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.
ORDO Upload Competition – Open Access Week 2020
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FREE Documentary Screening – OA Week
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!
Developing a good online researcher presence, why and how?
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
COVID-19 Data Dive: Exploring the social and economic impacts of the pandemic
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.
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.
- Which topic(s) would you like to examine with the data? Please provide 2-3 sentences about your area of interest.
- 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
Covid-19 Impact on SCONUL Access
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.
Adding your ORCiD to ORDO
Did you know that as well as linking ORO to ORCiD you can also link your ORCiD with your ORDO profile? This will add all your datasets in ORDO (and anywhere else that uses a DataCite DOI) to ORCiD.
This is really quick and easy to do, simply follow these steps:
- In your profile page in ORDO (pictured), click the CONNECT button to enable syncing with your ORCiD
- This will take you to ORCiD. Log in and click to authorise ORDO/Figshare to access your ORCiD account
You now need to authorise DataCite on your ORCiD account:
- Log in to ORCiD
- Go to your ORCiD Record tab
- Scroll down to works at the bottom of the page
- Hover on the +Add Works tab
- This will open a dropdown menu
- Click on the first item on the menu, Search and Link
- This will open a panel called Link Works. Find DataCite in the list.
- Click on DataCite and on the following page click to authorise
To check the authorisation has worked successfully head back to ORCiD and to your Account Settings tab. DataCite should now be listed as a Trusted organisation.
If you’re having problems setting this up or would like more information about using ORDO or ORCiD, please get in touch.
New training programme!
Here in the Library Research Support team we’ve been busy planning our training sessions for the next few months and we’re sure there’s going to be something that tickles your fancy!
We’ve got some new sessions planned, including an inroduction to copyright for Postgraduate Research Students and some more in depth sessions on Research Data Management, including the intriguingly named Declutter your Data!
All of our training for the remainder of 2020 will be delivered online through our Adobe Connect room so you can access all these sessions wherever you are in the world! Details of how to access the room are included on the My Learning Centre pages linked to below.
Library Research Support training September-December 2020
- Writing successful data management plans: 10/09/20, 11.30-12.00
- Literature searching for PGRs training series (series): starts 28/09/20, 14.00-14.30
- Copyright: Using third-party content in your thesis: 01/10/20, 13.30-14.00
- Introduction to ORDO – the OU’s research data repository: 08/10/20, 11.30-12.00
- Declutter your data – hints and tips for managing your research data: 22/10/20, 11.30-12.00
- SAGE research methods database introduction: 02/11/20, 14.00-14.30
- Working with personal and sensitive research data: 12/11/20, 11.30-12.00
- Open Research Online (ORO): an introductory session: 03/12/20, 10.30-11.30
- Data sharing: how, what and why?: 10/12/20, 11.30-12.00
- Getting to grips with open access publishing: 15/12/20, 10.30-12.00
Research Groups in ORO
Publications in ORO can be tagged with a Research Group – this enables the publications of any research group to be searched for, grouped, and listed on a single webpage in ORO.
Adding a Research Group to a new record
Once a Research Group has been added to ORO it will appear in a drop down list in the deposit workflow in ORO.
If you deposit a publication and know it should be associated with Research Group select that Research Group when creating the record in ORO.
Adding a Research Group to an existing record
If a publication is already ‘live’ in ORO a Research Group can be added by the depositor or an OU co-author by clicking the Submit Changes (Authors/Depositor only) link on the top right of a publication record. This will allow you to edit the live record and a Research Group can be added.
Changes to multiple records (e.g. when a Research Group is first created in ORO or the publications of an author) can be arranged by contacting library-research-support@open.ac.uk
Can I automatically add a Research Group to all publications (new and old) by an author?
No, the way Research Groups are designed in ORO has changed so this cannot occur. Previously Research Groups were associated with an author so all publications by an author were automatically tagged with the associated Research Group. This did not work (especially for inter-disciplinary Research Groups) as the publications record of a single author frequently did not sit neatly within the subject domain of a single Research Group.
The functionality was re-designed so Research Groups must be actively selected for each publication. Whilst this means Research Groups cannot be added automatically to any publication, it does allow any Research Group to be added to any publication regardless of author.
Can I add more than one Research Group to a publication?
Yes, a publication can be associated to more than one Research Group. To do this select the required Research Groups by holding the Ctrl button whilst clicking on multiple Research Groups (PC User).
Using publications tagged with a Research Group to feed another web page
Publications tagged with a Research Group in ORO can dynamically feed another web page e.g. a page on the Research Group website.
One option is to use the “Embed as feed” link from the right-hand menu and follow the instructions.
Note: These use RSS feeds and are therefore restricted to displaying outputs in reverse order of addition to ORO.
How does ORO define a Research Group?
It doesn’t – Research Groups are self-defining. A Research Group can be created in ORO on request, no threshold of what a Research Group constitutes needs to be met before it can be created in ORO. Similarly, ORO does not attempt to hold a definitive list of Research Groups at the OU.
Keeping up-to-date with BrowZine!
If you haven’t heard of BrowZine yet you need to check this out!
BrowZine is a website designed to allow you to browse scholarly journals from different publishers all in one place! What more could you want?
This is the home page which offers you the option to either search in the search bar or choose a subject from the list.
Once you’ve selected the journals by category or subject, the titles are displayed by journal rank or A-Z. Then it is simply one click to search the entire journal for relevant articles which you can read directly through the database. In the image below you will notice the journals are listed in alphabetical order and in the top left-hand corner you can go back to change the subject you are searching under. It really is that simple!
Another amazing feature of BrowZine is that it is extremely tablet and mobile device friendly so it is perfect for browsing on the go. This means you can read complete scholarly journals in a format that is specifically optimised for mobile or tablet devices.
To access BrowZine follow this link. This will ensure you are accessing the database via our OU proxy URL. Alternatively, you can head to our library website and click ‘database collections’ underneath the search bar. You will find BrowZine listed under ‘B’ and from there the link will take you to the database.
On your marks, get set…write!
To help writers stuck in a rut under lock-down, Prolifiko are currently offering free places on their 7 day writing sprint club – a structured programme that helps you supercharge a piece of writing over a week.
Whether you’re stuck in the middle of a writing project or just starting out, their 7-Day Writing Sprint will give you structure, focus and accountability to need to finish. Sign up quickly as places are likely to go fast!
Who are Prolifiko?
Prolifiko are a husband and wife team of professional writing coaches who together have over 30 years’ experience of supporting writers to, well, write. They coach writers from diverse backgrounds, from poets to academics, and offer writing courses, bootcamps and webinars designed to re-ignite a passion for writing and boost productivity.