National call to Register Open Repositories to Strengthen Ireland’s Openness, Alignment, Equity, and Diversity in Open Publishing

“Help spread the word to create a national inventory of Open Repositories. Repository owners/managers can register their Irish Open Access Repository at https://universityofgalway.ie/openrepositories/register/ by Thursday, 16 March 2023, at 17:00….

This is the first step in a National Open Research Forum (NORF) project where many great partners are aiming to create a sustainable national community for Irish Open Repositories. This project strengthens our existing national network of repositories for open access publications. Work will audit, reinforce, and align the repository network to each other and to international best practice….”

Introducing the National Open Access Transition Programme project | National Open Research Forum

“In this blog post, Lucy Hogan, Project Manager at the Royal Irish Academy for the NORF-funded Priority Action targeting Open Access (OA) Transition in publishing, introduces the work of the project and invites stakeholders to engage with the project through upcoming surveys, webinars and events so that the result is community-driven serving the need of authors, readers, publishers and funders in Ireland. Led by the Royal Irish Academy, with its executive partner, Trinity College Dublin, this consortium of 18 institutional and organisational partners addresses the call in Theme 2 of the NORF National Action Plan for Open Research 2022–2030 to achieve “100% open access to research publications”….”

Funding of €1.9 million to support Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research announced by Minister Harris

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris has today announced funding of €1.9 million to advance Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research.

Open research offers the public free access to research findings and encourages collaboration and sharing of information for the benefit of science and society.

This funding will be used to do a number of things including increasing public engagement with research and citizen science, establishing a culture of open research and working towards 100% open access to research publications….”

WorldFAIR Project (D13.1) Cultural Heritage Mapping Report: Practices and policies supporting Cultural Heritage image sharing platforms | Zenodo

Abstract:  Deliverable 13.1 for the WorldFAIR Project’s Cultural Heritage Work Package (WP13) outlines current practices guiding online digital image sharing by institutions charged with providing care and access to cultural memory, in order to identify how these practices may be adapted to promote and support the FAIR Principles for data sharing.

The report has been compiled by the Digital Repository of Ireland as a key information resource for developing the recommendations forthcoming in Deliverable 13.2. The DRI is Ireland’s national repository for the arts, humanities and social sciences. A Working Group of cultural heritage professionals has been invited to contribute feedback.

There are well-established standards and traditions driving the various approaches to image sharing in the sector, both local and global, which influence everything from the creation of digital image files, their intellectual organisation and level of description, to statements of rights governing use. Additionally, there are technological supports and infrastructures that have emerged to facilitate these practices which have significant investment and robust community support. These practices and technologies serve the existing communities of users well, primarily the needs of government, business and higher education, as well as the broader general public. Recommendations for adapting established collections delivery mechanisms to facilitate the use of cultural heritage images as research data would ideally not supersede or duplicate processes that also serve these other communities of users, and any solutions proposed in the context of the WorldFAIR Project must be made in respect of these wider contexts for image sharing.

University of Limerick-headquartered Lero wins Yerun Open Science award | University of Limerick

“Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software based at University of Limerick, has been awarded a European prize recognising its commitment to open science principles.

The centre launched its Open Science Charter and an Open Source and Open Science Programme Office last October.

The Young European Research Universities Open Science Awards were announced on February 14 at an online ceremony. This is the second year of the awards which recognise Open Science initiatives, of different kinds, across the YERUN network….”

Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research: Advancing Open Science and Public Access to Research | National Open Research Forum

“Today, Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030 was launched at an event hosted by the National Open Research Forum (NORF). The National Action Plan outlines objectives and actions for the next chapter in Ireland’s transition towards open research. The plan was prepared by NORF and supports national strategic priorities for research and innovation under Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy.

Open research, also known as open science, is an approach to research based on open cooperative work, tools, and knowledge sharing, for the benefit of science and society. Open research practices make research processes and their outputs available to the widest possible audience and aim to enhance the quality, efficiency, and impact of research.

The National Action Plan for Open Research serves as a roadmap for the implementation of open research across Ireland and is structured according to three broad themes:

Establishing a culture of open research
Achieving 100% open access to research publications
Enabling FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research data and other outputs

Today’s launch event included introductory remarks by Dr Alan Wall, CEO of the Higher Education Authority, a summary of the National Action Plan by Dr Daniel Bangert, National Open Research Coordinator, and presentations from six projects funded by NORF to deliver priority actions for 2022-2024. …”

Ireland’s National Open Research Forum Awards €1.16 Million to Six Collaborative Projects to Advance Open Research | National Open Research Forum

“Ireland’s National Open Research Forum (NORF) has awarded funding to six new collaborative projects to implement priority actions in Ireland’s National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030. By building national capacity and infrastructure for open research, these projects will support the visibility and impact of Irish research and help progress Ireland’s strategic goals for research and innovation under Impact 2030. …”

Institutional Open Access Agreements

“Optica Publishing Group has agreements with various institutions to cover open access Article Processing Charges (APCs) for their authors. Find out if your institution will cover your APC below.

In addition, authors from qualifying low- and middle-income countries may be eligible for a discount or waiver.

The corresponding author must have an accurate mailing address and/or eligible institution in our database for the system to apply any waiver. This is the person who submits the manuscript and will handle correspondence throughout the peer review and publication process. They will have the authority to act on behalf of all authors and the responsibility for keeping all co-authors informed as to the status of the submission, as well as being noted on the article as the primary contact for any inquiries after the paper is published. The corresponding author designation does not indicate the contribution made to the article. Contributor statements and contact information for other authors can be provided separately….”

Public Reporting of Adverse Events From Long-Term Care Facilities for Older Persons and People With Disability in Ireland 2013-2019: Development of an Openly Accessible Database and Descriptive Analyses – ScienceDirect

Abstract:  Objectives

To describe the development of an analyzable database of statutory notifications received from long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and to describe trends in receipt of notifications from 2013 to 2019.

Design

Description of database development with descriptive and trend analyses.

Setting and Participants

LTCFs for older persons and for people with disability in Ireland.

Methods

Data on notifications received and on centers were extracted from a system internal to the health and social services regulator and combined into an analyzable database. Variables were screened for personal information, cleaned, transformed, or redacted and combined into a database suitable for open access publication. Descriptive analyses of the volume of notifications, trends over time and breakdown by service type, notification type, and risk-rating were conducted.

Results

The Database of Statutory Notifications from Social Care in Ireland was developed and an open access version published in February 2021. Protection of personal data was an important consideration in publishing the data publicly. Uses of the database include examination of national trends and identification of determinants of adverse events and areas for quality improvement. The number of notifications received increased over time. Quarterly notifications contributed to the largest proportion of notifications (older persons, 36.7%; disability, 39.1%). This was followed by serious injury notifications in LTCFs for older persons (33.3%) and abuse allegation notifications in LTCFs for people with disability (36.0%). Less than 1% of individual notifications were risk-rated red (highest severity level of impact on resident welfare). The types of notifications that were collectively risk-rated highest were staff misconduct, abuse allegations, and outbreaks of infectious disease.

Conclusions and Implications

The methodology and findings can inform publications of notifications, planning and resourcing for receipt and submission of notifications, target areas for quality improvement initiatives, mandating of timelines for receipt of notifications, and the mandating of notifications in legislation.

NUI Galway IP Policy and OER: Comparing NUI Galway and Peer Institutions in Ireland | The HardiBlog: Blog for the NUI Galway Library

by Kris Meen

I blogged recently about Open Educational Resource policies and whether NUI Galway ought to think about reviewing its own policies with an eye towards making them more OER-enabling. More recently, it occurred to me that it might be useful to have a look at some peer institutions in Ireland. and their IP policies to see if I could get an impression of how NUI Galway’s policies stack up to others’ in terms of their OER-friendliness. I went ahead and found the IP policies of five peer universities: Maynooth University, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin, and the University of Limerick. What I found was interesting: that the IP policy at NUI Galway appears to be a bit of an outlier, and in some ways would probably be considered less OER-friendly than at least some of our peers. I include links to all six IP policies (NUI Galway and five peer institutions) below as Appendix A.