Policy makers and funders, researchers, research Infrastructures and research communities, repository managers, publishers and content providers, libraries, research administrators, service providers and innovators

Interdisciplinary collaborations: Networks, services, methods
Sustaining Open infrastructures, services and tools for research communities
Value added data products/services from open science
European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and FAIR data
Citizen science: barriers and opportunities for collaboration

Repositories, CRIS, Semantic Web, Data Mining

REDI+ is the Ecuadorian project of CEDIA for setting up and operate the national information of Science, Technology, and Innovation. It is an open standards-based platform, specifically as a central aggregator of open access repositories of Ecuador. The main goal of this project is to develop an open, interoperable and integrated national platform that provides information of publications, researchers, patents, events, services, and general results of science and technology, and innovation. Besides, the platform allows providing value-added services for access to enriched data and aggregated information to improve decisionmaking at different levels, local, institutional, and in the private sector. The vision is to have an information ecosystem of research, technology, and innovation in Ecuador to provide value, accessibility, and development for all people.

Libraries, research administrators, Open Science Infrastructure providers, funders

Innovations in publishing and research dissemination

Open access books, Open Licensing, Open Metadata, FAIR Metadata, Open Tools, Open Scholarly Communications

The COPIM project (Community-led Publication Infrastructure for Monographs) is building community-owned, open systems and infrastructures to enable open access book publishing to flourish. As part of this effort, COPIM is developing Thoth, a database currently in beta that assists open access book publishers in managing their metadata.

During this session, we will share more about Thoth’s journey so far, covering four initial use-cases that may be relevant for the Open Science community:

Publisher metadata management system – System to manage openly-licensed, standards-compliant bibliographic metadata for open access books.

Open Book Collective Platform (COPIM WP2) - Platform to support collective library funding for open access book publishers, infrastrucures and initiatives. Using Thoth to display information about the nature of publications across all participating publishers, infrastructures and initiatives - such as author institutions, subject areas.

Open Dissemination Service (COPIM WP5) - Dedicated Service supporting open access book publishers in the areas of dissemination and preservation. Using Thoth to disseminate metadata and files, in various formats (ONIX, CSV, MARC) to a large number of actors part of the open access book supply chain (see also the Thoth Wiki) - such as OAPEN, Project MUSE, JSTOR, Portico.

White label publisher website - Complete commercial website for use by scholarly publishers to display and retail their content. Developed and adopted by Open Book Publishers. Using Thoth by calling on its database to display rich book level metadata for a publishers’ content.

While the design of Thoth is focused on the immediate needs of publishers, the project is also keeping its eyes on the broader horizon of open & (FAIR) data. How might Thoth continue to serve stakeholders through the identified use-cases? And what other use-cases may be there?

Academics, policy-makers

Sharing best practices and knowledge

open science, Matthew effect, inequalities, academy, policy-makers

ON-MERRIT (Observing and Negating Matthew Effects in Responsible Research and Innovation Transition) is funded by the EC to investigate how and if open and responsible research practices could worsen existing inequalities. Open Science (OS) needs resources and traditionally, advantaged people usually have more of them. How can we avoid the dynamic of the Matthew effect in science?

ON-MERRIT aims at contributing to an equitable scientific system that rewards researchers based on merit. It investigates the impact of open science practices in academia, industry, and policy, focusing in particular on institutions and individuals working in the areas of agriculture, climate and health.

The lightning talk will present the results of two of the research strands the project worked on.

The first is the extent of barriers to accessing scientific literature, i.e. being located at an institution with limited access to non-OA literature and the consequent impact on the citation behaviour of scholars; the development of cross-institutional scientific collaborations; potential academic progression; if and how academic performance is associated with the application of RRI and OS principles; who benefits and to what extent from the application of RRI and OS principles along with criteria of geographical location, gender, institutional standing, and so on. 

The second relates to information-seeking behaviours amongst policy-makers. By using survey and interview instruments, ON-MERRIT engaged with information services of policy-makers across all EU Member States to ascertain the levels of access to (open and closed) scientific resources and information-seeking strategies of key actors. In-depth interviews of selected survey respondents followed to shed more light on the role of closed and open access scientific outputs as a knowledge basis of policymaking, as well as to understand the attitudes towards and experiences of policymaking via open science practices across political actors engaging the departments responsible for agriculture, climate, and health. 

Libraries, research administrators, Open Science Infrastructure providers, funders

Collaborative platforms for all research artifacts, FAIR data policy and practice: from theory to implementation, Research analytics and visualizations, Sustaining open science training: people, resources, governance

open data, energy data, FAIR data, energy transition, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy consumption, energy production, innovation, investments data, research data, socioeconomic data, calculation modules, data map

The management of the energy transition depends on the availability and the quality of a large range of data. Data is often difficult to find, mixed in different repositories, resulting in a lack of efficiency for research and energy management. EnerMaps aims to improve data management and accessibility in the field of energy. The purpose of the workshop is to introduce the technical concepts behind the EnerMaps Data Management Tool (EDMT), the Energy Community Gateway, and to demonstrate live its use through concrete examples.
The H2020 project EnerMaps has been working to coordinate and enrich existing energy databases to share and reuse energy data more FAIR’ly and as such more efficiently. For researchers, EnerMaps will provide tools to communicate and disseminate data efficiently, based on existing large scientific repositories.
For the renewable technology industry, energy planners, energy utilities, energy managers, energy consultants, and public administration officers specialised in the energy sector as well as social innovation experts and data providers, EnerMaps will act as a quality-checked database of crucial energy data and a possibility to access rapidly new innovative datasets as well as related insights to inform decision-makers.
We will present the main challenges of the energy sector that EnerMaps is trying to overcome, and the technical development of tools such as the data sources selection and the database structure. Both of the EnerMaps tools – the Energy Community Gateway and the visualisation tool with the calculation modules – will be presented through case studies to demonstrate the functionalities at the current development stage and their user-friendly navigation.

Researchers and research communities; non-academic employers; PhD educators, PhD Students

Training and skills for open science
Skills within the wider research context

Engaged Research, co-design, PhD Training

“Engaged research” encompasses the many ways that researchers meaningfully interact or collaborate with diverse stakeholders in any or all stages of a research process. An EU-funded project, “Opening Doors”, employed an engaged research approach in the co-design of an open, online educational course in open science and open innovation for early career researchers (ECRs). The goal of the “Opening Doors” project is to shape more innovative, socially aware, integrative ECRs, ready to meet the challenges of the future. It is expected that participants on the “Opening Doors” educational course will develop competencies that are valued in open innovation networks, enabling them to thrive in complex knowledge networks and enhancing their contribution to both academic and non-academic environments. The co-design of the course was a three-stage process: 1) stakeholder interviews were undertaken in Ireland, Denmark and the Czech Republic with PhD graduates, PhD students, PhD employers (academic and non-academic) and PhD educators, to understand what skills and attitudes are valued for promoting open, innovative and impactful research; 2) a co-design workshop was then created which took the form of an online “world-café” event with diverse stakeholders; 3) a final “industry check” was undertaken with employers to ensure that this training for ECRs is ‘fit-for-purpose’ in terms of supporting the development of skills and attitudes that are valued in open science and open innovation environments, and to verify the validity of our engaged research approach. This approach resulted in a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of open science and open innovation that we believe will, in turn, lead to meaningful societal engagement. The predominant themes that emerged from this work include the importance of accessible, relevant communication with research audiences outside of one’s discipline and crucially, non-academic audiences - where an open mindset and an attitude of curiosity and mutual respect is key.

Publishers, researchers

Interdisciplinary collaborations: Networks, services, methods, Sharing best practices and knowledge, Sustaining Open infrastructures, services and tools for research communities, Innovations in publishing and research dissemination

SCIndeks, Diamond Open Access, Reviewing Reviewers, Peer Review, journals, incentive

Serbian Citation Index – SCIndeks is a hybrid Open Access platform based on a business model of partnership between a non-profit web publisher and journal owners. Most journals hosted by SCIndeks are local scholar-led Diamond OA journals, relying on limited financial means, staff, and skills, but highly motivated by national regulatory and financing bodies to reach international status and level of excellence. The role of SCIndeks as a platform and its development team is to assist journals in their efforts by providing them with a journal management system, publishing expert guidance, techniques of promotion of journals on web, tools intended for quality control, and, finally, precise feedback on their advancement within all those processes. One of the most important forms of assistance is the comprehensive support for quality peer review.

SCIndeks development team uses various strategies and mechanisms to support the peer-review process:

• SCIndeks customized OJS-based journal management system (SCIndeks Assistant) helps editors keep track of the peer-review process;
• specialized, mostly custom-made tools and procedures make it easier for editors and reviewers to assess manuscripts: automated identification of mismatched/missing citations and references, references to retracted articles, and articles originating from disputable journals in the list of references;
• training for editors and reviewers;
• specialized software tool dubbed Reviewing Reviewers (RR) enabling the assessment of the usefulness of peer review reports for both (a) editorial decisions and (b) for authors’ improvement of submitted manuscripts; while the former is rated by editors, the latter is assessed by the authors themselves, which makes RR an innovative and (at the beginning) disputed tool;
• Statistics module of RR which is also integrated in the SCIndeks journal management system accumulating results (grades) of reviewers working for different journals; Statistic module is providing ranking of reviewers based on a composite score combining editors and authors grades.
• The RR composite score is used for selecting best reviewers for further engagement and at the same time for selecting candidates for annual financial award provided by SCIndeks publisher. 

In this presentation we describe RR in greater detail and analyze quantitatively the effects of its use in two previous years in comparison to the period preceding its implementation in SCIndeks Assistant. The analysis shows that the assessment of reviewers by the authors has resulted in some changes in reviewers’ behaviour. The change was found on the following indicators: (1) the share of reviews containing comments to the authors, (2) the share of such comments containing attachments (3) the average number of words in attachments, and (4) the relative number of new, first-time peer reviewers. All changes are statistically significant. Opposite to the expectations, no changes were observed in the average number of words in comments and the average rates given to the reviewers by editorial boards. However, what is most indicative, the structure of reviewers’ recommendations has slightly altered. Reviewers now tend to suggest accepting manuscripts conditionally (“accept after revision”) more frequently than before. The increase happened at the expense of the number of decisions to accept manuscripts immediately (“no revision”). This may be regarded a sort of proof that reviewers have started to take more helpful general attitude toward authors, which is exactly what we have sought to achieve.

To conclude, the results, supported by some anecdotal evidence, fully encourage the use of RR in an academic environment marked by an unsatisfactory reviewing process and the lack of motivation among eminent researchers to accept invitations of local journals editors. It is reasonable to assume that this will lead to the higher level of article quality in local Diamond OA journals, which is the ultimate goal of introducing RR.

Agenda

Libraries, research administrators, Open Science Infrastructure providers, funders

Sustaining Open infrastructures, services and tools for research communities
Collective funding models for open infrastructures and services

Collective funding models, Open Science Infrastructure, Sustaining OSis, Sustainability

Blue-Cloud is the thematic EOSC for the marine domain supporting FAIR and Open Science by developing a web-based environment that will provide scientists & researchers with enhanced analytical capabilities and cloud-computing resources, underpinned by simplified access to a wealth of multidisciplinary and interoperable marine data services.
The project builds on existing European marine data infrastructures and e-infrastructures federating their services within the Blue-Cloud framework, enabling researchers to find, access, share, combine and reuse quality data across disciplines and countries.
The federation is taking place at the levels of (meta)data resources, computing resources and analytical service resources, driven by collaboration across research, data and e-infrastructures. A Blue-Cloud Data Discovery and Access Service (DDAS) is being developed to facilitate access to multi-disciplinary datasets. A Blue Cloud-Virtual Research Environment (VRE) has been established to enable collaborative research, allowing users to share analytical processes and resulting outputs, including data products and services for specific applications.
This innovation potential is explored and unlocked by five real-life demonstrators addressing societal challenges in the domains of genomics, fishery, aquaculture, biodiversity and environment. The demonstrators are showcasing how Blue-Cloud can enhance collaborative research in support of the EU Green Deal and key international initiatives, such as the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
In addition, Blue-Cloud is developing a Strategic Roadmap to 2030 in collaboration with the wider marine science & research community, as a policy document guiding the evolution of Blue-Cloud into the future aligning with wider developments, such as EOSC and initiatives related to the EU Digital Strategy e.g. the pilot Digital Twin of the Ocean and Destination Earth.
The presentation describes the vision and overarching technical framework of Blue-Cloud and the project’s role in supporting EOSC and the uptake of Open Science principles across the marine research community.

Policy makers and funders, researchers, research Infrastructures and communities, repository managers, data stewards, publishers and content providers, libraries, research administrators, service providers and innovators, EOSC

Interdisciplinary collaborations: Networks, services, methods
Sustaining Open infrastructures, services and tools for research communities
Value added data products/services from open science

research data repositories, registry, use case analysis, re3data COREF

re3data is the global registry for research data repositories. As of January 2021, the service lists over 2700 digital repositories across all scientific disciplines and provides an extensive description of repositories based on a detailed metadata schema. A variety of funders, publishers, and scientific organizations around the world refer to re3data within their guidelines and policies, recommending the service to researchers looking for appropriate repositories for storage and discovery of research data.

The presentation focuses on the development of the Conceptual Model for User Stories for the re3data service. Since its launch in 2012, re3data has been designed to support open science activities. The registry serves the needs of heterogeneous user groups, first of all aimed at researchers searching for suitable repositories to find and deposit research data. In addition, re3data contributes to other open science infrastructures as a valuable source of metadata about research data repositories.

To better understand the needs of its users the re3data COREF project conducted a stakeholder survey. Participants were also invited to join an associated online workshop to further discuss their requirements and recommendations. The presentation will focus on the most important findings from these activities and introduce common use cases of re3data. It will address how re3data currently interlinks with several other services and how the integration of third-party information can be realized.

This talk is targeted primarily to all those people involved at various levels in the design, implementation and evaluation of Data Management Plans (DMP) in the context of research studies. The audience may include, among others, principal investigators, data stewards, IT people, funders, etc.

Interdisciplinary collaborations: Networks, services, methods
Sharing best practices and knowledge, RDM best practices

Data Management Plan, DMP, Guidelines, FAIR, RDM Best Practices, Data Stewardship

The preparation and implementation of a good Data Management Plan (DMP) helps to focus on different aspects of research data management (like ethical-legal or technological requiremenresources involved, FAIRness) thereby fostering potential benefits for data analysis anrepurposing. However, preparing a good DMP is often a complex task. A number of existing tools tries to simplify the preparation by automatically generating a DMP from a set of questions, but the difficulties in tailoring predefined plans to specific use cases sometimes lead to the compilation of not exhaustive documentation, especially for those who are new to this task. To alleviate these challenges we have created a guide to support the writing of the DMP, combining key contenpractical recommendations and references extracted from the most common DMP models. Wstructured the guidelines as a complement to the analysed templates and tools to stimularesearchers towards a critical exploration of the many different aspects, possibly adapting them their domain specificities. In this way, we believe that the whole project team could be encouragto consider the DMP as a travelogue to be followed over the project lifecycle and further, updating it whenever necessary. The guide is openly available on Zenodo and it is currently being validated by the researchers of the I FAIR Program – an initiative to promote and adopt best practices fresearch data management in the biomedical research community in Sardinia. The initial feedback indicates that the guide appears to be a useful tool both when creating the DMP and during revision.