Blog Archives
Open Access Week
We are holding a competition to find the best examples of where open access has benefited your research, if open access has made a difference to your work or research then we’d love to hear from you! All that’s required is a few minutes of your time, a short paragraph will suffice… though please don’t be limited by this!
The best judged entry will rewarded with a lovely bottle of champagne… and will featured on the staff intranet research page! All entries will also go into a draw for a further bottle of champagne! If champagne is not to your liking, then a £20 amazon voucher will be awarded instead!
Get your entry in by 5pm today!
Do you want to make sure that your data counts? Come along to a seminar on Research Data Management – Making your data count – maximising impact – 11 am to 12 pm – 24th of October at the Hub, Cottesbrooke, Park Campus. Note – this presentation uses images from the genocide memorial in Kigali, Rwanda that may be upsetting).
Professor Stephen Hawking has granted the University of Cambridge permission to make his thesis freely available Prof. Hawking’s ‘Properties of expanding universes’, published in 1966, is now available freely and openly to anyone in the world. Download Prof. Hawking’s thesis here: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.11283
ETHICS and Research Data Management
Most research data – even sensitive data – can be shared ethically and legally if researchers employ strategies of informed consent, anonymisation and controlling access to data. Researchers obtaining data from people are expected to maintain high ethical standards and comply with the relevant legislation.
Researchers must adhere to data protection requirements when managing or sharing personal data. However, not all research data obtained from people count as personal data. If data are anonymised then the Act will not apply as they no longer constitute ‘personal data’.
A light hearted reminder… Research Data Management is important!
Manging the data that you collect and use when researching is extremely important, not just for your own benefit, but for others who cold benefit from the research that you have done.
This clip may be light hearted… but makes some very good points..
We use DMP online at the University of Northampton to create Data Management Plans that will meet the requirements of funders and the University. Logon using your university login details.
If you have any questions regarding Research Data Management please email openaccess@northampton.ac.uk
Open Access Week – 23rd to 29th October 2017
The theme for this year’s 10th International Open Access Week is “Open in order to…”
There are many benefits to open access, including greater visibility of research, increases in citations, and ensuring far greater access to research. HEFCE’s open access policy for REF2021 has seen the greatest shift in practice in terms of open access within the UK, and there are few of you who will not have been asked about uploading your accepted manuscripts to NECTAR! Whilst we realise this can sometimes be an arduous task for some, it is necessary. Rather than presenting to you once again the benefits of open access, we’d like to hear from you!
We are holding a competition for the best examples of where open access has benefited your research, if open access has made a difference to your work or research then we’d love to hear from you! All that’s required is a few minutes of your time, a short paragraph will suffice… though please don’t be limited by this!
The best judged entry will rewarded with a lovely bottle of champagne… and will featured on the staff intranet research page! All entries will also go into a draw for a further bottle of champagne! If champagne is not to your liking, then a £20 amazon voucher will be awarded instead!
Dawn Hibbert, Head of Research Support will also be presenting a seminar on Research Data Management – Making your data count – maximising impact (All this research… All this Data… Use it.. Preserve it… Make a Difference.. Make an Impact! – warning – this presentation uses images from the genocide memorial in Kigali, Rwanda that may be upsetting).
Key Dates:
Deadline for applications for “How Open Access has benefited your Research” 5 pm Monday 23rd of October
Seminar – Research Data Management :
Avenue Campus – 27th October 11 am – 12 pm – Avenue Boardroom
Park Campus – 24th October 11am – 12 pm – Venue to be confirmed
Open Access at the University of Northampton: state of play
Since 2007 Library and Learning Services have been offering services to researchers wishing to engage with the Open Access (OA) agenda. This post summarises the policy, services and support now available at the University of Northampton.
Open Access policy:
In December 2015 the University Research and Enterprise Committee approved an OA policy for the University. Aligned with, and supporting, HEFCE’s open access policy for the REF, the University policy states: “the University supports the principle of open access and expects researchers to share their research outputs freely, subject to legal, ethical, commercial or contractual constraints”. The policy requires researchers to ‘act on acceptance‘ in depositing their work in the University’s institutional repository, NECTAR.
UK Data Service 2016 – free webinars
The UK Data Service has just released its 2016 programme of webinars. These introduce different aspects of the service and explain their key datasets.
For some specialist training from data management experts without leaving the comfort of your own desk try one of these:
Introductory webinars:
- Introduction to the UK Data Service – 21 January, 20 April, 12 October
- Finding and accessing data in the UK Data Service – 9 March, 28 April, 19 October
- Key issues in reusing data – 4 February, 4 May, 26 October
- Data management basics – 11 February, 12 May, 3 November
OA and the research lifecycle 7: disseminating your research
In deciding whether and how to provide open access to your published work you need to consider:
- The nature of the research output
- Your funder’s open access policy
- The availability of funds to pay article processing charges (if necessary)
- Your publisher’s open access policy
- The availability of an open access subject or institutional repository
OA and the research lifecycle 6: writing up
In terms of writing up, the preparation needed for open access is not dissimilar from that required for other types of publication.
A major consideration is whether you have made use of third party copyright material, i.e. material that you did not create or for which you are no longer the rights holder.
There are a number of useful websites which cover this topic, for example the University of Exeter’s Third party copyright page or Taylor and Francis’ Using third party material in your article, but the bottom line is that, unless you qualify for an exception to copyright, you will need the rights owner’s permission to use third party material in your open access work. If you were publishing your paper in a traditional journal, the publisher would make sure that you sought the appropriate permission; if you are making your work open access yourself (for example by uploading your thesis to NECTAR) then it is your responsibility to ensure you do not break the law.
OA and the research lifecycle 5: collecting and analysing data
If you anticipate that your research data will be re-used in future (either by yourself or others) there are a few things you need to think about as you collect and analyse your data.
Ethical data sharing
“Much research data about people—even sensitive data—can be shared ethically and legally if researchers employ strategies of informed consent, anonymisation and controlling access to data.” (UK Data Archive)
The UK Data Archive (UKDA) and its sister service the UK Data Service are great sources of useful information on the creation and management of data. The UKDA’s ‘consent and ethics‘ web pages cover the key principles of research ethics that have a bearing on data sharing; the legal context of data sharing; all types of consent and how to get it; and the anonymisation of quantitative and qualitative data. They usefully provide sample consent forms and information sheets for various types of research project.
Another useful source is the Australian National Data Service’s guide to publishing and sharing sensitive data.
OA and the research lifecycle 3: bidding for funding
Open access to published work
Many funders, especially those awarding public monies, now make it a prerequisite of funding that all published outputs should be made open access. You should make it clear in your bid how you intend to comply with this requirement.
The main issues you need to address at the bidding stage are:
- Does your prospective funder have a policy on open access?
- If so, have they opted for ‘gold’ (made OA by the publisher) or ‘green’ (deposited in an OA repository) open access to published outputs?
- If ‘gold’, are they willing to pay article processing charges (APCs)?
- Do they require open access outputs to be released under a particular licence (e.g. CC BY)?
- Are you and your collaborative partners willing to comply with the funder’s OA requirements?
UON Graduate School Blog 