Monthly Archives: November 2015

Reduced Article Processing Charges

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Due to the various institutional subscriptions we have with academic publishers, several off-setting deals are now available to OU researchers who wish to publish Gold Open Access.

Springer

springerOU researchers publishing in Springer can get articles published Gold at no extra charge. To be eligible you need to be:

  • Publishing in a Springer Open Choice journal i.e. a Springer hybrid journal AND
  • The corresponding author AND
  • Affiliated to the OU AND
  • Publishing either an Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication or Continuing Education (Springer terminology)

Sage

Sage currently offer a discounted APC of £200 to all Open University researchers publishing in SAGE Choice journals as the corresponding author.

SAGE

The reduced rate is a result of the OU’s current subscription to the SAGE Premier Collection.

To access the discounted rate corresponding authors should enter Nesli2015 in the University/Institution Account Code field enter £200 in the Discounts/special journal pricing may apply field and Nesli in the Promo Code field on completion of forms at point of acceptance.

Taylor & Francis

t&F

Taylor and Francis currently offer a discounted APC rate of £450 + VAT for OU researchers publishing in a T&F Open Select (hybrid Open Access) journals.  A full list of eligible journals can be found here: T&F eligible Open Select journals.

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

RSC have a voucher system – if you are publishing with RSC please contact library-research-support@open.ac.uk and we will issue you with a voucher.

rsc-logo

Completing a very simple online form with this voucher & the Digital Object Identifier (doi) or Manuscript Number will get your article published Gold Open Access with no additional costs.

 

 

Policy Presspolicy press

Policy Press offer a 20% discount on APCs for OU authors as the OU currently subscribes to their online content. This reduces the price of an APC with Policy Press from £1,500 to £1,200.

 

Please note that Library Services can only pay APCs for articles that are the result of a RCUK funded project. For more information see the Open Access intranet site.

Any queries please contact: library-research-support@open.ac.uk

Training opportunity: Getting to grips with Open Access Publishing

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Getting to Grips with Open Access Publishingopen access

8th December 2015 from 2.00 – 3:30 pm
Seminar Rooms 1&2, 2nd Floor, Library
 

Increasingly, researchers are expected to publish their outputs by open access to satisfy the requirements of the research funders in the UK and abroad. This session will introduce participants to the benefits of open access publishing, and to UK and international funder policies for open access. The session will also address the new HEFCE policy on open access for the post-2014 REF.

This session is open to all.

Booking required in advance, please email library-training@open.ac.uk places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Update: 

Thanks to everyone who attended the presentation.

Presentation slides area available here: Getting to Grips with Open Access Publishing 2015-12 v2

Session notes are available here: Getting to Grips with Open Access Publishing_Notes_2015-12

October top downloads from ORO, referrals and social media

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Top 15 Downloads for October are below – some are regulars but some new ones tell a story!

OctoberTop15

During Open Access week I was asked which social media channels drive traffic to ORO the most.  I rather dismissively said that the majority of traffic comes directly from Google and that because traffic from social media was relatively small it was barely worth the analysis.  And I think generally that is true, looking at October 64,760 ORO hits were directed from Google with 480 from Facebook and 208 from Twitter – so on the face of it it’s not a bad assumption.

top10referrers

However, when I looked a bit more closely at the top 15 there are illuminating exceptions.

Tony Coughlan and Leigh-Anne Perryman’s paper Are student-led Facebook groups open educational practices? received 312 downloads in October.  This traffic is almost entirely driven by Facebook – which maybe isn’t a surprise given the content of the paper! 

facebook

facebookpost

 

92% of all traffic came from Facebook and only 1% from Google which is a staggering reversal of the general referral pattern.  Indeed this one ORO item had 215 referrals from Facebook which accounts for 45% of all traffic coming from Facebook in October!

Tony created a post about the paper back in August – but something happened in Facebook sometime in October which led to the tremendous spike in downloads in October – unfortunately I haven’t been able to trace what that was….

 

Secondly, Inge de Waard’s MOOC factors influencing teachers in formal education received 301 downloads in October.  The breakdown of referrals is a bit more orthodox.

MOOC factors

scoopit

 

Google is the biggest referrer, but what is interesting is the traffic driven from scoop.it. The paper was scooped and re-scooped by several different users of the service.

The other interesting thing about this one was that the majority of downloads (118) came from the US compared to 9 from the UK – which is another reversal from the general trend – 21,989 from the UK in October compared to 11,829 from the US. But the journal is Mexican and there is also a Spanish version of the paper in ORO so the paper may especially be relevant to an American audience.

In total this item had 23 referrals from scoop.it in October, ORO in total had just 25 referrals.  So this item alone accounts for 92% of all referrals from scoop.it.

 

So what does this mean, if anything?

  • General patterns of ORO traffic hide very interesting individual cases.
  • Patterns of traffic (e.g. geo-location or social media channels) may well reflect the content of the research output.
  • In individual cases using social media to promote research outputs makes an enormous difference to the dissemination of a research output.

 

October Top 15 PDF: OctoberTop15

Getting to grips with RDM

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This morning I ran a workshop on Research Data Management for research staff and students. As usual, the topic generated lots of interesting discussion, and it was a great opportunity for researchers to talk through their data management issues with colleagues. As promised,  I’ve uploaded the slides here.

If you missed the workshop this time, don’t worry – we’ll be running the session again on 12th May. Keep an eye out for emails from the Research Career Development team in the new year for details.

Keep your eyes on the Horizon (2020)

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horizon2020imageThis week I met with 2 research teams who are embarking on projects within the EU’s Horizon 2020 funding stream to talk about research data management and sharing. A novelty for Horizon 2020 is the introduction of a research data pilot, which is compulsory in a number of research areas, although other projects are invited (and encouraged) to opt-in.

Research areas affected are:

  • Future and Emerging Technologies
  • Research infrastructures
  • Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Information and Communication Technologies
  • Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology: ‘nanosafety’ and ‘modelling’ topics
  • Societal Challenge: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy – selected topics as specified in the work programme
  • Societal Challenge: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw materials – except raw materials
  • Societal Challenge: Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies
  • Science with and for Society
  • Cross-cutting activities – focus areas – part Smart and Sustainable Cities

One of the key deliverables for projects involved in the pilot is a data management plan (DMP) within the first 6 months. This plan describes the datasets to be produced; which standards and metadata will be employed; how and when data will be shared; and plans for the long-term preservation of data. More elaborated versions of the DMP can be delivered at later stages of the project, and at a minimum at the mid-term and final review.

dmponlineOne of the main issues concerning the development of DMPs and the management of data for the project teams I have been working with, is the international, multi-institutional nature of the projects. Different institutions will be collecting, managing and storing different datasets, so it is important that the DMP is a collaborative effort between all those responsible for doing so. Using DMPOnline, a tool designed by the DCC to write and share the plan will enable collaborative editing of the plan, with the ability to assign different permission levels to different users as appropriate. To find out more about data management plans and using DMPOnline visit the Data Management Planning page on the RDM intranet site (internal link only).

If you’re starting a Horizon 2020 project and would like advice and support for writing a data management plan, please email library-research-support@open.ac.uk

Training opportunity: Getting to Grips with Research Data Management

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Early Bird Seminar: Getting to Grips with Research Data Management
Tuesday 10th November 2015: 9.30-11.00
Library Seminar Rooms 1 and 2 
 
data word clood

 Whether you’re conducting interviews, collecting samples, creating software or analyzing texts, your research data is a valuable asset which should be managed properly and made publicly available alongside your other research outputs wherever possible.

This session will give an introduction to the basics of research data management: what it is, why it’s important and ways that you can embed research data management into your everyday working practice.

Booking required in advance, please email library-training@open.ac.uk  Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.