Category Archives: oa.utrecht.u

Reshaping the Academic Self: Connecting Education & Open Science | Zenodo

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Sicco de Knecht, Martijn van der Meer, Loek Brinkman, Manon Kluijtmans, & Frank Miedema. (2021). Reshaping the Academic Self: Connecting Education & Open Science (Version 2). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5345573

The transition towards Open Science will drastically alter our approach to academic life. It will change the ways in which we reward and recognise university employees and reshape the relationship between education and research. This should be reflected in how a new generation of academics and citizens are educated. Not only through the qualifications our students receive to become productive members of society, but also by dint of the values and attitudes we teach our pupils. The aim of university education should be preparing future graduates to share their (inter)disciplinary knowledge, engage with societal stakeholders, and shape tomorrow’s society. Now is the time to explore how.

This manifesto is a thought exercise that explores the (possible) relationships between Open Science and education. It attempts to point out the overlap, parallels, synergy, and possible conflicts between Open Science attitudes and practices, and contemporary views and practices in education. We aim to provoke a perspective on the different aspects of how Open Science relates to education and propose several concrete directions forward and possible corresponding interventions. After explaining why education from an Open Science perspective needs to be explored and strengthened, we differentiate four faces of open education: the Open Science mindset, Open Science skillset, open educational resources, and how these activities should be recognised and rewarded. We subsequently illuminate three possible paths on how to strengthen open education, ranging from content to form and system. We hope that this will spark a broader national and international conversation on the relationship between Open Science and education.

Boost for academic recognition and reward revolution

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“Dutch academics are putting their foot on the gas in the rebellion against the uncritical use of journal impact factors to recognise and reward researchers, which was set in motion by the 2012 San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, or DORA.

From early next year, Utrecht University in the Netherlands will officially stop using the so-called ‘impact factor’ in all its hiring and promotions and judge its researchers by their commitment to open science, teamwork, public engagement and data sharing.

And despite opposition from some Dutch professors, the sweeping changes are gathering pace, with Leiden University among the Dutch institutions also pledging their support with their Academia in Motion paper….”

Scientific Information Specialist ‘Science and (bio)medical sciences’: building on open science (1.0 FTE) (Deadline: Aug 30, 2021) | Universiteit Utrecht

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Utrecht University (UU) has the ambition to lead the way in Europe in the field of open science. These developments in science presents new opportunities and possibilities for the University Library (UB) external link to use its knowledge and expertise in making research and education output findable, accessible, interoperable and (re)usable (FAIR). One area that is developing strongly is FAIR research data.

You will work within the Academic Services sector of the University Library. The sector adapts its services flexibly to the changing needs of researchers, lecturers and students. In the coming years, Academic Services (approx. 35 FTEs) will continue to develop and innovate its products and services in direct interaction with its customers. The services focus on supporting education and research, as well as open science. The department works in a result-oriented manner. This means that you have a great deal of freedom to organize your own work.

To strengthen the team, we are looking for a specialist in science and (bio)medical sciences.

Function
On behalf of the library, you will be the point of contact for researchers, lecturers and students within the Faculty of Medicine and the Biology programme. In addition, you and your colleagues are committed to providing the faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Science with the best possible support in research.

You are able to engage in constructive communication with your stakeholders, and use this skill to advice researchers on scientific information provision and processing, open science and scientific communication. You will work on developing and implementing open science services such as: open access, research data, reproducible code and software, publishing rights issues and research assessment. You provide training in the field of research data management and information skills, such as systematic reviews.

Your tasks:

building and maintaining a relevant network of relationships within the Faculties of Medicine and the Biology programme and with colleagues inside and outside the University Library;
ensuring proper information provision and stimulating optimal use of the University Library services for research and education;
informing, advising and supporting researchers on developments and solutions on scientific information provision strategies and scientific communication, for all phases of the research cycle;
you provide advice in the field of research data management within both faculties;
you give online and offline training courses and workshops and you work together with stakeholders and colleagues on this;
contributing to the (further) development and innovation of new services for the creation, management and (re)use of research data and -information in academic research and education.

Qualifications

You have a master’s degree in (bio)medical sciences and at least three years of relevant work experience.
You know the perspective of academic researchers, lecturers and students and you are creative in translating the wishes of these users into appropriate (technical) solutions.
You have demonstrable experience and knowledge in the field of digital research and affinity with open science, particularly in the field of research data management. (Basic) knowledge of programming (preferably Python or R) is a plus or you are willing to develop in this area.
You have experience in building and maintaining a professional network. You have good advisory skills. You know how to represent our organization in the network of collaborating partners and in particular within the Faculty of Medicine and the Biology degree programme.
You have a strong affinity with the process of scientific communication in an academic environment. You know how to transfer and share knowledge, both in groups and with individuals.
You are strong in transferring and sharing knowledge, both to groups and individually.

This position requires strong communication skills and personal characteristics such as: customer-orientation, analytical skills, result-orientation, organizational sensitivity, networking and team skills. You have an excellent command of English. For international candidates, we require a minimum command of the Dutch language (level B2).

Offer

We offer a temporary position for a period of one year, with the prospect of an extension for indefinite period if proven suitable. The salary – depending on your education, experience and the specific tasks you will perform – is at least €2,790 and a maximum of €4,402 gross per month for a full appointment (salary scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities).

You will receive a laptop and smartphone from the University Library. You can also count on attractive fringe benefits, such as 8% holiday pay and an end-

Impact factor abandoned by Dutch university in hiring and promotion decisions

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“A Dutch university says it is formally abandoning the impact factor — a standard measure of scientific success — in all hiring and promotion decisions. By early 2022, every department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands will judge its scholars by other standards, including their commitment to teamwork and their efforts to promote open science, says Paul Boselie, a governance researcher and the project leader for the university’s new Recognition and Rewards scheme. “Impact factors don’t really reflect the quality of an individual researcher or academic,” he says. “We have a strong belief that something has to change, and abandoning the impact factor is one of those changes.” …”

Exploring collaborative non-commercial publishing models for Open Access: tender results | Plan S

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cOAlition S received a total of 11 proposals for the tender for a study to explore collaborative non-commercial Open Access publishing models for Open Access (a.k.a Diamond OA) published in March 2020. We are pleased to announce that the tender was awarded to a consortium coordinated by OPERAS, including Sparc Europe, Utrecht University, DOAJ, UiT The Arctic University of Norway as partners, and LIBER, OASPA, ENRESSH, Redalyc-AmeliCA and CSI as associate partners.

The study will be delivered by the end of 2020, and regular public updates on progress are planned along the way. The study is financially supported by Science Europe.

Publication cultures and Dutch research output: a quantitative assessment | Zenodo

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Abstract:  Research into publication cultures commissioned by VSNU and carried out by Utrecht University Library has detailed university output beyond just journal articles, as well as the possibilities to assess open access levels of these other output types. For all four main fields reported on, the use of publication types other than journal articles is indeed substantial. For Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities in particular (with over 40% and over 60% of output respectively not being regular journal articles) looking at journal articles only ignores a significant share of their contribution to research and society. This is not only about books and book chapters, either: book reviews, conference papers, reports, case notes (in law) and all kinds of web publications are also significant parts of university output.

Analyzing all these publication forms and especially determining to what extent they are open access is currently not easy. Even combining some the largest citation databases (Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions) leaves out a lot of non-article content and in some fields even journal articles are only partly covered. Lacking metadata like affiliations and DOIs (either in the original documents or in the scholarly search engines) makes it even harder to analyze open access levels by institution and field. Using repository-harvesting databases like BASE and NARCIS in addition to the main citation databases improves understanding of open access of non-article output, but these routes also have limitations. The report has recommendations for stakeholders, mostly to improve metadata and coverage and apply persistent identifiers.