Author: Hardy Schwamm

First Lancaster University Open Research Café 21 November 2018

Why have an Open Research Café?

During Data Conversations our researcher community demonstrated an interest in discussions that move beyond open data to broader discussions around open research paradigms and practices. The library explored possibilities with our Psychology department’s PROSPR (Promoting Open Science Practices) group about how we might provide a forum for those discussions. Enter the Open Research Café.

The Open Research Café is co-designed by PROSPR and the Library and will be a regular event built around the following principles:

  • Informal
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Community-led
  • Open to researchers and support staff from all levels
  • Facilitates discussions on different aspects of Open Research

What happened?

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Open Research Update

A lot is happening in the world of Open Research at the moment! Here are a few words on what is important to us in the Library at Lancaster University.

Open Science versus Open Research?

Let’s start with the slightly confusing terminology. One of the “Goals of research and innovation policy” of the European Commission is Open Science which defined as “an approach to the scientific process that focuses on spreading knowledge as soon as it is available using digital and collaborative technology.” Moving to the useful FOSTER site they have an Introductory Course on Open Science which is very good and concise summary.

Meanwhile, the Wellcome Trust is advocating for Open Research, a way of “unleashing” the full potential of research. The publisher SpringerNature claims to be “a pioneer in the field of Open Research”.

Open Science = Open Research? It seems to be the case. Our colleagues at Cambridge state that both terms are interchangeable. We at Lancaster University will stick with Open Research as it seems to be the more comprehensive term including all fields of research.

Plan S – A gamechanger for Open Access?

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Impressions from Liber Conference 2018 in Lille

I was lucky enough to attend this years 47th Liber Annual Conference from 4-6 July in the French city of Lille. The theme was “Research Libraries as an Open Science Hub: from Strategy to Action” which is very much close to my heart. I want to highlight a few interesting presentations and talks I attended. If you want to find out more, presentations are available at https://liberconference.eu/2018-presentations/ and Zenodo.

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Data Interview on “Messy Data”

Our latest Data Interview features our two Jisc sponsored Data Champions, Dr Jude Towers and Dr David Ellis. Jude is a Lecturer in Sociology and Quantitative Methods and David a Lecturer in Computational Social Science in our Psychology Department.

Jude and David recently presented at a Jisc event on ‘Stories from the Field: Data are Messy and that’s (kind of) ok’.

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Data Interview with Alison Scott-Baumann and Shuruq Naguib

Our latest Data Interview follows up a presentation at our 2nd Data Conversation. Alison Scott-Baumann (Professor of Society & Belief SOAS) and Dr Shuruq Naguib (Lecturer in Politics, Philosophy and Religion Lancaster) are working on the Re/presenting Islam on Campus project. Re/presenting Islam on Campus is a three year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It explores how Islam and Muslims are represented and perceived on UK University campuses.

We had the opportunity to discuss research data issues surrounding their project. It turned out to be a highly interesting conversation on topics such as confidentiality, the limits of anonymisation, legal frameworks and the freedom of speech.

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Data Interview with Jude Towers

Already our third Data Interview! This time with Dr Jude Towers. Jude is Lecturer in Sociology and Quantitative Methods and the Associate Director Violence and Society UNESCO Centre. She holds Graduate Statistician status from the Royal Statistical Society, is an Accredited Researcher through the ONS Approved Researcher Scheme, and is level 3 vetted by Lancashire Constabulary. Her current research is focused on the measurement of violence. Jude also presented at the first Data Conversations.

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Data Interview with Jo Knight

This is our second Data Interview. This time we were glad to have a chat with Dr Jo Knight.

Jo is a Reader within the CHICAS research group, Research Director in the Lancaster Medical School and theme lead for Health within Lancaster’s Data Science Institute. Jo has experience in developing new methods for analysing genetic data as well as experience in applying known techniques to a large variety of datasets.

The Conversation by Michael Dunne, Flickr, CC BY-NC

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2nd Data Conversations 4 May 2017 – Data Security and Confidentiality

The 2nd Data Conversations had the theme of Data Security and Confidentiality. More than 20 Lancaster researcher attended. It was nice to start with a slice of pizza and a brew.

Always nice to start an event with food!

As at the 1st Data Conversations we had five lightning talks:

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Sharing Qualitative Data Workshop

On 5 April we invited Libby Bishop to give a workshop on how to share qualitative data. Libby is well known in the Research Data Management (RDM) world as the Manager for Producer Relations at the UK Data Archive (University of Essex) although she introduced herself as a “maverick social science researcher”.

Libby explaining the workshop plan

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Data Interview with David Ellis (Part 2)

This is part 2 (of two) of a Data Interview with Dr David Ellis (@davidaellis). David is a Lecturer in Computational Social Science and holds a 50th Anniversary Lectureship in Psychology at Lancaster University.

Part 1 of our Data Interview with David Ellis

Picture from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opendata.png CC-BY-SA

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