Category Archives: oa.u.cambridge

Michael Williams on the Elsevier negotiations: What’s our ‘Plan B’? | Unlocking Research

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“As negotiations continue between Elsevier and the UK university sector, institutions need to position themselves to ensure that we have a realistic alternative access solution if the decision is to not sign an agreement. But what would happen in the event of a non-renewal scenario? This post explores how we at Cambridge University Libraries are preparing for Plan B and the alternative access solutions we will be providing….

At Cambridge we are doing our best to engage our research communities with the Elsevier negotiation so that any decisions around the deal and potential implementation of Plan B will only take place following communication and engagement with research-active members of the University. If we need to implement a Plan B, it should not come as a surprise; it will be planned and communicated in advance….”

Dr. Jessica Gardner on the ongoing negotiation between Cambridge and Elsevier | Unlocking Research

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This post by Dr Jessica Gardner, Cambridge University Librarian, introduces the context for the ongoing negotiation between Cambridge University and the publisher Elsevier. It is the first in a series of posts on the negotiation from members of the Cambridge community.

Copyright life hacks for librarians

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Abstract:  Librarians are continuously looking for new ways to make the training they offer accessible and engaging to both colleagues and users. One area where this is especially important is copyright – a topic many librarians identify as vital to their role, but they often find it hard to attend training. Cambridge University Libraries has introduced a range of methods to reach out to even the most reluctant copyright learner and improve the overall copyright literacy of its staff. This article showcases these methods in the form of ‘life hacks’ – simple measures which can be implemented with little or no cost and using existing resources.

 

Methods outlined include making the best use of knowledge already present within your organisation, using visual methods to attract a new audience and creating interactive online resources. Also discussed is the importance of making copyright training accessible, both to users with disabilities and those who may have constraints on their time and technological ability. The article concludes with a reflection about the challenges faced whilst creating new resources. The techniques outlined in this case study can be adapted for use by a range of libraries no matter the target audience.

Cambridge University Library joins Google Arts and Culture

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“Cambridge University Library (UL) is the first institution of the University of Cambridge to join the [Google Arts and Culture] platform and joins organisations such as the British Museum, Rijksmuseum and the White House, among many others, who share their collections freely, and openly, with the world….”

OA agreement – Cambridge

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“The University of Cambridge has made an agreement with Cambridge University Press to support Open Access publishing in Cambridge journals. The agreement also includes access to the most recent Full Journals Collection.

This Read and Publish agreement covers the Article Processing Charges (APCs) for corresponding authors affiliated with the University of Cambridge in fully Open Access journals and subscription-based journals that offer hybrid Open Access. The agreement for unlimited Open Access publishing started on 1 January 2020. Articles submitted by eligible corresponding authors qualify for Open Access publishing under this agreement upon the date the article is accepted for publication, from or after 1 January 2020 through to 31 December 2020….”

UKRI Open Access Consultation- University of Cambridge Response

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“This is the University response to the 2020 UKRI Open Access Consultation, submitted via an online form on 27 May 2020. The response was developed based on input from across the University, including from Schools, Departments, individual researchers and Cambridge University Press and aims to represent the breadth of disciplinary perspectives across the University. The draft response was circulated for comment to the Open Research Steering Committee, the Research Policy Committee, the Library Syndicate and governance within CUP for comment prior to the development of the submitted version.”

 

2019?That?Was The Year That Was? | Unlocking Research

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“2019 saw?a number of?happenings in the policy space at Cambridge. Most excitingly, the University’s?Position Statement on Open Research?was announced in February, making it one of the first UK universities to have such a statement. This demonstrates the University’s commitment to making open research a reality at Cambridge. 

Following on from this, in July 2019, the University together with Cambridge University Press? announced that they have signed up to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The newly created?Open Research Steering Committee, headed by the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research,?will have oversight over the open research direction and?the?implementation of DORA.?The Steering Committee and their working groups are currently looking into open research training, open research infrastructure (such as electronic research notebooks), Plan S and DORA.?

In December, an updated version of the?Research Data Management Policy Framework?was released. This update brings the policy framework?in?alignment?with funder requirements and acknowledges?the important roles that Principal Investigators,?research staff and students, and University support staff play in good data management practices.?It sits beneath?the Position Statement on Open Research, with the documents being closely aligned.?…”

Open Access Service Manager – Job Opportunities – University of Cambridge

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“The Open Access Service in the Office of Scholarly Communication processes several hundred articles per month into Apollo, the University repository www.repository.cam.ac.uk. The repository holds over 200,000 items and stores, disseminates and preserves in the long-term the broader intellectual output of the university in digital formats, including databases, multi-media files, e-science outputs, theses, learning objects and electronic. To ensure efficient engagement with the “open” agenda, the Office of Scholarly Communication delivers numerous advocacy and training events across the University of Cambridge.

Working within the Office of Scholarly Communication at the University Library, the Open Access Service Manager will lead the team that delivers a researcher-focused service in support of open research. This involves the provision of information, training and advice to all academic and research staff required or wishing to publish articles via open access. They will be responsible for managing the RCUK and COAF funds of over £2 million annually, including signing off on invoices up to £6,000.

In addition the role holder will be expected to manage the reporting requirements to the research community, University Executive and the funding bodies and will be expected to represent the Office of Scholarly Communication on various committees. The key goal will be to ensure that the majority of the University research publication output is compliant with funder, University and publisher policies and that the University has a process to support open research that is affordable and sustainable….”

Case study: Doing more with ORCID – UK ORCID Support

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“The University of Cambridge research repository (Apollo), uses ORCID IDs as a unique identifier for researchers.  When a researcher submits a dataset to Apollo, a DOI is minted for the dataset through the DataCite service.   By including the ORCID in the metadata submitted to DataCite, DataCite then populates the ORCID registry entry for the researcher (with their permission) with information about the dataset, using an ‘auto-update’ feature. 

The result is that a link is created between the researcher and their data, through the ORCID ID identifying the researcher, and the DOI for the data assigned by DataCite. The persistent identifiers are used to connect researchers and their achievements, improving visibility and discoverability across different systems.  The workflow reduces duplication of effort in entering information and avoids input or identification errors….”

Automating repository workflows with Orpheus, an Open Source database of journals and publishers

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Abstract:  Repository management relies on knowledge of numerous attributes of academic journals, such as revenue model (subscription, hybrid or fully Open Access), self-archiving policies, licences, contacts for queries and article processing charges (APCs). While datasets collating some of this information are helpful to repository administrators, most cover only one or few of those attributes (e.g., APC price lists from publishers), do not provide APIs or their API responses are not machine readable (self-archiving policies from RoMEO), or are not updated very often (licences and APCs from DOAJ). As a result, most repositories still rely on administrative staff looking up and entering required attributes manually. To solve this problem and increase automation of tasks performed by the Cambridge repository team, I developed Orpheus, a database of academic journals/publishers written in Django. Orpheus was recently integrated with our DSpace repository Apollo and auxiliary systems via its RESTful API, enabling embargo periods to be automatically applied to deposited articles and streamlining the process of advising researchers on payments, licences and compliance to funders’ Open Access policies. Orpheus is Open Source (https://github.com/osc-cam/orpheus) and may be easily expanded or tailored to meet the particular needs of other repositories and Scholarly Communication services.

Enhancing Open Access at Cambridge: Apollo repository and CRIS integrations

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Abstract:  Following from the integration of Cambridge’s Institutional Repository, Apollo, with the University’s CRIS system (Symplectic Elements), Cambridge University Library has developed two web-based systems to further streamline and enhance the workflows for managing Open Access (OA) publication submissions, and to collect key missing publication metadata in ways that improve researchers’ interaction with the relevant systems. The first system, Fasttrack, aims to drastically reduce the time needed to process repository submissions. It provides a user-friendly interface to review and approve submissions in Apollo via the DSpace API. The second web-based application, LastMinute.CAM, is a simple web form to collect missing publications metadata required for calculating open access compliance. Collected publications metadata is automatically pushed into the CRIS’ associated publication records and is then available to the CRIS’ reporting services. We will also present preliminary results from the Jisc Publications Router – Symplectic Elements integration pilot in which we are participating. The Publications Router is a JISC-led project to create a system that automatically sends notifications about research articles to an institutions’ repository, together with full-text copies of those articles where available. This has the potential to both streamline open access deposit workflows and enrich metadata records in the CRIS system.

Head of Scholarly Communication – Job Opportunities – University of Cambridge

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“An exciting opportunity has arisen to join Cambridge University Libraries to lead, develop and manage services supporting research in the fast-paced environment of scholarly communication. The post-holder, based at the University Library, will lead a team responsible for services including open access and funder compliance, research data management, researcher development training and the institutional repository. The University has recently published a position statement on Open Research, and the post-holder will help advocate and advance this agenda in support of the University’s mission and values. The University is looking to recruit a highly collaborative leader for this post, as the role-holder will be expected to build strong relationships across Collegiate Cambridge, including the academic Schools and Cambridge University Press….”

6,000 and counting: Cambridge Vice-Chancellor joins Stephen Hawking in making his PhD ‘Open Access’

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“University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, has become the 6,000th graduate of the 810-year-old university to make his thesis freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world, via Open Access …

The announcement of the 6,000th thesis also coincides with the ratification and publication of the University’s position statement on Open Research, which has been published here. The University statement sets out the key principles for the conduct and support of Open Research at the University of Cambridge, which aims to increase inclusivity and collaboration, unlock access to knowledge and improve the transparency and reproducibility of research….”

Open Research Position Statement | Scholarly Communication

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“Open Research Working Group – Position statement on Open Research: Approved by Research Policy Committee at its meeting on 22 November 2018 and by the General Board of the Faculties on 16 January 2019….

2.1 The University recognises contributions from researchers at all career stages, working collaboratively across a wide range of disciplines. Across the disciplinary spectrum there are a wide range of cultural settings that influence both capacity for and appropriateness of fully Open Research. Open publications and open data l take different forms, and require different approaches, in each of these settings. The University supports the academic freedom of researchers to pursue new knowledge, and to choose the means of dissemination; but within that free choice, the University encourages outputs of research, and where appropriate the accompanying data, to be ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’.

2.2 The University relies on its researchers to uphold principles of scholarly rigour so that open materials are of the highest research quality and, where appropriate, will aid reproducibility. This may include:

 

  • where possible, ensuring all publications are Open Access;
  • where appropriate and possible, making openly available the underlying data relating to these publications;
  • sharing protocols openly;
  • collaborative approaches including blogging, online editions, releasing teaching materials, pre-print deposit….”

‘A truly exciting time’ | Research Information

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“Danny Kingsley, deputy director at Cambridge University Library, looks back at her early days at Australian National University – and forward to the many challenges facing librarians…

My PhD looked at why researchers overwhelmingly said that open access was a good idea, yet only 10 to 15 per cent of research was openly available. My findings (spoiler alert) were that disciplinary differences are incredibly important and that whatever solution you offer to the research community will need to be easy to use, not the risk status quo and demonstrate clear improvement to, and greater benefit than, the current system. (I’m not sure we have cracked that, by the way.)…

One of the advantages of working at Cambridge has been that it provides a huge stage: rightly or wrongly, what happens at Cambridge is big news. So we have been able to accelerate progress across the sector by acting openly, transparently and inclusively….

The nine strong open access team [at U of Cambridge] process more than 1,000 articles a month into our institutional repository, and answer thousands of queries from our research community. …

[T]he significant focus on open access and, increasingly, open research, potentially puts the library once more at the heart of the institution….”