-
Open Minded #1 – Dr Peter Murray-Rust
The soul of open research, a conversation with Dr Peter Murray-Rust. In this new series, Open Minded, I take advantage of being able to speak to some of the voices in the open research sphere at the University of Cambridge to learn about what working openly means to them. This series will be less about how researchers practice open research and more about how they think about open research. At Cambridge, we take the position that engaging in open research is more than just creating research outputs that are open, and the open research practices that produce them — it is also about the behaviours and mindsets that underscore them.…
-
Data Diversity Podcast #5 – Abdulwahab Alshallal
Welcome back to another edition of the Data Diversity Podcast, the Research Data podcast from the University of Cambridge Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC). If this is your first time here, in this podcast, I speak to Cambridge Data Champions about their journeys in acquiring and working with data in their research, with the hope to highlight interesting facets of data work, but also academic research in general. In this episode, I spoke to Cambridge PhD student Abdulwahab Alshallal, from the MRC Epidemiology Unit, and who is part of the Physical Activity Epidemiology research group. Currently for his PhD, he is exploring associations of physical activity, behaviour and fitness…
-
Data Diversity Podcast (#4) – Dr Stefania Merlo (2/2)
We return with another post featuring our Data Diversity conversation with University of Cambridge Data Champion, archaeologist Dr Stefania Merlo from the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, the Remote Sensing Digital Data Coordinator and project manager of the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (MAEASaM) project and coordinator of the Metsemegologolo project. This post is short in word count but not in importance, as it touches on two reflections on the challenges of data management as a researcher who works in a global context, two aspects of present-day academia that may be relevant to many readers. This edition follows on from the previous post where Stefania talks about the challenges of extending UK-based Open…
-
The Research Data Sustainability Workshop – November 2024
The rapid advance of computing and data centres means there is an increasing amount of generated and stored research data worldwide, leading to an emerging awareness that this may have an impact on the environment. Wellcome have recently published their Environmental sustainability policy, which stipulates that any Wellcome funded research projects must be conducted in an environmentally sustainable way. Cancer Research UK have also updated their environmental sustainability in research policy and it is anticipated that more funders will begin to adopt similar policies in the near future. In November we held our first Research Data Sustainability Workshop in collaboration with Cambridge University Press & Assessment (CUP&A). The aim was…
-
Data Diversity Podcast (#4) – Dr Stefania Merlo (1/2)
Welcome back to the fourth instalment of Data Diversity, the podcast where we speak to Cambridge University Data Champions about their relationship with research data and highlight their unique data experiences and idiosyncrasies in their journeys as a researcher. In this edition, we speak to Data Champion Dr Stefania Merlo from the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, the Remote Sensing Digital Data Coordinator and project manager of the Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (MAEASaM) project and coordinator of the Metsemegologolo project. This is the first of a two-part series and in this first post, Stefania shares with us her experiences of working with research data and outputs that…
-
Enriching the institutional scholarly record: Octopus outputs in repositories via Publications Router
Written by Dr Alexandra Freeman, Tim Fellows, Dr Agustina Martínez-García Researchers at universities across the country are constantly being reminded that when they publish work in journals (or elsewhere) they have to deposit the accepted version of their article in their university’s repository as well. It ensures that this version of the article can be made freely available to the world (so-called ‘Green Open Access’) but also allows the university to keep track of their researchers’ outputs, including reporting to the all-important REF (Research Excellence Framework) exercise that takes place every few years and helps determine future government funding to each institution. It’s important that researchers deposit their works, but…
-
Towards enriched open scholarly information: integrating DSpace and OpenAlex
We are pleased to announce that, thanks to the support of the Vietsch Foundation, we will be developing an integration between DSpace repositories and OpenAlex. We are partnering with 4Science, a certified platinum DSpace provider, to deliver this project that will integrate two key systems within the global scholarly ecosystem, the DSpace repository (https://www.dspace.org/) and OpenAlex (https://openalex.org/), a free and open catalogue of the world’s scholarly research system. Using OpenAlex’s open API (Application Programming Interface), this integration will allow for the quick import of relevant research and scholarly (meta)data into DSpace repositories, helping institutions to improve the quality and completeness of their records of research outputs and streamlining researcher publication…
-
5000 datasets now in Apollo
Written by Clair Castle, Dr Kim Clugston, Dr Lutfi Bin Othman, Dr Agustina Martínez-García. How the ‘second life’ of datasets is impacting the research world. Researchers share their stories. “Research data is the evidence that underpins all research findings. It’s important across disciplines: arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEMM. Preserving and sharing datasets, through Apollo, advances knowledge across research, not only in Cambridge, but across the world – furthering Cambridge’s mission for society and our mission as a national research library.” Dr Jessica Gardner, University Librarian & Director of Library Services The research data produced and collected during research takes many different forms: numerical data, digital images, sound recordings, films,…
-
Flipping academic journals to diamond open access: Notes on community governance
In this blog post, Dr Caroline Edwards, Executive Director, Open Library of Humanities and Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature & Culture, Birkbeck, University of London asks: How do we ensure that a flipped diamond open access journal can remain independent? How do we prepare for the long-term financial security of flipped journals and protect against their potential vulnerability to commercial acquisition in the decades to come? Flipping academic journals to diamond open access (OA) presents a series of challenges to an academic publisher. You need certain niche competencies. Firstly, nothing happens without the complete trust of an editorial team that shares your appetite for risk. Then, you need the backing…
-
Data Diversity Podcast #3 – Dr Nick H. Wise (4/4)
Thank you for staying with us throughout this four-part series with Dr Nick Wise, scientist and an engineer, who has made his name as a scientific sleuth. By now, it is hoped that he needs no introduction (though if you would like one, please look back at the previous posts). In this final post, we get Nick’s take on what he thinks the repercussions should be for engaging in fraud, and we get a parting tip from Nick on what researchers should do when performing a literature search on papers in their field. Below are some excerpts from the conversation, which can be listened to in full here. Most people…
