Last open access briefing this term!

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We have one more open access briefing this term – it’s on Friday 25th November 12-1pm in the SURF Room, Fulton House, Singleton Park Campus. Book your place here!

All Swansea University researchers need to ensure their publications comply with the REF Open Access policy, the institutional policy and any funder policies. Not sure what you need to do? Come along and find out!

We will give an overview of the new Open Access policy for the next REF – this policy places the responsibility on authors to “deposit their work and consider their open access options” but the Library Research Support Team can help with this. As well as widening readership beyond those who can afford expensive journal subscriptions, open access is being shown to boost citations and impact so authors should benefit from the extra effort required by these funder policies.

Come along to find out:

– what needs to be done on RIS when you have an output accepted for publication

– the pros and cons of the different options for making outputs open access, including potential costs and sources of funding.

– how the Library Research Support team can help you

The session will be led by Sam Oakley, Research Librarian (s.l.c.oakley@swansea.ac.uk)

 

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HEFCE’s REF Open Access policy tweaked again

 

HEFCE have recently made a further amendment to their open access policy for the next REF, extending the leniency for the first year until 1 April 2018, with a further review expected in autumn 2017.

The leniency refers only to the specific policy requirement on how soon authors must upload their files into RIS:

The policy continues to require that, in order to be eligible for submission to the REF, outputs must be deposited within three months of acceptance for publication, but we now plan that this requirement will apply to outputs accepted after Sunday 1 April 2018.

Outputs accepted between 1 April 2016 and 1 April 2018 must be deposited within three months of publication.

Given that HEFCE are still strongly advocating the message to deposit at acceptance and this is also the requirement of the university’s own open access policy, the key message to Swansea University researchers remains:

“Upload the accepted manuscript to RIS at acceptance!”

Link to the updated REF OA policy

Further information on open access for Swansea University researchers

Contact iss-research@swansea.ac.uk for help and guidance

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Staff Session: Using Social Media to Maximise the impact of your Research

We have a great session running at Swansea Uni next week on “Using Social Media to Maximise the impact of your Research“. The session is being led by Luca Borger, our Associate Professor from Biosciences, who will be sharing his expertise and experience in using social media as a researcher.

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“Social Media is used by thousands of researchers to grow their networks and share data. This course will show you how social media can help your research and potentially increase the citations of your research. There will be insights from practitioners who use a variety of tools to help them reach new audiences.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand the value of various social media platform and how they can help you
  • Learn from other academics the benefits of using social media to increase citations etc.
  • Use the most valuable social media platform to maximise the impact of your research”

The session is on Wednesday 23rd November 2-3.30pm in the REIS Seminar Room 257 on Floor 2 of the Talbot Building on Singleton Park campus.

Booking is essential as places are limited: staff can sign up via the ‘My Courses’ module in ABW (course code 374).

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New in Scival: grants & mentions in the news.

Scival is an online tool which works with data from Scopus to allow analysis of research in various ways. In the latest release this month they have added funding data (taken directly from the funders) which allows you to compare universities or researchers in terms of the grants they receive. You can look at all the funders covered or select particular ones to compare.

The other main new feature this month is called “Societal impact”. This looks at the number of mentions a university has had in newspapers or online.scival-societal-impact

It doesn’t break this down in any great detail so you might also like to look at altmetrics if you are interested in this area.

More detail in the Scival release notes.

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Raising your research profile – resources

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We are running some sessions for postgraduate students this term on raising your online research profile. This post is a summary of some of the topics we will be discussing. (It could also have a subtitle: “How many places do I have to keep up to date?!?”)

Establishing your identity

Distinguishing yourself and your publications is vital not only so people can discover your work and give you credit for it, but also for the accuracy of bibliometrics for your work:

  1. ORCID has become the de-facto standard researcher identifier, adopted by many funding bodies, publishers and other organisations. We have it embedded in Swansea University systems for staff; it can also be used to set up an ImpactStory profile (see below). Sign up at ORCID.org : we have a guide (PDF) if you need one.
  2. Google Scholar profile: gather your publications on Google Scholar to get a neat profile page (example) and citation stats. Improves discoverability of your work – your name becomes a hyperlink to your profile in Google Scholar results. We have a guide (PDF) if you need one.
  3. Scopus ID: Scopus is mighty Elsevier database (login needed off campus) has a STEM focus but is expanding its coverage of other subject areas. It is the source of bibliometrics for university world rankings and other assessments. Check your papers are credited to you and you also get useful stats on your citations and profile. We have a guide (PDF) if you need one to curating your profile there.
  4. Researcher ID: this originated in the Web of Science database, another (rival) source of bibliometrics. See a sample profile and ensure you are credited with all your papers on Web of Science. We have a guide (PDF) if you need one.
  5. ImpactStory uses an ORCID to provide you with a profile page that lists your publications and mentions. An account is free. We have blogged on it here or you can take a look at a Swansea University profile.

Networking

As well as general social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, the sites with a specific academic focus can act as a “shop window” for your research and publications. Most come with their own set of pros and cons, mostly relating to how predatory and spammy the site becomes once you have set up a profile…

  • Academia.eduhttps://www.academia.edu/ The largest network but possibly not the most active. Encourages connections and uploading of publications. Despite the .edu domain, the site is a for-profit company.
  • ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net; build a network and add your publications. Like Academia.edu, the site encourages uploading of full text – most of this does not comply with publisher copyright permissions so act with caution. The Wikipedia article highlights the main criticisms of the site, most notably the aggressive email approach it has taken to lure new members.
  • Piirushttps://www.piirus.ac.uk/ Linked to the jobs.ac.uk portal, the site promotes membership to develop your networking and consultancy opportunities.

Also in this section are what Katy Jordan terms “modified academic tools”, sites which have a practical purpose but which have also developed networking facilities:

  • Slideshare: upload presentations (or documents); you can also follow people, comment etc. Now owned by LinkedIn and increasingly integrated with that network. See Katy Jordan’s presentation on Academic Social Networking Sites as an example.
  • Mendeley: now owned by Elsevier, the site is increasingly being promoted as a network as well as a reference management tool.
  • Zotero: another reference management tool which has a “People” facility too

Getting started on social media (for researchers)

Use of social media to promote one’s research and boost impact is a huge topic of debate. The LSE Impact blog has many posts relating to different aspects of the pros and cons for engaging on platforms such as Twitter. This also relates to the use of altmetrics which we have discussed elsewhere.

Some useful starting points could be:

We will be re-running our “7 Days of Twitter” online course for Swansea University researchers, starting 2nd December 2016.

Please share any useful articles or resources in the comments that you think we should be mentioning!

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International Open Access Week

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The theme of International Open Access week is Learn, Share, Advance – a timely reminder that open access is not only about REF compliance but is a chance to share your work widely and advance the sum of human knowledge.

This interview with an Indian academic shows that open access is valued in the developing world.

For stories where there is public interest open access papers can have a huge impact. For example, a paper in Scientific Reports on the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly was accessed over a quarter of a million times in its first month of publication. It is easy to forget that many members of the public who normally have no access to academic journals still have a keen interest in research.

Swansea University currently has 1824 open access items on Cronfa and 517 embargoed ready to become open access in future – an increase of 73% since October 2015. Please remember to add your work – there will be someone out there who really wants to read it!

If you need help to make your work open access:

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Courses for research postgraduates this term

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Library staff offer a range of courses for research postgraduates, aimed at helping them to develop their library and research skills in line with the Vitae Researcher Development Framework. Courses run as part of the University Postgraduate Research programme and can be booked here.

Courses this term include advanced literature searching, EndNote, tracing theses, finding financial information, working smarter with tools and apps, and finding your research network. A full listing and descriptions can be found on our web pages.

There are also additional EndNote classes open to anyone on Friday 28th October, 2-3.30, Wednesday 23rd November 1-2.30 and Thursday 1 December 3-4.30 in Training Room 3 in Singleton Library and Wednesday 16th November 10-11.30 in the Bay Library PC Rm 1. You can just drop in to these.

Don’t forget that subject librarians are always willing to see individual students to discuss the best resources for their work or help with any of topics covered by our courses. Contact details can be found by selecting the relevant library guide for your subject at http://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/

 

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