JISC

The changing face of research

The world in which researchers operate is changing significantly.  New practice is underpinned by the internet, high performance computing facilities, the ability to produce and share data at scale and in real time, and lightweight web tools such as micro blogging. 

This change has led to improved collaboration including more sharing of research results, better cross-disciplinary research potential and an increased need for analytical tools.

JISC’s approach has been to maintain its commitment to research infrastructure, for example by investing in JANET and the National Grid Service, and also to explore new cloud-based opportunities.  In addition we’ve pushed ahead with a focus on associated research data requirements through a managing research data programme and the Digital Curation Centre.  Alongside this, JISC has continued to invest in text mining, visualisation and digital research tools like virtual research environments which enable researchers to extend the remit of their work and discover things not previously known.  For example, researchers from across Europe have made an extraordinary discovery about a 2000 year old Roman tablet using new technology funded by JISC which enables virtual collaboration.

A series of events and debates have also helped guide and inform future directions.

Open access

JISC’s Open Science report identified open-ness, predictive science based on massive data volumes and citizen involvement as important features of tomorrow’s research practice.

There are huge benefits to society in making the outputs of publicly funded research publicly available, thus facilitating the exchange of knowledge. A recent report from JISC suggested that the increased impact of wider access to academic research papers could be worth approximately £170 million per year to the UK economy. Recent studies suggest that both the impact of research and citation rates are improved where the full text of papers are made openly available.

As part of International Open Access Week JISC launched a definitive guide to its 15 years of work in Open Access, tracking the changes in UK policy, opinions and what the future will look like. 

Malcolm Read on promoting the Open Access agenda

Innovation work funded by JISC in UK colleges and universities includes cost-benefit analysis and case studies showing how to generate the evidence to support a transition to open access for research outputs and an investigation into the potential for existing national negotiating arrangements with respect to Open Access publication charges. 

JISC’s commitment to the open agenda also covers issues of open source, open standards and open data. By making code, standards and research data more freely available, JISC aims to create opportunities to reuse and build on the original information. For example, using tools like the JISC-funded myGrid previously generated data can be applied to new lines of research to accelerate our understanding of the scientific world.

In many cases being open within the research process can help progress agendas and findings across research groups, for example.  Understanding where added value can be derived from the open sharing of research data is being progressed by our investment in the research data management and digital preservation programmes.  Opening up research data has benefits that improve collaboration, rapid research development and the integration and inferences that can be made from working across data sets.

Managing research data

As open science becomes the new paradigm for the way researchers are working, so the need for greater verification of data, its reuse and preservation becomes critical.  A series of JISC reports and projects has identified a need in universities for advice and guidance on data curation.  So a major new investment this year from JISC aimed to enable UK researchers  to better manage their research data. The investment is resulting in toolkits on dealing with freedom of information requests, improved methods for citing, linking and integrating research data, and models of good practice on its preservation.

Informing national strategy

In 2009 we launched a major new study with the British Library to examine the needs and habits of young doctoral students born between 1982-1994.  Currently with over 10,000 survey respondents from over 70 HEIs, the study is the largest longitudinal behavioural study of doctoral students in the UK. The initial Researchers of Tomorrow report challenges some existing assumptions; younger researchers are no more tech-savvy than their older counterparts, they tend to follow the research practice of their supervisors, and they still prefer to print out than read onscreen.  The work continues helps us prioritise future JISC funding.  For example, we know already that more needs to be done to raise the understanding of open access publication models among young researchers.

JISC’s vision is for a national infrastructure that makes it easier for researchers and learners to access the information they need.  JISC is leading on a new research discovery taskforce with partners including RLUK (research libraries UK)  to support this vision, and is investing in innovation work in libraries, archives and museums to make open metadata about their collections available in a sustainable way.