Reflecting on 2020 – and getting ready for 2021
COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to digital learning and teaching and a tremendous amount of work has taken place to make this shift happen. We look back at some of the highlights of 2020 in supporting this rapid transformation in teaching, learning and research. >>
How institutional repositories support the transition to open research - and reduce admin burden for librarians
Publisher and funder mandates and the desire to embrace best practice in open research, reproducibility and research integrity means universities now need to carefully manage, store and share their digital research outputs. >>
Keeping up with deteriorating data
Deciding to do nothing about preservation could be a disaster, says Paul Stokes, senior co-design manager at Jisc. >>
The UK Wiley read and publish agreement – nine months on
A 2018 review estimated that only 28% of all scholarly publications are open access. But the pandemic has heightened the need for full and immediate open access to research and has thrown into sharp relief the barriers that paywalls present to free and unfettered access to knowledge. >>
Why price transparency is important when buying academic journal access
It's often not clear how much a university needs to pay to access scholarly articles. For Anna Vernon, the move away from paywall publishing offers the opportunity to reexamine these costs. >>
Not all foreign students are home from home
During the current pandemic, not all students studying from home have the same access rights to scholarly content. That’s especially true of learners that are studying abroad at a partner organisation or foreign campus for a UK qualification. >>
Supporting libraries and learning resource centres during COVID-19 lockdown
With library doors closed for the foreseeable future, the coronavirus pandemic is an unplanned catalyst for a completely virtual library experience across universities, colleges and skills providers. >>
Toads, embryos, and the selfish benefit of good research data management
In this time of crises the importance of research data management (RDM) in research has never been more pressing. >>
Why the sector urges publishers to allow greater access to their content
As the COVID-19 outbreak worsens, universities are under exceptionally challenging circumstances whilst publishers are asked to give greater access to their content. >>
Can an open research statement drive best practice?
The University of Reading published an institutional Statement on Open Research in January 2019 which we hoped would encourage best practice and help to establish a flourishing open research (OR) culture. >>
