Five Open Access Tips for 21st century researchers: Tip #5 Access Open Research

Posted by Sandra on 29 October, 2019

This #OAWeek we are introducing five tips on how to make your research open and find open research. Yesterday we looked at growing your impact with QUT ePrints. Today we’re looking at accessing open research.

What would you do if your library subscription access was suddenly cut off? How would you continue your research?

Hopefully you’ll always have somewhere to work that has access to subscription databases, but the prospect is frightening, and a stark reminder that much of the world’s publicly funded research is locked behind oppressive publisher paywalls.

Don’t panic, help is at hand, and this Open Access week, if you haven’t already, have a look at some of the world’s biggest Open Access content curators unpaywall.org, openaccessbutton.org and CORE.

Unpaywall is an open database of almost 25 million scholarly articles harvested from more than 50,000 publishers and repositories. You can install it onto your browser and it will find open versions of articles, wherever they are.

CORE is the world’s biggest collection of open access research with more than 135 million papers from around the world. Its mission is to facilitate free unrestricted access to research by aggregating all open access research from repositories and journals.

Open Access Button is a research finder providing instant delivery of open access articles from open sources or direct from authors. It also has a browser extension.

So take note of these tools and access open research – if you no longer have access to our extensive databases!

Five Open Access Tips for 21st century researchers: Tip #4 Grow your impact with QUT ePrints

Posted by Sandra on 29 October, 2019

This #OAWeek we are introducing five tips on how to make your research open and find open research. Yesterday we looked at publishing wisely, and today’s tip is Grow you impact with QUT ePrints.

QUT ePrints is our institutional repository of research outputs, showcasing the research of QUT staff and postgraduate students. It was established in 2003, when QUT endorsed the world’s first institutional open access policy. Last year QUT ePrints celebrated a truly momentous occasion, surpassing 25 million downloads. The 25th millionth download, a law article by Professor Rosalind Mason, exemplifies this year’s OA Week theme, Open for whom: Equity in Open Knowledge, with the download coming from Namibia.

QUT ePrints now hosts close to 100,000 works which have been downloaded nearly 28 million times! Depositing records and full text is the most important way that QUT researchers can comply with QUT’s open access policy and that of the two big Australian funders — all for free. But more than that, QUT’s repository allows anyone anywhere to access your research. And if your research is more likely to be discovered and read, your research is more likely to be cited

QUT ePrints allows anyone anywhere to access your research.

Five Open Access Tips for 21st century researchers: Tip #3 Publish wisely

Posted by Sandra on 29 October, 2019

During #OAWeek we have been introducing five Open Access tips for 21^st Century Researchers. Today we are taking a look at Tip #3: Publish wisely.

Tools and repositories such as Think Check Submit, the Directory of Open Access Journals and OpenDOAR can help you identify trusted journals for your research.

Think Check Submit takes the guess work out of where to publish. Through a range of tools and practical resources, Think Check Submit helps researchers identify trusted journals for their research. It aims to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. It contains just under 14,000 journals, containing over 4,372,000 articles. DOAJ allows you to search by subject, publisher, or licence type. The Directory aims to increase the visibility and ease of use of open access academic journals—regardless of size and country of origin—thereby promoting their visibility, usage and impact.

OpenDOAR, the Directory of Open Access Repositories, is a global directory of Open Access repositories and their policies. Launched in 2005, it enables the identification, browsing and search for repositories, based on a range of features, such as location, software or type of material held. OpenDOAR provides access to more than 4,300 different repositories from all over the world.

If you have any questions about strategic publishing, feel free to contact your Liaison Librarian or the Library Research Support Team at library.research@qut.edu.au

Open Access Week at QUT

Posted by David on 11 October, 2019

Guest blog by Professor Ginny Barbour, Director of the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group (AOASG) & Professor in the Division of Research and Innovation, QUT

As we head towards the end of October – we again turn our focus to a week dedicated to open access (OA). Now in its 11th year, International Open Access Week, 21-27 October, is a global, community-driven week of action aimed at opening up access to research. It has grown into a truly national and global celebration.

This year’s theme is “Open for whom? Equity in Open Knowledge.” As open access becomes increasingly the norm, the 2019 Open Access Week Advisory Committee poses the question, “Whose interests are being prioritized in the actions we take and in the platforms that we support? Whose voices are excluded? Are underrepresented groups included as full partners from the beginning? Are we supporting not only open access but also equitable participation in research communication?” Building upon last year’s theme, “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge,” these questions will help us determine how emerging open systems for research will address inequities in the current system and ensure that we don’t unintentionally replicate and reinforce them.

There has been much discussion over the past year of open access news from Europe and elsewhere, and especially of Plan S. Open Access Week is a time to remind ourselves, however, that open access is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end – that of an equitable, efficient, and FAIR means of sharing scholarly information. For academics who publish openly the benefits are concrete. A better readership for open articles is not surprising, but the benefit of increased academic usage are also becoming clearer through more citations. Other benefits are of increased citations associated with posting of preprints and of data sharing. Critically, depositing in an OA repository such as QUT’s ePrints, is demonstrated to be the best way to boost citations. Furthermore, open articles are better connected into global systems for sharing information, which means that ultimately they can have wider societal impact. Depositing records and full text is the most important way that QUT researchers can comply with QUT’s open access policy and that of the two big Australian funders, ARC and NHMRC — all for free. But more than that, QUT’s repository allows anyone anywhere to access its research outputs.

QUT Library and others will be celebrating Open Access Week with a number of events. Once again we will bringing our popular Open Access Bike Tour to Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove campuses on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 October. There will be OA giveaways, lucky dips, badges and more. Watch this short video of last year’s bike tour, and see below to find out when the Open Access Bike will be coming to a campus near you.

All are welcome to attend a webinar with an international focus on Monday 21 October, entitled Advancing Science in Indonesia: Current Global Research Practices. In addition to myself, the webinar features Professor Brian Nosek, the Executive Director of the Center for Open Science, Professor Simine Vazire from University of California, Davis and focuses on improving research practices in science.

On Wednesday 23 October we will be launching Hacky Hour at QUT: Skills for Open Research. Come along to The Pantry at 2:00pm and chat with an expert about skills for open research. Follow us on Twitter @GPHackyHour for details.

Join QUT IP & Innovation Research on Thursday 24 October for a thought-provoking symposium on Open Innovation. This free event, featuring speakers from a range of disciplines, will examine Open Education, Law, Culture, Open Cities, Additive Manufacturing, Agriculture, Robotics and more. Register here.

If you will be attending eResearch Australasia, be sure to come along to our session on Doing open access advocacy by stealth. Stephanie Bradbury, Manager Research Support Team, QUT Library, and I will be running this interactive workshop on Thursday 24 October from 11:40am-12:40pm.

Come along and get involved. For more details, follow @QUTLibrary on Twitter or email library.research@qut.edu.au.

Winners of the SAGE Higher Degree Research Student Publication Prize Announced

Posted by Sandra on 13 September, 2019

A paper on the challenges of visual place recognition for autonomous vehicles has taken out first place in the SAGE Higher Degree Research Student Publication Prize. Sourav Garg was awarded first prize and $1500 for his article, Semantic-geometric visual place recognition: a new perspective for reconciling opposing views, published in The International Journal of Robotics Research.

QUT Library has partnered with SAGE Publishing since 2014 to offer the SAGE Higher Degree Research Student Publication Prize. The prize is awarded to a Higher Degree Research (HDR) student, who is the lead author on a paper published in a peer reviewed journal with a Q1 or Q2 ranking. Aik Kai Tok, Library Sales Marketing Executive at SAGE Publishing said of their support for the award, “SAGE is globally committed to fostering healthy minds and cultures and to supporting both access to and output of the research community. In addition, SAGE invests time and funds in supporting the research community through sponsored awards and research outputs.”

QUT Library received a record number of entries to the prize this year. A panel of five judges, two academics and three librarians, evaluated the submissions on originality of the research, readability, and contribution of the applicant to the publication. Research Support Manager (Acting), Jennifer Hall, said that the calibre of entrants to the competition was extremely impressive, and that selecting the top three papers was no easy task for the judging panel.

Second place and $900 was awarded to Zhongtian Li for his paper, Corporate social responsibility employment narratives: a linguistic analysis, published in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. B.M.C. Randika Wimalasiri-Yapa was awarded third place and received $500 for her paper, Chikungunya virus in Asia-Pacific: a systematic review, published in the Open Access journal Emerging Microbes & Infections.

The awards were presented to the winners on 10 September. Sourav Garg, stuck at the airport in Tokyo due to monsoonal weather, attended via Skype. Sourav’s supervisor, Professor Michael Milford, accepted the award on his behalf.

QUT Library would like to thank SAGE for its ongoing sponsorship of the Higher Degree Research Student Publication Prize.

ResBaz Brisbane 2019

Posted by Catherine on 2 July, 2019

ResBaz - Research Bazaar

“The Research Bazaar is a worldwide skill and community-building festival promoting the essential digital skills researchers need to perform modern research…The aim of the event is to equip researchers from all career stages and disciplines with the digital skills and tools required to do their research better, faster, and smarter.” https://resbaz.github.io/resbaz2019/brisbane/

There will be workshops on software carpentry using R and Python; Board games including Copyright the card game and the Publishing Trap (great for early career researchers); data visualization and tips for boosting your research profile; plus guest speakers who have walked the walk and talked the talk and are still making waves in their respective professions.

ResBaz Brisbane is hosted by QUT, UQ, Griffith University, USQ and Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF). The location for the event this year, is at our very own Gardens Point campus (P block).

You can follow the event at @ResBazBris and use #ResBazBris to share your experiences.

Places are limited but you can still book here.

Authorship, Publication and Peer Review training

Posted by Sandra on 7 May, 2019

QUT Library and the Office of Research Ethics and Integrity (OREI) are once again offering training sessions for HDR students and Early Career Researchers on Authorship and Publication and Journal Peer Review.

Session 1: Monday 13 May 2019 – 9.30am – 11.30am

Authorship and Publication will cover the fundamentals of publishing in a series of tight 3 minute talks and videos. Topics to be covered include:

Developing a Data Management Plan
Open Scholarship Practices: Open Access
Originality and plagiarism
Promoting your work

Session 2: Tuesday 14 May 2019 – 1.00pm – 2.30pm

Journal Peer Review will cover different aspects of journal peer review. We will have speakers covering various topics along with videos. Topics to be covered include:

Forms of peer review
Conducting peer review
Responding to peer review
Emerging trends in peer review

Follow the links to register for one or both sessions.

Sign up for Session 1: Authorship & Publication (watch short video) – Monday 13 May 2019 – 9.30am – 11.30am

Sign up for Session 2: Journal Peer Review (watch short video) – Tuesday 14 May 2019 – 1.00pm – 2.30pm

Feedback from previous participants:

This was a great session. I learnt more about the publishing process this morning than I have in [my] whole time at [university]. I will be recommending [this] session to all early career academics.
A well organised, succinct morning. The format was great – moved along well and didn’t get bogged down …. All speakers were well prepared and their slides were clear and concise.
I would like to thank and congratulate the team for the organisation of both seminars! They were great! Excellent topics and speakers!!! The videos were great too! Thank you so much for the opportunity of learning such important topics and for having many doubts clarified. You are the best!
The format was great, and I found the structuring of the whole session around the map very helpful.
Both workshops were excellent, I got so much out of them and all the information was just perfect…. Short presentations from a variety of speakers who were all so engaging. These were some of the best run and most informative workshops I have done with QUT, thank you.

SAGE Higher Degree Research Student Publication Prize

Posted by Sandra on 3 April, 2019

SAGE Publishing is offering cash prizes ($1500 First Prize, $900 Second Prize and $500 Third Prize) for the top three papers accepted for publication, by a Higher Degree Research (HDR) student.

You have until 19^th July 2019 to enter, so sharpen those pencils! The awards will go to HDR students who are the lead author on a manuscript judged to be among the top three papers, and accepted by a peer reviewed journal, with a Q1 or Q2 ranking in Scimago or Journal Citation Reports. The paper must have been accepted for publication between the 1^st December 2018 and 30^th June 2019.

Papers will be judged according to the following criteria:

The originality of the research
Readability: The paper is well written and easy to understand
Contribution of the applicant to the publication.

To be eligible to enter, you must:

Be a current QUT Higher Degree Research (HDR) Student (QUT MOPP).
Be the lead author and have played a significant role in data collection, data analysis, and preparation of a manuscript accepted for publication in a refereed (peer-reviewed) journal, allocated a Quartile 1 (Q1) or Quartile 2 (Q2) (ranking in Scimago or Journal Citation Reports in any subject area, between 1^st December 2018 and 30^th June 2019.
Email library.research@qut.edu.au to advise of manuscript acceptance and publication details by 19^th July 2019.

You’ve already done the hard work of writing the paper; enter now with the chance to further highlight your research!

For the full terms and conditions and to apply, click here. If you’d like more information contact library.research@qut.edu.au.

International Human Rights Day

Posted by Sandra on 9 December, 2018

On Monday 10 December we celebrate International Human Rights Day. While it will be celebrated in different ways by different people, the message around the world is the same.

This year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70. The document, which proclaimed the inalienable right to which all human beings are entitled — regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, is the most translated in the world.

A really lovely representation of these principals, and a great way to share them with a younger audience is the illustrated edition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s published by the United Nations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

QUT is heavily involved in research into the area of human rights. Here’s some of our most recently published works about the current challenges and issues in the area — available in QUT’s ePrints repository.

O’Brien, Erin (2019) Challenging the Human Trafficking Narrative: Victims, Villains, and Heroes.

Kauli, Jackie & Thomas, Verena (2018) Communicating the law: A participatory communication toolkit for human rights defenders in Papua New Guinea.

Huggins, Anna & Lewis, Bridget (2018) The Paris Agreement: Development, the North-South divide and human rights.

Mann, Monique, Warren, Ian, & Kennedy, Sally (2018) The legal geographies of transnational cyber-prosecutions: extradition, human rights and forum shifting.

#StandUp4HumanRights

Perils & pitfalls for early career researchers

Posted by Sandra on 27 September, 2018

Predatory publishing continues to be a trap for young players with more and more early career researchers falling victim. When this happens, not only do they effectively lose ownership and copyright of their hard work (with that the ability to publish it elsewhere), they often lose confidence, they can lose standing in their field, and they most certainly lose the potential for their research to be cited and shared with other researchers and future collaborators.

Looking for a publisher for your research should be a more of an experience like buying a new laptop or a car. Hopefully you don’t buy the first shiny thing you see. Hopefully you rely on people whose opinion you respect. Hopefully you check out the product reviews and comparison websites to see what your options are. Hopefully you don’t send a cash deposit after receiving a spam email from a car dealer.

Your diligence when looking for a potential publisher should likewise be seen as an investment in your future. Look to the journals the experts in your field are publishing in. Look to the journals your peers are publishing in. As an early career researcher, reputable journals will not send you email invitations to publish with them so don’t be tempted by vanity publishers. Don’t let your desperation for publication override your common sense.

Follow the Think Check Submit protocols. If you are still not certain, ask your faculty or liaison librarian to help you.

Predatory conferences, like predatory journals can also be difficult to spot, and without due diligence you can end up at a dodgy hotel, in a scary part of town, signing your authorship rights away and delivering a paper to six people, who will likely be the only people who ever hear about your research. You can check the Pivot database on the QUT Library’s databases page for legitimate calls for submissions for conference papers.