Monthly Archives: December 2014

Request for copy from ORO

ORO has the functionality for a user to request a copy of a paper if we cannot make it publicly downloadable.  When a paper is deposited in ORO that is subject to an embargo we add the email address of the OU author and then the paper can be requested via email.

Counts for this functionality are inevitably lower than downloads of fully Open Access papers.  For the last University year there were 1,927 requests for copy compared to 818,067 downloads (according to IRUS counts). However, if someone goes to the trouble of emailing a request for copy you can be pretty confident they are going to read the paper.

Moreover, we can get some useful data from these requests.  Requesters are asked to give us some information about themselves and why they are requesting the paper.  This makes for some interesting reading!  I’ve collated some data below:

ORO Yearly Update 2013-2014 Request a copy

  • Of all student usage 37% are OU students – that’s a lot more than I expected given my assumption that ORO is a service used indiscriminately by people searching Google.
  • 55% of usage is from researchers – this confirms to me that researchers are encountering paywalls to research that they want to read – despite the fact that they belong to institutions with access to subscribed content.

And the reasons why people request papers can melt your heart…

I want to study

I am educating myself at home because i cannot afford to pay for a university education either in time or money due to my status

… and reminds me why i love this job!

We plough the fields and scatter…

…the data on the land.

No, this isn’t a disappointing re-mix of your favourite childhood hymn, rather a new report entitled “The Data Harvest” which the European Research Data Alliance (RDA) has published this month. It’s an aspirational paper, which talks about the possibility of a global, virtual, science library which breaks down barriers and allows the sharing and re-use of data.

If you’d like to read the full version, it’s available at: https://www.rd-alliance.org/data-harvest-report-sharing-data-knowledge-jobs-and-growth.html

All good gifts around us…

The report  begins rather poetically by describing the huge global increase in data with “data spilling from telescopes, gene sequencers and environmental monitors” and the “torrent from such diverse disciplines as sociology, economics and linguistics” and goes on to explain that as the quantity of data expands, the nature of science changes and…

“…problems that were previously not even recognised suddenly become tractable. Researchers who never met, at different institutions and in divergent fields, find themselves working on related topics. Work that previously plodded along from one experiment or hypothesis to another can accelerate”

And all the catalyst for this change? The ability to share this data. According to the RDA, this new wave of data will affect all members of society, from researchers to citizens, from public services to private businesses. New developments will create jobs, revenues and economic growth. While there is a cost involved in the short term, there is compelling evidence that economic return is significant.

The vision of the RDA is for a virtual digital library spanning the globe and disciplines, where data is stored, managed, annotated and curated. They describe this library as a…

“…technology that can turn the  entire globe into one vast network of thinking, sharing, competing, collaborating and generally ‘doing’ together.“

A tall order, and the report acknowledges this, stating that this global infrastructure would require a shift in:

  • “The way science works and scientists think
  • How scientific institutions operate and interact
  • How scientists are trained and employed
  • The way data networks operate, data tools function, and the basic vocabulary of scientific data is parsed
  • The way we handle problems of data privacy, security, ownership and ethics
  • The international order for funding, coordination and regulation of scientific data”

Of course, such a huge shift in scientific practice is going to take time, and to start on the path to global research collaboration the RDA concludes this report with 7 key Dos and Don’ts for policy makers to stimulate work on data:

1. “Do require a data plan, and show it is being implemented.

2. Do promote data literacy across society, from researcher to citizen.

3. Do develop incentives and grants for data sharing, and use Horizon2020 also for this.

4. Do develop tools and policies to build trust and data-sharing.

5. Do support international collaboration.

6. Don’t regulate what we don’t yet understand.

7. Don’t stop what has begun well – continue to support the effort, expense and brainpower that will make the harvest abundant for all to enjoy.”

The RDA certainly proposes an ambitious vision for the future, but as the report points out, science has moved incredibly swiftly in the past half a century, so perhaps this ambition is realistic. After all, we have already begun to “sow the seeds” with the government’s push for open data, the policies of the publicly funded research councils, and now the EU’s research data policy for Horizon 2020.

pyoOn a personal note, as someone actively engaged in promoting the benefits of data sharing, I found this an inspirational read – seeing such an ideal vision for the future makes the hard work of changing attitudes to data sharing feel much more worthwhile and achievable.

The RDA’s vision for the future will be a sweet fruit to harvest when it finally ripens.

Open Access Again

Yesterday, Nicola and I facilitated an Open Access Publishing seminar here in the Library at Milton Keynes.  We’ve done these for a few years now but I think this one was the most successful.  I’m going to bullet point some things that stuck with me.

  • The enormous difference between Article Processing Charges (APCs) in pure Open Access journals and hybrid Open Access journals i.e. from £0 to £3K.
  • The link between publishing in prestige journals and career progression for researchers.
  • The potential of bargaining with publishers to get an equitable deal when publishing Gold.
  • The issue of predatory Open Access publishers.
  • Things differ between disciplines!!!
  • Should pure Open Access journals utilize APCs for a sustainable business model?
  • The potential difficulties of archiving Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) at point of acceptance. (e.g. do co-authors have access to these versions and how do repository staff identify these versions?)
  • Using Social Networking sites to archive research papers.
  • The implications of archiving Author Accepted Manuscripts at point of acceptance (e.g. harvesting of AAM metadata from repositories by Google Scholar).
  • Using Open Access materials (and materials from library subscriptions) in Open University Modules.

There were lots of other really important points raised and as ever I worried that we confused some issues rather than clarify them.  But then that’s part of it really, it can be confusing!

Optical Illusion by Aaron Fulkerson https://www.flickr.com/photos/roebot/1461507866

Optical Illusion by Aaron Fulkerson (https://www.flickr.com/photos/roebot/1461507866)

What we need to try and do is identify the key points about Open Access publishing and get them across clearly, without forgetting that Open Access can be complex.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

Chris

Slides are here: Open Access Publishing Slides

Notes (with links to contacts) are here: Open Access Publishing Notes