• 10 things you need to know about Research Metrics
• 10 things you need to know about Open Research
• 10 things you should know about Open Access in the Arts and Humanities
• 10 things you need to know about Open Access in STEM
• 10 things you need to know about Article Processing Charges
• 10 Things you need to know to get your article published
• 10 things you need to know about Social Media and Research Dissemination
• 10 Things You Need to Know About Academic Journal Publishing
• 10 Things You Should Know About Open Licenses
• 10 Things You Should Know About Preprints
• 10 Things You Need to Know About Data Management
• 10 things you should know about Personal Data
• 10 Things You Need to Know About IReL

National Bodies

National Open Research Forum (NORF)

NORF is a representative body of all stakeholders involved in open research in Ireland.  In 2019 NORF produced a document called National Framework on the Transition to an Open Research Environment. The purpose of NORF is to propose national actions to promote open research practices as outlined in the Framework. The Forum combines the expertise of representatives from policy, research funding, research performing, the library sector, enterprise and other key stakeholders in the research system from across Ireland. NORF has a number of working groups: open access, FAIR Data, Infrastructures, Skills & Competencies, Incentives and rewards.

NORF is co-chaired by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Health Research Board (HRB) with secretariat from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). It is coordinated by the National Open Research Coordinator, based at the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI). NORF currently (September 2022) has a number of funding calls open for projects to develop open research in Ireland.

To contact NORF, please email the National Open Research Coordinator, Dr Daniel Bangert.

HRB Open Research

This is a publishing platform for HRB (Health Research Board) researchers. The aim is rapid publication of results.  Once the authors have finalised the manuscript and the editorial team have carried out the necessary checks, the article is published within a week. Expert reviewers are invited and their reports and names are published alongside the article, together with the authors' responses.

European Bodies

European Research Area (ERA)

To create a single market for research innovation and technology across the EU. It will prioritise investments and reforms in research and innovation, boost market update, strengthen the mobility of researchers and the free flow of knowledge and technology and improve access to excellence.

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/our-digital-future/european-research-area_en

European Open Science Cloud

This is an initiative by the European Commission and intends to provide a one-stop shop for European researchers in a multitude of disciplines to find, publish and reuse data, tools and services for research and educational purposes. Ultimately, EOSC will provide a range of resources and services for science in Europe on which can be built a whole range of value-added services such as visualisation and analytics to long-term preservation or the monitoring of the uptake of open research practices.

In the initial stages (2018-2020) the European Commission invested around €250 million to prototype components of the EOSC through calls for projects under Horizon 2020.  The current phase of implementation is taking place as part of the EOSC European co-programmed partnership launched at the Research and Innovation Days 2021 and according to a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) which is co-developed with the entire EOSC community. This is reflective of a more stakeholder-driven approach. It is estimated that there will be an investment of at least one billion for the next seven years. Governance is provided by the EU, EOSC Steering Board  and the research community represented by the EOSC Association to resource and support the implementation of the EOSC ecosystem in Europe.

It is very important for Ireland to build bridges with the larger European research area. The EOSC association (Ireland’s representative is the HEA) will provide direction for international policies and standards. EOSC, and adoption of a common open science approach, will equally serve to advance open science policies at national level. There is then a vested interest for Ireland, and all Member States and Associated Countries, in aligning with the EOSC vision.

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/our-digital-future/open-science/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en

OpenAire

Is an enabler of open research and helps researchers, project managers, repository managers and funders in different ways. Its mission is to shift scholarly communication towards openness and transparency and facilitate innovative ways to communicate and monitor research.  It provides a number of services that help researchers discover and manage their research. For example ARGOS allows a researcher to develop a data management plan on the cloud or Episciences is a web platform that allows researchers to easily publish and promote their preprints to Open Access Overlay journals. It provides a network in over 35 countries with a National Open Access Desk in each country which can provide advice and support. It also serves as a technical infrastructure that gathers research findings from connected data providers.

Combining knowledge with this research information platform enables OpenAIRE to provide services to researchers, research support organizations, funders, and content providers. Some of these services include:

• Integrated scientific information - where the publication, datasets, and project information for each funder, project, or content provider are all in one place
• Training sessions and support on all subjects about Open Science and Open Science policy
• Ability to exchange content and metadata amongst data providers
• An open science helpdesk.

OpenAire is contributing to Open Science as a Service (OSaaS) for example the institutional repository for the Eut+ is provided by OpenAire who harvest from the 8 Alliance members and provide a common  interface. As a key European e-infrastructure for open science, OpenAIRE will make a valuable contribution to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). This Cloud aims at providing academics of all disciplines with open access to digital functionalities, resources and competences. 

Open Research Europe

Open Research Europe is an open access publishing platform for the publication of research stemming from Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and Euratom funding across all subject areas. At least one author must be involved in a running or finished Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or Euratom project from the EU and the article must be as a result of that project.

Articles are published rapidly once accepted. Peer review by invited experts, suggested by the authors, takes place openly after publication. An article remains published regardless of the reviewers' reports. Authors are encouraged to respond to reviewers.

All articles are published under a CC BY license. Publishing and peer review processes are fully transparent and, where appropriate, authors are asked to include detailed descriptions of methods and to provide easy access to the source data underlying the results in order to improve reproducibility.

Open Research (or Open Science/Scholarship) is increasingly becoming the normal environment for research outputs. Researchers are constantly being told to make your work Open Access, make sure your data is open, has it got identifiers etc. etc. Anything that makes it easier for researchers to understand this area is a good thing and anything that makes the process less painful is a really good thing! Enter Open Research Games. This is a collaboration between Aisling Coyne (TU Dublin), Sarah Coombs (Saxion University) and Katrine Sundsbø (DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)) who have produced several fun games to make understanding easier. The initial game that all researchers should play is the Open Access Escape room.

Open Access Escape Room – created by Katrine Sundsbø (CC-BY)

This is an introduction to Open Access Publishing. Teams of people come together in a room and compete against each other in order to save Open Access material from being permanently closed down by Open Access haters! Topics covered include the colours of Open Access, embargo periods, article processing charges, predatory journals and much more. This is a fun way to start the conversation about Open Access and can be customised for a variety of audiences from Undergraduate Students to Senior Management Teams in Universities. The game takes approx. 45 minutes followed by a discussion.

The organisers have run these workshops a number of times and have found that people engage with the game much more than they will with a PowerPoint presentation. By actually playing the game, people really understand the complex issues involved.

If you are interested in organising an Open Access Escape Room for students, staff, support staff; or to learn about other games, please contact our Open Scholarship Librarian, Aisling Coyne (Aisling.coyne@tudublin.ie).