All Office of Scholarly Communication courses

This is a friendly introduction to Github – a free and open source platform that can help you build projects that are collaborative, well documented, and version-controlled.

In this workshop we will introduce you to the Github ecosystem and help you get you comfortable navigating basic Github workflows. We will make sure that you leave the workshop aware of the best practices for developing projects on Github (e.g. writing a good “readme” or posting and labeling issues) and an understanding of how Github can help make your projects more readable and accessible.

This workshop is developed for anyone looking for a solution to making projects – whether it be your research on arctic glaciers, the materials for an undergraduate course, your PHD thesis, or even a cookbook – more manageable. This workshop is geared towards all skill levels, but first-time and novice users are encouraged and prioritized.

Full details of this workshop can be found at: https://kirstiejane.github.io/friendly-github-intro/

• Would you like to share your research findings with the international academic community, without paywall restrictions?

• Would you like to boost citations of your work?

• Did you know that funders recognise the benefits of Open Access and most now require it as a condition of their grants?

These are questions for postgraduate students at all stages of their research.

Seeing your name on the spine of a book is a great achievement, which can help to kick start your career in some disciplines. How do you get there?

This session answers some of the key questions along the way, including including:

• Should you turn your thesis into a monograph?
• How do you choose a publisher?
• How do you get your proposal accepted?
• What are the key stages in the publication process?

• Where should you publish your monograph or book chapter?
• How do you assess the appropriateness of a publisher for your work?

Picking where to publish your research and in what format is an important decision to make.

This session looks at the things you need to consider in order to reach your audience effectively, including:

• Turning your thesis into a monograph
• Choosing a publisher
• Understanding the publication process

In-person and online bookings for this annual conference from Cambridge University Libraries focusing on Open Research at Cambridge have now closed.

This day-long, hybrid conference, to be held on Friday 17 November 2023, has the theme of Open Research for Inclusion: Spotlighting Different Voices in Open Research at Cambridge.

This conference will focus on areas of Open Research in under-represented disciplines and contexts which have been at the forefront of recent discussions in Cambridge. These include Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), and research from and about the Global South.

We'll be exploring these topics with individual speakers, panels and a workshop. The full programme and further information can be found on our events page.

Problem solving is a daily part of working in a library, whether it is for our users or ourselves. Turning these problems into research projects is the next step but one that many of us find difficult to take.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this workshop will help you think about the everyday innovations in your library and how these can be turned into research projects for discussion at future events. We will look at the pros and cons of undertaking research in your workplace, how it can help to generate solutions to problems, support a case for resources or just find out more about your library.

This workshop is suitable for those interested in undertaking research projects, complete novices or those wanting to know more about the possibilities of workplace research. Who knows where is might lead?

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

Being a reflective practitioner is something which doesn’t come naturally to all of us but it is a surprisingly easy skill to develop. As well as helping you to think critically about your own personal development, undertaking reflection can help library staff to improve their service and deal with user feedback in a constructive way.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this interactive workshop will help you to understand the theory of reflective practice, how to overcome barriers to integrate it into your everyday role and offer a chance to practice reflective writing. All skills that come in handy when preparing those conference abstracts… It is also useful if you are thinking of undertaking any level of professional qualification such as CILIP Chartership or Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

One thing that puts many people off speaking at conferences is a perceived lack of presentation skills. Although this is one way to undertake public speaking, presentation skills are a much wider part of the information profession and can encompass anything from leading a tour to working at an enquiry point.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series, this workshop will take you through the process of creating and delivering a presentation, offer tips on design, outline techniques to deal with nerves and help you to feel more confident in communicating with others. Offered as a more accessible version one-hour version of our previous interactive workshop, this session offers you a chance to refresh your knowledge in a supportive environment.

Delivered as part of our Conference with Confidence series

Confused by copyright? You are not alone!

Copyright involves much more than checking how much you are photocopying, but it can be difficult to know where to start.

Join the Office of Scholarly Communication as we answer your copyright queries, looking at:

• Who owns the copyright to my published articles?
• How can I use Creative Commons Licenses to make my work available to all?
• How can I safely reuse other's work?
• What do my publishers and funders require of me?

How do you create the perfect copyright recipe?

Creative Commons licenses sit alongside existing copyright regulations as a way to help researchers use existing creations and share their own work with others. This webinar will explore the history of the Creative Commons movement, explore how the licenses can be put together and how librarians can encourage their researchers to use them to their best advantage.

Please join us for the second forum of 2024. Please note the change of day - this is our first forum on a Monday

The venue for this forum is: Seminar Room 3 - The Triangle Building, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8BW

Lunch will be provided at the forum. Please ensure you let us know of any dietary needs or intolerances in this UTBS booking form.

Places are limited, so please book as soon as possible. Equally, please cancel as soon as possible, should you no longer be able to attend.

Please note the deadline for booking is Wed 20th March (to allow visitor passes to be prepared)

Bookings for this event need to be approved as it is designed specifically for members of the Data Champion Programme.

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Data Tree is a new online course that has been developed by the Institute for Environmental Analytics. It is designed for PhD students and early career researchers with all you need to know for research data management, along with ways to engage and share data with business, policymakers, media and the wider public.

In this interactive workshop, course Director Vicky Lucas will introduce Data Tree. This will be an opportunity to find out about the leading experts who have contributed to the course, its interactive quizzes, videos and real-world examples, and to delve into some of the topics covered. Attendees of the hour-long session will leave fully prepared to use this excellent free resource to build on their data management skills, solve data handling problems and communicate the results of the research to non-academic audiences.

Read more information about Data Tree

The Netherlands has been frontrunner in the transition to Open Science. The Dutch government has mandated all universities to have 100% Open Access to academic publications by 2024 and has recently broadened its scope to research data. These plans can only succeed by national cooperation of all parties involved.

The chairman of Tilburg University is one of three main negotiators with the publishers. As such, the university is expected to be leading the development of policies in Open Science and the monitoring of progress.

In this talk, Hylke Annema of Tilburg University will tell us about the current developments in the Netherlands and at Tilburg University.

Discussion among participants about best practices is highly encouraged.

You know about Symplectic Elements as a way to gather the outputs of our research community but have you ever wanted to know more about the connections between funding and publications?

Digital Science, the makers of Symplectic Elements, have recently launched a new product called Dimensions. Dimensions integrates with Elements to link grants, publications, citations, clinical trials and patents and enables us to take a completely different view of what our research community is doing.

Join Dr Juergen Wastl from the Research Information Office for a demonstration of how the institutional instance of Dimensions works, ask any questions and get some hands on experience with the system.

For a sneak preview, the publication instance of Dimensions is available to all here.

This course will give you the confidence and tools to promote your research more effectively to a variety of audiences. We will explore how to reach more colleagues and increase your chances of being cited. We will also examine how to publicise your work more widely and reach the public. You will discover some tools to help you disseminate your research and track its impact. There will also be an opportunity to reflect on which solutions are the most practical and most likely to succeed in your circumstances.

Venue: DMB GS1

Are you completely new to Twitter and struggling to start? Or are you already on Twitter but know you could be making better use of it to promote yourself and your library? Join Librarians In Training for an interactive workshop aimed at helping librarians to make the most of their time online.

Offered as part of the Librarians In Training Easter App Hunt this interactive session will give you the chance to enhance your Twitter skills. For those new to the platform there will be guidance on what Twitter can be used for and how to get started whilst those already using Twitter will benefit from learning how to engage library users, promote their service and enhance their own professional network.

The session will include both advice and practical exercises so you can put your new knowledge to the test.

If you already know the basics of Research Data Management (RDM) – for example backing up your work, file storage options - but now need to know more about effective strategies for sharing your data, then this course is for you!

This course gives a brief recap on RDM and then covers managing personal and sensitive data in the context of the new GDPR legislation, why it is a Good Thing to share your data, and how to do this most effectively in terms of describing your data, deciding where to share it, and using licences to control how your data is used by others. You will even get to write your own Data Management Plan (DMP): these help you manage your data throughout a project and after it has ended and are increasingly required as part of a grant or fellowship application. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you are completely new to the concept of research data management then the beginners course is for you.

What would happen to your research data if your lab exploded, or your laptop was stolen, or your cloud storage account was hacked? How could you prevent data loss in these situations? Managing your data effectively is vital to help you do this.

This workshop will introduce the basic principles of Research Data Management (RDM) and how they are relevant throughout the research life cycle.

Intended for those who are new to RDM, this course will firstly explain what RDM is, and then go on to cover basic data back-up and storage options, file sharing tools, and strategies for organising your data, as well as providing guidance on managing personal or sensitive data. You will also learn about the range of support services available to you within the University for managing your data.

If you already have a basic understanding of RDM then the advanced course is probably more appropriate for you to attend.

Increasing numbers of electronic alternatives to the traditional paper lab book are available, offering advanced opportunities for managing your research.

• Are you moving towards web-enabled working in the lab?
• Have you considered the advantages of - and issues around - going paperless?

Hear from researchers and PIs across the disciplines who are using Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) and those considering a trial, and from current providers.

We are grateful to Dotmatics for supporting this event.

Join the OSC for an exciting opportunity to hear a preview of Dr Danny Kingsley's keynote for the upcoming CONUL2017 conference. Feedback on both the talk and the topic are encouraged!

Emerging from the Chrysalis - Transforming Libraries for the Future

Access to information has changed immeasurably in the past decade, bringing the traditional role of the academic library into question. Rather than a doomsday scenario, this situation offers huge potential for information professionals to situate the library at the heart of research support. 'Scholarly communication' is the umbrella term for the information exchange between research communities, research funders, the publishing industry and the general public. This talk will discuss the establishment of the Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University, how it is now embedded within multiple administrative areas of the University and how it works collaboratively with the research community to identify areas that need expertise, support and services. By taking an open and transparent approach to this work, the Office of Scholarly Communication has had an impact not only within the institution, but nationally and internationally. This has not been without challenges, including working within a strict university governance system and managing unstable funding sources. However this work is now more important than ever at a time when academic publishers are investing substantially in research management and analytics businesses. Libraries that embrace the management of the unique work created within their own institution may find themselves central to the research institution of the future. The alternative could be obsolescence.

Cambridge is in a strong position to determine its own ambitious vision for a more open, accessible and inclusive approach to the sharing and use of research to help drive innovation and discovery and help address global challenges: for health, for climate, for equality and diversity. With changing societal attitudes and technological advances in communication tools, now is the time to consider which strategies we want to adopt to maximise the reach and impact of Cambridge research including through new and open forms of scholarly communication.

Libraries play a crucial role in the scholarly communication landscape, with librarians being well-placed to understand both the needs of the researchers we support and the challenges in providing access to materials. We hope you will want to take part and help shape the options for Cambridge.

These workshops are designed to create a space to think ahead, taking a long view, and explore what the future of scholarly communications will look like locally and globally. They follow on from similar workshops involving leaders in research, publishing and libraries at Cambridge earlier this year. We will have an opportunity to review and comment on some of the outputs of the previous workshops.

If you have recently started receiving peer reviews, or would like to become a reviewer, this is an unmissable chance to pick up tips and best practices for responding to reviews, being noticed as a reviewer, getting your review done, and getting credit for your work

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to an essential introduction to Peer Review.

You'll learn...

• how to make the most of the peer review process
• how to increase the chance of being asked to review
• how to get ready to review and be recognized for your work
• how to write the feedback you wish you'd received.

If you have recently started peer reviewing, or are ready to get involved, this is an unmissable chance to pick up tips and best practices from PLOS, publishers of the world's largest multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to join PLOS for an essential introduction to Peer Review.

You'll learn...

• the 3 questions you should always ask yourself when you're asked to do a review
• how to get ready to review and be recognized for your work
• how to read a manuscript with peer review in mind
• how to write the feedback you wish you'd received.

Stay on after the workshop to chat to PLOS staff and editors and enjoy light refreshments.

So much choice, so little time!

With the growth in both traditional and online publishers choosing the best place to share their work is becoming an increasingly complex decision for researchers. The first in our Librarian Toolkit series on helping researchers publish will cover topics such as writing tools to use, picking the right format for publication, factors to consider when choosing a journal and how to use impact factors and other metrics.

FAIR data are those that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Sounds simple enough, but what do each of these terms mean in a practical sense and how can your researchers tell if their research data is FAIR?

The Research Data Team at the Office of Scholarly Communication join forces with FOSTER Open Science to offer this workshop to help you get to grips with the key principles and consider how you can help your researchers make their data FAIRer.

Once you have completed How FAIR is that research data?: an online course (for research support staff including librarians and administrators in all disciplines) we invite you to attend this workshop session with the Research Data Team from the Office of Scholarly Communication to discuss your experiences in assessing the FAIRness of your data, including any problems you encountered. We will also discuss guidelines on how to best support researchers in making their data FAIR.

FAIR data are those that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Sounds simple enough, but what do each of these terms mean in a practical sense and how can you tell if your own research data is FAIR?

The Research Data Team at the Office of Scholarly Communication join forces with FOSTER Open Science to offer a practical workshop to help you get to grips with the key principles and consider how you can start to make your own data FAIRer.

Once you have completed How FAIR is your research data? An online course (for researchers and postgraduate students in all disciplines) we invite you to attend this workshop session with the Research Data Team from the Office of Scholarly Communication to discuss your experiences in assessing the FAIRness of your data, including any problems you encountered. You are welcome to bring examples of your data to this session to further develop your skills, or try your hand at FAIRifying more example datasets from Apollo.

Helene Brinken (University of Gottingen, FOSTER) will guide you through workflows, tools and resources to help you embed open research into your research practices.

This session will take place in 1S4 Computer Room, Faculty of Education.

More information to follow.

Following the workshop, you are invited to stay for our event Reproducibility in action: improving research in the life and social sciences.

'Dear esteemed author…'

So-called predatory publishers regularly approach researchers via email to solicit manuscripts and conference papers. With the emphasis on publishing as a measure of academic success still strong it can be easy to give in to temptation and flattery but this can do more harm than good to a future career.

This session will look at the problem of predatory publishers using case studies. Attendees will be given tips on how to spot a predatory publisher or conference and the best advice to offer if one of their researchers has been approached.

Are your students confused by copyright? Do you struggle to find the answers to their questions? You are not alone!

This final session of our Librarian Toolkit series on helping researchers to publish, this workshop will deal with common copyright questions which arise during the publication process. From including copyrighted work in a thesis to sharing published work on social networks copyright is a complex minefield and it can be hard to know where to start when giving advice.

This session for librarians will equip attendees with knowledge about third party copyright, making work available open access and how researchers can share their work legally online.

David Carr and Robert Kiley from the Wellcome Trust are coming to Cambridge to talk with researchers about the Trust’s policy on data, software and materials management and sharing, which was released in July 2017. They will give short talks about the extended requirements for sharing all research outputs and an update on how their policy on open research has been working. Afterwards you will have the opportunity to ask them any questions you might have.

This event will be held in the Gurdon Institute tea-room.

At the start of this year, UKRI’s open access policy for long-form scholarship came into effect. This policy applies to monographs, edited collections and book chapters under contract from 1 January 2024 that acknowledge funding from any of the UK’s research councils. This session will introduce the policy, how to comply and the broader open access books landscape, allowing plenty of time for questions.

Advertised on behalf of ReproducibiliTea, the Open Science Journal Club in the Department of Psychology

The Open Science Journal Club invites anyone interested in Open Research to join this lunchtime session, where Dav Clark will introduce Gigantum, a free open source tool designed to streamline reproducible and collaborative data science. Gigantum aims to bring together complex tools, workflows and community approaches that enable exciting research collaborations and also enable others to evaluate and build on your work.

The session will introduce the Gigantum Client, an MIT licensed web application that runs locally, simplifying and automating tools like Docker, Git, and launching environments like JupyterLab. Dav will also describe paid services hosted by Gigantum that enable single-click publication and collaboration from the Client. You will learn about versioning and collaboration features, how to easily move work between local resources and the cloud, as well as new approaches to creating and managing scientific datasets. There will also be the chance to go under the hood to show how sophisticated users (e.g., Research Software Engineers, Data Librarians, etc.) can create customized data science environments that are easy to distribute, and are accessible to users with diverse skill sets.

All welcome - if you aren't a member of the Department of Psychology, please meet at the Department Reception by 12.55 and Ben Farrar will show you to the Nick Macintosh Seminar Room (a second escort will check at 1pm for latecomers!).

This session will include a hands-on demo, so please bring your laptops. You may bring your lunch if you wish, and Dav is happy to join participants for lunch afterwards.

• Do you use data in your research, or do you provide research support to those who do?
• Would you like to learn basic programming skills to program your own models and applications?

There is more to programming than simply writing lines of code. This free workshop will provide you with a basic set of skills to make the coding process more effective, less error prone and more maintainable.

This workshop is intended for those looking to obtain a basic understanding of the approach to be taken when designing a program as well as actually writing small programs to solve specific problems. It is designed for those with no prior experience of programming.

It is organised by the Office of Scholarly Communication and The Betty and Gordon Moore Library, and delivered by Peter Smyth (Research Associate) and Chris Park (Data Scientist) from the UK Data Service.

Much research claims to benefit communities globally but are research outputs really available to everyone, even if they are made open access?

Join us on a world tour to discover what is possible when researchers and governments make their research outputs available openly. What kind of impact do they have outside the academy – and outside the global north? What more can we do to make these outputs useful to innovators and to those researching outside the academic sector?

Everyone is welcome to attend this free event: visit our booking page.

Where and how can you share your articles? Each article goes through different versions, from submitted manuscript, through accepted manuscript, proof, and finally version of record. Often the text is very similar, but subtle differences mean that one version can be legally shared and another cannot. In this course, you will learn how to identify article versions and apply the correct terminology.

Publishing journal articles is a key element of a successful research career. As you are starting on this journey, you may have a lot of questions, for example:

• Where and how should I publish my research?
• How do I maximise the number of readers and citations?
• How should I respond to reviewers?

Some learned societies are increasingly dependent on publishing revenues, yet as open access becomes the new normal, researchers and librarians alike are questioning expensive subscription and publishing deals.

The Office of Scholarly Communication presents a panel debate for Open Access Week 2018 and Cambridge Festival of Ideas 2018. Join representatives from learned societies in the arts and sciences, including the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Historical Society, in conversation with their members within the University of Cambridge to ask ‘what is a learned society in the 21st century?’ How can the societies sustain their place in the academic landscape and answer the challenges created by open access requirements?

Everyone is welcome to attend this free event: visit our booking page.

We want to hear YOUR views on research. Who owns your work? Who should access it? How does your research compare to other disciplines?

Come along for a free lunch and to discuss how the University can support you in practicing Open Research. Learn about the requirements placed on researchers and the tools you could use to boost your impact. Find out what your peers think and contribute to shaping a University-wide strategy for Open Research training.

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to join Naomi Penfold of ASAPbio for an hour of relaxed, small group discussions on how and why publishing is changing to become more transparent, and what this means for you.

Bring your lunch and join a 'discussion table' to explore questions such as...

• why change academic publishing?
• who and what is transparency good for?
• what should we not change?
• what are preprints and why bother?
• where does peer review fit in?

ASAPbio is a scientist-driven non-profit ensuring the voices of science and the scientist are represented in innovation to improve transparency in life science communication.

This event is open to all, although will be of particular relevance to those in biomedical and life sciences.

Librarians are used to dealing with data in all its forms but sometimes researchers aren't so sure. Many funders now require evidence from the researcher of how they plan to manage the data they use and collect during the research process and this often has to be tailored to specific guidelines. This presents a great opportunity for library staff to work with the research community but how do they get started?

Join the OSC to learn more about what a data management plan is, why they are necessary, the different information needed, how to complete one and how to support someone in completing theirs. This interactive train-the-trainer workshop will include a mix of presentations and activities with a chance to put your new knowledge into practice.

Prevent research disasters through good data management

• How much information would you lose if your laptop was stolen?
• Have you ever emailed your colleague a file named 'final_final_versionEDITED'?
• Do you know what your funder expects you to do with your research information?

As a researcher, you will encounter research data in many forms, ranging from literature sources, interviews, measurements, numbers and images.

Whether you create, receive or collect this information, you will need to organise it.

Managing digital information properly is a complex issue. Doing it correctly from the start could save you a lot of time and hassle when preparing a publication or writing up your thesis.

Feeling lost in getting started on data management?

Attend the workshop to get inspired and started on how to structure, backup and describe your data.

This workshop (for students in the area of physical and human geography, as well as STEM subjects generally) will work through the challenges around managing research data as well as the benefits of working reproducibly. Participants will be provided with guidance and resources on how to effectively manage projects and avoid data loss throughout the research process.

You will hear of what can happen if researchers do not manage their data well as well as what happens to research data after the end of a project, such as how to share and store data in a long-term and sustainable way. It is never too early to start thinking about these things, so get a head start on your research data management practices now!

Department of Geography, Seminar Room

Paola Quattroni from Cancer Research UK coming to run a workshop on 11th May.

This is a really good opportunity to influence the Cancer Research UK data policy and give feedback to your funder about the changes you would like to see. Paola will give a short talk and then the majority of the workshop will be given over to discussions and opportunities for researchers to feedback their experiences, problems and suggested solutions to enable more data sharing. As well as discussing data sharing Paola will also bring some data management plans so researchers can find out more about what they should and should not be putting in their grant applications.

Solving the problem of Open Access or causing more trouble?

Open Access can be hard to understand at the best of times but one term that causes particular confusion is ‘mirror journals’. Promoted as one way of solving the problem of a lack of publisher interest in Open Access, these titles are appearing in every discipline but what are they?

Join the OSC for this information webinar to find out all about mirror journals, their history, the problems they can solve and those that they can potentially cause!

Are the researchers in your department confused about what they need to do about Open Access?

This support session will equip you to help them understand:

• what Open Access policies actually mean for researchers across the disciplines
• what they are required to do in order for their research to be eligible for REF 2021

Open Access can be a confusing topic for researchers and they will often turn to those within their department for answers. These interactive sessions will help those with these responsibilities to guide researchers through the process of making their research available.

Each session will begin with a short presentation introducing Open Access followed by a chance for attendees to ask questions on issues of local relevance.

Note that this session is targeted towards those supporting the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics although those from other disciplines are also welcome to attend

The majority of professional learning happens on the job, especially where colleagues with different skill sets come together to achieve common goals. Productive relationships between academics, administrators and service providers are crucial to enabling the flow of information and skills to benefit all parties. This exchange can be facilitated by professional networks, which provide not only formal learning, but also opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other.

In this talk you will hear about the experience of two librarians, Charlotte Smith and River Cronin, who made the most of the Data Champions network (https://www.data.cam.ac.uk/intro-data-champions): how they set up a collaboration with researchers, what they achieved through it, and what they learnt in the process.

The talk will be useful to anyone thinking of joining or setting up a network, as well as current members of professional networks who are looking for new ways to challenge themselves. We hope you will be inspired to discover ways in which collaborating with diverse colleagues may provide unusual opportunities for your development and professional success.

Join the OSC for a discussion of Open Access issues relevant to HASS librarians

The Open Access message has been geared towards sharing academic outputs like journal articles and their underlying data as well as being mandated by funders but how do you promote Open Access if none of these areas apply to your work?

This final webinar in our "Librarian Toolkit" series on Open Access will address Open Access from the perspective of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences librarians and cover topics such as Open Access monographs, the implications of not having a funder and places to share your work.

A detailed programme schedule can be found further below. Alternatively you can download a copy.

Practical information regarding the event is also available. Please download a copy.

The publication of books in Open Access format has been under discussion for several years, and has attracted interest especially from researchers in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Questions around the topic abound in light of developments including Plan S, changing funder policy and proposed requirements for the next REF.  

This one-day symposium is aimed primarily at researchers, postgraduate students, librarians and research support staff from the University of Cambridge, but it is also open to the public. It will explore the policies, economics and future directions of Open Monograph publishing. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss innovations in the sector, share their enthusiasms and concerns about current developments, and learn more about the opportunities for and realities of publishing an open access book. 

IMPORTANT BOOKING INFORMATION: This event is free of charge for participants who have a Raven password and booking can be made directly from this webpage. For those who do not have a Raven password there will be a charge of £50 to attend the event. Please visit our esales form to make a booking. Please note that bookings via the esales form will close on 25 September at 11pm and bookings via UTBS (Raven password) on Tuesday 1 October noon (or earlier if we reach full capacity). Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee any dietary requirements (apart from vegetarian) for bookings made after 25 September.

Programme highlights:

Professor Martin Paul Eve (Birkbeck, University of London) will present on the economics and political-economics of open-access monograph publishing.

Professor Margot Finn (President of the Royal Historical Society) will discuss open monographs from the perspectives of the RHS.

Panel session 1: ‘Policy and practice: Moving towards Plan S and REF’. Chair: Dr Steven Hill (Director of Research, Research England). Panel: Prof Martin Paul Eve (Birkbeck, University of London), Prof Margot Finn (President of RHS), Hannah Hope (Open Research Coordinator, Wellcome Trust), Prof Roger Kain (School of Advanced Study, University of London & Chairman of the UUK OA Monographs Group) 

Panel session 2: ‘Innovations in open monograph publishing’. Chair: Patricia Killiard (Deputy Director, Academic Services, Cambridge University Libraries). Panel includes representatives from: Cambridge University Press, UCL Press, Open Book Publishers, Springer Nature and Radical Open Access 

What's new in Open Access for 2018?

Open Access is a fast moving area but it can be hard to find the time to keep up. This webinar on Open Access offers a brief update on the biggest changes both within Cambridge and the wider world in the last year.

What’s new in Open Access for 2019?

Open Access is a fast moving area but it can be hard to find time to keep up with the latest developments. This session offers a brief update on the biggest changes both within Cambridge and the wider world in the last year.

Join us for the fourth in our series exploring resources to help with the process of publishing your research in STEM disciplines - from recording observations to editing to peer review.

This session offers the chance to learn about available tools and options in publishing and reviewing, and ask questions of the experts.

Featuring contributions from:

• independent and not-for-profit media outlet The Conversation (Miriam Frankel)
• local solutions with Cambridge University Press (Chris Harrison)
• Aperta and changing the way we publish with PLOS (Nicola Stead)
• Open Access with Scholastica (Brian Cody)

and more!

Morning refreshments and lunch will be provided, during which time you can speak to providers for information and user support.

We will be recording and sharing these presentations for all those who are unable to attend on the day.

You can find a programme for this event here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j07XgHK5MOfLcvVZiIf3xnoGI0EcgJr1hRWIaO0AUDI/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks to PLOS for their sponsorship of this event.

Join the OSC for an introduction to Open Access

Open Access can be complicated, especially when you're dealing with researchers from across disciplines. This introductory session on Open Access is specifically tailored to the needs of Cambridge college library staff working with a range of different users although anyone wanting a refresher on Open Access is welcome to attend.

The first in our "Librarian Toolkit" webinar series on Open Access will cover topics such as what Open Access is, why it's important and how college librarians can support their users in sharing their work.

With open access now a mainstay of culture in most disciplines, we look at what lays beyond. What challenges remain and how can they be addressed? How can scholarly communication evolve to best serve the needs of researchers in a variety of disciplines? There will be four sessions through the day, looking at..

Further than privileged institutions. Many OA conversations are centred on research institutions in Europe and North America, where there is abundant funding for both reading and publishing and significant power to influence. Institutions like Cambridge risk favouring solutions that disadvantage less privileged researchers. We want to hear the voices of researchers who work outside this framework to make sure we move towards solutions that truly serve everyone.

Further than the Article/Book processing charge. The APC model is coming to dominate the OA landscape, but is it helping us to fulfil the benefits promised by open access? Are BPCs sustainable and inclusive? Are there better ways of financing open access publishing?

Further than publish or perish. Many researchers are dissatisfied with a culture that rewards publications above all else and sets up perverse incentives. What alternatives are there, and can we make them work in practice? How should Cambridge approach the hiring and promotion of researchers?

Further than traditional publishing. The article format evolved at a time when journals circulated as print copies. In the digital era, can we do better? If we could design the ideal format for research publications, what would it look like? What models have been proposed so far, and how are they working?

For the full programme of sessions and accessibility information, please see our events page: https://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-access-where-next

Have you ever wondered who can access your research? Most articles and research outputs are locked up behind paywalls inside an ivory tower. Find out how to make your practice more open to reach a broader audience, spark collaborations and, most importantly, improve the quality of your research.

The OSC is delighted to bring you a lunchtime screening of the documentary that has taken Open Access issues to the big screen.

Paywall: The Business of Scholarship is a documentary which focuses on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google.

Bring your lunch and enjoy some popcorn!

Everyone is welcome to attend this free event: visit our booking page.

The principles of Plan S are set to change what funders require from researchers, placing a much greater emphasis on immediate Open Access and other open practices. While we've been busy preparing here in the UK, our colleagues in the US have not been idle.

Micah Vandegrift is the Open Knowledge Librarian at NC State University Libraries, where he works on community-building and advocating for Open Research. He will be sharing his perspective on the likely impact of Plan S on libraries, publishers, researchers and repositories.

Format: 20-30 minutes talk, followed by an opportunity to discuss these issues with others in the room.

Refreshments will be available from 11:30. Join us for an informal chat before the talk.

Resources: if you would like to refresh your knowledge of Plan S before the seminar, check out our Plan S Factsheet (https://osc.cam.ac.uk/files/copy_of_plan_s.pdf) and webinar (https://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/supporting-researchers-21st-century-programme/wednesday-webinars).

You've published your research...now what should you do with it? It seems we are expected to share more and more online, which can be both daunting and exciting. In this session we will look carefully at the benefits and barriers to sharing research, giving you an opportunity to consider a strategy that will work for you.

This session explores the whys and hows of sharing research - the options, the benefits and the logistics:

• Your aims and motivations for disseminating research
• Opportunities for sharing offered by social media and traditional media
• Pitfalls when creating an online presence
• Ways to find out who has been sharing, using and citing your published research

You've published your research...now what should you do with it?

This session explores the whys and hows of sharing research - the options, the benefits and the logistics.

Explore:

• Scholarly best practice for sharing research
• Opportunities for sharing offered by social media
• Benefits that sharing your research brings you and the wider community
• What your funder expects you to share.
• How to use the University repository, Apollo, to share your research and also access that of others
• Ways to find out who has been sharing, using and citing your published research

• Where should you publish your research?
• What publishing format should you choose?

This session looks at the things you need to consider in order to reach your audience effectively, including:

• Indicators to use to assess the appropriateness of a journal for your research - Journal Impact Factor, publisher fees and publication times
• Who should own the copyright to your work?
• How you can use other people’s copyrighted material

• Where should you publish your research?
• What publishing format should you choose?

This session looks at the things you need to consider in order to reach your audience effectively, including:

• Indicators to use to assess the appropriateness of a journal for your research - Journal Impact Factor, publisher fees and publication times
• Who should own the copyright to your work?
• How you can use other people’s copyrighted material

The University’s one-year Rights Retention pilot has taught the library a great deal about the practicalities of supporting self-archiving through rights retention. In a meeting in November 2022, the Research Policy Committee considered the findings from the pilot so far and endorsed the development of a self-archiving policy for researchers. We would like to invite you to attend a briefing session to gather your feedback.

Dear esteemed author...

So-called predatory publishers regularly approach researchers via email to solicit manuscripts and conference papers. With the emphasis on publishing as a measure of academic success still strong it can be easy to give in to temptation and flattery but this can do more harm than good to a future career.

This session will look at whether these publishers are a problem, how to spot a potential problem publisher or conference and the best advice to offer researchers if they are approached.

Many researchers consider publishing a book, often in the form of a monograph, and the process can be daunting the first time around. You will get the starter-kit to get your idea off the ground, with a collection of tips and tools to make your life easier. By the end of the session, you'll have the basic knowledge -and more importantly the confidence- to take your publishing project further.

Have your say to help us negotiate the best possible read and publish agreement with Springer Nature.

UK Universities are negotiating with Springer Nature with the aim to reach a sustainable and affordable read and publish deal. Read more.

Experts from Jisc will facilitate discussions with small groups of Cambridge researchers about your experience with the publishing process and how you get access to the materials you read. By taking part, you will help to shape the approach to negotiations and communications over the next few months. This will also be an opportunity to deepen your understanding of how the negotiations are conducted, the issues involved in academic publishing, and the way colleagues in different disciplines approach these questions.

This course covers the practical steps you need to take in order to ensure that work submitted for publication by University of Cambridge researchers is compliant for REF2021.

We will introduce the principles of open access and open research, and guide you through the necessary steps to meet the open access requirements of REF2021. We will demonstrate key processes for uploading work to Symplectic, including choosing the right version of a work to upload. There will be plenty of time in the session to ask questions.

This course will be useful to you if you:

• administer the uploading of research outputs to Symplectic Elements to make them open access
• manage Symplectic profiles

Open research not only furthers the global reach of your work, it accelerates the pursuit of knowledge and fosters truly international collaboration. The University of Cambridge promotes and supports open research, so how do you embed open research into your working practices?

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to learn more about exciting initiatives in the life and social sciences that are already changing research culture by enabling collaboration, improving access to knowledge, and putting transparency and reproducibility at the forefront of research.

• Professor Chris Chambers (University of Cardiff) will introduce Registered Reports, a format of preregistered empirical publication in which peer review happens prior to data collection and analysis. Registered Reports aim to eradicate a variety of questionable research practices, including low statistical power, selective reporting of results, and publication bias, while allowing complete flexibility to report serendipitous findings. The initiative has been taken up by over 190 journals, including Cortex, outlets in the Nature group, generalist journals including Royal Society Open Science, and emerging clinical trial formats. Professor Chambers will discuss early evidence of impacts on the field and emerging Registered Report funding models in which journals and funders simultaneously assess proposed protocols.

• Professor Benedict Jones (University of Glasgow) leads the first Psychological Science Accelerator project, a globally distributed network of psychological science laboratories (currently over 400), representing over 50 countries on all six populated continents, that coordinates data collection for democratically selected studies. Discover how this diverse and inclusive project is accelerating the accumulation of reliable and generalizable evidence in psychological science, reducing the distance between truth about human behavior and mental processes and our current understanding.

Our speakers will also explore a range of allied initiatives, including the newly established UK Reproducibility Network. We will invite you to share your own experiences, questions and ideas.

Join us at 3pm for afternoon tea and a chance to network with our speakers and open advocates from the University community. Talks will begin at 3.30pm.

Researchers and students can now not only make their code and data available for their academic papers, but also enable others to reproduce the results with a single-click.

Code Ocean is an easy-to-use executable repository and reproducibility platform that facilitates replication and reuse of research code. This demo will provide an overview of the Code Ocean platform and explore benefits such as:

• preservation code will work today, tomorrow, next week, next year

• advanced tech suite of tools which follow reproducibility best practices

• impact enable easy reuse of code to extend research

• collaboration code is easy to share and discover.

Lunch will be provided.

Are you new to research data management or in need of a refresher? Join the OSC for a recap of all things RDM in an accessible one hour workshop.

This session will feature a whistle stop tour through the dos and don'ts of RDM in order to give attendees a brief overview of some of the major issues.

This session is being offered in conjunction with the new course Managing Data Management: Getting Started with Data Management Plan Support. The courses may be taken separately or as a pair to suit the needs of the individual learner.

PREVENT RESEARCH DISASTERS THROUGH GOOD DATA MANAGEMENT

• How much data would you lose if your laptop was stolen?
• Have you ever emailed your colleague a file named 'final_final_versionEDITED'?
• Do you know what your funder expects you to do with your research data?

As a researcher, you will encounter research data in many forms, ranging from measurements, numbers and images to documents and publications.

Whether you create, receive or collect this information, you will need to organise it.

Managing digital information properly is a complex issue. Doing it correctly from the start could save you a lot of time and hassle when preparing a publication or writing up your thesis.

• Do you manage and share software for research?
• Are you encountering problems when managing research code?
• Is current best practice working for you and your group - or not?
• Would you like to discuss solutions for these problems with other researchers and research software experts?

Jisc, in collaboration with SSI, University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield, University of Bath, University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, the British Library and STFC are inviting all researchers interested and passionate about developing or using research software to join a workshop on this subject.

• Bookings cannot be taken through UTBS. To book a place on this course please visit http://bit.ly/researchsoftwarebook

What's new in scholarly communication for 2018?

The world of scholarly communication and research support is a fast moving one. Many different external developments can influence local practices but the speed can make it hard to keep up. Join the OSC for this short and accessible webinar which outlines some of the key developments in the scholarly communication landscape over the last year including the launch of Plan S, the breakdown of negotiations with Elsevier in Europe and the current copyright lawsuits against ResearchGate.

The webinar will be delivered live and a recording will be made available. If you are unable to make the live session but would like access to the recording please register as normal.

Have you produced your own software? Did you know you can decide how others can reuse and share it? Do you know that there are a range of licences that you could apply to your work that determine how it can be used?

This workshop will explore why you should licence your software clearly and how to do so. A range of different licences will be explained as well as tools that can help you decide. Join the Research Data Management Facility and Neil Chue Hong from the Software Sustainability Institute to talk in detail about software licences.

Nothing with copyright is ever simple, so how do you know where to start?

From the fair dealing to sharing your research online, it seems that nothing with copyright is ever simple. There are few black and white rules about copyright but there are consequences for getting something wrong!

This webinar will cover some of the most common grey areas in copyright such as fair dealing and expiry dates and offer librarians some strategies to make decisions and help advise their research community on copyright issues.

We want to hear YOUR views on training. Are you struggling to find high-quality online resources? Looking forward to some live sessions to break the boredom? Fed up of training altogether? Whatever your thoughts are, we'd love to hear them.

Following the lockdown, the way we offer training has changed radically and we want to make sure that we are still meeting your needs. Come along for an informal chat with colleagues from Researcher Development and Cambridge University Libraries to help shape our programmes for the next academic year and beyond.

This is also a chance for you to reflect on your professional development and discuss it with other students and with experts. You will hear how other PhD students from a variety of disciplines approach their professional development. You will also find out more about what training opportunities exist at Cambridge.

This session will be held online via MS Teams, you will receive joining instructions the day before the session.

In February 2017, about 30 library staff met to discuss what University of Cambridge libraries could offer in the way of Text and Data Mining Services. Since then, various initiatives, discussions and events to move this issue forward have taken place. In this meeting a summary of the last year's activities, with particular emphasis on the main outcomes, will be presented, there will be an update on some initiatives currently in progress and there will be an opportunity to discuss the way ahead.

The session will take place at the Department of Chemistry in the Todd-Hamied Meeting Room.

The Office of Scholarly Communication is participating in an RLUK Workshop on the topic of libraries and Text and Data Mining (T&DM) on 9 March this year.

We invite you to join the OSC and our colleagues from the University Library and Affiliated Libraries for a round table discussion on what we can expect libraries to do in the area of T&DM.

The key aims of the session are to share experiences about T&DM, and to discuss the questions and requirements we might have in terms of developing a support service.

We will explore:

• some background on what T&DM is
• the legal situation with T&DM
• who is doing what - and how?

The nature of research is changing. What is the potential of text & data mining (TDM)to impact on this? How are researchers today using TDM to cope with the ever-increasing amount of information available? Are funder and publisher policies adapting to reflect both the legal right UK researcher have to mine published literature and the new possibilities TDM now present? These are some of the questions we will be asking in this day of talks, workshops and discussions.

Join plenary speaker Kiera McNeice of the FutureTDM project, Cambridge researchers and the National Centre for Text Mining, along with guest speakers from UCL, PLOS and more to discover:

• practical tips for TDM
• what TDM tools are available
• advice on supporting researchers using, or considering using, TDM
• improving the quality of research through TDM
• innovations in TDM – new uses for technologies in research

Coffee and lunch will be provided and the day will end with a summer drinks reception.

There is a charge for this event. These charges are:

• £10 for University of Cambridge members
• £50 for all other attendees

Once you have booked your place here, please follow this link to make your payment: http://onlinesales.admin.cam.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/university-library/text-data-mining-symposium/text-data-mining-symposium

Can't make the symposium? Watch the opening Plenary and closing roundtable discussions via live-stream from 11:00 on Wednesday 12 July by following this link: http://cam.adobeconnect.com/osc2/ Simply select to 'Enter as Guest' (no need to create an Adobe Connect account).

You can also catch up when the recordings are available on the Office of Scholarly Communication 'Recordings of Past Events' page: http://osc.cam.ac.uk/events/recordings-past-events

A program for the day can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1l4N2fSFgpL3iMbjKC3IxHz7GpNVvERB5NzxqWp8jZQo/edit?usp=sharing

We warmly invite you to join us to hear what the Office of Scholarly Communication has been up to over the past twelve months.

This is an opportunity to find out more about who we are, what Scholarly Communication is, and what we've been doing within the Cambridge libraries community and the wider University. Learn about some of the exciting projects that are underway, locally and as part of the international field of Scholarly Communication.

We hope you can join us for the whirlwind tour!

You’ve heard of it but what’s all the fuss about?

Since it was announced in September 2018 there has been a great deal of coverage around Plan S – the new initiative for Open Access publishing. The plan calls for all scientific publications resulting from grants funded by public research to be made available on compliant journals or platforms. This decision has drawn both praise and alarm from the research community but what does it all mean?

This webinar will discuss the history of Plan S, the principles that make up the plan and the arguments both in favour and against.

The Publishing Trap is a board game designed to introduce researchers to scholarly publishing. Looking at the world of scholarly communication, this interactive game aims to offer researchers a better understanding of the implications of copyright on the publication process. Players will be guided through the different stages of a researcher career from PhD submission to Professorship, making decisions on a range of scenarios. The aim of the game is to develop an understanding of how money, copyright and publishing models will impact an academic career.

Learn more about the game here: https://copyrightliteracy.org/resources/the-publishing-trap/

The Publishing Trap was designed by Dr Jane Secker and Chris Morrison (UK Copyright Literacy) and is used under a CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

Join the OSC as we bring the popular Superhero Librarian Roadshow back to Cambridge! Library and information professionals are often involved in innovative projects and initiatives but unless we shout about it this work often goes unnoticed by both the outside world and the institutions we work in. This interactive workshop, led by Leo Appleton from Goldsmiths, University of London and Wendy Morris from Kingston University, aims to change that!

Offering a range of practical activities and exercises this workshop enables participants to consider their day to day work, how this has led to professional achievements and build the confidence to share these outcomes beyond the library echo chamber. Participants will be invited to think about how they might celebrate such successes by sharing their best practice through various activities including conferences, publication and social media. By the end of the workshop participants will be aware of some of the platforms available to them and how professional pride and success can potentially be celebrated.

What is Open Research, and what does it mean for you?

• Would you like to share your research findings with the international academic community, without paywall restrictions?
• Would you like to boost citations of your work?
• Did you know that funders recognise the benefits of Open Access and most now require it as a condition of their grants?

These are questions for academics at all stages of their research.

Join us to explore:

• everything you need to know about Open Access and data sharing in the humanities, arts and social sciences
• how to use the University's Repository, Apollo, to publish your research and gain citations
• the training and advisory services offered by the OSC to facilitate your research and career development

What is Open Research, and what does it mean for you?

• Would you like to share your research findings with the international academic community, without paywall restrictions?
• Would you like to boost citations of your work?
• Did you know that funders recognise the benefits of Open Access and most now require it as a condition of their grants?

These are questions for academics at all stages of their research.

Join us to explore:

• everything you need to know about Open Access and data sharing in STEM disciplines
• how to use the University's Repository, Apollo, to publish your research and gain citations
• the training and advisory services offered by the OSC to facilitate your research and career development

Understanding the peer review process gives you an invaluable insight into a key aspect of the research life cycle. This is an unmissable chance to explore tips and best practices with PLOS, publishers of the world's largest multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

The Office of Scholarly Communication invites you to join PLOS for an essential introduction to peer review. This session will allow you to develop an understanding of what peer review is and how it can impact the experience of researchers. Learn how you can use your existing skills to provide support and advice.

The session will also be useful for library staff who are interested in undertaking peer review themselves but are unsure of exactly what is involved.

You'll learn...

• how to support researchers who are conducting peer review
• the 3 questions researchers should always ask when they're asked to do a review
• how to get ready to review and be recognized for the work
• how to read a manuscript with peer review in mind
• how to write ideal feedback.

Stay on after the workshop to chat to PLOS staff and editors and enjoy light refreshments.

The contract between academic publisher Elsevier and UK Universities is due for renewal in December 2021. The UK Universities sector is entering negotiations with Elsevier with two core objectives: to reduce costs to levels UK universities can sustain, and to provide full and immediate open access to UK research.

The outcome of negotiations may affect how you read and publish research. If we have to step away from a deal, the way you access some publications may change. Many funders have open access requirements, and a deal could mean that you can publish in open access journals ‘for free’ as the cost are incorporated in the deal, as is already the case with many other publishers. If a deal cannot be reached, some Elsevier journals may no longer fulfil funder policies.

Come along to this virtual town hall meeting to hear more about the aims of the negotiations and their potential impacts, and to contribute your own views to the debate.

The event will include:

• Summary of negotiation process and Cambridge approach
• Perspectives on the negotiations from two academics
• Audience Q&A

You can find out more about the negotiations on this webpage: https://www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk/publishing-open-access/university-cambridge-and-elsevier-draft-landing-page

You can submit questions in advance of the meeting through this form: https://forms.office.com/r/TL1Meq91E1

Please note that these talks may be recorded and shared within the University of Cambridge, although audience questions will not be.

Do metrics really add up?

Metrics have long been used as an indicator of academic success and as a way to make key decisions. As the measurement of impact becomes increasingly important within academia there has been something of a backlash against trusting purely quantitative methods of assessment. The Responsible Metrics movement aims to ensure that metrics are used fairly alongside other measures to gather a true assessment of impact.

This webinar will discuss what the Responsible Metrics movement is, why it was developed, its importance and how library staff can best educate their research staff.

Getting published is just the first step…

Getting academic output published is a great accomplishment for any researcher but it’s not the end of the story. Promoting and sharing their work in a variety of ways can help to increase the impact of the original publication and can also be a useful tool for the library to show how their help is contributing.

This Librarian Toolkit session on helping researchers publish looks at the benefits of promoting research, the tools both researchers and librarians can use and how to link this with general advocacy for open research.