We’re delighted to announce another event for Open Access Week!

Join Dr Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, Research Impact and Knowledge Exchange Senior Manager, RES for an online seminar: “Responsible Metrics, DORA, Open Access and Academic Career Development” on Thursday, 22nd October 2020, 13:00 – 14:00

In 2019 the OU Research Board agreed that the OU would become a signatory to DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) and is set to sign up no later than January 2021.

DORA stipulates that career advancement, recruitment, retention and development opportunities must not use Journal Impact Factors as a means of allocating such opportunities. Alongside public reports such as The Metric Tide and other initiatives such as the Leiden Manifesto, DORA signals a move within the sector to make processes of research assessment more equitable to ensure the Higher Education sector remains inclusive and diverse.

This presentation will take a closer look at DORA, its implications alongside other initiatives and explain why it matters to not just individual and institutional research aims and goals but ultimately also impacts on the creation of new knowledge about the world we live in.

Anyone affected by research assessment exercises, who supports academic career development or wishes to develop a career in research themselves is encouraged to attend, including students and professional staff. DORA has specific implications for STEM researchers, but with the increase in open access and digital scholarship in the arts, humanities and social sciences researchers from those fields may wish to attend as well.

Book via Eventbrite

With Open Access (OA) week coming up we thought we would share some events, resources videos and blogs hosted by Open Book Publishing (OBP) that you may be interested in:

EVENTS

Q&A with Open Book Publishers – a drop-in session to give you the chance to share any questions about any aspect  of Open Access publishing.

When: 19th October at 5pm (BST)

How: Via Zoom – https://zoom.us/j/310447634?pwd=NjhGa2FOcTNFUlZhTVYxTUxxUWIzQT09

Open Book Publishers in conversation with the Open Access Books Network – join Laura Rodriguez of OBP in a conversation with Lucy Barnes, Agata Morka and Tom Mosterd about the Open Access Books Network.

When: 21st October at 3:30 P.M. (BST)

How: Via Zoom – https://zoom.us/j/310447634?pwd=NjhGa2FOcTNFUlZhTVYxTUxxUWIzQT09

RESOURCES:

New Open Access Starter Pack – This pack will contain:

• Information for libraries, authors and researchers.
• Videos.
• A suite of tweets for Open Access Week that are for you to select from and to tweet from your social media accounts if you wish. You can already access this file here.
• Other media products that you can access here.

This Open Access Starter Pack will be available here on Monday, 19th October.

VIDEOS AND BLOGS:

New Blog Posts: this Open Access Week OBP will be sharing new and interesting blog posts written by some of their authors where they will discuss the topics of equity, inclusivity and open access publishing. Keep an eye on their blog at https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/ to find out more.

New Videos: OBP will be releasing a series of informational videos focused on Open Access publishing. They will also be sharing interviews with some of their authors who will discuss the topic of their research in-depth. Keep an eye on their YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/openbookpublishers.

If you have any questions about OBP or to keep up-to-date with their events and releases check out their Twitter account here. For any questions about OA publishing at the OU contact the Library Research Support Team.

Upload your data to ORDO this Open Access Week (19-26 October) to be in with a chance to win a £100 Amazon voucher! Contact us for more information.

As part of Open Access Week 2020 we are hosting a livestream of Paywall: The Business of Scholarship documentary which will be followed by time for discussion. The focal points of the documentary include:

• the need for open access to research and science,
• questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers
• examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier
• looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google.

Everyone is invited! If you fancy joining us on Friday 23rd October 10:30am-12pm for the screening, please register here!

Building a strong online researcher presence can be quite a daunting task so here are some tips to help you take on the challenge.

Firstly it is important to know why it’s important to develop your presence online and there are a few reasons to highlight:

1. Being more visible online helps you to build strong connections with people in your field anywhere in the world. It helps you to stay in touch with what they are working on and can in turn, create future research opportunities.
2.  If your platform is consistent, insightful and professional, your research is more likely to be found, read, discussed and shared with others across the internet.
3. Personal websites such as blogs and social media profiles give us the opportunity to be ourselves online. In today’s climate it is more important than ever that we are being authentic online as it offers others in the field a chance to know who you really are which in turn, can influence others to reach out to you for collaboration.

Now let’s move onto tips to build up your presence:

1. Blogging is a great way to share your thoughts on different topics happening in your area of research without having to be too formal. Keeping a blog up to date and relevant can become challenging but if you enjoy writing and want to publish your ideas much quicker then this is a great option for you.
2. Social Media is an extremely useful tool to get your research interests and work to reach others. Twitter is more of an academic platform whereas Instagram is particularly helpful for early career researchers and PGRs. The community on Instagram is one where people share problems and gain advice to help them through the challenging times of doctoral studies and beyond.
3. Researcher profiles such as ORCID are useful in helping to distinguish your work from that of others who may have the same name. They also provide a persistent link back to your work and require minimal effort to upkeep as they automatically update when you publish new research.
4. Your LinkedIn profile can often be the first item that appears in a web search so ensure you keep the information up to date and engaging. Make sure you add a photograph and share your important conference presentations, publications and any other important work with your connections.
5. Research Gate is a well known academic networking site in which researchers can build their profile with information about their institution, projects and publications. It is a widely used platform and a useful way to connect with people in your field and the wider research community.

Questions? Contact us here or leave a comment to start a discussion!

The UK Data Service is running the following event which may be of interest to some readers of this blog.

COVID-19 Data Dive: Exploring the social and economic impacts of the pandemic

22 – 23 October 2020

Online

The longer term social and economic impacts of COVID-19 are yet to be evidenced but there are already signs of shorter term challenges.

The UK Data Service has organised a free, two-day Data Dive as part of the rapid research response to the pandemic. By bringing together major social, economic and population studies in a single place, we provide an opportunity for researchers, policy and charity experts to collaborate and draw out critical questions about the impacts of the pandemic that will need to be addressed in the future.

The event is jointly organised by the UK Data Service, Understanding Society, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) and the Welfare at a (Social) Distance research project; all UK Research Innovation programmes.

Programme

Participants will work in small teams alongside different experts from other organisations, including data producers, policymakers and charities, and will be able to link with other related datasets, to find new areas of research interest.

The challenge: What do we know and what do we still need to ask about COVID-19 and its social and economic impacts on society?

How can we utilise the data resources to learn and discover themes and ideas for next steps.

During the Data Dive, participants will:

• learn about the UK Data Service collection of COVID-19 data
• utilise and explore the major COVID-19 studies
• gain insights from the data providers and policy experts
• gain practical experience of manipulating data
• examine themes and explore new research questions
• present findings as a team
• examine outcomes and future research opportunities

We’d like to hear from you: Please submit details via the expression of interest form.

Successful applicants will be sent a registration link to book. Once registered, you will receive an email with joining instructions and the Zoom link to attend the event.

1. Which topic(s) would you like to examine with the data? Please provide 2-3 sentences about your area of interest.

2. Which categories best represent your skills?

• data wrangler: you understand how to manage and interpret the data to create graphs and data visualisations
• ideas person: you ask pertinent questions and formulate ideas for next steps
• coder: you are comfortable coding in various languages such as Python and R
• data expert: you understand how to manage data and run and interpret statistical analysis, using R, Python, Stata, or other common data analysis tools
• policy expert: you are an expert in social and/or economic policy and use the data to bring expert voices into the policymaking process
• voluntary sector: you have an invested knowledge base of the subject matter

 More information

 Talk to the experts: During the day there will be a chance to talk to the experts from each of these major studies.

 Target audience: This Data Dive is aimed at researchers, data analysts, policymakers, charities, coders and Service users with special interest in the benefit system, social care, housing policy and the charity sector. Those not working directly with data are welcome; data specialists from the UK Data Service, Understanding Society, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and University of Kent will be on hand to discuss the data.

 Experience/knowledge required: Participants should have basic experience of quantitative analysis using a statistics package OR have an invested knowledge base of the subject matter. If you are not yet UK Data Service users, participants will need to register with the UK Data Service before the start of the event to access the data. This is in addition to registering for the event.

Online location: The Data Dive will take place over Zoom.

For any enquiries please email comms@ukdataservice.ac.uk.

Follow the event on Twitter: #UKDSCovidDataDive

Access to library buildings around the UK continues to be restricted by government social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The SCONUL Access scheme, which ordinarily allows OU students and staff to apply to visit other university libraries near them, has been suspended until further notice. The OU Library building remains closed for all visitors.

The online OU Library is available to provide resources to support you with thousands of ebooks, online scholarly journals and newspapers, archival sources full of treasures to explore as well as image databases and more. Whether you are a lark or a night owl, the Library Help Desk offers live online help through our 24 hour chat service. Need to find an article? Question about what keywords to use in your search? Discovered something Google can’t answer? Let a librarian help! Any time day or night, the OU Library is here for you.

For more information or assistance contact the OU Library Helpdesk.