Making sense of open accessFinding a practical approach at Portsmouth

An OA journey

• Starting points

• A new world

• … and training and promotion

• and systems and staffing

• … of admin

• Historically teaching and undergraduate focused

• 23,000 students; 2,500 staff• Some areas of high research activity top

rated in REF – Allied Health and Physics• 298 researchers submitted to REF 2014• Estimate 450 staff who are research

active• Growing research focus

University of Portsmouth

• Repository already in place run by library• Maintained by Metadata (cataloguing)

staff• Faculty Librarians provide support to

researchers if asked, but focus is UGs and teaching support

• Research office have chosen and are implementing CRIS (Pure)

• Also start working with them on an OA policy and creation of an OA post

The Portsmouth position in 2013

Research Outputs Manager

• Open Access Working Group established to work on policy and creation of post

• New funds obtained to create Research Outputs Manager post, starts in Sep 2013

• Co-location of post: full time library employee, spending two days a week based in research office

• Able to work closely with the right people on policy, processes, systems …

Open access mandates

HEFCE’s REF eligibility policy“This requirement will apply to journal articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication after 1 April 2016”

RCUK’s OA policy“The policy applies to peer reviewed research articles (including review ‐articles not commissioned by publishers), which acknowledge Research Council funding, that are submitted for publication from 1st April 2013, and which are published in journals or conference proceedings.”

University of Portsmouth policy“Journal articles and conference proceedings accepted for publication after 1st January 2014.”

APC dilemmas

• Green route preferred in university policy – no alternative?• RCUK block grant + small fund from University for gold

payments• Application and approval process needed• Need to manage expectations of academic staff• Many understand gold = open access

Managing APC funds

• Limited APC money for unfunded research

• Established careful process to approve how it’s spent

• More RCUK funds than we can spend (initially at least)

• University policy to preference green

What messages should we give to academic staff?

Unknowns

• How were other Universities handling this?• What did researchers think and know?• How could we make it as easy as possible?

• Being involved in Jisc Pathfinder from 2014 helped with this…openaccess.jiscinvolve.org/wp/

Jisc Pathfinder: Making Sense

Oxford Brookes, Nottingham Trent, Portsmouth:sensemakingopenaccess.blogspot.co.uk

Interviews

• Semi-structured, informal conversations• Research leads – 11 across all faculties interviewed by our

Research Outputs Manager• Extended to some academics interviewed by their subject

librarians • Though sample was small, we learned a great deal through

having the opportunity for open conversations

Findings

• Broadly aware of OA and accepted its importance for the REF, RCUK etc. but not aware of the details and their implications

• Common misunderstandings -– Didn’t consider OA in publication strategy before submitting– Difference between OA and hybrid journals– Difference between the ‘3 month rule’ and embargoes– Assumed you can always take the green route to comply– Not aware of the high cost of APCs– Don’t know what REF panel they will be submitting to

• Just want to know what they have to do to comply

Actions

• Some common issues were quickly apparent and actions were taken to address these

• The interviews also helped inform our ongoing activities with awareness raising

• It was clear no single approach to awareness was going to work, so we developed a plan with a variety of methods

Training: OA sessions

People were happy to attend university wide presentations if at a time they could do

• OA sessions increased to every 6 weeks at various times

• Smaller groups

• Part of general Researcher Development Programme

Questionnaires

• Pre and post questionnaires used to improve the sessions

• Helped highlight common misunderstandings

• Half of attendees in 2015/16 had no experience of OA beforehand

Flow chart v.1…

… and simplified further

Research Newsletter

• Regular library section

Tailoring the message

• We analysed samples (approximately 50) of our Business School and Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation journals.

• Results demonstrated most but not all journals comply with HEFCE or RCUK via the green route, so there is a need to check before submitting.

• This helped reinforce the message that they do need to consider where to publish at an early stage, whilst keeping the limitations in perspective

We were able to identify staff who already added items to ArXiv and set-up an import to Pure

System• Current mix of systems confusing

• Reinforced our move to a single portal

Research Portal

• Better engagement with researchers• Sits alongside other profiles• Backed up by PVC(R)• Repository withdrawal

We were able to set up reports and dashboards in Pure for research leads

Scopus checks

Individual help

• The vast majority of people do want to be able to contact someone for advice

• We have promoted email help• We do not validate recent articles without a post-print and so

deal with queries at published stage• Now starting to get more questions at an earlier stage asking

about which journals comply• All takes time though!

Expanding the team

• Growing workload needed a dedicated team

• Research Outputs Officer and Assistant posts created from within library budget

• Moved validation work from Metadata

• Data post next?

Library staff

• Questionnaires used with subject librarians • Good general awareness but from a publisher point of view • Wanted more specific back-up information

Off-setting deals

• Recent off-setting deals mean more options

• Try to publicise what is available to make the most of them

• Complicates the message further!

Data

• Project Board set up to looks at issues• Information Services and PVC(R) involved• Able to make use of CRIS for metadata• Storage space created whilst encouraging use of national

services• Very little engagement yet• Still some issues of support• Data post next?

Findings and our ongoing approach

• Practical and focused on the researcher

• We have to do stuff for them if we want it to be done

• Don’t need buy in just need cooperation

• They are happy to take instruction if what they need to do is made as straightforward as possible

Andrew Simpsonandrew.simpson@port.ac.uk

www.port.ac.uk/library/help/research/open/

Making Sense:sensemakingopenaccess.blogspot.co.ukJisc Pathfinders:openaccess.jiscinvolve.org/wp/pathfinder-projects/