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June 2020
Photo of Cambridge river. Photo credit: Maria Angelaki
Welcome to the June edition of the Open Research newsletter
 
Information about plans to expand access to the physical library collections are now available in the Cambridge University Library website. Furthermore, the Open Access and Research Data Management teams continue to work remotely. Please email us at info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk and info@data.cam.ac.uk respectively.
 
We would like your feedback so we continue to produce
relevant content to you.
Despite the challenges 2020 has brought us, the Open Research newsletter has been publishing as normal bringing you news on open research topics in the open access, research data management and scholarly communication landscape. Some sections of the newsletter slightly changed in focus or style, but we hope that the content has been useful nonetheless and that you enjoy reading it.

It is now time to ask your feedback and let us know what you enjoy reading and what else you would like included. We would be really grateful if you can spend one minute completing the survey we prepared.

The University of Cambridge response to the UKRI Open Access Review Consultation

Earlier this year the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) began an Open Access review into what should be the direction of Open Access in the UK. The UKRI Open Access Review Consultation ended on 29 May 2020 and many responses were submitted from various stakeholders, including the University of Cambridge.

Professor Chris Abell (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research) asked Cambridge University Libraries to lead the internal process to gather feedback from Schools, Faculties and Departments to help inform the institutional response to the UKRI Open Access Review. This process took place in coordination with the Research Policy Committee (RPC), Open Research Steering Committee (and its constituent sub-groups, including DORA Working Group), Cambridge University Press (CUP) and the Research Office. The University response to the 2020 UKRI Open Access Consultation was submitted via an online form on 27 May 2020.

Research Excellence Framework 2021: revised deadlines

Key decisions on the revised submission deadline and impact assessment period have been confirmed, following a recent survey gathering views from the higher education sector. The revised deadline for submissions to REF 2021 will be midday, 31 March 2021, whilst the impact assessment period has been universally extended and case studies may therefore describe specific examples of impact achieved in the period 1 August 2013 to 31 December 2020. The staff census date of 31 July 2020 remains unchanged.

Publish Open Access with CUP at no cost

University authors are able to publish their work Open Access (OA), at no cost, in over 300 Cambridge University Press (CUP) journals. Publishing OA means papers are immediately and freely accessible to audiences around the world, leading to more citations and downloads as a result of this broader exposure. 75% of OA articles get more citations than their non-OA equivalents, receiving on average 30-50% more citations. Submitted papers will still go through the individual journal’s rigorous peer review processes, maintaining the high quality research published by CUP. More information can be found on CUP’s book and journal content platform, Cambridge Core.

Publishers announce commitment to make research publishing more inclusive and diverse

Eleven publishers responsible for tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journals and books gathered together in a landmark commitment to reduce bias and commit to working together to better reflect the diversity of their communities. This initiative led by the Royal Society of Chemistry and signed by the American Chemical Society (ACS), BMJ, Cambridge University Press, the Company of Biologists, Emerald Publishing, Elsevier, Hindawi, IOP Publishing, Oxford University Press, and the Royal Society will impact scholarly publishing on a global scale.

Previous research conducted by the RSC has shown that the gender of a scientific author, peer-reviewer or editor can influence the likelihood of a scientist’s research being published. Director of Publishing Dr Emma Wilson said: “Biases exist in research publishing, and acknowledging this is an important step for the research community at large. Working in silos and individually committing to scrutinise our processes will only get us so far – it is the agreement to collectively address these issues which we believe is key in levelling the playing field across research publishing."

New report will support UKRI's commitment to strengthening research integrity and culture

On 11 June 2020 it was announced that the research integrity landscape study, published by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), provides new insight into the incentives and pressures in the UK research system and their perceived impact on research integrity and wider researcher behaviour. According to the study, "personal integrity and local culture are key to research integrity, and bullying and harassment is the single biggest negative influence".

A webinar will take place on 8 July for a discussion of the research integrity study findings. In addition, the UKRI Research Integrity Playlist features videos with highlight main findings from the report.

COAR survey finds no large barriers for repository platforms in complying with Plan S

One of the routes for complying with Plan S is for authors to make the final published version or the author’s accepted manuscript openly available with an open license in a Plan S compliant repository with immediate open access from the date of publication.

In April/May 2020 the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), in consultation with cOAlition S, conducted a survey of repository platforms in order to assess their current ability and intention to support Plan S requirements. On 17 June 2020 it was announced that the survey found that 'most repository platforms already support compliance with Plan S mandatory criteria and, in the few cases where the platform does not, there are plans to adopt this functionality.'

Jisc and Universities UK call for publishers to reduce their fees to maintain access to essential teaching and learning materials

On 17 June 2020 it was announced that the Universities UK Jisc content negotiation strategy group is "calling on major academic publishers to seek reductions of 25% on all agreements in light of the severe financial impact institutions are facing because of the pandemic."

The institutions are now focusing on preparing for online delivery in September and are examining what digital content they can afford to maintain access against the budgetary efficiencies they will need to deliver. In a joint letter on behalf of the sector, the strategy group " urges publishers to work with Jisc to implement discounts and measures to provide flexible pricing that offers institutions meaningful options."

MIT ends Elsevier negotiations

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has ended negotiations with the publisher Elsevier for a new journals contract. According to MIT's announcement on 11 June 2020, the reason for this was that Elsevier was not able to present a proposal that aligned with the principles of the MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts, which is "is grounded in the conviction that openly sharing research and educational materials is key to the Institute’s mission of advancing knowledge and bringing that knowledge to bear on the world’s greatest challenges."

In response, Elsevier announced that they "share MIT's goal of open science for public good, and [they] remain committed to finding a sustainable solution as [they] have done with other partners".

University of California and Springer Nature reach a landmark transformative agreement

A lot of attention has been drawn to the recent transformative open access publishing agreement between the University of California (UC) and Springer Nature which will make more of the University’s research that accounts for nearly ten percent of all U.S. publishing output freely and immediately available to individuals and researchers across the globe.

UC's President Janet Napolitano said in the University's announcement that 'now, more than ever, as we seek to better understand and combat COVID-19, it is abundantly clear why researchers need immediate, unfettered access to each other’s work to spur new discoveries and make timely advancements in health care.' In similar tone, publisher Springer Nature communicated that the agreement is the largest transformative open access agreement in North America to date, and the first for Springer Nature in the U.S., signalling an increasing 'global momentum and support for the open access movement'.

OUP agrees first Read and Publish deal in China

Oxford University Press (OUP) and the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Science have announced a new read & publish agreement said 'to be the first of its kind in mainland China.' This is a  three-year deal covering 26 of the institutions of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and provides complete access to OUP’s journals collection for participating institutions. In addition, over the course of the deal an increasing amount of the research outputs produced by participating CAS researchers is published Open Access. 

RDA releases 5th final draft of COVID-19 guidelines and recommendations

On 1 June 2020, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) released the publication of the pre-final version of the RDA COVID-19 Recommendations and Guidelines covering four research areas – clinical data, omics practices, epidemiology and social sciences. The document is also complemented by areas focusing on legal and ethical considerations, research software, community participation and indigenous data and includes detailed guidelines which aim to help stakeholders follow best practices to maximise the efficiency of their work and act as a blueprint for the current and future health emergencies.

Wellcome Trust: Guidance for research organisations on how to implement responsible and fair approaches for research assessment

Guidance for Wellcome-funded organisations on how to implement responsible and fair approaches for research assessment that meet the expectations set out in Wellcome’s open access policy 2021 has been revised following the publication of a draft version of this guidance for consultation in early 2020 which culminated in the receipt of more than 50 responses from research organisations and the broader research community.

Research Skills Programme brought to you by Cambridge University Libraries

The Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) in collaboration with several libraries across the University has created an online course on research skills designed with students, researchers and staff of the University of Cambridge in mind and available to everyone.

For those who have had the opportunity to look at one or more of the modules, we would really like your feedback so we get even better next time. We promise it will take less than a minute! 

Reading Lists Online - Libraries supporting education in Cambridge

Reading Lists Online is a new way of working using a system called Leganto which can easily be integrated with Moodle courses, iDiscover and Library purchasing workflows and now forms an essential part of Cambridge’s critical response for students in the face of COVID-19. More and more of library content is provided electronically and is accessible to all Cambridge students. 

LinkedIn Learning at Cambridge Hub

LinkedIn Learning is now available to all University and College staff and students, alongside existing provision for Professional Development and academic study. This resource offers online courses on creative, technical and professional skills, including leadership and development, as well as resources on wellbeing and remote working.

Further resources and tips


Recordings and slides Useful resources on data matters Resources on open science  Miscellaneous resources 

Upcoming deadlines

  • A mentoring & training program for Open Science ambassadors in Life Science

Open Life Science is a 16-week mentoring and training program for early-stage researchers and potential academic leaders who want to become ambassadors for Life Science in their communities. After successfully concluding their first cohort this May with 25 project leads, they have opened a call for applications for their next cohort, which will begin in September 2020. The deadline for application is 30 June 2020. Visit the website for further details.

  • Essay Competition: Open Data Challenges to Address Global and Societal Issues

The first of its kind, CODATA Connect Early Career and Alumni Network in collaboration with the CODATA Data Science Journal (DSJ) is organizing an Essay Competition for Early Career Researchers (ECR), defined as university undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate students or early career researchers within five years of completing their highest qualification. The deadline for submitting the essays is 23:59 UTC on Tuesday 30 June 2020. More details can be found in their website.
 

Events, webinars and workshops
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