research culture – Opening Research

First book published under the UKRI open access policy

We are very excited to share that ‘Pushing the Paradigm of Global Water Security’, co-edited by Victoria Anker, Rachael Maysels and Maria Valasia Peppa, from the Newcastle University School of Engineering, has been published open access (OA), by IWA Publishing. https://doi.org/10.2166/9781789062540

This book brings together early career researchers, non-governmental organisations and industry practitioners, indigenous and local communities, and government agency workers to interrogate the concept of water security. Most notably, the authors push for the radical acceptance of the indivisibility of environmental conservation, social stability, and economic vitality. Essential reading for water practitioners, policy makers, and multilateral organisations in the development sector, it is also a must-read for doctoral and master’s students working at intersections of water, and undergraduates who want to challenge their subject-specific perspectives on water and push disciplinary boundaries.

This is the first book published at Newcastle as a result of the UKRI open access policy for long-form publications, with open access costs covered by UKRI funding.

Open publishing of research increases the visibility and accessibility of the research, increasing the potential reach of the work to audiences online anywhere in the world, without the need to pay to read. Books published open access receive more views, with OA books considered to have ten times more downloads than non-OA books and more than double the number of citations [1]. They also have a higher geographic diversity of usage and reach more countries [1]. Research has also shown that OA publication has the potential to increase digital and print revenue, depending on the sales models used [2].

Comments from Victoria Anker (editor):

In the current academic climate, there is an expectation that our outputs will be made open access – and this should be standard for any research funded by the UK government. This book represents a new way of thinking about water security, which is designed to be useful to people outside of the academic sphere. These sorts of organisations don’t usually have access to traditional academic journals. As such, we are particularly grateful to Newcastle University for enabling open access through [the UKRI open access fund], which may not otherwise have been possible.

Comments from Wegayehy Asfaw (contributor):

This achievement means a lot to us, and I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the editors and contributors who have worked tirelessly to bring this project to fruition.

The contribution from the Early Career Network is truly remarkable, and I believe it will have a significant impact across disciplines and around the globe. Together, we are addressing critical challenges and proposing innovative solutions for water security.

In summing up this achievement, Wegayehy Asfaw said

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication. Let’s celebrate this milestone and continue making a difference!

Comments from Catherine Flynn (ESRC)

The Early Career Network brings hope for a bright future, not only in water security, but in international development and international partnerships.

The UKRI open access policy aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built upon. The policy was updated at the beginning of 2024 from previously focusing on peer-reviewed research articles to now include long-form outputs, namely book chapters, monographs and edited collections.

Full details of the UKRI open access policy and how we in Library Research Services can support you to publish open access can be found on our UKRI Policy for long-form publications page.

If you have any questions or concerns about the policy, and how this might affect any current or future publications, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.

[1] Neylon C, Ozaygen A, Montgomery L, Huang C-K (Karl), Pyne R, Lucraft M & Emery C 2021 More readers in more places: the benefits of open access for scholarly books Insights: the UKSG journal 34 (1) p 27 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.558

[2] Brown L, Dayan M, McLaughlin B, Schonfeld R C, Sherer J & van Rijn E 2023 Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study Ithaka S+R DOI: https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.319642

Open Access Support Sessions Return

Following the success of our Open Access Support Sessions earlier in the year, our monthly informal sessions will be returning from September.

Are you looking for advice and information on open access or managing publications? Come to one of our monthly drop-in sessions and meet members of the Library Research Services team, who will be happy to answer questions on:

Publishing open access
Understanding research funder policy requirements
Copyright and licencing issues relating to your publications
Uploading your publications to MyImpact

Whether you’re a seasoned researcher, student or simply keen to explore the possibilities within open access, these sessions offer a welcoming space to ask questions, gain insights and delve deeper into the realm of open access.

Each session will focus on a specific area and how this relates to open access:

19th Sept 2024 Introduction to Library Research Services 13.00-13.45

17th Oct 2024 Research Data and Publications 13.00-13.45

15th Nov 2024 The benefits of ORCiD 13.00-13.45

18th Dec 2024 Licencing for OA funder compliance 13.00-13.45

All are welcome!

These are informal sessions, however, registration is required for you to receive the online teams link.

Open Access Fund Pilot 2023/24 – A review

In April 2023, the Library was awarded a small grant after applying to the QR Enhancing Research Culture (ERC) Project fund. This project application aimed to address a gap in University support for open access publishing. The funds requested were used to pay article processing charges (APCs) for papers published in fully open access journals. Relevant articles were either the outcome of non-funded research activity (i.e. research that has not been funded through research council, industry or charity funding assigned to a specific project) or those that did not receive financial support for open access publishing from their associated funder (e.g. where there is no dedicated policy or funds for publishing open access). The aim was to remove a financial barrier to publishing research, giving authors more choice in where to publish their work while retaining their copyright.

Open publishing of research outputs increases visibility and accessibility of the research, which in turn can foster wider collaboration as more researchers are able to connect with each other’s work. Additionally, the wider public also gains access to the work, which is particularly significant for publicly funded activity. This forms part of the University’s approach to Open Research, encouraging researchers to incorporate open research practices into their work to make their processes and outputs more transparent and reproducible where possible. Open Research is a Top Priority Project in Newcastle’s Research Culture Programme and you can find out more about the broader open research activities by visiting the Library’s Open Research pages.

Currently, Newcastle University supports the publication of open access research by covering publishing costs through several publisher agreements and block grant funding received from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (specifically for papers acknowledging these funders). Other funders, such as National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), allow open access costs to be charged direct to the grant or by applying to the funder for associated costs. The Newcastle University Research Publications and Copyright Policy also enables immediate, at no cost, open access of the author accepted manuscript (the version post peer-review but before final publication) for articles published in hybrid (subscription) journals, where readers pay a fee to view the non-open access published content. However, publishing for non-funded research in fully open access journals currently sits outside of these routes. Non-funded research makes up a relatively small portion of our publications, however, periodically the Open Access team within Library Research Services are approached by authors in need of such provision. After consultation with authors that the team have previously been unable to assist, we proposed the pilot scheme to trial a possible solution to this publishing barrier.

The Open Access Funding for Non-funded Research (Pilot) went live in April 2023 and was advertised University wide. Applications were received from across all faculties and reviewed by faculty representatives, with subsequent publication payments organised by the Library. Applications closed in June 2023, which was earlier than expected as ERC project funds were rapidly allocated. In the 3-month application period, the Library received 14 applications (Table 1), 10 of which were eligible for funding, with 9 being accepted. Applications not approved for this scheme were eligible for open access publication via publisher agreements, block grants or faculty funding. All 9 accepted articles were peer-reviewed, and published, in a range of journals from BMJ, Elsevier, JMIR, MDPI, Society of Neuroscience and Springer Nature (see the list at the end).

Applications	Total		By Faculty
		Medical Science	Humanities and Social Sciences	Science, Agriculture & Engineering
Number of applications	14	7	3	4
Applications awarded open access funding	9	4	2	3

Table 1. Open Access funding application numbers by faculty

The pilot scheme was successful in demonstrating the need for financial support for some open access publications as these publications may not have been possible in the chosen journals without such provision. Feedback on the scheme (received July 2024) from the successful applicants to the fund was positive, see what they had to say below.

Open Access funding recipient 1:

“The OA process was extremely straight forward with timely communication and information to provide was not too onerous.

The funding allowed us to publish in a highly relevant Open journal in very good time from conducting the work. We have had much correspondence about our article since and shared this internationally. Our work is in medical education research and as such we don’t often have large pots of money that we can use to allow us to publish OA so this fund was crucial to us being able to do that.

I envisage a great need for this funding and if a similar fund was continued that would be highly important to driving our publication presence forward particularly in areas of education and also public/patient/community involvement in research where OA is essential.”

Open Access funding recipient 2:

“The funding and the way it was managed was very helpful and meant we were able to publish in a high profile journal […].

I know a few people in my networks have let me know they read it partly because it was in that particular journal and downloaded the open source data attached to it so far, and again because of the journal being known, it was identified and quoted in [an] online news site […].

Overall I’d say being able to publish it using the open access fund has increased its impact and been very positive! It would certainly be very useful for future publications too.”

Open Access funding recipient 3:

“Open Access funding enabled me to publish my study in a good quality journal. Since it is fully open access, I have got reasonable number of citations within the first year after publication. My study is being recognised by many researchers all around the world and they even contribute to their own research. I would not have done it without the support of this fund by the University. I appreciate this support and want this chance to continue in the future because it is really important for a researcher that their research reaches out to everyone without any restriction.”

In 2018 an Open Access publishing initiative ‘Plan S’ was launched, supported by an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations (cOAlition S). According to the Plan S principles of transformative arrangements (TAs) “all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo”. With hybrid titles moving to fully open access, the removal of financial support for TAs from 2025 and uncertainties in funding in general, we predict that interest in a central fund to support the publication of non-funded research will continue.

One learning outcome from the scheme was the acknowledgement that the QR ERC Project fund is not appropriate for this type of support due to the nature of publications. The time lag between paper acceptance, publication and invoicing can vary massively (the average time from OA funding application to publication invoice for the pilot project was 107 days) and, in many cases, does not fit within the financial time restrictions of this annual funding. The Library continues to review how we can financially support our non-funded authors, in conjunction with all authors, to be able to publish in their journals of choice and share our research more widely.

Al-Aali et al. 2023 Radix-2^2 algorithm for odd new Mersenne number transform (ONMNT) MDPI Engineering 4 746 https://doi.org/10.3390/signals4040041

Benthem de Grave et al. 2023 Smartphone apps for food purchase choices: scoping review of designs, opportunities, and challenges Journal of Medical Internet Research 26 e45904 https://doi.org/10.2196/45904

Brown et al. 2023 Genetic analysis of blood molecular phenotypes reveals common properties in the regulatory networks affecting complex traits Nature Communications 14 5062 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40569-3

Cayci et al. 2023 Practices and perceptions of community pharmacists in the management of atopic dermatitis: systematic review and thematic synthesis MDPI Healthcare 11 2159 https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11152159

Germann & Baker 2023 Testing a novel wearable device for motor recovery of the elbow extensor triceps brachii in chronic spinal cord injury eNeuro 10 ENEURO.0077-23.2023 https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0077-23.2023

Law et al. 2024 The development and productivity of a measure for identifying low language abilities in children aged 24–36 months BMC Pediatrics 23 495 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-023-04079-x

Rayne et al. 2023 Detecting desertification in the ancient oases of southern Morocco Scientific Reports 13 19424 https://doi.org/10.1038/S41598-023-46319-1

Tullo et al. 2023 Lost in translation: how can education about dementia be effectively integrated into medical school contexts? A realist synthesis BMJ Open 13 e077028 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077028

Yadav et al. 2023 Effective battery charging system using step voltage and step duty sizebased MPPT controller for solar PV system Energy Reports 10 744 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2023.07.033

List of articles published as a result of the QR ERC Project fund

UKRI Open Access Policy for long-form publications – August 2024 update

The UKRI open access policy for long-form publications has been in effect since 1^st January 2024 (see our previous post for further details). Our dedicated UKRI Policy for long-form publications page contains a summary of the policy and how the Library Research Services (LRS) team can support with publishing open access.

Since the launch of this addition of the open access policy, LRS have been on hand to answer queries about publishing monographs, edited collections and chapters open access, in particular relating to UKRI funded works, advising on publishing routes and how to comply with policy, where appropriate.

Throughout the first half of the 2024, we have visited three schools, hosted five drop-in support sessions, and presented an in-depth webinar to share the UKRI policy and the support we offer. We will continue to share details of our services in future workshops and presentations, and we are always available for 1-2-1 sessions for anyone who would like to know further details.

Following the policy update, we have received numerous queries about publishing books open access, from across all the faculties. They have covered a range of book types and publishers, including Bloomsbury, Boydell and Brewer, Bristol University Press, IWA Publishing, Manchester University Press, and Routledge. Where appropriate, we have advised on the different open access options available, such as publishing the final output open access or self-archiving the accepted manuscript.

Of the six applications received that acknowledge UKRI funding, are within the scope of the policy, and require funding to cover a book processing charge, all have been awarded funding from UKRI to cover the open access publishing costs. The funding is reserved until the books are published, at which time UKRI release the funds and complete the process.

We expect the first of the UKRI funded outputs to be published by September 2024, details of which will follow once available.

If you have any questions or concerns about the policy, and how this might affect any current or future publications, please contact openaccess@ncl.ac.uk.

Research Culture Workshop: Towards Open Research

As part of Newcastle University’s Research Strategy, we are evolving our research culture in collaboration with the whole research community. We invite the research community across career stages, job families, and disciplines, to join this first Skills Academy Research Culture workshop: Towards Open Research.

The workshop will invite participants to consider open research practices and reflect on how they and the university can move towards a culture of more open research. In this workshop, we will consider open research principles and practices that increase transparency and rigour and accelerate the reach of our research.

Open research describes approaches to increase openness throughout the research cycle, including collaborative working, sharing and making research methodology, software, code, data, documentation and publications freely available online under terms that enable their reuse. Open research thereby increases the transparency, rigour and reproducibility of the research process and so can promote inclusivity, accelerate impact and improve public trust. However, understanding and adopting open research practices can be challenging. This workshop therefore will explore strategies for culture change here at Newcastle University.

Workshop Details

Date: Thursday 30^th September, 10.00 – 12.00.
Venue: Online.
Facilitators: Chris Emmerson and Steve Boneham.

Programme

Introduction to open research
Researcher perspectives on open research:
1. Melissa Bateson – Professor of Ethology – Biosciences
2. Greg Mutch – NU Academic Track Fellow – Engineering
3. David Johnson – PhD Researcher – History, Classics and Archaeology
Comfort break
Breakout groups
To discuss how the university can move towards a culture of open research by considering core aspects of the Center for Open Science strategy for culture change
1. Systems and tools – what systems and research tools are needed to facilitate open sharing and documentation
2. Support and training – what research support and training researchers require to undertake open research activities
3. Recognition and rewards – how open research behaviours can be encouraged, recognised and rewarded
4. Policy – the role policy changes and interventions that require change to occur in open research practices at Newcastle

4. Reflections and next steps

*** This event is now fully booked. Please email RDM@ncl.ac.uk should you wish to discuss future Open Research events. ***

Book now