Immigrant | Utrecht University Library | Open Science & Open Access | trying to address the climate emergency. on Mastodon: jeroenbosman
@akademienl
.social
Our new experimental tool helps rethink publishing strategies in an open science context. Based on your goals you can select what, when, how and where to publish. With suggestions & background links and an automatically generated narrative. w/
@MsPhelps
Utrecht University
@UniUtrecht
in the Netherlands has withdrawn itself from the World University ranking
@THEworldunirank
provided by
@timeshighered
. As this has generated quite some reactions - praise, questions, some doubts, I want to provide some context. Hence a thread 🧵1/16
To all researchers affiliated to Dutch universities: you can now make all your published articles and chapters, older than 6 months and based on research using Dutch public funds, open access, in one go and without cost. See
3/16 This means that the main reasons to withdraw are the ranking's focus on competition where we want collaboration but also the (in my view harmful) simplification and methodologically questionable practices of university rankings
4/16 It is important to note that our critique of ranking regards all university rankings, not just that of THE. They are all severely lacking, as shown by research from the INORS
@INORMS_REWG
work on rethinking rankings
2/16 Our removal from the ranking is a direct effect of not providing data anymore. Only universities that provide data are listed. The main reasons - apart from cost/time investment of providing data - are misalignment the ranking's values with ours:
7/16 At Utrecht University, moving away from rankings has been coming for many years. But while thinking and building some consensus develops gradually, concrete steps lag a few years and are more ad hoc and stepwise, though always fitting our vision. So far we took 7 steps.
12/16 Hope this helps others (esp. at high ranked uni's) rethink university ranking and take some action, But also have the big discussions around assessment, open science and equity, including effects of (neo)colonialism in ranking.
@t_nassiri
@dcmccoy11
People regularly ask me how to perform a systematic *web* search. Finally found some time to organize my ad hoc tips and relate these to steps in a systematic scholarly search. Despite the options, web search will remain less controlled and a fuzzy patchwork. Feedback welcome.
Our rainbow of open science practices is now available as ppt, odp, png & pdf for anyone to reuse: The odp & ppt versions are animated for row-by-row presentation and have linked tool icons. Tools may support more than 1 practice, but are listed only once.
5/16 Some non-commercial ranking providers try to do a better job in terms of rigour and measuring what matters: The Leiden Ranking and U-Multirank
@UMultirank
. The Leiden Ranking also announced a bold move to a ranking based entirely on open data
8/16 Moving away from impact factors in research(er) assessment by signing DORA and publicly announce stopping their use fits our recognition and rewards transition , with detail in the FAQ.
1/8 Yesterday the
@UNESCO
delegates unanimously accepted 41c/22, the open science recommendation document. That is a landmark as it makes open science a more global endeavour . But what is it about? There is quite a lot in there. A short thread to recap.
Got this invitation from Times Higher for a survey feeding into their university ranking. It asks me to list the 15 institutions producing the best research. I'm not going to do this. I do not have the knowledge, I think no one has, and I think university rankings harm academia.
Ever wondered about all those organizations and infrastructures working at the European level on research policy and support? I created this (CC-BY) overview, maybe handy for you as well:
Great news for diamond open access. The open scholarly search engine
@TheLensOrg
in its latest release has introduced a filter that allows to restrict to output published in journals flagged as not charging APCs in
@DOAJplus
. Another step towards fair open access.
Wow, one of the best polite rants against Elsevier & other commercial publishers I have read so far. By Sankar Raman from India. Also on the legal action against Sci-hub in India. With an interesting discussion with editors and including introspection.
No excuse anymore for librarians and others to not be informed about research metrics. Metrics toolkit by
@IandPangurBan
@skonkiel
&
@rchampieux
released today And it's CC-BY!
19/19 PS My personal stance is that I think the onus is first on privileged, rich, big, Global North institutions that have been profiting big time from Matthew effects of their (ranking) position for many years.
10/16 Together with now >600 institutions we signed the COARA
@CoARAssessment
Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, committing to action. It includes a commitment on ranking.
6/16 However, this still leaves fundamental critique of rankings and their usage. INORMS
@INORMS_REWG
provided criteria for responsible ranking that are often based on more widely accepted charters and principles
14/16 Much of the culture change needed is not only among researchers and institutional boards, but especially in institutional research, communication and marketing departments. Their practices and jobs will change because of it, so include them in the difficult discussions.
"In pursuit of open science, open access is not enough". Important read. It's not so much arguing that OS asks for open data, code, reviews etc., next to OA, but that OS also requires investment in open and community governed research infrastructure
Updated overview of nine routes to Plan S compliance, based on the 20190531 principles and guidance, with indication of implications for various stakeholders. With
@MsPhelps
10 best practices for filters / faceted search implementation in (scholarly) search engines. It seems there is quite some room for improvement, e.g. in allowing selection of multiple values and making sure frequencies shown always add up to the total . 1/3
17/17 PS, it is interesting that
@UniUtrecht
not only disappeared from the 2024 ranking because we stopped supplying data, but was also delisted from all earlier editions. For those years, Utrecht data are only visible when you search on Utrecht.
9/16 We added some general contextualisation to our rankings page. As you see, this is not radical at all, but a necessary starting point. And yes, we still provide prospective students and researchers with info on our ranking position (not there yet ;-))
Updated our slide on author choices for publishing open access, to accommodate diamond OA separately and accommodate web based self publishing. Downloadable and reusable/adaptable version available: with
@MsPhelps
Publishers, there is still quite some room for improvement in how you display copyright,
@creativecommons
licenses and more for open access articles. We checked 2 dozen platforms with recent CC-BY example articles. Results at
@MsPhelps
@ashleydfarley
18/18 PS I forgot to detail our action to sign INORM's MTOR More Than Our Rank initiative. It signals our position visibly and shows that we are accountable, but also that we do not like to be alone in this. This is a classical collective problem
Anyone of you aware of any universities out there with a comprehensive open science policy or programme? We're trying to build one () but could benefit from lessons learnt elsewhere.
I am regarly being asked to present at scholarly communication conferences abroad. I like that.
But it is always supposed that I will come by air.
We must reconsider taking conference flying for granted.
Consider trains, remote talks, videoconferencing, satellite meetings.
11/16 A report for UNL (Dutch uni assoc)
@tweetsunl
includes a strategy to move away from rankings w/ actions on various aspects/levels, with a reaction from UNL on their priorities in implementing this. Such national alignment is great but no requirement.
Really
@IEEEorg
@IEEEXplore
? You seem to suggest that
@creativecommons
CC-BY somehow allows plagiarism or makes it hard to act against. That is incorrect. CC-BY does not allow it and anyone can take action if it happens. Could you please adapt the text?
@ElsevierConnect
Stop pushing metrics for the sake of metrics. H-indexes are mainly a reflection of field and career length. Altmetrics have nothing to do with them. They are meant to discover interactions with your output beyond academic citations. Twitter can be used to engage in discussions.
Sad to see that on Twitter it's impact factor madness again with many editors and publishers congratulating each other on slight IF increases. Wonder if they are aware of the general IF inflation. Please be proud of making journals better but do not judge that by looking at IFs.
"Springer Nature estimates that it costs, on average, €10,000–30,000 to publish an article in one of its Nature-branded journals". So that is what a researcher asks the taxpayer when publishing in Nature journals. Or is that not the way to look at it?
Sorry, sometimes I just get so weary of years & years of trying to get people to understand the idea of openly sharing by default, it makes me want to cry, especially in times likes this & especially in a week when we tragically lost one of the most passionate fighters for open.
This summer (July 16-20) there will be another edition of the 5-day Utrecht Summer School open science course for *researchers* considering to make their workflow more open. All welcome!
20/20 PS If you reply, retweet or otherwise boost these messages, please consider tagging your institution or people in its leadership, if you would feel comfortable doing that. It might set things in motion.
People ask me what I do to share slides sustainably and effectively, maximising visibility and reuse. These are the 19 steps in my pipeline. Everything from step 3 can be done in little more than half an our. If you do not use Google services, skip steps 7-9.
@CharlesPaxton4
@SarionBowers
@DrAnneCarpenter
For the odd recent article every other year no prob, mostly. But for someone doing research and wanting to scan a few dozen papers in say two weeks having to mail authors is a serious barrier, often unsuccessful and unnecessary if authors simply made their stuff OA.
The incredible
@ZENODO_ORG
service has been relaunched with many new or improved functions, especially for managing communities and with better interoperability with ROR and ORCID.
New Plan S guidelines are out: 2021 i/o 2020, funders can allow CC-BY-ND case-by-case, research assessment change in principles, tech reqs relaxed, now 3 types of 'transformative arrangements' and still cost transparency reqs. &
Found on a journal homepage: "Due to the high number of submissions and long processing time, it may take up to two years from submission to the publication of your article." Wow. Preprints anyone?
This German open access monitor details OA status (even separate diamond), costs, affiliation etc. at the article level for 73 German institutions *and* allows downloading granular data. It uses a.o. Dimensions, WoS, Unpaywall, OpenAPC, DOAJ & ROR sources.
This BBC radio 4 programme "The Great Science Publishing Scandal" aired today provides a very nice 29 min. introduction to scholarly publishing and open access . Alas it equates OA with paying APCs, but it concludes that implementing
@DORAssessment
is key.
Version 1.0 of the Utrecht University open science programme 2018-2021, including financial details, is now available: . It deals with Open access, FAIR & open data, sharing code and software, outreach & public engagement and with rewards & incentives.
Dutch National Library will digitize and make available all Dutch publications 1900-1940 (most older stuff already done). A collective contract has lifted copyright restrictions (normally 70 years after death author). (Dutch only)
A new book on Plan S for open access to scholarly publications, by Robert-Jan Smits and
@RachaelPells
. The book is open access, CC-BY-NC, available here: It details the story of how Plan S came to be, but also looks at pressing issues and ways forward.
Real paid mean open access article processing charges (APCs) in 2017, by publisher. Data aggregated by
@oa_intact
. Are the huge differences justified by corresponding huge differences in service? Follow link for data and more options:
With the new Sorbonne Declaration on Research data Rights our list of charters and declarations related to scholarly communication now boosts 109: . And yes, most deserve (continued) attention. Together they offer a vast array of inspiration and guidance.
Today it is exactly one year since
@cOAlitionS_OA
launched Plan S. So far I counted 1832 posts with feedback and discussion, from all types of stakeholders and ~50 countries. Whatever you think of the initiative, it has strongly stimulated discussion & creativity in open access.
French government puts open science on the national policy agenda ( p.57) with monitoring of OA+APCs+subscription costs / ORCID / HAL / ScanR / Isidore / GOFAIR / EOSC / journal data sharing. But no hard goals. science ouverte
This new study by 10 orgs (a.o.
@OPERASEU
@UiTromso
@UtrechtUni
@SPARC_EU
) details diamond (=non-APC) open access journals and shows their diversity, vitality ànd their need for more support. Findings report: Recommendations report:
It is important that cOAlition-S provides succinct info on the why of restrictions.
1. Plan S requires XML because ...
2. Plan S requires automatic ingest because ...
3. Plan S requires JATS because ...
4. Plan S requires APIs because ...
And esp. small publishers also need help.
Just decided:
@UNESCO
to launch a global debate to write a good global recipe for
#OpenScience
. It will be called a “Recommendation on Open Science” and it will function like a checklist that suggests countries what to do to have solid, well-performing science.
#unescoGC
cOAlition-S implementation guidance, finalised in Brussels today, will be presented at a briefing on Monday 26 November and released on Tuesday 27 November. It will be open for feedback until 1 February 2019
Plan-S = open access for all new papers from cOAlition-S funded research
+from 2020
+immediate
+of at least the publisher version
+CC-BY type license
+full copyright retained
+only in full OA venues
+APC capped
But more time for books & transitional hybrid
Nice! Scite-ai tool for citation sentiment recognition is now live, helping to discern between supporting, contradicting and 'merely' mentioning research. There's a post at
Universities offering diamond open access, university led, Plan S compliant publishing alternative: University Journals website now available, journals scheduled to start in 2020.
No
@ElsevierConnect
, impact factors (or the citescore copycat) should not be used to decide where to publish or what to read. Publish open, visible, sustainable, read what is relevant. Please read & sign
@DORAssessment
like 100s of other publishers, learned societies and funders.
Based on 20181127 cOAlition-S guidance document: our updated scheme with now nine routes towards Plan-S compliance. showing effects for stakeholder groups. w/
@MsPhelps
. Feedback welcome.
Finally fully updated my overview of read & publish deals in selected European countries, and now also UC (USA). Bias on larger publishers and hybrid remains. There seems to be a tendency towards longer deals (of 4 or even 5 years). .
Many people are not aware that in the new 100bn EU Horizon Europe funding programme preprints will satisfy Open Access requirements but OA papers in subscription journals will not be fundable: (p. 106)
Contemporary academia is about chasing citations. "It’s time to disrupt the current PhD system". Sensible plea by
@juliankirchherr
: A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing academic kudos
Our presentation at
#force2018
on open tools & platforms using a selection of 5 criteria lives at . You can flick the switches yourself at (but beware: there may be interference from other people active there ;-). w/
@MsPhelps
Plan S guidance from cOAlition S
@ScienceEurope
funders is now available for consultation until Feb 1. Compliant are: full OA venues, subscription with immediate green of VoR or AAM and hybrid in time-specified transformative deals, all CC-BY.
Hey, open science tweeps, got a few hours to improve Wikipedia coverage of open science topics with some balanced/objective info? In this overview we need more green and less red ;-) and ideally some improvement of existing articles too pls RT. Thx!
Feedback from universities on
#Plan_S
lacks analysis of their own situation: how many publications, in which journals, from which publishers, with what OA route, funded by which organizations? Any OA policy? To improve the situation institutions could use this template, CC0 ;-)
Our minister of education
@RHDijkgraaf
elaborating on why it is a good idea for the Dutch goverment to spend €20M yearly to foster open science. At the national open science festival
#osf2022nl
.
On my way to the
@VUamsterdam
for a workshop on DIAMAS (
@HorizonEU
project on institutional publishing) at the
@LIBEReurope
meeting, w/
@MsPhelps
. We will explore ways to identify insitutional publishers and institutional service providers in publishing.
Impressive post on Open Science and the recent Plan-S of cOAlition-S instigated by
@ScienceEurope
, by
@catmacOA
of full the open access publisher
@Hindawi
This draft list of big national deals with an Open Access component (RAP/PAR/offsetting) shows that deals are concentrated around bigger publishers and still rare with full OA publishers. Perhaps useful in the Plan S discussion. Please help improve it. CC0
Some 49% of the 34K 2000-2020 journal articles with "pandemic" in title/keywords/abstract are not open access while we are going through a major pandemic. Only a limited number of those have been made temporarily free to read.
Open access and open science requirements in the model grant agreement for
@EU_Commission
's Horizon Europe funding scheme for 2021-2027 are not yet formally announced. However, slides in the recent EU "Stakeholder workshop: Novelties in Horizon Europe MGA" provide insight ...1/8
.
@openalex
by
@OurResearch_org
is now also human readable in courageous alpha-version (so with bugs but allowing early input) here: . This open source scholarly knowledge graph uses a.o. PIDs to connect works/authors/institutions/sources/concepts and more.
Dear publishers, institutions, funders: in describing yourself, the more you are using language like world leading, top, excellence etc., the more I get the feeling you can not be trusted. The more transparent, modest, error showing you are, the more I feel you can be trusted.
Just witnessed my first online PhD defense, by now dr. Chris Hartgerink
@chartgerink
, including online party and drinks. The dissertation, "Contributions towards understanding and building sustainable science" is CC0 and available here:
@cblatts
@SSRN
Many alternatives. This slide has most of them. Questions to ask for each one: free? need to register? non-profit? stakeholder governed? open-licensed data? open source? SSRN alternatives: SocArXiv, LawArXiv, and the generic OSFpreprints, or
@ZENODO_ORG
Linguists are open access heroines/heroes. They have this great example of Open Access / Open Science infrastructure that universities and their libraries could support:
@LangSciPress
. Quality open access books without publishing fees:
Being Dutch, the rare opportunity of a few days of outdoor skating means you are able to handle a lot of setbacks in the remainder of the year. So good, it could make one cry.