Category Archives: oa.training

ACRL Online Learning Call for Proposals – December 15 Deadline

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“ACRL invites proposal submissions for our ACRL Online Learning program. Submit a proposal for a live webcast or asynchronous online course and share your knowledge and innovative developments with your colleagues. Friday, December 15, 2023, is the submission deadline. ACRL has identified five key areas in our Plan for Excellence. ACRL welcomes proposal submissions on all types of academic and research librarianship, and especially encourages proposals related to the following key areas:…

Research and Scholarly Environment – scholarly communication; data management, library publishing; open access; digital scholarship
New Roles and Changing Landscapes – open educational resources; leadership and management; transformational change…”

Eleven strategies for making reproducible research and open science training the norm at research institutions | eLife

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Abstract:  Reproducible research and open science practices have the potential to accelerate scientific progress by allowing others to reuse research outputs, and by promoting rigorous research that is more likely to yield trustworthy results. However, these practices are uncommon in many fields, so there is a clear need for training that helps and encourages researchers to integrate reproducible research and open science practices into their daily work. Here, we outline eleven strategies for making training in these practices the norm at research institutions. The strategies, which emerged from a virtual brainstorming event organized in collaboration with the German Reproducibility Network, are concentrated in three areas: (i) adapting research assessment criteria and program requirements; (ii) training; (iii) building communities. We provide a brief overview of each strategy, offer tips for implementation, and provide links to resources. We also highlight the importance of allocating resources and monitoring impact. Our goal is to encourage researchers – in their roles as scientists, supervisors, mentors, instructors, and members of curriculum, hiring or evaluation committees – to think creatively about the many ways they can promote reproducible research and open science practices in their institutions.

 

Call For Applications: Workshop ‘Towards Sustainable Open Access Book Publishing in the African Context’, Feb 07-09, 2024 | OBC Information Hub

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Dates: February 7th, 8th, 9th 2024

Location: University of Cape Town 

Partners: Association of African Universities, African Platform for Open Scholarship (formerly Continental Platform), Lancaster University, Open Book Collective, Thoth, OAPEN/DOAB

Language: English

Application deadline: 15th December 2023

This 3-day workshop explores challenges that inhibit a sustainable open access book publishing ecosystem with the remit of developing interventions that contribute and/or accelerate the growth of African scholarship. The event is designed to respond to barriers and needs related to Open Access book publishers and initiatives across the African continent. It provides a space for skills development, sharing experiences, expertise, and for learning about new developments in the support and funding of Open Access book publishing.

The event is open to authors/editors, publishers and infrastructure providers. This means initiatives involved in all aspects of Open Access book production and distribution, ranging from content development, producing and distributing open access books, to working on hosting and distributing them. This event is hosted by the University of Cape Town, developers of the African Platform for Open Scholarship (formerly Continental Platform) and the Open Book Futures project. Open Book Futures is an international consortium of stakeholders committed to developing a sustainable, equitable and diverse future for Open Access books led not by large commercial operations, but by communities of scholars, small-to-medium-sized publishers, not-for-profit infrastructure providers, and scholarly libraries. The project is committed to engaging with publishers, universities, and infrastructure providers in a diverse set of national and linguistic contexts beyond the Global North.

The event will have two focus areas: training and development. With regard to training:  

upskilling authors and/or editors on crafting academically strong manuscripts

upskilling infrastructure providers on managing the workflows for the production of open books

With regard to development:

skills sessions, in which publishers can learn from each other and participating initiatives

scoping sessions, to share experiences, learn about new developments, and challenges that need to be overcome

panel discussions, featuring discussions and debates on Open Access book publishing futures on the African continent

The event is free to attend, with places for around 30 delegates in total. Catering costs will be covered for all delegates. In addition, we expect that there will be funding available to pay for travel and accommodation costs for around 15 delegates from the following countries on the African continent: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe. 

To apply to join the event, delegates are invited to contribute the following information by December 15 2023: 

Name: 

Affiliation: 

Email address: 

A description of your Open Access initiative, including aims and remit (up to 150 words): 

A brief summary of barriers and difficulties encountered in your work (up to 150 words):

Ideas for how these barriers could be overcome (up to 150 words): 

Details of either a manuscript for an Open Access book, or another project designed to build Open Access publishing capacity, that you could bring to introduce and discuss with colleagues (up to 250 words)

[…]

 

CERN/NASA Open Science Summit 2023: Closing Statement issued | OpenScience at CERN

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“In celebration of the 2023 Year of Open Science, CERN and NASA jointly organized “Accelerating the Adoption of Open Science”, a week-long open science summit at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 to 14 July 2023. This event brought together a diverse range of attendees to exchange experiences, ideas, and expertise; promote open science policies and practices; and develop practical action plans to implement open science practices that are fit for both context and purpose. 

Through the course of the event, experts across the diverse domains of Open Science (i.e. open data, open software and hardware, research integrity and reproducibility, and public policy) led plenary sessions, which were followed by focused topical workshops to foster exchange and discussion across participants. Despite a diversity of approaches, participants shared a set of common values and interests to develop a more coherent, aligned, and equitable global approach to open science,

In this spirit, Summit participants agreed on a joint closing statement, which includes concrete commitments on how the transition to a more open, participatory, equitable, robust, and sustainable research ecosystem can be accelerated. The closing statement of the summit is now available online. The community has produced translations to French, Spanish, German, Arabic and Chinese. Commitments include working on context-specific guidance on key dimensions to accelerate open science institutionalization, including: 

sustaining open research infrastructure, 
supporting training opportunities for current and future researchers, 
aligning funding opportunities and recognition schemes, 
developing effective means for evaluating and rewarding effective open science practices, 
promoting links between open research and broader societal impacts,
engaging with the broader research community to align values, policies, and procedures in a manner that harmonizes, catalyzes, and scales open science
Fostering a culture of evidence-based open research, science, and scholarship…”

Helping Others Use Your Data: Lessons From the Field of Neuroscience

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“So you’ve created an amazing dataset that you would love for other researchers to have access to. What’s next? Join experts from NeuroImaging Data Model (NIDM) and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics to learn about metadata: what it is, why it is important, and how the Open Science Framework and other tools can make it easy for you to include it with your project materials so others can find the data you’ve worked so hard to curate.

 

BERD Course Booklet: Make Your Research Reproducible

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“This course booklet is part of the BERD Academy and was created in 2023….

This booklet helps you implement impactful steps in making your research reproducible (and open).

Making your work reproducible may seem daunting right now, but we’ll take it step by step and you can choose what you want to implement now and what you want to keep for later. This is a process and there is no need to take all the steps at once. Let’s just try to move towards reproducible on the reproducibility scale….”

Data sharing and reuse practices: disciplinary differences and improvements needed | Emerald Insight

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Abstract:  Purpose

This study investigates differences and commonalities in data production, sharing and reuse across the widest range of disciplines yet and identifies types of improvements needed to promote data sharing and reuse.

Design/methodology/approach

The first authors of randomly selected publications from 2018 to 2019 in 20 Scopus disciplines were surveyed for their beliefs and experiences about data sharing and reuse.

Findings

From the 3,257 survey responses, data sharing and reuse are still increasing but not ubiquitous in any subject area and are more common among experienced researchers. Researchers with previous data reuse experience were more likely to share data than others. Types of data produced and systematic online data sharing varied substantially between subject areas. Although the use of institutional and journal-supported repositories for sharing data is increasing, personal websites are still frequently used. Combining multiple existing datasets to answer new research questions was the most common use. Proper documentation, openness and information on the usability of data continue to be important when searching for existing datasets. However, researchers in most disciplines struggled to find datasets to reuse. Researchers’ feedback suggested 23 recommendations to promote data sharing and reuse, including improved data access and usability, formal data citations, new search features and cultural and policy-related disciplinary changes to increase awareness and acceptance.

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore data sharing and reuse practices across the full range of academic discipline types. It expands and updates previous data sharing surveys and suggests new areas of improvement in terms of policy, guidance and training programs.

The Research Data Management Workbook

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Abstract:  The Research Data Management Workbook is made up of a collection of exercises for researchers to improve their data management. The Workbook contains exercises across the data lifecycle, including: 

Evaluate a laboratory notebook
Write a project-level README.txt
Create a data dictionary
Set up a file organization system
Create a file naming convention
Pick storage and backup systems
Test your backup
Write a living data management plan (DMP)
Determine data stewardship
Pick a data repository
Share data
Prepare data for future use
Convert data files types
Create an Archive folder
Separate from the institution

Every exercise comes with a description of its value within data management, instructions on how to do the exercise, original source of the exercise (when applicable), and the exercise itself.

 

Open Research Competencies Coalition | Working together to improve open research skills in the UK

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“The open research support and scholarly communications sectors are key growth areas within universities. They support open research practices, open access, repository management, publishing advice, bibliometrics and research data management. However, in the rapid evolution of this sector a skills gap has developed. There are difficulties with identifying and describing the skills needed and in recognising their interconnectedness. This lack of role profiles presents challenges in the recruitment and development of open research support staff. Competencies are usually gained on-the-job, and through self-development. There is a high turnover of trained employees between research support teams and out of the sector.

In addressing the skills gap, ORCC aims to identify and map the skills and competencies needed by the current and future open research support workforce. Professionalising these roles across the sector will achieve the very highest quality of support for researchers. ORCC engages heavily with the library and research management communities through active outreach at community workshops and conferences. A recent workshop organised by ORCC, in cooperation with FAIRsFAIR and EOSC Synergy highlighted the need for UK institutions to take a coordinated and strategic approach to building the competences and capabilities for Open Research.

ORCC was founded in 2017 and was previously known as SC3. Its new name (as of July 2021) is Open Research Competencies Coalition (ORCC). ORCC is not a part of Jisc and is grateful to Jisc for hosting its web page….”

Thinking of moving into an open research role? New support resources available – Research

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“The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and the Open Research Competencies Coalition (ORCC) are pleased to announce the release of three primers on working in Open Research. Whether you’re new in post or interested in applying for a role in working in open research, these primers are for you….

Take a look at the primers below:

 

ORCC UKRN Primer on Working in Open Research
ORCC UKRN Primer on Working in Research Data Management
ORCC UKRN Primer on Working in Open Access ”

The Research Data Management Workbook

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“The Research Data Management Workbook is made up of a collection of exercises for researchers to improve their data management. The Workbook contains exercises across the data lifecycle, though the range of activities is not comprehensive. Instead, exercises focus on discrete practices within data management that are structured and can be reproduced by any researcher.

The book is divided into chapters, loosely by phases of the data lifecycle, with one or more exercises in each chapter. Every exercise comes with a description of its value within data management, instructions on how to do the exercise, original source of the exercise (when applicable), and the exercise itself.

The Workbook is intended as a supplement to existing data management education. If you would like to learn more about the principles of data management, please see the article “Foundational Practices of Research Data Management” (K. Briney et al., 2020) or read the book “Data Management for Researchers” (K. A. Briney, 2015). …”

The Research Data Management Workbook

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“The Research Data Management Workbook is made up of a collection of exercises for researchers to improve their data management. The Workbook contains exercises across the data lifecycle, though the range of activities is not comprehensive. Instead, exercises focus on discrete practices within data management that are structured and can be reproduced by any researcher.

The book is divided into chapters, loosely by phases of the data lifecycle, with one or more exercises in each chapter. Every exercise comes with a description of its value within data management, instructions on how to do the exercise, original source of the exercise (when applicable), and the exercise itself.

The Workbook is intended as a supplement to existing data management education. If you would like to learn more about the principles of data management, please see the article “Foundational Practices of Research Data Management” (K. Briney et al., 2020) or read the book “Data Management for Researchers” (K. A. Briney, 2015). …”

Open Research Training – Keele University

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“Open Research week 2023 featured online webinars hosted by experts on a range of topics, from getting started in Open Research through to publishing open access and making qualitative data open. The library team talked staff through using the Keele data repository and the Research Integrity and Improvement Committee delivered a Q&A for all disciplines. Catch up below.”

Key Exploitable Results of Skills3EOSC

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“The project will directly support EOSC Partnership Specific Objective 1.2. Professional data stewards are available in research-performing organisations in Europe to support Open Science, measured through two specific KPIs

KPI (2025) European curricula for data stewards are defined
KPI (2027) All research done by EOSC Association members is supported by professional data stewards.

Skills4EOSC actions address the three gaps identified in the EOSC SRIA concerning skills and training: a lack of Open Science and data expertise, a lack of clearly defined data professional profiles and career paths for these roles, and fragmentation in training resources….”