Open Access Implementation Community – first meeting

The Jisc Open Access Good Practice Workshop that too place on 17th June, at which HHuLOA presented (see earlier post for a link to the slides) was also the first meeting of the Jisc Open Access Implementation Community.  The materials presented and generated at this workshop have now been shared via the OAIC blog.  The day was split into two halves: a series of presentations from the Pathfinder projects and Jisc on recent open access work and developments; and an exercise working together on identifying core open access challenges and what solutions could be identified for these.  It was a good introduction to both the Pathfinder programme and current Jisc planning in this field, and as such a valuable summary for those wishing to get up to speed.

Without repeating the content on the OAIC blog, my own takeaways from the day were as follows:

  • The value and new ideas being brought to a couple of the projects by team members not previously involved in open access.  For example, the Coventry project (O2OA) is led by a Business Development Manager.  It will be good to get these different perspectives on board.
  • The complementary role of the Jisc Monitor project that is kicking off in tandem with the Pathfinder projects and looking at how a managed service can support institutions in meeting the HEFCE OA policy.  It will be useful to contrast how services can be best provided at campus and above campus level, and where the dividing line most effectively sits.
  • Neil Jacobs presented a slide that sought to encapsulate all current Jisc OA activity and the workflow between them.  This, not surprisingly perhaps given the breadth of activity, brought spaghetti to mind, but it was a very helpful snapshot of how the landscape is developing toward embedding and facilitating OA publishing as a routine activity.
  • The realisation in the exercise section that we do know the problems, but need to approach these in different ways to arrive at solutions that work for all the parties concerned.  The need for clarity all round is key, so we know precisely which problem and facet of this we are dealing with.  Plenty for the Pathfinder projects to get their teeth into!

There will be other OAIC events as the Pathfinder progresses, aimed at both project members and anyone in the HE community involved in developing OA solutions.  Watch this space.

About the project

The HHuLOA project is a two year Jisc supported project from the Universities of Hull, Huddersfield and Lincoln that will examine the role of open access in furthering the development of research at the partner institutions. The project will focus on good practice in identifying and implementing a range of open access initiatives across the partners with the specific remit of furthering the research interests of the partner institutions, and will work with a number of external partners and projects including Jisc Monitor, IRUS-UK and the British Library in the areas of APC management, statistics and open access rights management.The use of in-house open access publication will also be explored. Work to enhance the established EPrints and Fedora repositories at the partner sites will be undertaken and fed back accordingly. All work will be undertaken within the context of an emerging and shifting open access policy context, which will be monitored to show the relationship with the good practice identified.

The Universities of Hull, Huddersfield and Lincoln have been active in supporting open access for many years, both internally and through a variety of external projects. Each has played an active role in the development of their local repository, looking to exploit technology to further institutional open access services. All are institutions seeking to develop their research capability and reputation. Open access has a key role to play in supporting this mutual strategic direction.

The aim of this good practice project is thus to identify how open access support mechanisms can be used to assist with this development of research, working towards a more effective and rewarding submission to the post-2014 REF. Working together, the three institutions will bring a wealth of experience and innovative thinking to capturing existing and novel good practice and sharing this, with the aim of supporting other institutions developing their research capacity and looking to understand how open access can be used as a means of supporting this.

In fulfilling these aims, the project will address the following areas:

  • Compliance with funders’ and institutional mandates
  • Monitoring and managing publication charges and licences
  • Gathering information around block grant publication fund distribution
  • Identifying, facilitating and managing interoperability across relevant IT services
  • Improving awareness and clarity of research funders’ OA policy

Hhuloa and welcome!

Welcome to HHuLOA, a Jisc Pathfinder Project looking at OA best Practice.

The HHuLOA project is a partnership between the Universities of Hull, Huddersfield and Lincoln and will examine the role of open access in furthering the development of research at the partner institutions.  The project will focus on good practice in identifying and implementing a range of open access initiatives across the partners with the specific remit of furthering the research interests of the partner institutions, and will work with project and external partners such as Jisc Monitor, IRUS-UK and the British Library in the areas of APC management, statistics and open access rights management.

We’ll be posting regulay updates to this blog and with be using the Twitter hashtag #hhuloa