T10 – Open Source Tools for Everyone: A Train-the-Trainer Course for Teaching Four Open Research Tools
Instructor: April Clyburne-Sherin, Open Research Instructor and Consultant, Reproducibility for Everyone
Description: An ecosystem of free open source tools for improving the rigor and reproducibility of research is thriving. Information professionals at research institutions must stay informed about what tools are available and how they compare. Ideally, information professionals can also onboard researchers to kickstart adoption of these tools. However, developing quality curriculum to train researchers on new tools requires expertise in the tools themselves, so many researchers are left without training on tools that may benefit their research.
This course will train participants to run hands-on, quality modules designed to onboard researchers to four free open source tools, either virtually or in-person. Participants will experience each module, practice the exercises, and explore the training material needed to run the module themselves. An instructor guide that includes the module outline, objectives, description, frequently asked questions, pre- and post-participant surveys, target audience, and instructions for running a successful module is provided for each tool taught.
This course will train participants to run modules on unique aspects of four free open source tools for researchers:
- Binder: Share your computational environment, code, and research notebooks.
- Renku: Document and share your analysis pipelines.
- Open Science Framework: Create a centralized, structured workspace for your research materials.
- KnitR with holepunch: Knit your R code with your analysis narrative in one executable research notebook and capture your dependencies.
Many FSCI participants already run short-duration training events at their institutions. This course is ideal for those who wish to improve the quality and variety of the training they already offer to researchers. Participants who do not currently run short-duration training events at their institutions will benefit from the course by learning an accessible and efficient way of getting started with these four modules.
Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is ideal for information professionals or researchers who wish to improve the quality and variety of the trainings they offer, or who wish to start running trainings at their institution.
Requirements: There are no prerequisites for this course. Participants should have a computer and internet connection to fully participate.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9AM: Session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 1
Thursday, Aug. 6
1-2PM: Session 2 (available recorded ASAP)
(Session 3 prerecorded lecture posted)
Tuesday, Aug. 11
1-2PM: Session 4 (available recorded ASAP)
T11 – Losing Our Scholarly Record and What We Can Do About It
Instructor: Martin Klein, PhD, Scientist, Research Library, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Description: By now, most aspects of scholarly communication happen on the web. The dissemination speed of scholarly knowledge has dramatically increased because we are able to publish and access information on the web. While this environment comes with lots of new opportunities, it also poses challenges, specifically to the longevity of the scholarly web-based record. Increasingly, as authors of scientific articles we reference resources on the web such as project websites, scholarly wikis, ontologies, datasets, source code, presentations, blogs, and videos.
While these resources are referenced to provide essential context for the research, they are, just like any other web resource, subject to the dynamic nature of the web and hence likely to disappear or significantly change over time. For scholarly journal articles, we enjoy the benefits of archival systems such as LOCKSS and Portico, but we have no orchestrated preservation infrastructure in place for what we call “web at large” resources. These observations raise significant concerns regarding the and long-term availability and access of web-based scholarly artifacts.
This course aims at outlining the extent of this reference rot problem and how it impacts our ability to revisit web content cited in scholarly articles some time after their publication. The course will also provide participants with an overview of and hands-on experience with approaches and tools available to authors, archivists, librarians, publishers, and others to address this problem.
Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is targeted at scholars, librarians, archivists, and publishers at all levels.
Requirements: The course does not require any special technical equipment or software beyond what is needed to attend live teaching sessions (likely Zoom) and participate in course communication (Slack, for example). Participants will therefore benefit from having access to an internet-connected laptop or desktop computer.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9AM: First session
5-6PM: REPEAT First session
Thursday, Aug. 6
8-9AM: Second session
5-6 pm: REPEAT Second session
Tuesday, Aug. 11
8-9AM: Third session
5-6PM: REPEAT Third session
T12 – Supportive Partnerships for FAIR Data and Open Research in Faculty Grantsmanship and the Academic Research Enterprise
Instructors:
- Nina Exner, Research Data Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Erin Carrillo, Science Research Librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University
Description: Do you want to see better partnerships between the Office of (Sponsored) Research, the library, academic departments, research cores, and faculty development?
This session is for those who support campus researchers – such as librarians, research administrators, program and panel members, and faculty mentors – to discuss support for faculty grant success. We will work on partnerships to support open access and FAIR data services specific to federally funded research.
Federal funding agencies in the U.S. and many other regions expect faculty to move toward FAIR data and open scholarly communication. But faculty principal investigators (PIs) are not always able to incorporate open access and FAIR data into their workflows. PIs need to be connected to supports for addressing FAIR and open principles in their grant-writing and grant compliance.
Librarians, faculty mentors, research administrators, and others offer support for PI transitions to FAIR practices. But these support offerings are not always aligned together. Partnerships are the key to bringing faculty support sectors together to reach faculty more effectively! But partnering is not always easy. Jargon, differences in epistemology, and other factors get in the way. Join us for a place to discuss partnerships for scholarly communication support in the university “research enterprise.” Participants will share their perspectives and jargon, and learn how others discuss support needs and federal research funding. This session focuses on the “research enterprise” and will complement, not replace, other sessions on FAIR data and open access advocacy.
In this session, we will share different views of the funded research workcycle. As a group, we will discuss how support offerings align with research administrator and funder priorities. We will then work on plans for outreach to other campus units to partner on FAIR and open practices in faculty grant proposals.
Level: Beginner
Intended Audience: The course is aimed at librarians, faculty development professionals, program officers, research administrators, and other personnel interested in building supports for early career and developing researchers. This course is about outreach to build training and support; it will not cover grant-writing skills. The instructors are most familiar with the U.S. federal grant environment, but will include some examples from other federal funders.
Requirements: Participants will need internet access. Some comfort with broad concepts of FAIR data and open access will be helpful.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
7-8AM: Introductions, identify common interests, form groups, initial group discussions
5-6PM: Introductions, identify common interests, form groups, initial group discussions
Thursday, Aug. 6
7-8AM: Peer groups review revised outreach content and make suggestions for re-jargoning and potential other partnerships
5-6PM: REPEAT Peer groups review revised outreach content and make suggestions for re-jargoning and potential other partnerships
Tuesday, Aug. 11
7-8AM: Peer group members share partnership initiative worksheets, give/get feedback
5-6PM: REPEAT Peer group members share partnership initiative worksheets, give/get feedback
Tuesday, Aug. 18
7-8AM: Overflow day (optional)
5-6PM: REPEAT Overflow day (optional)
T13 – Engaging Students in Scholarly Communications: Approaches, Tools, and Tactics
Instructor: Robyn Hall, Scholarly Communications Librarian, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada
Description: Those who teach and work with students at both the undergraduate and graduate level can play an important role in shaping the future of scholarly communications. Drawing students’ attention to the various ways that research and scholarship can be shared openly online can provide valuable opportunities for them to disseminate their own work and engage with the work of others. It can also help them improve their academic writing, communication and copyright literacy skills. Exposing students to the socioeconomic processes that shape access to knowledge can additionally influence how the next generation of researchers approaches scholarly activity and where they choose to publish in their future careers.
In the first half of this course, participants will explore and discuss a variety of assignment designs and initiatives from across disciplines that have engaged students in areas of scholarly communications, open pedagogy, and open science. They will also have an opportunity to try out, review and assess some free software tools and platforms that can facilitate these activities, including Open Journal Systems, Pressbooks, Hypothes.is, and the Wiki Education Dashboard.
In the second half of the course, participants will draft their own assignment, initiative, workshop, or lesson plan that aims to give students experience with open practices and educate them on scholarly communication topics and issues. Both the instructor and other participants will provide constructive feedback on these plans. By the end of the course, participants will have constructed a comprehensive and actionable plan to involve students with open research practices that can benefit student learning, and contribute positively to the future of academic publishing and research dissemination.
Proposed Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is intended for instructional faculty, academic librarians, early-career academics, and the open education community.
Requirements: There are some optional preparatory online readings and activities for this course that do not require any special software or technical skills. This course includes two hours of synchronous instruction, and a series of brief asynchronous, self-directed activities and online discussions that will be posted each weekday morning of the course.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9AM: Introductory session
5-6PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Tuesday, Aug. 11
8-9AM: Reflections, wrap-up, & next steps
5-6PM: REPEAT Reflections, wrap-up, & next steps
T14 – How To Introduce and Implement Policy in Your Institution and Still Have Friends Afterwards
Instructors:
- Danny Kingsley, PhD, Scholarly Communication Consultant, Brisbane, Australia
- Sarah Shreeves, Vice Dean, University of Arizona Libraries
Description: As we move toward an open future, questions arise around the implications for the institution. There are multiple challenges around policy, advocacy, and technology surrounding open research practice. Much of the work in the scholarly communication space involves advocacy – working with many levels of the institutional hierarchy. This course discusses the practical aspects of developing policy and navigating it through an institution – a lengthy and complex process. Participants will consider who the stakeholders are within their institution and collectively will look at the perspectives they might bring to the discussion. There will be some practical work on addressing various objections to provide advocacy and negotiation skills.
The course will be a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous learning. In total the course will take five hours for each of the two weeks of FSCI (10 hours in total). This will include an expected contribution to an introductory process prior to the starting date. You will also need to prepare for scheduled group work by watching a pre-recorded short lecture. Sessions will happen twice a day to allow for different time zones, and group work will occur with people in a time zone close to you. The final day in week two will be a meeting of the whole group – we will work together to decide the best (or least worst!) time zone for everyone.
Level: All levels
Intended Audience: There are no prerequisites for this course. This course is aimed at people in institutions that provide the support infrastructure for research – research IT areas, research office administrative staff, librarians, policy writers, research/library information technology specialists. We believe the course will be useful for a range of roles and participants – anyone who wants to reflect on and improve how policy is set and implemented at the organizational level.
Requirements: We will ask participants to contribute to an introductory activity before the first session to help the group to get to know one another.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9:30AM: Introductory session
5-6:30PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Thursday, Aug. 6
8-9:30AM: Risk Assessment session
5-6:30PM: REPEAT Risk Assessment session
Tuesday, Aug. 11
8-9AM: Objections Session
5-6PM: REPEAT Objections session
Thursday, Aug. 13
Time TBD, 2 hours: Final session, full group
T15 – FAIR for Data and Texts Not in the Open: Overcoming Legal, Technological, and Economic Barriers
Instructors:
- Ye Li, PhD, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Librarian, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
- Laura Hanscom, Scholarly Communications and Licensing Librarian, MIT Libraries
- Katie Zimmerman, Director of Copyright Strategy, MIT Libraries
Description:
The rise of applied data science, digital humanities, machine learning, and artificial intelligence has resulted in an increased need for computational access and reuse of research data and publications. Researchers have begun to build FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) and open data practices for data they are generating; however, much computational research requires access to existing structured and well-curated texts and data from proprietary sources that don’t currently meet the FAIR standard. To accomplish this, many researchers are partnering with libraries, which frequently have long-term subscription access to such resources, to gain computational access and rights to reuse for text and data mining (TDM) and machine learning purposes.
Negotiating for such access and rights poses technical, economic, and legal challenges. In some cases, researchers have to negotiate access and reuse at the individual research group or project level. In this course, we will interactively explore these issues through case studies from real-life examples and share resources and tips that will help researchers, librarians, and vendors to “move the needle” toward FAIR data. The joint effort of researchers, librarians, and vendors will be required to sustainably ensure that resources move towards FAIR standards, and that researchers can share their own research output FAIRly.
Class activities include:
- Small-group critique of license terms for computational access and reuse of publications and databases.
- Mock negotiation between researchers/librarians and vendors.
- Hands-on practice accessing a database through publicly available API services (e.g., Crossref, PubChem) and comparison with other computational access models.
- Group discussion of cutting-edge questions on computational access and reuse.
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Intended Audience: The course is aimed at science and engineering researchers, digital humanities scholars, librarians, and vendors of subscription products interested in computational access and reuse; administrators interested in understanding the risks and challenges, including intellectual property issues and commercial interests, of providing access to these resources; and technical and support staff who may be called upon to set up access to these resources and provide storage and security.
Requirements: Participants should have an interest in and basic awareness of issues related to computational access and reuse of texts and data not in the open.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9AM: Introductory session
5-6PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Thursday, Aug. 6
8-9AM: Activity Session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Activity Session 1
Tuesday, Aug. 11
8-9AM: Activity Session 2
5-6PM: REPEAT Activity Session 2
T16 – Advancing FAIR Data Stewardship: Fostering Institutional Planning and Service Development
Instructors:
- Christine Kirkpatrick, Division Director, Research Data Services, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego
- Natalie Meyers, E-Research Librarian, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
- Melissa Cragin, PhD, Chief Strategist, Data Initiatives, Research Data Services, San Diego Supercomputer Center, UC San Diego
Description: As funders move toward requirements that research outputs be FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable), some academic institutions are organizing service points around scholarly communications and “digital stewardship competency” that include data and software. This course aims to further expert capacity related to FAIR data initiatives at academic institutions or organizations that directly serve domain-based researchers.
Topics will include:
- A comparative overview of current FAIR initiatives, organizations, and projects around the globe.
- Navigating the differences in funding agency requirements for FAIR data.
o Tips for how to navigate the way FAIR can be interpreted by funders and other stakeholders with conflicting assumptions, intentions, and expected outcomes, which can in turn hamper mutual understanding, planning, and service development.
o Discussion of what FAIR means to individual researchers, repositories and other community resources, and the implications for institutions and planning. - What does it mean to be “FAIR” at the institutional level? This will include consideration of policies across research support service units; costs and decision points for institutions related to FAIR dependencies; and how to leverage other resources where possible.
The session structure will include several prerecorded and live presentations; open discussion (synchronous and asynchronous) to share/compare local contexts, examples, and challenges; and short group exercises. Participants will gain an advanced perspective on how FAIR-oriented services can be organized and implemented at the institutional level, and will have state-of-the-art information in support of broader and coherent “Stewardship Competency.”
Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is for anyone who is part of local, organizational, campuswide efforts to assess, design, and implement data policies and services for the management, access, and use of data that may be acquired, held, and maintained by an institution, or scholarly communication professionals dependent on the same. The course will also be useful to those who wish to be FAIR champions and implementers but who struggle to make sense of the myriad FAIR offerings and which ones might be applied in the context of their group or institution.
Requirements: A basic awareness of FAIR principles will be helpful so that we can arrive easily at a shared understanding of this context. We will provide two to three short papers or reports for reading ahead of the session.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
9-10AM: First session
5-6PM: REPEAT First session
Thursday, Aug. 6
9-10AM: Second session
5-6 pm: REPEAT Second session
Tuesday, Aug. 11
10-11AM: Third session
4-5PM: REPEAT Third session
T17 – When Global Is Local: The South of Open Scholarly Communication
Instructors:
- Gimena del Rio Riande, PhD, Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas y Crítica Textual (IIBICRIT), National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Daniel O'Donnell, PhD, Professor of English, University of Lethbridge, Canada
Description: What is the South? A cardinal point, a group of countries with emerging economies, or an area defined by inequalities, where languages, ethnicities, identities, traditions and geographies coexist and produce unique epistemologies? Are we speaking about the South as understood from the North or from the many “Souths”? This course will focus on the practices and experiences of open scholarly production and knowledge exchange in the so-called Global South, focusing especially on open initiatives in Latin America.
The course will analyze challenges, highlight initiatives, and explore options to contextualize the open movement from a southern perspective. The course will also analyze and debate Open Access laws and specific cases that illustrate the movement’s progress and challenges, and will present a practical approach to deal with the different open scholarly communication ecosystems in the world. Finally, the course will put Open Access to publications and research data in the context of the larger Open Science movement.
The emphasis will be on the local contexts and relevancies of participation and impact, including those related to language(s), publication, technologies, access and reuse, dissemination and outreach, funding, credit and attribution, and evaluation.
The course will support a critical examination of the epistemological, linguistic, geopolitical, spatial, technological, and economic status of the South(s)/Global South(s), as well as strategies for positively transforming and opening scholarly communication on a global scale in ways that eliminate systematic and biased understandings of participation and success. As we examine local and global questions about scholarly communication, we will use the South as a framework for critical episteme and reflection.
The class will offer a mix of lecture and practical work, particularly information gathering and analysis. The emphasis will be on providing frameworks within which information can be gathered and understood rather than on “fact teaching.” We will encourage participants to engage reflectively with the material, bringing their own experiences to bear.
Level: Beginner
Intended Audience: Scholars, librarians, researchers, students, and anybody interested in innovation in scientific information from all disciplines are invited to participate in this workshop. The course may also be of interest to those who want to build an understanding of Open Science outside the Global North, digital hegemonies, diversity and multilingualism, and postcolonial approaches to scholarly communication.
Requirements: No previous knowledge or experience in the topic is needed. Preparatory work won't be required, but we will offer suggested material for participants to read and watch before the course. Students don't need any special equipment, just computers and access to the internet.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Tuesday, Aug. 4
8-9AM: Session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 1
Thursday, Aug. 6
8-9AM: Session 2
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 2
Tuesday, Aug. 11
8-9AM: Session 3
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 3
W20 – Research Reproducibility in Theory and Practice (Examples and Focus on Biological Sciences)
Instructors:
- Anita Bandrowski, PhD, RRID Project Lead at SciCrunch and University of California, San Diego
- Daniel S. Katz, PhD, Assistant Director for Scientific Software and Applications, National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Research; and Research Associate Professor in Information Sciences, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Tracey Weissgerber, PhD, Mayo Clinic and QUEST (Quality, Ethics, Open Science, Translation), Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
Description: This course will focus on issues of reproducibility in research from a broad perspective. It will include an introduction to the differing types of reproducibility, and a discussion of grant review guidelines and the philosophy that underpins them.
The course will look at reproducibility in several contexts, including collecting and communication in experimental research, providing a robust record of computational research, and the limitations and debates around these approaches. We will introduce several tools and approaches to support reproducible research practice, including the RRID portal, Zenodo, Jupyter Notebooks, and best practice in research and data management, communication, and open sharing.
There will a mix of lecture and practical work, particularly information gathering and analysis. The emphasis will be on providing frameworks within which information can be gathered and understood rather than on “fact teaching.”
Level: Beginner
Intended Audience: The target audience is researchers seeking a deeper understanding of reproducibility in a variety of contexts, as well as those with a need to support researchers – for example, staff from research offices, libraries, service providers, or publishers. Participants should be seeking an introduction to working toward reproducibility in practice and to the tools that can support them in doing this.
Requirements: Participants should have basic computer skills, access to the internet, and a computer. We will be working remotely, so getting a free account on Hypothes.is will be required before classes start.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-9:30AM: Introductory session, Activity 1
5-6:30PM: REPEAT Introductory session, Activity 1
Monday, Aug. 10
8-9:30AM: Session 2, Activity 2
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-9:30AM: Session 3, Activity 3
Monday, Aug. 17 (only if needed)
8-9:30AM: Sessions, Activities
W21 – FAIR Data in the Scholarly Communications Life Cycle
Instructors:
- Natasha Simons, Associate Director, Data and Services, Australian Research Data Commons
- Christopher Erdmann, User Engagement, Support and Training Expert (RENCI), University of North Carolina
- Daniel Bangert, Scientific Manager, Göttingen State and University Library
Description: This course will focus on FAIR research data management and stewardship practices. It will provide an understanding of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data and how it fits into scholarly communication workflows. Participants will learn about the FAIR Data Principles and how they can be applied in practice.
Good data stewardship is the cornerstone of knowledge, discovery, and innovation in research. The FAIR Data Principles address data creators, stewards, software engineers, publishers, and others to promote maximum use of research data. In research libraries, the principles can be used as a framework for fostering and extending research data services.
This course will provide an overview of the FAIR Data Principles and the drivers behind their development by a broad community of international stakeholders. We will explore a range of topics related to putting FAIR data into practice, including how and where data can be described, stored, and made discoverable (e.g., data repositories, metadata); methods for identifying and citing data; interoperability of (meta)data; best-practice examples; and tips for enabling data reuse (e.g., data licensing). Along the way, we will get hands-on with data and tools through self-paced exercises. There will be opportunities for participants to learn from each other and to develop skills in data management and expertise in making data FAIR.
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Intended Audience: The course is aimed at individuals working with or expecting to work with data as researchers, publishers, librarians, or in research support, especially those seeking to develop their skills in managing FAIR data in practice and to understand the tools that can support them in doing this.
Requirements: There are no special requirements for the course.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-9AM: Session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 1
Monday, Aug. 10
8-9AM: Session 2
3-4PM: REPEAT Session 2
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-9AM: Session 3
3-4PM: REPEAT: Session 3
W22 – Looking Beyond the Journal Article: A Guide to Building Your Biomedical Research Toolkit
Instructors:
- Ariel Deardorff, MLIS, Data Services Librarian, University of California San Francisco
- Ibraheem Ali, PhD, Sciences Data Librarian, UCLA Biomedical Library
Description: The last decade has seen an unprecedented boom in interdisciplinary and collaborative research. Along with this, there has been a significant effort to create robust platforms that streamline the research and publication process. In this course, we will take a look at the scholarly communication landscape for biomedical and STEM researchers. We will highlight key areas where new open publishing platforms streamline the research workflow. We will provide hands-on experience with research and data-publishing platforms to help scholars create collaborative protocols, manage research data and code, and learn preprints best-practices in competitive research environments. The goal of this course is to expand on FAIR data and reproducibility topics discussed throughout the week.
This course will start with an overview of planning an open research workflow from the perspective of biomedical and STEM researchers and then dive into key tools and publishing platforms, including:
- Open access publishing and preprints best practices
- Methods and protocols publishing
- Code archiving
- Data publishing
The course will consist of short virtual lectures followed by breakout discussions and hands-on practice with the tools. Active learning activities will give participants a chance to try out new practices and consider how these methods apply to their own research.
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Intended Audience: The course is aimed at individuals working as researchers, librarians, or staff who offer support to researchers in academic, nonprofit, and industry settings. Hands-on training will allow learners to gain skills using the platforms so they can integrate these tools into their research workflow or into train-the-trainer sessions.
Requirements: We recommend that participants use a computer in order to fully participate in the hands-on components of the course. We also recommend users have an ORCID account; it will be used to sign into various platforms.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-9AM: Introductory session
5-6PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Monday, Aug. 10
8-9AM: First two topics
5-6PM: REPEAT First two topics
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-9AM: Next two topics
5-6PM: REPEAT Next two topics
W23 – Getting Buy-In: How to Plan Inclusive Open Access Sessions
Instructors:
- Barbara Bordalejo, PhD, Sessional Lecturer, English, University of Saskatchewan
- Emily Kilcer, Scholarly Communication Librarian, University at Albany, State University of New York
- Amanda Page, Scholarly Communications Consultant, New York
Description: Advocacy is a core element of scholarly communication (SC) work, particularly when it comes to promoting open scholarship and new modes of communication. SC officers must know their audience and strike the right balance between educating their community and advocating for transformations the community may not be ready to embrace. A fundamental understanding of matters related to advocacy, negotiation, diversity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion is essential both to reach varied audiences and to encourage richer, more open and more accessible resources.
This course presents strategies for developing effective SC-related communications ranging from “elevator” pitches to full-length workshops. We implement a variety of pedagogical methods, including lectures, active participation through in-class discussion and live polls, and group and individual exercises. Students are invited to bring examples of real-life scenarios to try with communication strategies covered in class. The class includes dynamic exercises and discourse, and a guest scholar, and encourages active participation based around the development of soft skills. This course presents strategic solutions to problem-solving, including relevant programs, tools, and technologies.
Part 1: Advocacy-based Meetings, Conversations, and Project Work
The course begins with an introduction to strategic thinking in communication, the foundation for all forms of scholarly communications outreach and advocacy. We cover the different types of crucial outreach activities and how to apply strategic thinking to these modalities, and discuss how advocacy work is contextual. Class conversation includes topics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion, implicit bias, privilege, accessibility, and negotiation. Exercises and discussion will include concepts of understanding how cultural constructs impact advocacy, relationships, behavioral change, privilege, and buy-in.
Part 2: Advocacy-based, Inclusion-Focused Events, and Technical Labor
This part of the course builds upon Part 1 by introducing students to more in-depth techniques to strategically customize communications and advocacy-driven messages, and to include deliberate methods in presentations and public communications. Additional considerations for facilitating events with audiences of various sizes will be covered, as well as tips for building and tracking campus champions and partners, use of technology platforms, and rights and legal frameworks and considerations for use in advocacy or inclusion work. During this session, discussion and exercises will include strategic solutions focused on technologies, tools, and platforms that help scaffold advocacy-based initiatives.
Level: Beginner to intermediate
Intended Audience: The course is intended for individuals who are new to working in scholarly communication and open access or who are already engaged in the work and are looking to increase their skills in advocacy, education, and stakeholder outreach. Librarians, early-career researchers, administrators, publishers, and graduate students are encouraged to register. This course is also intended for anyone looking to increase their cultural awareness competencies and perspectives on inclusion, diversity, and negotiation.
Requirements: This course requires a minimal amount of optional advance preparation, which involves students being asked to think about their home institutions and bring with them examples of scenarios relevant to their work. Shared discussion and activities will occur, respecting confidentiality and consent. A basic understanding of scholarly communication and open access is recommended. Optional, non-required opportunities will be provided to class participants who are interested before and during FSCI2020 (such as pre- and post-class surveys, and optional suggested readings).
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-10AM: Session 1
5-7PM: REPEAT Session 1
Monday, Aug. 10
8-10AM: Session 2
12-1:30PM: Session 3, guest speaker Peter Suber – Writing, reading, speaking: an interactive discussion on advocacy
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-10AM: Session 4
W24 – Working with Scholarly Literature in R: Pulling, Wrangling, Cleaning, and Analyzing Structured Bibliographic Metadata
Instructor: Clarke Iakovakis, Scholarly Services Librarian, Oklahoma State University
Description: Developers have created a number of packages for accessing the scholarly literature in R over the last several years, among them rcrossref, rorcid, and roadoi. These packages make use of the APIs in their systems to allow users to execute specific queries and pull the structured data into R, where it can be reshaped, merged with other data, and analyzed. This session will be based on the workshop I provided at last year's FSCI. The course will assume no experience with R; however, a thorough explanation of the R programming language will not be provided.
The course will a mixture of pre-recorded videos and synchronous meeting for discussion and Q&A sessions.
Students will access IPNYB (Jupyter Notebooks) files containing the scripts for the workshop, created with Binder (https://mybinder.org/). The files will include executable code alongside descriptions of what the code is doing. Students can therefore run code that has already been written, but will also write and execute their own R scripts within the Jupyter Notebooks environment. Students will access these notebooks while watching the videos explaining the code.
We will begin with a general orientation of the Jupyter Notebooks environment. We will then discuss R and provide a basic overview of how it works. This introduction will include reading data into R, installing packages, and some functions for cleaning and restructuring data. We will then discuss Crossref, ORCID, and Unpaywall, and the packages developed by the rOpenSci (https://ropensci.org/) organization to access the API services of these organizations, and walk through rcrossref, roadoi, and rorcid.
rcrossref interfaces with the CrossRef API, allowing users to pull article metadata based on ISSN, filter queries by publication date and license information, running queries by title and author, getting funder data, getting citation counts, and exporting to BibTeX, RIS, and CSV. This can be immensely powerful for collecting citation data, conducting literature reviews, creating bibliographies, and more.
roadoi interfaces with Unpaywall, allowing users to input a set of DOIs and return publication information along with potential locations of open access versions.
rorcid interfaces with the ORCID API, allowing users to pull publication data based on a specific ORCID iD, or to input names and other identifying information to find a specific individual’s identifier.
As we work through the tutorials, students will continue to learn R functions for working with data, including dplyr, purrr, and tidyr.
By the conclusion of the session, students will be able to work with and analyze data in R. On a deeper level, they will have more powerful tools for gathering subsets of the scholarly literature in clean and structured formats based on specific parameters. Because they will be walking away with executable scripts, they will be able to modify those and collect data based on parameters they are interested in.
Proposed Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is intended for scholarly communications librarians, repository managers, research funders, publishers, bibliometricians, and managers of Research Information Management Systems (RIMS).
Requirements: Students will need a computer with internet access. It will not be necessary to download R or R Studio, as all code will be executed in Jupyter Notebooks in the browser, hosted by binder. Students are required to register for an ORCID iD at https://orcid.org/.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-9AM: Introductory session
5-6PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Monday, Aug. 10
8-9AM: Activity session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Activity session 1
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-9AM: Activity session 2
5-6PM: REPEAT Activity session 2
W25 – A Decolonized Approach to Scholarly Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Perspectives in Practice and Research
Instructor: Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, Queen Elizabeth II Scholar at University of Ottawa, Canada, DOAJ Ambassador, and President, Association for the Promotion of Open Science in Haiti and Africa (APSOHA)
Description: Openness and the fast growth of information technology have contributed to reducing many injustices in knowledge diffusion. However, due to the immaterial nature of information, benign threats are still present in practices, research, infrastructure, and policies in academia. That means, once you are dealing with scholarly communication, whether you are a librarian, a researcher, a funder, a policymaker, or a software designer, what you are doing has impact everywhere across the world. But if you are not aware of soft domination, exclusion, and inequities led by knowledge, this impact can be negative. That is why it is so important to learn how to identify and avoid such bad effects.
Postcolonial theory seems to offer a good framework to tackle these threats and educate people involved in scholarly communication. That is the raison d’être of this course: to teach how to identify and avoid colonial practices in scholarly communication. The first day of the course is more theoretical and aims to provide participants with basics on postcolonial theory. We will present and discuss some texts previously shared with participants. The second day is based on practical activities to scan the landscape of scholarly communication under the lens of postcolonial theory. Then we will focus on best practices we need to adopt to avoid an unconscious colonial impact in scholarly communication.
Level: All levels
Intended Audience: This course is suitable for all involved in scholarly communication, including researchers, librarians, publishers, policymakers, infrastructure designers, and funders.
Requirements: No technical skills or prerequisites are needed other than familiarity with activities related to scholarly communication. The course will require a computer with an internet connection.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
10-11AM: Introductory session
6-7PM: REPEAT Introductory session
Monday, Aug. 10
10-11AM: Activity session 1
6-7PM: REPEAT Activity session 1
Wednesday, Aug. 12
10-11AM: Activity session 2
6-7PM: REPEAT Activity session 2
Monday, Aug. 17
TBD: Optional continued discussion
W26 – Tools and Best Practices for Publishing an Open Access Journal: A Workshop for Beginners
Instructors:
- Justin Gonder, Senior Product Manager, Publishing, California Digital Library
- Rachel Lee, New Publications Manager, California Digital Library;
Description: This workshop will provide an interactive introduction to open access journal publishing with a specific focus on cultivating the tools and practices necessary to develop a high-quality, sustainable publication.
Attendees will learn how one established library publishing program (California Digital Library’s eScholarship Publishing) evaluates potential journal proposals and supports editorial teams as they develop their journal and publish their first issue. Touchpoints include: establishing an editorial board; sustainability planning; licensing; marketing and outreach; and selecting the appropriate publication schedule for your journal.
After exploring best practices, attendees will evaluate a selection of sample OA journal proposals. Students will apply what they have learned regarding best practices to provide individual feedback on these proposals, and will then engage in a group discussion of strengths and areas of improvement for each. Participants will also learn about open source submission management systems (e.g. Open Journal Systems, Janeway) and will have an opportunity to road test these as part of the coursework and group discussions.
The instructors will move from discussion of general best practices toward a series of more in-depth discussions. Peer review, in both its traditional and open forms will be discussed, with a particular lens on the importance of ensuring a diverse evaluation of work. Students will also learn about the value of publication indexes and engage in an activity aimed at understanding how journals get included in these.
Finally, students will learn how organizations such as the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) are working to provide resources and standards to guide journals toward sustainability and success, and will leave the course with a bundle of readings and resources that can be used to support their own journal publishing ventures.
Level: Beginner
Intended Audience: This course is primarily for those interested in starting, developing, or editing scholarly journals, or those supporting journal hosting or publishing services in libraries, higher education institutions, or scholarly societies. No previous experience is required.
Requirements: A computer with internet will be required to participate fully in this course. We will create user accounts on an open source submission management system (e.g., OJS or Janeway) to use during the course and for outside coursework. If students are currently working on or developing a journal publishing project, any related documents (e.g., project plan, scope or vision statements, submission or author guidelines, peer review statements, or workflow outlines) would be valuable examples to have on hand during course activities. Instructors will also be happy to provide feedback on these documents, as time permits.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-9AM: Session 1
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 1
Monday, Aug. 10
8-9AM: Session 2
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 2
Wednesday, Aug. 12
8-9AM: Session 3
5-6PM: REPEAT Session 3
W27 – Global Overview of the Scholarly Publishing Market: Differences Between the North and the South and Possible Consequences of Plan S
Instructors:
- Tom Olyhoek, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Ivonne Lujano, DOAJ Ambassador for Latin America
Miho Funamori, Associate Professor, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan
Guest presenters:
- Kathleen Shearer, Executive Director, COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories)
- Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Program Manager, EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries)
Description: This course will focus on the publisher-dominated scholarly publishing system in the North – subscription and open access, maintained by publisher-controlled metrics and ranking – versus the community-controlled open access publishing system in Latin America and the society-based subscription system and governmental infrastructures in Japan and other Asian countries. Publishing in Africa is much less developed, but we will discuss steps that have been taken there toward a community-controlled infrastructure. The various indexing services that provide lists of quality journals will be compared and discussed. To take the discussion of scholarly publishing systems to the next level, we will highlight “Fostering Bibliodiversity in Scholarly Communications: A Call for Action,” which calls on the community to make concerted efforts to develop strong, community-governed infrastructures that support diversity in scholarly communications (referred to as bibliodiversity). We will examine whether the Call for Action can stop the dominance of a handful of Northern publishers.
In the part of the course on Plan S, we will examine the role that Read and Publish agreements between publishers and governments or institutes play in the transformation to a 100 percent open access publishing system. We will also emphasize the inherent dangers of Plan S-linked transformative agreements, and the price/transparency rules for APC and no-APC journals, which are meant to be a feasible way to help journals flip to open access, but which may eventually lead to a costly global open access publishing system with very high article processing charges replacing an expensive subscription system that produced profit margins of over 35 percent.
Finally, we will present reasons why we think that adoption of Plan S guidelines in the North and other areas of the world, notably Latin America and Japan, may lead to a global publishing market again dominated by a handful of Northern publishers who will continue to make very high profits.
Level: Intermediate to advanced
Intended Audience: The course is intended for all scholars, librarians, funders, policymakers, editors, university administrators, graduate students and other parties with interest in open access who want to keep abreast of the newest developments.
Requirements: Participants should have a computer.
LIVE ZOOM SESSION SCHEDULE
(All times Pacific)
Wednesday, Aug. 5
8-10AM: Overview
5-7PM: REPEAT Overview
Monday, Aug. 10
8-10AM: Intro to Plan S, consequences
5-6PM: RECORDED Intro to Plan S, consequences
Wednesday, Aug. 12
5-7PM: Evaluation systems, journal indexing services
8-9AM: RECORDED Evaluation systems, journal indexing services
