Professor Jenny Fry

  • Professor of Publishing and Information Science
  • Associate Dean for Teaching
  • Director of People and Culture

I am a professor of publishing and information science at Loughborough University. My research is focused on digital scholarship. I joined Loughborough University in 2007, prior to that I was a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.

On completing my PhD in Information Science in 2003 at the University of Brighton I went to Amsterdam as a postdoctoral research fellow for the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). I was a founding member of NERDI (Networked Research and Digital Information), now the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the humanities and social sciences (a research institute of the KNAW).

I am currently supervising PhD students in the areas of open science and research data management. My teaching focuses on the social shaping of technology and communicating knowledge. I am Deputy Director of Post Graduate Research in the School of the Arts.

My research is focused on digital scholarship, with a particular emphasis on disciplinary research cultures. I have led the Research Communication Group (ReCoG) at Loughborough University since 2009.

Recent research funding where I have been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator:

  • Open-access has radically changed the academic publishing landscape over the last few years, and mega-journals are an increasingly important part of this. This AHRC funded research project is set to find out what effect they are having on academia and beyond. A partnership between the School of the Arts, English and Drama, the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University and the Information School at Sheffield University has secured £450,000 AHRC funding for a two‑year project investigating open‑access mega‑journals. The project started November 2015 and will end November 2017.
  • PEER Behavioural Research: Authors and users vis-à-vis journals and repositories. Aims to investigate the role of publicly available repositories in scholarly communication, with a special focus on researchers' perceptions of repositories, and their attitudes towards using them. Part of the EU funded PEER project, the project started in April 2009 and ended in September 2011. The Final PEER Behavourial Research Report (pdf) can be found online here
  • Identifying benefits arising from the curation and open sharing of research data produced by UK Higher Education and research institutes. Funded by JISC the project ran from June to October 2008. 
  • Publication and Dissemniation Behaviour of Researchers and the Influence of Research Assessment. Funded by RIN, in conjunction with JISC, the project ran from January to August 2009. The Final Report ‘Communicating knowledge: How and why UK researchers publish and disseminate their findings’ is available on the JISC website.

I have taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level across a range of subjects relating to social / cultural aspects of technology. I currently convene the following modules: EAA801 Communicating Knowledge, EAB401 Culture, Society and Technology, and EAC803 Web Culture.

I am currently supervising two students funded by AHRC studentships. Winnie Tam whose research focuses on data practices within Geography and Lesley Chikoree whose research focuses on the academic and societal impact of research.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

  • Member of the Programme Committee, ASIS&T European Workshop, Turku, Finland, June 2013
  • Member of the scientific committee, Digital document and Society Conference. Zagreb, Croatia, April 2013
  • Editorial Board Member Publications
  • Reviews completed for Journal of the American Society for Information Science and TechnologyInformation Processing and ManagementLibrary & Information Science Research, Science and Public Policy, Journal of Information Science, Information Communication and Society
  • Scientific committee member 4th Conference Digital document and Society, Zagreb, Croatia. April 29-30, 2013
  • JISC Steering Group e-Infrastructure: Community Engagement and Support, 2008
  • Research Associate of the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University (2007 - 2010)
  • Workshop Co-Chair for the Third International Conference on e-Social Science. Ann Arbor, Michigan, US. October 7-9, 2007
  • ESRC rapporteur for the E-Society Programme, 2007