Theme: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 

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.