The HSLS Scholarly Communication and Research Impact Librarian provides support, consultations, and customized training to faculty, students, and staff in the health sciences on scholarly publishing and dissemination, and research impact and metrics. Responsibilities include providing direction on communication of research impact, responsible use of metrics, strategic dissemination of research outputs, and open access publishing and policy compliance.
This position reports to the Assistant Director for Data and Publishing Services and is a member of the library's Data and Publishing Services team, a division of Research, Instruction and Clinical Information Services. This position also works closely with HSLS' liaison librarians to the schools of the health sciences.
This appointment-stream faculty position offers a rewarding opportunity to contribute to an innovative library environment at a leading research institution. Pitt provides an outstanding benefits package, including comprehensive medical plans, tuition remission, life insurance, optional dental and vision coverage, a contributory retirement plan, and more-making it one of the best in the region.
Specific responsibilities include:
1. Research Impact and Metrics Support
• Provide education and advisory services to support measurement and communication of research impact, while promoting responsible use of metrics, including Altmetrics.
• Prepare school-level publication/impact reports as requested.
• Provide training and direction to researchers undertaking bibliometric analyses or creating network visualizations.
2. Open/Public Access Support
• Answer researchers' questions regarding open/public access, including those specific to publisher agreements and compliance with policies.
• Member of the HSLS Open Access (OA) Steering Committee, which provides strategic direction and coordination for HSLS decisions regarding support of open access publishing in the schools of the health sciences.
• Combine, clean, and analyze data from various publishers to help assess and communicate the impact/success of the library's OA support
3. Scholarly Publishing Support
• Provide consultations and education to students, faculty, and staff on topics such as journal selection and evaluation, responsible use of AI in scholarly publishing, open access, author rights, ORCiD, fair use, SciENcv, and publishing open educational resources
• Lead the health sciences support and educational training sessions for the University's Faculty Information System, Scholars@Pitt (Sympletic Elements).
• Promote open science and data initiatives and programs as part of the Data and Publishing Services team
4. Keep current on new developments in open access, research impact and metrics, and other areas of scholarly communication to assess new opportunities
5. Monitor and assess emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to identify opportunities to improve work efficiency and/or enhance scholarly communication and research impact and support services.
6. Assist in assessment efforts to determine success, impact, and future development/growth needed for Data and Publishing Services
7. Contribute to the development and evaluation of web-delivered courses and instructional materials
8. Collaborate with HSLS liaison librarians to identify and develop services relevant to researchers needs
9. Provide core reference services, including mediated database searching, identifying appropriate knowledge-based resources, search strategy development, and citation management assistance.
10. Create and maintain partnerships across the health sciences schools as well as partners on campus outside of the health sciences, including colleagues at the University Library System (ULS) to implement and advance new scholarly communication technologies and services
11. Serve on appropriate internal and external committees and participate in relevant regional and national library and health sciences professional organizations and associations
12. Advance professional skills via relevant continuing education.
13. Engage in scholarship and research activities; cultivate partnerships and collaborate with library and University personnel on projects including grants, papers, poster presentations, or other creative undertakings. Share expertise and results of research with other information professionals and members of the academic community via publication in refereed journals, poster sessions, and/or presentations at professional meetings
Required qualifications
• Master's degree from an ALA-accredited institution or an equivalent combination of relevant Master's degree and research support experience
• Minimum 2 years of experience in an academic library, or equivalent.
• Strong background in bibliometrics, citation analysis, and research impact assessment.
• Advanced skills in Excel and/or coding experience for tasks such as data cleaning and analysis
• Experience producing and compiling research impact metric reports for individual researchers, departments, and schools.
• Familiarity with scholarly communication practices, open/public access, copyright issues, and responsible use of AI in scholarly publishing.
• Demonstrated experience searching library databases such as PubMed and Web of Science
• Demonstrated experience providing instruction or delivering presentations
• Experience working collaboratively and independently with varied groups
• Demonstrated ability to respond effectively to changing needs and priorities, showing initiative and flexibility
• Demonstrated ability to plan, prioritize, coordinate, and implement projects and bring them to a conclusion in a timely fashion
• Proven commitment to excellent customer serviceand continuous learning
• Effective interpersonal, analytical, and communication skills, both oral and written, including the ability to actively listen, understand, and articulate user needs
• Evidence of skills needed to foster new connections and build relationships
• Commitment to including individuals of diverse backgrounds, experiences, races, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientation, and perspectives in research, teaching, and service
Preferred qualifications
• Experience in using APIs such as those from OpenAlex, Web of Science, Sympletic Elements, ORCiD, or Altmetric Explorer to read and/or push data
• Health sciences or research background
• Familiarity and experience with adult learning theory and instruction with adult learners
Work Environment
• This position is for a full-time faculty, appointment-stream librarian.
• Appointment will be at the rank of Librarian I, II or III, commensurate with the candidate's qualifications and experience. Salary range: $60,000-$87,000
• HSLS librarians are represented by the faculty union (United Steelworkers).
• The University offers a generous leave policy, including 20 days of paid vacation and 4 personal days in addition to sick time and holidays, including a winter break.
• HSLS offers flexible work arrangements, which include the option to work up to 15 hours remote/week.
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