IT Services

Open Access Research Data

November 2013 update

1

IT Services

• IT• Gavin McLachlin, UCL• Sebastian Rahtz, Oxford• Sean Duffy, Birmingham• John Owen, Birmingham

• Library• Janet Peters, Cardiff• Mike Mertens, RLUK

• Research Support• Kevin Schurer, Leicester• Ricky Rankin, Queens• Soma Mukherjee, Nottingham

2

Open Access Research Data SIG meeting

IT Services

• RLUK developing policy proposals• Issues of ‘double-dipping’ subscriptions/APCs• Possibility of ‘vouchers’ from publishers to use against subscriptions• Variety of business models still in play• Developing a modelling tool with Jisc Collections• Growing appetite for a shared publication service for HE

• Remove VAT and profit• For publications not targeting prestige journals

3

Update on Open Access Publications

IT Services

• General HE stance• Respond positively, with legitimate concerns re practicality etc

• Protection of Freedoms Act 2012• Machine readable open data

• Three focuses• Delivering open access• Monitoring• Data security

• Push for central data repositories• Training to address skills gap

4

Research Sector Transparency Board

IT Services

• RG survey – 6 respondents• Benefits

• OA supporting research, increased citations, v.little economic benefit• Risks

• Data (personal) security, loss of IP, misinterpretation of data• Barriers

• Researcher culture, ease of use / access• RDM policies within institutions• Skills• Costs

• Recognition of the scale – staff costs expected to exceed IT

5

Russell Group initiative

IT Services

• The issue of internal recharges being accepted by funders• Possibility of whether ‘pure incremental hardware costs for a shared

central service’ would be acceptable• Re-emphasis on domain specific repositories where they exist

• National or institutional repositories for the rest• Challenge of international – collaboration, IP/licensing• Challenge of cross-disciplinary research

• Tiered .v. flat storage• Complexity, costs, economies

• Cultural change for researchers• Barrier, motivation, who is really interested in the data

• Standards for meta-data• Cross-university searching• Discipline driven

6

Themes of discussion

IT Services

• Staff skills• Scarcity of data librarians across the sector

• Published open data able to be consumed• Documentation of the context / assumptions etc of the data• Design data for reuse from the outset

• License rights on the data• Legislation constraints – guidance needed• FOI – no right to distribute, OA – right to distribute

• 10 year rule (since last access)• Inability to predict cost

• UK sector repositories?• Critical mass – storage, curators• Regional groups?

7

Themes of discussion

IT Services

• Learn from existing repositories – EBI, UK Data Archive• Draft a RG SIG position paper

• Desired principles – eg domain repositories, 10 yrs, standards• Assumptions

• What data is in scope for OA• Cross charging

• Identify further work required• Licensing• Attributions• Meta data standards• Search• Skills

• Develop jointly a ‘shared advocacy script’• RG, RLUK/SCONUL, UCISA, UUK, ARMA, RSTB

8

Next steps