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Open Access publishing does not have to be expensive!

BRIAN, open access, Publishing, Research Ethics, writing

Nepal J Epid Open AccessAs it is Open Access Week I would like to clarify one of the Open Access publishing myths.  One of the common replies I receive from academics colleagues when raising Open Access publishing is that it is (too) expensive. This is, of course, true for many academic journals, but not all are expensive.  Some don’t even charge a processing fee at all.  Infamously, The Lancet Global Health charges an article processing fee of US $4750 upon acceptance of submitted research articles.  More moderately priced scientific journals still charge anything up to about £1,500 per article.

Open-Access-logoAcademic publishing has been big business for decades, and Open Access has rapidly become part of that business.  While traditional book and magazine publishers struggle to stay afloat, research publishing houses have typical profit margins of nearly 40%, according CBCNEWS who quote Vincent Larivière from the University of Montreal’s School of Library & Information Science.

At the same time we see a sharp increase in so-called Predatory Publishers who have set up business for the sole reason to make money from Open Access publishing.  They have not established or taken over academic journal for the greater good of the discipline or the dissemination of research findings to the widest possible audience.  Unscrupulous publishers jump on the Open-Access bandwagon BU librarian Jean Harris recently shared an interesting article about Predatory Publishers (click here to read this!).

J Asian MidwHowever, there are other format of Open Access. One of our more recent papers on research ethics was published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology which is an online Open Access journal that does not charge authors for publishing!  Also the Journal of Asian Midwives, where FHSS PhD student Preeti Mahato recently had her article accepted, is hosted in Pakistan by Aga Khan University through its institutional repository eCommons.  Publishing in this Open Access online journal is also free of charge.  In other words, Open Access publishing does not have to be expensive!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reminder: Research Staff Association (RSA) – NEW regular coffee morning

The first Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning will be taking place on Wednesday the 28th October, in the café area of the EBC (Lansdowne Campus) from 10 to 11am. This is an informal opportunity to meet other research staff over coffee and cake, discuss your work and share ideas for future collaborations. It will also provide an opportunity to make suggestions toward a planned RSA seminar series that will act as a conduit for researchers of the University to showcase their work.For catering purposes please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk to confirm your attendance.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Kind regards, Michelle Heward and Marcellus Mbah (RSA Staff Representatives)

Undergraduate Research Assistantship Programme – staff application deadline this Sunday.

Funding opportunities, student research

The current round of applications for the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) programme is closing on Sunday 25th October.

To apply for funding to recruit a URA, please email your application to urap@bournemouth.ac.uk

If you have any questions about the scheme, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk 

Vitae invites you to their first live online vitaechat in conjunction with International Open Access Week

open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

vitae invites you to join the first live online #vitaechat this Friday 23rd October between 1-2pm UK time, to coincide with the International Open Access Week.

Early career researchers need to be familiar with many forms of ‘open’ – from open access, to open data, to open education – but what does it mean to be a researcher in this open environment?

During this live Twitter chat, the host will lead participants through a discussion of the potential career benefits and opportunities associated with open research, as well as the steps researchers need to take to prepare themselves to be effective in an open research environment, both within an academic career and beyond.

JOIN THE LIVECHAT ON THE #VITAECHAT CHANNEL, 23 OCTOBER AT 1 PM (UK TIME)

Open Access Success Story #4

open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Media and Communication Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, PG19 Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

Professor Tom Watson will share with the audience his experience of Open Access.

Professor Tom Watson has applied a range of open access methods in developing collaboration with international researchers, rapidly expanding scholarship in the history of public relations and for his own research. He is an active supporter of open access journals and conference proceedings, as well as placing most of his research publications on BURO and other online platforms. He will discuss the methods and share his experience about the pros and cons of the Green open access route.

 

Dynamics and Thresholds of Ecosystem Services in Wooded Landscapes website

Sha3-11

Reaching the end of a research project is always a time of diligence. Though it is important to keep an eye on impact. It was in this light that the recent project spear-headed by Prof Adrian Newton invested resources updating its website ‘Dynamics and Thresholds of Ecosystem Services in Wooded Landscapes’.

The project aims to identify the form of the quantitative relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services at the landscape scale, as well as establishing whether there are critical levels of biodiversity that are required in wooded landscapes for provision of such services.

The site features an outline of the study area, to methods including long-term modelling techniques. It is envisaged this will aid impact of the project. Any questions regarding the site can be addressed to Research Technician and Postgraduate Researcher Arjan Gosal.

AHRC moves to single panel for Research Grants

From December 2015 the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will be employing one panel to moderate its Research Grants scheme. This is a change from the current four panel structure which brings the scheme into line with other AHRC funding such as the Leadership Fellows scheme.ahrc

There will be no changes to the pre-panel peer review stage. The single panel structure will allow for the AHRC to hold panel meetings more frequently than the current quarterly arrangements, which will lead to more timely delivery of outcomes to applicants.

Open Access Success Story #3

open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Health and Social Sciences Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, EB206, the Executive Business Centre, in Lansdowne.

Dr. Carol Bond will share with the audience her experience of open access from the perspective of somebody who publishes with open access journals; as well as from the perspective of somebody who edits for the Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics and Journal of Medical Internet Research, both of which are open access journals.

To find out more about Dr. Carol Bond and her research, please visit this link – http://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/cbond

Reminder for the 03/11/15 Research Professional visit – Book in now!

Funding opportunities

Research-Professional-logoAttend our Research Professional visit taking place on the 3rd Nov and get expert help with setting up your personal account and searches!

Every BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. Jordan Graham from Research Professional is visiting BU on the 3rd of November 2015 to demonstrate to academics and staff how to make the most of their Research Professional account.

This will include:

  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Location and the session timings are:

Talbot campus P424

10.15 – 11.15 – Research Professional presentation

11.15 – 11.45 – RKEO interactive session setting up searches

Lansdowne campus S103

13.30 – 14.30 – Research Professional presentation

14.30 – 15.00 – RKEO interactive session setting up searches

After the presentation, the RKEO Funding Development Team will be on hand for an interactive session where they will help you set up your Research Professional account, searches and offer advice from a BU perspective.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about funding opportunities and to meet the Funding Development Team, particularly if you are new to BU.

Please reserve your place now at a BU Campus to suit through Organisational Development.

New *Research Professional Help Videos Available

Funding opportunities

Research Professional have recently launched updated help videos. The new videos cover all the core aspects of  *Research Professional, and provide the perfect introduction to the site for new users. Each is around three minutes long. Research-Professional-logo

You can find the videos on their YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/researchprofessional.

The end user videos are collected here.  – for academics and researchers

The administrator videos are collected here. – for RKEO

If you have any queries about Research Professional or want an account then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team.

 

Early-career researcher competition to produce Global Food Security report on sustainable nutrition

Funding opportunities

The BBSRC supported Global Food Security (GFS) Programme is inviting expressions of interest from post-doctoral researchers to take part in a Policy Lab on sustainable nutrition. If you are interested in taking an interdisciplinary and systems approach to a policy-relevant issue, and would relish the opportunity to produce an evidence-based report that will be widely read by policy, industry and the public, then this is for you.BBSRC

The Policy Lab is an interactive workshop that will focus on novel interdisciplinary ideas in the area of sustainable nutrition. The successful idea will be developed into a report for the GFS Programme. Researchers working in any relevant discipline from across the food value chain are welcome to apply (including natural, biological, engineering and social sciences). This could be from areas as diverse as agriculture, the agri-ecosystem, sustainable food production, food choice and nutrition.

The successful team will receive the £5,000 GFS Policy Lab Award and have their report published through GFS channels, reaching a large number of stakeholders.

Key benefits for post-doctoral researchers include working in an interdisciplinary team and expanding their academic horizons, experience of a competitive funding process, a high impact publication, and new contacts with researchers in other disciplines working on similar challenges.

The Policy Lab will take place in London on 20-22 January 2016.

In order to be eligible, post-doctoral researchers must be on a Research Council funded grant or fellowship, where the contract extends beyond 29 July 2016. In addition, participants must have a maximum of seven years of post-doctoral or academic experience after completing their PhD.

The deadline for applications is 1 December 2015. For more information about the Policy Lab and details on how to apply see: www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/programme/activities/policy-lab-early-career-researchers-sustainable-nutrition.html

Parliamentary Science Committee want science budget protected

parliament-uk-logoThe House of Lords and House of Commons Science Committees have written to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to ask him to protect the science budget.

An excerpt from the letter reads:

“The rumoured 40% cuts to your department’s budget pose a serious threat to Britain’s position at the cutting edge of science. We are writing to urge you to increase investment in research and development in the upcoming Spending Review and not to rush reorganisations of funding structures that could have unforeseen and long-term negative consequences.

The UK already invests significantly less of its GDP in R&D than our international competitors. We cannot afford to fall yet further. Cuts to the research base would send a very worrying signal to investors and could lead to a brain drain of our top academic talent.    

The Government’s aims to rebalance the economy and support high-value job creation are laudable, but they cannot be achieved without investment. Real-terms increases in the science budget and support for innovative businesses will leverage inward private investment and pay dividends for years to come through a healthier and happier society, and a stronger economy.”

Further comment on the letter can be found in this Research Professional article.

Wellcome Trust aims to increase spend to £5 billion over next 5 years

Funding opportunities

strategy - SMThe Wellcome Trust aims to invest £5 billion over the next five years to improve health, as it launches a new strategic framework focussed on advancing the best ideas in science and research, seizing opportunities as they arise and taking advantage of our independence to drive reform.

This marks another step forward for Wellcome, the world’s second highest spending charitable foundation, which has invested £6 billion over the last ten years and £11 billion since it began in 1936.

Wellcome’s new framework consists of three complementary approaches across science, research and engagement with society:

  • Advancing Ideas. Wellcome will continue to respond to great ideas and inspired thinking that address the fundamental health challenges of our time. Last year we unveiled our new funding framework to enhance our ability to support excellent research in the UK and worldwide.
  • Seizing opportunities. Wellcome brings ideas together to make a big difference, providing intensive support that creates real change. We identify times when our concerted intervention can accelerate progress towards better health.
  • Driving reform. Wellcome changes ways of working so more ideas can flourish, leading by example and campaigning for wider reform. Our record in areas like open access to research results, public engagement, and research careers has earned us the credibility to challenge ways of working, and to propose better alternatives.

The success of Wellcome’s £18 billion investments portfolio, which funds all of their work and is managed by an in-house team, has already given them the independence and resources to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, their free venue that explores medicine, life and the arts.

“The Wellcome Trust has a long-standing record in science and research of which we are very proud,” says Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. “We are able to build on that legacy with an increased commitment to supporting people and teams with great ideas in basic science and applied research, social science and the humanities, which will remain at the core of our work. But we can now also bring additional focus to some of the biggest health challenges of our time. We responded swiftly to Ebola but there are other serious issues where we believe that we can help bring about change for the better.”

Their priorities will evolve as new challenges arise, drawing on insights from a rich history of achievement and a network of experts from different disciplines around the world. Their initial priorities include:

  • Drug-resistant infection. Growing resistance to antibiotics and other drugs threatens many of the benefits of modern medicine. Wellcome will explore how best to use and protect the treatments we have, and to encourage the development of new ones.
  • Vaccination. Too many lives are still lost to diseases that could be prevented by vaccines, mostly in low and middle-income countries. Wellcome will investigate how best to stimulate research, technology development and policy to address this critical unmet need.
  • Our Planet, Our Health. Human health is intimately linked to the environment in which we live. Wellcome will build understanding of how global food systems and urbanisation connect to health, improving the evidence base for public policy.
  • Science education. An appreciation of science, for the future scientist or the informed citizen, begins with learning in school and beyond. Wellcome will help give young people an engaging, relevant and inspiring science education.

Wellcome’s new Chair, Eliza Manningham-Buller, says: “It is an exciting time to be assuming the chair of the Trust. The organisation has a great record of achievement, working with others to improve human health. We now have the means to develop even higher ambitions. The long-term funding of discovery science will remain at the core of what we do but we are also determined to act quickly when we see other opportunities to make a real difference to health.”

View the full details of the Wellcome Trust’s Strategic Framework.wellcometrust_logo

Research Councils pledge to work together more

RCUKlogoResearch Professional have summarised an email received from Philip Nelson, chairman of Research Councils UK, which says that the councils will act as a “single, collective organisation”.

All seven research councils have signed up to ‘Research Councils Together’ where they will be discussing wider changes for a more collective way of working across the research councils, leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness.  This does not equate to the creation of a single research council.  Find out more in the Research Professional article.

The use of VectorPixels to represent Photographic images

WeVectorPixels would like to invite you to the latest research seminar of the Creative Technology Research Centre.

 

Speaker: Alain Simons

 

 

Alain is new lecturer at Bournemouth University, teaching on the Games Technology/Games Programming courses, and this is an opportunity to learn about his PhD research.

 

Title:   The use of VectorPixels to represent Photographic images

 

Time: 2:00PM-3:00PM

Date: Wednesday 28th October 2015

Room: P302 LT, Poole House, Talbot Campus

 

Abstract: Photographic images are represented by a grid of pixels. Each pixel has a colour value (3 different ones for RGB colour Images) so that computations are very easy to do.   However the number of pixels that are available is increasing at a faster rate every year. Images also need to be transported as in every other digital information. Two problems are arising with the growing amount of pixels. How can 4K images will be transported over the internet? How long will it take to compute 8K images? Those questions are tackled for the moment with better compression techniques and faster CPUs, but they have their limits. VectorPixels want to start from scratch, a new approach, a new algorithm to visualize images on screen. No hardware is available at the moment to capture VectorPixels so for creating VectorPixels ordinary pixel information will be used. Our algorithm is made up of three components namely trace, calculate and save. A VectorPixel is a vector based pixel as the word itself indicates.

 

We hope to see you there.

Open Access Success Story #2

open access, Publishing

Open Access 2015 blog banner 1

The Faculty of Science and Technology Open Access Lunch and Networking event will take place today at 12noon, Shelly Lecture Theatre, at Poole House ground floor in Talbot.

In conjunction with the International Open Access week, Dr. Zulfiqar Khan shares his experience of Open Access.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has led the University Sustainable Design Research Centre (now cluster) since 2007. The centre has grown its research and professional practice portfolio with significant international collaborations.

SDRC received its REF14 Panel Feedback as, “Sustainable Design Research Group had the highest proportion of outputs judged to be internationally excellent”. He is current lead/champion of REF 2020 UoA 12.

SDRC currently has thirteen PGRs (3 to be recruited soon), two postdoctoral research assistants (one to be recruited soon), three visiting professors, five visiting fellows and twelve academic staff. Majority of research is externally funded/match funded. Some of major funders include Ministry of Defence, Schaeffler, Future Energy Source ltd, National University of Science & Technology, SKF and WIT etc. for more information please visit SDRC.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan has established a significant research portfolio in corrosion, corrosion condition monitoring & simulation in collaboration with The Tank Museum and Ministry of Defence.

Recent publications from current research have been published in open access. Open access provides an opportunity of making research findings available to a wider audience especially those who do not necessarily subscribe to the journal itself or the database which include (the) specific journal(s).

HEFCE sets out post 2014 REF open access policy as, that in order for certain research to be eligible for submission to REF, their outputs should be made open access. There are several identified routes, e.g. gold open access or uploading to institutional repository where the material should be freely available for downloading or reading for anyone with an internet access. The output should also be easily discoverable.

The open access also works as a PR vehicle for research activity. Dr Zulfiqar Khan and his PhD student (Hammad Nazir) recently published in the Journal of Adhesion Science & Technology, Taylor & Francis, an SCI indexed journal. Taylor & Francis publish a list of twenty most read articles. Majority of top twenty most read publications are available since 2012. A recent paper which was published through the open access route entitled “Modelling of metal-coating delamination incorporating variable environmental parameters” is now the top most read paper in the list with 1620 views/downloads. This paper was available since December 2014.

Similarly “Optimisation of interface roughness and coating thickness to maximise coating–substrate adhesion – a failure prediction and reliability assessment modelling” was available since April 2015, has made it to the top most read publications with 586 views/downloads and is placed 8th (dated 18/09/2015).

While a third, recently published paper “A unified mathematical modelling and simulation for cathodic blistering mechanism incorporating diffusion and fracture mechanics concepts” which was available from Mar 2015 is now the 12th (dated 18/09/2015) most read publication with 496 views/downloads.

Dr Zulfiqar Khan said, that open access is an efficient vehicle to make our research outputs more widely available to bring significant benefits in terms academic, industrial and societal impacts.