FSCI

A revolution in research communication

The ecosystem of Scientific and Scholarly Communication continues to traverse a generational disruption, largely driven by the growing need and expanded ability to generate and disseminate large amounts of data, analyses, and outcomes. These changes affect every aspect of scholarly activity and research across all domains and disciplines, with emerging forms of publication, evolving standards and expectations, and expanding ways of measuring and demonstrating success. Our community and our goals continue to develop within our scientific research infrastructure, demanding increasingly open and transparent processes and outcomes of scientific and scholarly activities. Increasingly, an ever-evolving communications skill set is required for researchers and knowledge workers that inhabit that ecosystem, in addition to their disciplinary expertise.

FSCI | online – The platform and the incubator

The FORCE11 Scholarly Communication Institute (FSCI) is the platform and the incubator for the educational answers to this change. FSCI was conceived in 2017 as a platform to bring together the expertise of the globally diverse FORCE11 (The Future of Research Communication and eScholarship; www.force11.org) community to address this continuing need for knowledge transfer and skills training at a high level. Organized by FORCE11 community members in collaboration with the UCLA Library, FSCI assembles researchers, scholars, librarians, publishers, funders and research administrators to explore new developments in open science, knowledge creation and communication.  FSCI Courses range from basic orientations to advanced topics parsed by different domains/disciplines, with the goal to foster community-driven understanding and solutions for the latest trends, technologies, and opportunities that are transforming the way science and scholarship is conducted and communicated. Researchers “return home” from the summer institute with important skills training – but more broadly, are newly equipped with ideas, tools, and tactics for instigating change in their disciplines and at their institutions.

Who should attend?

FSCI is intended for anybody who is interested in the developing new world of Scholarly Communication: researchers, librarians, publishers, university and research administration, funders, students, and postdocs. There are courses for those who know very little about the current trends and technologies, as well as courses for those who are interested in more advanced topics. Our courses cover Scholarly Communication from a variety of disciplinary and regional and national perspectives. We have courses that will be of interest to the scientist, the social scientist, and the Humanities researcher. There are courses for those who manage, organize, and publish research as well as for the researchers themselves and end-users.

About FORCE11

FORCE11 is a community of scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders that arose organically to study and facilitate new developments in knowledge creation and communication. In its short history, it has already had an outsized impact on the practice of Open and FAIR scholarly communication, facilitating community work on such impactful initiatives as the Data Citation and FAIR data principles. Membership is open to all who share this interest! Join Today.

Stay a step ahead in scholarly communications.

Are you passionate about the future of scholarly communications? Do you want to stay current in the changing landscape? Do you want a deep-dive into FAIR research data management and stewardship?  Then don’t miss FSCI – a premium combination of learning and networking online!

What is it all about?

Fundamentally, FSCI is about equipping you for the changes taking place across scholarly communication. Whether you are a researcher, a librarian, a funder or a publisher, FSCI will deepen your understanding of the forces at work and how you can use them to shape the future.

By participating in FSCI, you will learn about:

• The mechanisms supporting scholarly communications
• FAIR data management
• FAIR data stewardship
• Relationships between publishing, research and the real world
• How technology is creating an open, transparent and collaborative research endeavour
• New ways to measure research output and showcase success
• The role of data in developing a robust and trustworthy research environment
• The FSCI experience is designed so you can bring back your new wisdom and make change happen where you work. See the course list.

Why do we need FSCI?

This institute focuses on teaching researchers, librarians and scholars innovative ways to publish reproducible research. Our robust community draws scholars from all over the world, including countries that are historically underrepresented in scholarly communication. FSCI is of interest to STEM researchers and beyond because the central theme of the conference is to teach people the most up-to-date ways to manage and communicate data and scholarship. This institute will educate our scholars on methods to advance science beyond the bench and take part in the transformation of how we communicate science.  But importantly, FSCI connects researchers and scholars from across the disciplines, as we have much to learn from each other’s methods in this space.

Who is FSCI?

FSCI is a volunteer-driven effort of colleagues from across the Scholarly Communication ecosystem, and is co-hosted by the UCLA Library and FORCE11.

FORCE11 is a community of scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders that arose organically in 2011 to study and facilitate new developments in knowledge creation and communication. Membership is open to all who share this interest.

FSCI 2021

We asked FSCI 2021 attendees to describe the appeal and value of FSCI for new attendees. The response:

• “FSCI offers a very comprehensive and detailed collection of courses that is excellent and unique in its own.”
• “FSCI is not discipline dependent. You have participants from the humanities, sciences, medicine, etc. all present for the topic of scholarly communication. I don’t know of another conference with that focus.”
• “Taking courses from experts in the field. Thinking about big picture issues. Reasonably priced. Virtual so anyone can attend. International perspectives. Very collaborative.”
• “…[P]ersonally, the informal way of delivering the sessions, keeping the topics as current as possible and opening up a platform for professionals to have fruitful discussions are the best things about FSCI.”
• “The global diversity is key – I’ve never had an experience that is this wide ranging.”
• “In each class there is an abundance of useful materials and practical discussions rooted in advancing the way we push scholarship forward.”
• “An Institute with a focus on skill building and building a community of scholarly communications professionals.”
• “The amount of work that went into networking and socializing. It was above and beyond other conferences.”
• “[T]he approachability and openness of all the organizers and instructors exceeded my expectations — really great, and across channels.”

FSCI 2020 – Online

Comments from FSCI 2020:

We asked FSCI 2020 attendees to describe the appeal and value of FSCI for new attendees and the responses were…

• “I love the diversity and variety of participants.”
• “It’s a level of immersion and learning, and diversity of voices that you just can’t get from going to a conference.”
• “The community and the wide diversity of fields of expertise.”
• “Learning by doing in a participatory and friendly manner. The Facilitators are superb.”
• “FSCI brings together global perspectives from across academia to engage in broadening the purpose, reach and value of scholarly information.”
• “I think the nature of in-depth instruction offers a better view of a topic. Typical conferences offer the equivalent of ‘introduction to’ courses without time to explore topics deeper. This offers the ability to explore a couple topics in a more meaningful way.”
• The emphasis on learning in courses and ability to ask the instructors questions creates a unique dynamic different than a traditional conference. I appreciated the interactivity.

FSCI 2019 – Los Angeles, California

Comments from FSCI 2019

• “The diversity of people attending FSCI makes it an unusual experience. This will be particularly useful for anyone working within interdisciplinary groups or for those who are interested in approaching their own subject with fresh eyes.”
• “I had a fantastic experience at FSCI2019. It was very immersive and I came away with a much richer understanding of scholarly communication. Part of this was down to the incredible opportunity to share learnings with those from diverse settings, both geographically and academically. I made some important professional connections and also learned some key skills I was missing.”
• “It was encouraging to spend a week learning advanced topics related to scholarly communication in a diverse community that values OA. The lectures were very informative, and participant’s contributions were also a valuable component because of their diverse backgrounds. I gained practical skills in reproducibility and advocacy, as well as a better understanding of OA in my context. I was inspired by the work and projects of more experienced advocates, which motivated me to explore different ways of advocating for OA, from being more open in conversations with my peers to giving workshops. I am very thankful for the opportunity of attending FSCI.”
• “At the FSCI 2019, I met many experts and fellow professionals who have helped me to gain new skills and knowledge in some areas of scholarly communication. I was very fortunate that all of them were very supportive, kind, and had a lot of things to share with me. They were willingly sharing their experiences and best practices in advocating open science in their respective institutions. I even still in contact with some of them. As a librarian who works in Indonesia, this such opportunity is rare.”
• “Frankly, FSCI was the best ever event I have attended. And, it is very much unique in many aspects. The course contents, the classroom support, the group discussions, the freedom to choose and explore topics as per your own interest, the internal/official communications provided to the participants, are just some of them that I can list out here. Really, I had a great learning experience at FSCI.”

FSCI 2018 – San Diego, California

Comments from FSCI 2018

• “Overall I had a really positive experience at FSCI and I thank the programming and organizing committees and all those from UCSD who made this such a great experience. It was fantastic to come together with this group of individuals all focused on scholarly communication which is my work focus. Everyone was friendly and open and it made for a very enjoyable program.”
• “FSCI was great! I recommended it to all my colleagues at work!”
• “It was my first time attending. I learned a lot and loved the atmosphere. The campus was great, and the small class sizes were really nice for getting to know people. I am very glad to have all the course materials still available to me. I am putting some of the knowledge I gained to use immediately. It is clear that a lot of thought goes into putting this learning opportunity together. I would come back every year if I could, but the cost is prohibitive for me. I will tell others to attend though.”
• “Outside of the courses, the Institute offered rich opportunities for conversation and networking with individuals from different disciplines and backgrounds. Overall, my takeaway from FSCI18 was extremely valuable.”
• “I learned my most interesting topics from this event, I wish to attend for next year also would like to network with participants.”
• “The level of commitment was very high and group dynamics were great  The Do-a-Thon has to be on the programme next year too.”
• “FSCI was an extremely enriching event, I appreciate the amount of learning experiences especially working with peers.”
• I thought it was great!
• “There were so many excellent topics that I wish I could have attended more, but I also thought the amount of time dedicated to each course was good.”

FSCI 2017 – San Diego, California

Comments from FSCI 2017

• “It was a great week, I would recommend it to others.”
• “I would love to go again, Would go again if it was exactly the same format. What was great: the overall atmosphere, the willingness of everyone to talk and share, and the diversity of subjects.”
• “This was an intense but very worthwhile week. I learned a lot and felt privileged to be among so many people who are change-makers at their institutions. It was inspiring. I would be tempted to return to take advantage of classes that I didn’t have time for this first time around.”
• “FSCI gathers passionate experts from all subdomains of research communication. Fantastic summer camp, networking and learning in lovely La Jolla”
• “FSCI  2017 was a wonderful learning intensive experience. I went away with great strategies to share with our university librarians, friends, colleagues and fellow students about how to build my research profile, register DOIs for data and how and why FAIR matters. The instructors were excellent and everyone was friendly. I would recommend FSCI as a place to learn and stay current at any level and for strategies on how to care for the masses of data that we are producing.”
• “FSCI was an amazing learning journey. It was a unique opportunity to meet great people who do great things and are passionate about sharing.”