FOSTER presentation at Trieste, Italy, 7 July 2015. Empowering graduate students: science dissemination and science communication “in the open”

1. Benefits of Open Access to
Early Career Researchers
Nancy Pontika, PhD
CORE
Open University
Email: nancy.pontika[at]open.ac.uk
Twitter: @nancypontika
Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste, 7 July 2015

2. What is publishing?
• Process of making information available to the general
public. “Publish or perish”
• Traditionally, this is achieved by engaging with a
publisher – resulting in the publication of a journal
article, book chapter or book.
• Using a publisher is still the most common way of
disseminating the results of research.
• Universities also offer means of making research
available – (e.g. Open Access Repositories)
• There are means of ‘self-publishing’.

3. Publishing process
• A manuscript is submitted to the publisher (pre-print)
• Reviewed internally by editorial staff
• Peer reviewed - normally externally, by one or more expert
academics (post-print)
• Academic publishers conduct external, independent peer-
review, which lends authority and prestige
• Production – of the final PDF/Print Copy (publisher’s final version)
• Publication of the paper

4. Using a publisher – considerations
• Which publication would you be publishing in? Is it well respected?
• What publications do staff and students read? What do(n’t) they
like about them? Opinions can be based on personal taste.
• Does the journal have an Impact Factor or other indicator of
prestige?
• What are the acceptance rates? Are you being realistic about where
you are pitching your article?
• What is the nature of the agreement you have to sign with them?
Will you be able to retain any rights?
• Is it a commercial publisher or a society publisher? Or both?
• Do you need to obtain permissions for 3rd party copyright? Your
publisher should guide you on this.

5. How does publishing work?
• A manuscript is submitted to the publisher
• Reviewed internally
• Peer reviewed - normally externally
• Production – of the final PDF/Print Copy
• Publication of the paper

6. Publishing qualities
REGISTRATION CERTIFICATION AWARENESS ARCHIVING
Intellectual
Property
Research validity
certification
Research
accessibility
assurance
Research Output
preservation for
future use

7. How open access applies
REGISTRATION CERTIFICATION AWARENESS ARCHIVING
Intellectual
Property
Research validity
certification
Research
accessibility
assurance
Research Output
preservation for
future use

8. Research
Idea
Receives
funding
Research
Conduction
Publication
Research Cycle

9. Who conducts research?

10. How much does it cost to access it?

11. Eventually who can really access it?

12. What can I do as an
early career
researcher to show my
research work to the
world?

14. It is not as difficult as you may think…
• Publish in open access journals
• Deposit (self-archive) into a repository
(institutional or disciplinary/subject)
• Deposit your data in a data repository
• Identify yourself and your work
• Use social media to create a research societal
impact

15. Publish in open access journals But doesn’t it
cost authors a
lot of money to
publish in open
access journals!
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/rossmounce/oa4-ecr
Cost – free
Fee waivers
Low cost – high quality

16. Publish in open access journals What about
predatory
journals?
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/rossmounce/oa4-ecr

17. Deposit into a repository Where can I
find one? Who
can help me
locate them?
Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste Institutional Repository
Disciplinary Repositories – http://oad.simmons.edu

18. Deposit data
http://oad.simmons.edu
Research
Conduction
Research
Data
Publication
What is the big
deal with
opening data
and sharing
lately?

19. Identify yourself and your work How many
people have my
name?

20. Use social media Like Twitter,
Facebook,
Blogs? Is this
acceptable for
researchers?
Your
research
project
I open my
research
data
I publish in
open access
journals
I deposit in
open
repositories
I use social
media to
share it with
the world

21. Grazie!
Domande?