Networking

Opening Notes

Modernizing repositories for the era of Open Science

To fulfill the potential of Open Science in an equitable, sustainable and innovative way, we need a well-functioning network of repositories that provide human and machine access to the wide range of valuable research outputs. Repositories advance equity and diversity, because they are distributed and localized and can respond to different users’ needs, and they are more likely to be sustainable and persistent because they are usually managed by long-lived research institutions and their libraries. Repositories can also play a key role in an innovative new model of publishing, referred to “Publish-Review-Curate”, where authors first post a preprint of their article in an open access repository in order to be considered for peer review and publishing. In this talk I will briefly present the vision of repositories as the foundation for a distributed, globally networked infrastructure for open science and scholarship, which has been developed in last years at COAR and through initiatives like Next Generation Repositories and the Pubfair conceptual model. And I will introduce the current work being developed in the COAR Notify Project, which is developing and accelerating community adoption of a standard, interoperable, and decentralised approach to linking research outputs hosted in the distributed network of repositories with resources from external services such as overlay-journals and open peer review services, based on Linked Data Notifications and ActivityStreams2 W3C standards. To achieve this vision, and realize all their potential, including the new functionalities being promoted and supported by COAR Notify, repositories need to maintain up-to-date software platforms and suitable staffing levels, which is a challenge in some institutions and contexts. We will conclude by referring to the joint strategy launched by OpenAIRE, LIBER, SPARC Europe, and COAR aimed at strengthening the European repository network, helping repositories to modernize and to take on this new and expanded role in the ecosystem.

CoARA: an opportunity to move forward Responsible Assessment

In this presentation, Dr. Eva Méndez, a member of the Steering Board of CoARA, will review the role of the Coalition for the Advance of Research Assessment, the to evolve and adapt Research Assessment to the current Open Science times. She will also review the current status of the coalition and further steps.

Data management support services at IRTA: How to encourage open science for researchers

The overview of the strategic context in which the RDM has appeared on the IRTA agenda is presented, and the key drivers and problems for researchers between 2017-2023. Analysis of RDM research support activities and roles to encourage open science and good research data management practices.

Barcelona Citizen Science Office: 10 years connecting research and society

The Barcelona City Council created the Citizen Science Office in 2012, a pioneer initiative to connect citizens and science through active participation in research projects on urban challenges. Two programs, ‘Citizen Science at Schools’ and ‘Citizen Science in the Neighbourhoods’, and a Community of Practice of around 20 different research groups constitute the main working ambits of the Office. After these years, we are facing new steps according to the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023: the Office Re-launching Strategy consolidates the current programs and incorporates new strategic objectives. These include the creation of a Promoting Group, formed by Universities and Research Centres as well as by representatives of the City Council, and the implementation of a new citizen science research project at the city level, involving different research groups, local administration and civic organizations.

Music Break

Open Science – the role of the UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship

There are commonly 8 pillars of Open Science which are acknowledged as such in Europe. They are diverse in coverage and touch on many aspects of university work. The foci for this work are situated both inside and outside an institutional Library. Given this fragmentation, how can the full agenda for Open Science be implemented across a whole institution? UCL is a research-intensive university and is usually accepted as one of the top 10 universities in the world. UCL’s answer to the challenge of Open Science has been to create the UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship, which is a separate unit reporting to the Pro-Vice-Provost for LCCOS (Library, Culture, Collections & Open Science). The role of the Office is to engage in Leadership, Advocacy and to encourage Engagement with Open Science across the University. An organogram shows how the Office works both inside and outside the Library. The talk identifies staffing numbers devoted to each of the 8 pillars and analyzes the different types of activity which the Office supports. The presentation ends with a Reading List, presenting the foundational reading and investigations which have helped shape the form of the UCL Open Science Office.

Panel Discussion

Chaired by Ignasi Labastida, Director of the Office for the Dissemination of Knowledge at University of Barcelona

Closing Notes