Open knowledge at the UOC

This new information graphic looks at the key points of the UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan. The action plan was launched in 2018 with the aim of opening up the knowledge generated at the UOC in order to contribute to its globalization and raise the profile of the excellent research and teaching it carries out.

The UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan is structured into six core areas for the promotion of open publications, open research data, open learning, open innovation, a university open to society and new research assessment models, in addition to a further three universal branches of work focused on training, communication and awareness raising in this area; open infrastructure development; and participation in leading forums with regard to this reality.

Infographics: Taking stock: results of the Open Knowledge Action Plan (2018-2020) link opens in a new window

To learn more about the open access movement and open science, we offer a short glossary with the definition of twenty frequent terms.

Infographics: #OpenUOC glossary link opens in a new window

The UOC's O2 repository preserves and disseminates nearly 14,000 contents produced as part of the UOC's academic and research activity.Since the Open Knowledge Action Plan was put in place, the number of scientific articles deposited in the O2 has increased significantly, rising from around 300 articles to over 2,000 in the last three years alone.

In the repository, you can also consult teaching and learning materials (final degree projects, continuous assessment activities and open learning resources), other research documents (data, book chapters, doctoral theses, conference papers and reports) and institutional documents.

Explore the UOC's O2 repository

The UOC's O2 repository preserves and disseminates nearly 14,000 contents produced as part of the UOC's academic and research activity.

 

Open educational resources (OERs) have been created to help usher in educational change. Unlike other materials, thanks to their licence, they promote use, reuse, redistribution, remix and sharing. We have prepared some materials for you to learn more about them:

Infographics: Open educational resources link opens in a new window

Infographics: Type of open educational resources link opens in a new window

Infographics: Les 5R dels recursos educatius oberts link opens in a new window

Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute.

Infographics: Most common resource licences link opens in a new window

Copyright, Creative Commons and Copyleft.

Infographics: Where to find open educational resources link opens in a new window

The purpose of the Open Access Observatory is to monitor the current status of open access publications in the three participating institutions: the University of Barcelona, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the UOC.

Every year the Observatory updates its information on scientific articles in open and closed access, using Web of Science and Scopus as sources. It is now possible to consult the percentages of articles published in gold, hybrid and green access over the last six years.

Data shows us that the majority of the open access publications from the UOC have been published using the gold route, in other words, articles published in open access journals. The second most popular route is green, whereby publications are self-archived in the UOC's institutional repository, O2.

This infographic tells you about the services the Library offers to help you publish your work in open access.

• Publish in the UOC's institutional repository, O2
• Data management support
• Open access publishing support
• Open access publication of doctoral theses
• Support service for academic journals

Infographics: Open acces support services link opens in a new window

The objective of the course is to know the benefits that open access can provide and to learn how to publish both publications and research data openly. In short, to make understand why open access, public commitment and scientific education are important in strengthening the role of science in society and in culture.

You can download the learning resource available in the O2 UOC Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/101366  

From 22-10-2018  to 26-10-2018 

• 10:00 catalan version
• 12:00 english version

This free Twitter course, running for a second time, will be given this year in Catalan and English. Simply follow the @moocmicro account and the #OAMOOC hashtag - #OAMOOC18 for English - where content will be published every day.

22-10-2018 12:00 UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan

Sala d'actes, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Avinguda Tibidabo

The UOC is launching its Open Knowledge Action Plan, the general idea of which is to open up the University and to co-create and share knowledge. This drive aims to contribute to the University's globalization and raise the UOC's profile of excellence in research and education.

Pla d'Acció de Coneixement Obert | UOC

One of the Open Knowledge Action Plan's cornerstones is open access to scientific publications. To ensure that the knowledge generated at the UOC is open and to highlight the UOC's commitment to open science, it’s necessary to boost UOC institutional repository, O2, to disseminate it and make it visible.

 

24-10-2018 17:00, Cinemes Girona

Register

A free screening of the documentary Paywall will take place at Cinemes Girona. Paywall, produced and directed by Jason Schmitt, is a critique of the current scientific publications system, and offers ideas for future improvements

This is an initiative led by Julio Meneses, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, and David Masip, director of the Doctoral School, and jointly organized with the University of Barcelona. After the screening there will be a debate with Professor Alexandre López from the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences, and Brian Russell, activist and volunteer with Collaction.org, a Dutch NGO devoted to finding solutions to collective action issues, including open science.

The Observatory of Open Access aims to monitor the state of open access in participating universities. Currently there are data from the University of Barcelona, the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). 

The open scientific production of these institutions is measured and shown, and the costs and habits of the researchers are analyzed when publishing openly.

The observatory shows, for each year since 2011, the scientific articles of each university published in open and closed access. The sources of information used are Web of Science and Scopus. The information is updated annually.

Article 14 of Royal Decree 99/2011 regulating official doctoral studies came into force on 10 February 2012. This article stipulates that “once the doctoral thesis has been approved, the university has to archive it in open electronic format in an institutional repository and send a copy of it and any complementary information necessary, in electronic format, to the Ministry of Education”.

The Ministry of Education database holding the doctoral theses defended in Spain is TESEO.

In turn, the Consell Interuniversitari de Catalunya (Catalan Interuniversity Board, CIC) agreed to carry out a number of activities to promote open access to research in Catalonia. It commissioned the General University Policy Board to introduce and monitor these activities. The Action Plan for Open Access in Catalonia, approved in CIC’s general meeting on 22 June 2009, marks 2012 as a key date when “only those publications held in an open-access repository will be taken into account for research project assessment, faculty accreditation, (six-year period) research assessment or internal promotion”.

Since 2001, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) has participated in the Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa (Doctoral Theses on the Web, TDX) project. TDX’s mission is to provide online open access to the full text of the doctoral theses defended at the pubic universities in Catalonia, disseminating and safeguarding the results of this university research around the world through the MetaArchive Cooperative. This initiative involving leading institutions from around the world has an information exchange network that ensures that other institutions have a copy of the digital content to be preserved. This preservation is carried out using LOCKSS software that constantly compares the different copies so as to provide warnings and automatically restore copies if any changes are made.

Article 10.3 of the Academic Regulations for Doctoral Studies approved by the UOC’s Executive Management Board in November 2011 stipulates that “once the doctoral thesis has been approved, the UOC takes responsibility for ensuring open access to it and for storing it in electronic format in the corresponding institutional repository, and sends an electronic copy of the thesis and complementary information to the competent bodies. In addition, it will undertake the procedures to include the doctoral thesis in the online catalogue of doctoral theses.”

The UOC’s Open-Access Policy was approved by the Governing Council on 6 October 2010. It requires that UOC staff deposit their work in the UOC’s O2 institutional open-access repository. The definitive aim is to bring together all the scientific and teaching work produced within the University and make it accessible to everyone, freely and for free, in order to spread knowledge throughout the scientific community so that society, in general, and science, in particular, can progress.

According to the European Commission (EC), research data refer to information, in particular facts or numbers, collected to be examined and considered as a basis for reasoning, discussion or calculation. Data include statistics, results of experiments, measurements, observations resulting from fieldwork, survey outcomes, interview recordings and images

• Observational: data captured in real time. For instance, neuroimages, sample data, sensor data, questionnaire data.
• Experimental: data captured on laboratory equipment. For instance, gene sequences, chromatograms, magnetic field data.
• Simulation: data generated based on test models. For example, climatological, mathematical or economic models.
• Derived or compiled: difficult-to-reproduce data. For instance, text and data mining, 3D models or compiled databases
• Reference: data conglomerate or dataset. For instance, databases of gene sequences, chemical structures or spatial data portals.

Research data management (RDM) encompasses the organization, structure, storage and processing of the data used or generated during a research project.

Research data management is present in all research phases:

Infographics: Research Data Management

Discover the Research Data Management Lifecycle.

• Data creation and planning their reuse
• Processing and organization: structuring and metadata
• Analysis
• Preservation – security, access, storage and retrieval
• Share: publish and be cited
• Reuse

• Validation of the results obtained.
• Data localization and comprehension
• Reduces the duplication of data collection and the costs involved.
• Complies with the requisites of calls for research.
• Promotes scientific debate.
• Promotes innovation and new potential uses of the data.
• Encourages collaboration between data users and creators.
• Increases research impact and visibility.
• Increases your reputation when other people cite your work.

• What type of data will you generate?
• Do you expect to deposit and disseminate the data as open access?
• When do you expect to publish the data?
• Do you know which platform you will use to deposit and disseminate them?
• Do you know under which licence you will publish them?
• Do you want to keep the data? For how long? What volume of data do you want to preserve? Which formats?
• Does consulting the data require specific software?
• Are you working with personal data? What will you do with them?
• Are you working with confidential data? What will you do with them?
• Who is the person ultimately responsible for data management?

According to Article 12 of the Law on Intellectual Property, the databases “that by selection or arrangement of their content constitute intellectual creations” are protected by copyright. However, the raw data included in a database have no authorship and, therefore, are not intellectual property.

• Law on Intellectual Property
• Law 5/1998 of 6 March, incorporating into Spanish law Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases

Article 29.3 of the H2020 provides that the projects participating in the pilot plan must develop a data management plan (DMP):

1. Deposit the research data (those required to validate the results presented in scientific publications) in a repository as soon as possible to enable third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate (free of charge for any user) this research data.
2. Document the research data: provide information, via the repository, about the tools and instruments necessary for validating, interpreting and reproducing the research performed.

Exceptions: the open dissemination of the project's results can be excluded for security, privacy, personal data protection or commercial/industrial exploitation reasons.

Costs: The costs related to the data are considered eligible expenses in the project.

Areas included in the pilot:

• Future and Emerging Technologies.
• Research Infrastructures – part e-Infrastructures.
• Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies – Information and Communication Technologies.
• Societal Challenge: Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy – part smart cities and communities.
• Societal Challenge: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials – with the exception of topics in the area of raw materials.
• Societal Challenge: Europe in a changing world – inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies.
• Science with and for Society.

Important: Even though a project does not form part of these areas, it is possible to request its inclusion in the pilot plan.

The European Commission's guidelines for open access publishing are set out in the H2020 Online Manual and can be consulted at the Participant Portal.

• General multi-beneficiary model grant agreement for the horizon 2020 programme1 (H2020 General MGA — MULTI). Article 29.3. Dissemination of results. Open Access. Visibility of funding.
• Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020.
• Guidelines on FAIR Data Management in Horizon 2020.

What is a DMP?

A data management plan (DMP) is a formal document that must describe the data life cycle both during a research project and when it has been completed. The DMP's objective is to consider aspects such as the methodology and standards to be used for data management and how they will be shared, curated and preserved in the future.

The data management plan is not a fixed document, but evolves during the lifespan of the research project. The specifications for developing a DMP for a H2020 project can be consulted at: Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020 (Annex 1 and 2). Horizon 2020 currently requests depositing and preservation of those data (including the associated metadata) that are necessary to validate the research results presented in scientific publications.

How is a DMP produced?

Tools and resources that are available and will help you draft your DMP:

• DMP Online: a programme developed by the Digital Curation Centre, UK. It includes a template for H2020 projects. You can consult the various manuals and webinars about the tool and the FAQs.
• Checklist for Data Management Plan

Data management plan template

This document was prepared by the CSUC's Working Group to Support Research

• Data Management Plan Template

Where can I find DMP examples?

Successful cases of data management plans developed with DMP Online or other tools.

How are the data described? Datasets, standards and metadata

The data's description must include the information required to understand and analyse our data and/or reproduce the results in 20 years' time.

• Datasets: each dataset must be referenced and named. The description of each dataset should include the following information:  
• Origin of the data: whether the data are generated within the project or are collected. If the data are collected, indicate the source they have been taken from.
• Typology and format of the research data (observational, experimental, computational, etc.).
• Standards: The metadata standard that will be used must be identified.
• Description metadata: the metadata should answer questions such as:
• What are the data?
• Who can use them?
• When can they be used?
• How can they be used?
• For what purpose can they be used?
• Where can they be found?
• For how long will they be available

What are the legal aspects concerning data protection?

The protection of personal data includes the protection of people's basic rights and freedoms applied to a RDI project, and their protection against possible use by unauthorized third parties

• Legal aspects of personal data protection applied to the UOC's RDI projects
• Organic Law 15/1999 on personal data protection (LOPD)
• Royal Decree 1720/2007, of 21 December 2007, approving the Regulations developing Organic Law 15/1999, of 13 December 1999, on personal data protection

What are the ethical aspects concerning data protection?

Ethical aspects concern the data that can be shown, the time spent and the anonymity of the people involved, respecting dignity and integrity in order to guarantee privacy and confidentiality.

Resources and related documentation:

• Network of Ethics Committees in Universities and Public Research Centres in Spain.
• European Commission ethical aspects
• The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity
• Ethical issues and data protection

Under which licence can you publish your data?

El document Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 explicita:

«As far as possible, projects must then take measures to enable for third parties to access, mine, exploit, reproduce and disseminate (free of charge for any user) this research data. One straightforward and effective way of doing this is to attach Creative Commons Licence (CC-BY or CC0 tool) to the data deposited.»

Further information can be found at:

• Creative Commons Licenses
• DCC - How to license research data
• AusGOAL (Australian Government's Open Access and Licensing Framework) - Research Data Licensing FAQs
• UPC Publica - Horizon 2020, Licenses

​How are data cited?

DataCite establishes that data must be cited in the same way that we cite other bibliographic information sources, such as articles or books.

Citing research data will enable you to:

• Easily reuse and verify the data.
• Monitor the potential impact of the data.
• Create an academic structure that acknowledges and rewards the data producers.

Structure templates:

1. Creator (Year of publication): Title. Publisher. Identifier
2. Creator (Year of publication): Title. Version. Publisher [Type of resource]. Identifier

​Note: The identifier refers to the permanent DOI, handle or URL (preferably linkable).

Examples of data citation (source DataCite):

Irino, T; Tada, R (2009): Chemical and mineral compositions of sediments from ODP Site 127‐797. Geological Institute, University of Tokyo.

Geofon operator (2009): GEFON event gfz2009kciu (NW Balkan Region). GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ).

Denhard, Michael (2009): dphase_mpeps: MicroPEPS LAF‐Ensemble run by DWD for the MAP D‐PHASE project. World Data Center for Climate.

The last few years have seen a growing interest in publishing research data in open access, the idea being to increase research's transparency, visibility and impact, and to guarantee that the data can be freely accessed, preserved, exploited and reproduced.

This is the context that has spawned data journals. There are two types of data journal, allowing authors to publish their articles in two different ways:

1. Publishing data as a data paper: these journals only publish data in data paper format. This is a new publishing format based on datasets.
    
2. Publishing data together with an article (enriched or enhanced publication): these journals present data and articles side-by-side. Usually this type of journal doesn't collect complete data, instead providing links within the articles to specific data repositories where you can find the data.

Examples of this type of publishers include:

• Nature Publishing Group, which requires authors to send their datasets to specific data repositories that are recognized by the discipline's community. 
   
• Ubiquity Press (open-access datasets), which provides authors with use of their Dataverse open access repository. 

Have a look at the following compilation of data journals according to subject area, access type and scientific impact, based on the most relevant international indexes.

To select a repository where the research data can be deposited, we recommend you take into account the following considerations:

• Thematic field (there are multidisciplinary and thematic repositories) and geographical scope
• Identify which type of data you have (software, images, raw data, etc.).
• Identify whether the data are open, embargoed, restricted or closed.
• Take into account the approximate size of the data files.
• Take into account the licence under which you want to disseminate the data.
• Identify whether it is necessary to use permanent identifiers (DOI, Handle).

It is important to use european resources to be sure that the current General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

​What are the most notable multidisciplinary data repositories and their characteristics?

Multidisciplinary Research Data Repositories:

• The Registry of Research Data Repositories (Re3data)
• FAIR Sharing
• Eurostat: statistics database
• Qualitative Data Repository 

Data repositories and data portals focused in social sciences:

• Social Sciences dataset repositories (PloS)
• The Australian Data Archive
• UK Data Archive
• Analysis and Policy Observatory (APO)
• Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research

You can also check the comparative chart for open access data carried aout by Library of the Autonomous University of Barcelona or the list of repositories elaborated by the Library of Erasmus University.