undermine Embargoes” was published in the Journal of Copyright in Education and Librarianship in 2018. In early 2020 an editor informed me that it is the most popular article in the journal’s history, by far, with over 11,000 views and over 5,000 downloads. It has been translated into French and read aloud in a legal scholarship podcast (Amicus Lectio). I was also interviewed about it at length in two additional podcasts (Ipse Dixit and Copyright Chat), as well as for Research Professional, a European research newsletter. Finally, I delivered the keynote address at the 2016 Kansas Library Association College & University Library Section Conference (cohosted with the Nebraska Library Association College & University Library Section) and in Fall 2019, a virtual keynote at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Open Access Week observations.

Teaching Example

Key teaching practices: Relevance, reinforcement, and assessment. Students’ engagement in their learning depends to a large degree on whether they see the relevance of course content to their educational goals and career aspirations. I aim to frame everything I teach such that all students perceive this relevance regardless of the concentration they pursue in the [Discipline / Department / School] (i.e., [Undergraduate Program Tract / Major] vs [Undergraduate Program Tract / Major], or career objectives. This inclusive approach to teaching [Discipline] and [Disciplinary] skills is reflected in the open textbook I co-authored, [Title of OER]. The book uses [Disciplinary Learning Concept] as its central concept, linking [Disciplinary Learning Skill] and [Disciplinary Learning Skill] to students’ motivation to practice these skills in the class, and in their academic and professional work.

Example

The core of my professional philosophy is empowerment: supporting researchers, students, and instructors to make informed and ethical decisions regarding the use of intellectual property and to understand and assert their rights and opportunities as creators. Additionally, the concepts of ownership and access are central to research and learning communities’ self-determination. These ideas: empowerment, ownership, and access, find expression in the two primary areas of my work: support for open access, and for open education.

Goals and Practices

My primary open access goal is that KU scholars are empowered and assertive in exercising their rights as creators of new knowledge to share their work widely and beyond paywall structures, through KU ScholarWorks, subject repositories, academic social media, personal websites, or any combination thereof. The primary vehicle for actualizing this goal is an active program of presentations and consultations on the fundamentals of copyright and fair use, academic publishing, publication contract norms and negotiation, models for achieving open access, and increasing the visibility and impact of scholarship. In these interactions I construct a data-supported argument that copyright is the foundation of author rights; author rights are best expressed through open access; and open access is the ideal platform for achieving maximum visibility and impact. Constituents realize their place in the research life cycle as both creators and consumers of information, and access considerations are important in both of these roles.

Empowerment, ownership, and access are also critical to my open education work. Even as the Web enabled greater access to information, textbook prices increased at a rate far-surpassing inflation, tuition, and even medical and housing costs in recent decades. As a result, many students suffer academically, financially, emotionally, and in some cases, physically. For example, students not acquiring textbooks due to cost, avoiding particular courses and majors, taking fewer courses, longer time to graduation, increased student hunger and homelessness, and shaming by professors have all been documented. First-generation, minority, and other economically vulnerable students are disproportionately impacted by high-cost texts. At the same time, “all rights reserved” copyrighted materials constrain the fullest possible academic freedom and are a barrier to some innovative pedagogic methods. Open education addresses both of these issues: cost and pedagogy, for students and instructors, who are empowered through rights to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute openly licensed material. This increases access to learning materials and ownership of pedagogical methods in novel and powerful ways to improve student success.

Professional Accomplishments and Significance of Accomplishments

In applying my philosophy and pursuing the goals and practices that support it, I have accomplished several advances in support for open access and open education at KU, a summary of which is articulated below. I significantly expanded the number of workshops (over 100) and consultations (over 300) of the Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright since my start date in August 2015, injecting new energy and perspective into an established program of advocacy and outreach, in innovative ways and into new departments. Instructor and student participants in presentations and consultations have routinely praised them as deeply beneficial. Additionally, I developed a number of institutional guides and resources, and contributed to the collaborative revision and maintenance of others, addressing copyright, open access, and open education issues. I led planning efforts for events and speakers including Open Access Week and the Libraries’ first celebrations of Fair Use Week and Open Education Week.

My leadership and advocacy for open education at KU has led to my own, KU Libraries’, and KU’s national visibility as leaders and innovators in open education. Since arriving at KU, I have significantly grown the Open Education program in several ways. As above, there is a vibrant outreach effort that has included 30 presentations and more than 150 consultations on open education issues since mid-2015. A Spring 2017 Open Education Week event that I planned and supported advanced the Libraries’ Open Education Initiative, solidifying a collaborative relationship with the Center for Teaching Excellence and establishing an ongoing collaboration with the KU Bookstore to address textbook affordability together. These collaborations have since expanded and continue to bear fruit, such as with invited presentations and committee participation. I led efforts to host local Open Education Network (OEN, an international, non-profit, open education advocacy member organization) workshops in Spring 2016 that were so well-attended that OEN uses them as an example to other members of successful recruiting. I manage KU’s Open Educational Resources (OER) Grant Initiative which has funded twenty three projects to date, committing over $90,000 to an effort that will save students an estimated $950,000 per academic year. I developed a successful application for KU’s acceptance into the OpenStax Institutional Partnership Program, a highly-selective community of peers who collaborate to develop and implement an institution-specific OER strategic plan. I co-developed the Textbook Heroes initiative, a nationally visible effort to acknowledge textbook affordability work at KU. My advocacy for open education on KU’s behalf has led to coverage of our initiatives in The University Daily Kansan, The Wichita Eagle, the Kansas City Star, and Inside Higher Ed. In Fall 2019, I had the opportunity to implement practices aligned with open education as a co-instructor of record of a section of UNIV101 Orientation Seminar, an Office of First Year Experience program.

Example

In the profession, I have a prominent role in the Open Education Network (OEN, formerly Open Textbook Network) as a Presenter, visiting member institutions to consult with students, faculty, staff, and administrations on the use of open textbooks and growth of their open education programs. Starting in early 2017, I have since visited ten universities to deliver a workshop, “Supporting Open Textbook Adoptions,” on behalf of OEN. In 2016, I was invited to serve on the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) International Open Access Week Planning Committee where I contributed to the selection of the theme that was ultimately adopted, “Open in Action.” I have provided peer review services to the Journal of Librarianship & Scholarly Communication, whose scope is important to my work, as well as for a forthcoming special open education issue of Library Trends and two books, Marking Open & Affordable Courses: Best Practices and Case Studies in 2019 and Getting the Word Out: Academic Libraries as Publishers in 2015. In Summer 2020, I co-presented in the Open Education Network’s Summit, an annual convening, on KU Libraries’ Textbook Heroes Initiative.