JISC welcomes the UK Open Access Implementation Group’s (OAIG) reports and new repositories resource pack released today.
The Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research report (PDF) and the Open Access Fees Report show the outcomes of research into the benefits of open access to commercial companies and findings from a consultation on the practicalities of paying for open access publication.
Taken together, these present a major step towards releasing UK research to underpin the nation’s prospects for growth both now, via direct innovation, and into the future, via a more efficient and effective research infrastructure.
Professor Martin Hall vice-chancellor at the University of Salford and chair of the OAIG says, “The report ‘Benefits to the Private Sector of Open Access to Higher Education and Scholarly Research’ shows how commercial companies would benefit from reduced costs, less time wasting, and shortened development cycles by having greater access to UK research outputs.
“It shows how UK universities can make a direct impact, and much needed contribution to business growth and sustainability, by making their research outputs more easily discoverable and translated into the language recognised by businesses as relevant to them.”
The evidence suggests that these benefits would flow across a wide range of sectors of the UK knowledge economy, and supports previous research which estimated benefits in the order of £100m per year.
Neil Jacobs, JISC programme manager for JISC’s digital infrastructure says, “There is certainly work to do to translate academic research into innovation and growth, for example in promoting research expertise and providing trusted and skilled brokerage services. JISC through its business and community engagement programme is providing some of the tools and methods for this to happen, but without open access to the research findings themselves, this work cannot be fully effective.”
Open access requires action by universities, funders and publishers to work together to make this happen. The OAIG has commissioned JISC Collections to produce an ‘Open Access Fees Report’ which consulted with these groups and other organisations on the arrangements whereby payment is made for open access publication.
Professor Martin Hall, OAIG chair, notes that, “During this consultation process there was a lot of agreement that open access journal publishing is making an important contribution, both to widening access to UK research, and to the success of UK publishers. However, there is still practical work to do to smooth the way for researchers, universities, funders and publishers.
“The ways forward identified in this report are both practical and the product of consensus. The UK Open Access Implementation Group will continue to press for expanded access to UK research, to meet our nation's need for innovation and growth based on a strong public science base."
A new repositories resource pack is also being launched today to help universities take immediate action to support wider access to UK research, by ensuring that as much of their research output as possible is made openly available via their institutional repository. The resource pack brings together all the information and guidance that UK universities might need in taking the policy decisions and practical steps for this to happen.
Follow the discussion online #jisc #oaig
William Nixon, digital library development manager at the University of Glasgow and co-ordinator of the resource pack, explains, “The resource pack gives the solutions to barriers which the OAIG have identified in setting up, managing and maintaining a repository as well as an institutional publication policy. This resource can also give senior managers and leaders within universities enough detail to influence and engage the rest of their teams in making these decisions.”
Members of the OAIG have agreed a 2012 strategy to help implement the recommendations from these reports and build on the past 12 months of its work. This strategy includes:
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David Puttnam, Lord Puttnam of Queensgate, will consider the potential impact of a major, positive disruption to the way the world approaches learning and teaching at the JISC online e-learning conference on 22-25 November 2011.
Lord Puttnam, who is a renowned speaker and chairman of FutureLab following a highly acclaimed career in the film industry, will share with delegates his view on how pedagogy is going digital, in what is likely to be a controversial and challenging keynote.
Lord Puttnam is joined at the sixth annual JISC online conference by other expert speakers including:
Participants at the conference will be able to pose questions to the speakers and join in discussions from the comfort of their own workplace, using the Blackboard Collaborate platform followed by asynchronous discussions.
Sarah Knight, e-learning programme manager at JISC and event organiser said, “Taking part in an online conference is just as important as if you were attending in person. There will be ample opportunity to join in stimulating discussions and to share practice.
“This year the themes of ‘learning landscapes’ and ‘navigating pathways’ in the digital age, will be discussed focusing on the opportunities created by technology-enhanced assessment and feedback, digital literacy, open educational resources, lifelong learning and students as agents of change,” adds Sarah.
In order to help participants make full use of the networking and discussion opportunities, participants will be able to prepare for the event ahead of time in a pre-conference activity week. Sarah concludes, “This year’s conference is one of the best yet, offering a big conference experience in the most cost-effective way. At £50 per delegate, it represents significant value for money for organisations and education departments feeling the constraints of a tight budget.”
Register now to explore through live presentations and debate some of the latest thinking about enhancing learning and teaching with technology.
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Publishing a lay summary alongside every research article could be the answer to assisting in the wider understanding of health-related information, say the findings of new citizen science project Patients Participate!
Commissioned by JISC and carried out by the Association of Medical Research Charities, the British Library and UKOLN, Patients Participate! asked patients, the public, medical research charities and the research community, ‘How can we work together in making sense of scientific literature, to truly open up research findings for everyone who is interested?’ The answer came from patients who explained that they want easy-to-understand, evidence-based information relating to biomedical and health research.
Every day people are bombarded by health news, advice columns, medical websites and health products and making sense of this information can be difficult. Tracey Brown, Director of Sense about Science says, "We have been working with scientists and the public for some years to challenge misinformation, whether about the age of the earth, the causes of cancer, wifi radiation or homeopathy for malaria.
"It's often very effective but no sooner is attention turned elsewhere than misleading claims creep back up again. To make a permanent difference, we need the public to be evidence hunters. We are delighted to encourage patients to engage with the evidence for medical claims."
Alastair Dunning digitisation programme manager at JISC adds, "JISC believes that publicly-funded research should be made available for everyone and be easy to find. We have funded this work to show how making access to scientific literature enables citizen-patients to participate in the research process, therefore providing mutual understanding and better links between scientists, medic, patients and the general public."
Lee-Ann Coleman, Head of Science, Technology and Medicine, British Library says, "The British Library supports access for everyone who wants to do research, but providing access to information, through services like UK PubMed Central, is only the first part of the story. There is so much scientific literature – and it’s so complicated; developing ways to help people make sense of it has to go hand-in-hand with access."
Engaging with the wider community is increasingly important for researchers. Some universities now offer researchers training in communicating with lay audiences.
Dr Liz Lyon, director of UKOLN, University of Bath explains, "The Patients Participate! Project has demonstrated the potential value of lay summaries to make research more accessible to a wider audience. There is certainly an appetite for this information and we see the new How-to Guide for researchers as a positive step in helping academics and researchers to communicate their findings and to bridge the understanding gap."
Medical research charities have an important role in providing patients and the public with information about the research they fund.
Lord Willis of Knaresborough, chair of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) believes that the "Increasing volume of information about health and medical research available via the internet, the challenge for charities is to help their supporters make sense of it and distinguish the good from the bad. By translating complicated medical research information into language that is easy to understand, they can help researchers and patients talk to each other."
Find out more about why Patients Participate! is part of JISC's econtent programme
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JISC is pleased to announce the second in its new series of free online seminars in which experts share advice on technology issues for education and research.
The regular ‘webinars’ are short one hour sessions focused on providing practical advice on topical issues. Participants can join the session without having to travel anywhere, using just a computer, headset and internet connection.
Register now for the second webinar in the series ‘Curriculum Design – Changing the Paradigm’ on Wednesday 2 November 2011 at 14.00. The webinar will share advice from Marianne Sheppard, Researcher/Analyst at JISC infoNet and Helen Beetham, eLearning consultant.
Helen and Marianne will discuss how a strategic approach to curriculum design and course information can lead to better outcomes for learners and other stakeholders in the curriculum.
By exploring the emerging outcomes from the JISC Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design programme it is the aim that all participants will have a greater awareness of resources available to support curriculum innovation.
Find out more about the webinar and register now here.
#jiscwebinar #jisccdd
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More than 80,000 fascinating documents that uncover the lives led by Yorkshire women such as Charlotte Bronte in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are now only a mouse click away.
A major website launches today hosted by the University of Huddersfield, developed in partnership with West Yorkshire Archives Service and funded by JISC.
Researchers, archivists and the general public can now explore a vast online archive of diaries, letters, journals, minutes and other written material plus photographs and artworks that tell the story of women’s lives as led in the home, the workplace, the political arena and even the mental asylum.
Famous women such as author Charlotte Bronte and aviator Amy Johnson lives can be explored through original documents on the JISC-funded ‘History to Herstory’ website.
University of Huddersfield’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Professor Tim Thornton, himself a historian, said: “This website is a great example of bringing underused resources back into the public gaze, and I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to take a lead on the project.”
The digitised material comes from the holdings of the West Yorkshire Archives, the archives of the University of Huddersfield, plus Hull University and the Bronte Society.
Alastair Dunning, programme manager at JISC, said: “Exploiting Britain’s cultural treasures in the digital age is not just about digitisation but using the Internet to tell stories about them. The University of Huddersfield’s From History to Herstory does this in an innovative way, presenting women’s history in Yorkshire in a new light.”
“We’re delighted to be online,” said Dr Rob Ellis, of the History Department at the University of Huddersfield.“This is a digitised archive that can be used for many purposes by anybody, from academic researchers to family historians,” he added.
The site also includes packages of learning materials, themes such as women and politics, women at work, women at war and women’s correspondence, the packages can be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. Some of the material will be used for undergraduate modules at the University of Huddersfield itself.
“This is a fantastic resource,” says Katy Goodrum, Head of Archives at West Yorkshire Archive Services, “and the main thing for me is a huge amount of the material is in women’s own words, which is quite rare.”
She added that people were still able to consult the original documents if they wished, and links on every digitised item reveal where the source material is archived.
“We certainly don’t want to deprive people of the ability to see the originals, but the website means you don’t have to travel from half way around the world to use the material.”
View highlights of the collection.
©All rights reserved by the West Yorkshire Archive Service
Visit the History to Herstory website
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Learn more about the key legal considerations of using Facebook in education
Listen to the podcast (Duration 8:51)
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JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance and Ithaka S+R release final report on their Case Studies in Sustainability, revealing how different business models fared during the economic downturn.
6 October New York, NY and London, UK – Ithaka S+R, with funding from the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, released today “Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA/Ithaka S+R Case Studies in Sustainability,” a report that reviews the impact of tumultuous times on the business models of 12 digital projects first profiled by S+R in 2009.
Some of the projects profiled include the UK’s National Archives’ Licensed Internet Associates programme, which has shown major revenue growth in recent years despite budget cuts felt by the entire institution; Cornell University’s eBird, which has experimented with partnerships to develop new revenue generating offerings for users; and the University of Southampton’s Library Digitisation Unit, which has made strategic choices to better align its mission with that of the university.
Nearly all of the projects profiled live under the umbrella of larger institutions. One of the key findings to emerge is that many of these projects are relying on their host institutions for support to an even greater extent than two years ago. Whether this is a good arrangement and what this means for their future remains to be seen.
“While some project leaders have pursued an aggressive awareness-building strategy within their host institutions as a way of ensuring ongoing support, others have preferred to fly under the radar,” commented co-author and Ithaka S+R program manager, Nancy Maron. “Either way, where host support is a major part of the sustainability plan, aligning project goals with the host’s mission is especially important.”
Listen to a podcast with Nancy Maron (Duration 13:25)
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The report notes that difficult economic times have called for deep across-the-board spending cuts at many organizations, which can deny digital resource projects the capital investment they need just as they are beginning to grow. Many of the projects studied had the intention of contributing revenue to their host, but only some were successful in doing so, and even those were unable to fully support their ongoing costs.
"This research concentrates on organizations coming to terms with the long term liabilities incurred in digital projects and post grant funding,” stated Stuart Dempster, Director of the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance. “It’s not just the actions the project teams have taken but the reasoning behind those choices that will help others start to determine which strategies, or parts of them, might serve as models for their own projects.”
The projects that had the most success did not follow one particular business model but rather spent a tremendous time understanding all of their stakeholders – from their users to university administrators and volunteers.
“There is no single path to sustainability,” stated Kevin Guthrie, president of ITHAKA. “Successful projects understand the value they offer to their most important constituents and are able to adjust their approaches to meet new challenges and changing conditions.”
The cases covered include scholar-led initiatives (Electronic Enlightenment, eBird, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, the National Science Digital Library MSP2: Middle School Math and Science Pathway, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae), library and museum projects (The National Archives, L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel, the University of Southampton Library Digitisation Unit, V&A Images), and publishing projects (Hindawi, DigiZeitschriften) with a diverse range of revenue models (e.g., subscription-based projects, endowment-funded resources, and open access digital libraries).
These case studies form part of a long term commitment by the Strategic Content Alliance to provide empirically-based evidence freely to education, research and cultural bodies in the development of digital content. This research is ongoing with the development of a new digital entrepreneurship syllabus due for delivery in summer 2012.
V&A Images: Scaling Back to Refocus on Revenue
The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®: How a Specialised Resource Begins to Address a Wider Audience
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Launching a ‘Freemium’ Model
Electronic Enlightenment: Outreach or Outsource? The Benefits and Challenges of Partnership
L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel: Balancing Mission-based Goals and Revenue Generation
DigiZeitschriften: A Niche Project at a Crossroads
University of Southampton Library Digitisation Unit: Reimagining the Value Proposition
The National Archives (UK): Enhancing the Value of Content through Selection and Curation
The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways, National Science Digital Library: The Challenges of Sustaining a Project as the End of a Grant Approaches
eBird: Driving Impact through Crowdsourcing
The Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King’s College London: Cementing Its Status as an Academic Department
Hindawi Publishing Corporation: Growing an Open-Access Contributor-Pays Business Model
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Open access research is now more accessible as JISC has developed a new search engine to help academics, students and the general public navigate papers held in the UK’s open access repositories.
JISC has funded the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) to create an innovative new search facility which searches not just the abstract but the full text of the article.
When researchers use current systems like Google Scholar to search academic papers they can find themselves denied access to the full article, particularly when subscription fees are required. They also typically have to search across a number of open access repositories or use searches that harvest data from different sources.
But now, using the COnnecting REpositories tool or CORE, people can search the full text of items held in 142 approved Open Access repositories.
“UK repositories contain a wealth of high quality research papers. This service should help make it easier for researchers to discover and explore this content. CORE is an exciting demonstration of how JISC’s investment in emerging semantic technologies is being harnessed to benefit researchers.”
Once they’ve found what they’re looking for, the CORE system stores these downloads, so that people can still get access to the papers they have found useful even if the original repository is offline.
Andrew McGregor, JISC programme manager, said: “UK repositories contain a wealth of high quality research papers. This service should help make it easier for researchers to discover and explore this content. CORE is an exciting demo
nstration of how JISC’s investment in emerging semantic technologies is being harnessed to benefit researchers.”
CORE is accessible via an online portal, via users’ mobile devices or through repositories and libraries that have integrated CORE with their own search features.
Senior Research Fellow at the Open University, Zdenek Zdrahal, who led the project, said: “The Open University is at the forefront of producing new and innovative advancements in educational resources. CORE is an exciting addition to this history and we believe it will be beneficial to the academic research community and to the OU. There are plans to develop systems further, to aid research.”
CORE is already integrated into The Open University’s research repository, Open Research Online (ORO) which includes more than 18,900 research publications.
Search CORE with your research question.
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Some of the books date back as far as the 1500s and, due to their fragile nature, would not be freely available to researchers, but thanks to this digitization project, musicians from around the world can now source the original music free of charge using the Early Music Online website.
Paola Marchionni, programme manager at JISC, said: “The value of this new resource isn’t just in putting the music online – it’s allowing researchers to find the music at their convenience from different access points, such as the project’s website, library catalogues and music databases. The project has also put great effort in opening up the background information, or metadata, behind the individual pieces of music, thus ensuring that researchers can more easily discover these internationally significant compositions.”
Highlights of the collection include church music by the Flemish composer Josquin des Prez and the English musicians Thomas Tallis and William Byrd; drinking-songs from Nuremberg and love-songs from Lyon; lute music from Venice and organ music from Leipzig.
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT Dr Stephen Rose, from the Department of Music at Royal Holloway, said: “This is an invaluable resource for any musician as it offers many insights into how these early works were originally sung and played. For the first time, musicians now have immediate access to more than 9,000 individual compositions.”
Dr Sandra Tuppen, from the British Library, added: “It's wonderful to be able to share such fantastic musical treasures at the click of a button and make the works available to anyone in the world.”
Dr Rose explained that the British Library had worked with the College’s music department on previous database projects and they were keen to make use of the College’s expertise again.
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During JISC's transition period to move the organisation towards a new legal entity, a Shadow Board is being formed to help manage the process.
After successful recruitment of four of the six Shadow Board members, JISC is seeking two additional experts: a further education principal and a university vice chancellor to complete the Board's membership.
Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, Principal and Vice Chancellor, University of Edinburgh; Chair of JISC and Chair of the Shadow Board says: "We are very pleased to be able to announce the appointment of four members of JISC's Shadow Board and welcome their insight and expertise in taking a reshaped JISC into the future. We are, however, still seeking two additional members so that all of JISC's interest groups are represented. If you think you have the drive, enthusiasm and passion to support the UK's education and research communities with their teaching, learning and research aims we'd like to hear from you."
The Shadow Board will be in post for the length of JISC's transition period which could be between one and two years.
Richard Boulderstone is the British Library's e-strategy and information systems director. Richard brings with him nine years experience of working at the British Library including leading their efforts to create a large-scale digital object management system that will become the primary repository for the Library's, and hence the UK's, legal deposit collection of electronic resources. Formerly a Chief Technology Officer and Product Development Director at a number of international information providers, he has led the creation of many information-based products - both in the UK and USA.
Professor Paul Jeffreys is IT director at the University of Oxford where he drives the overarching IT strategy which enables the University to make optimal use of IT in a rapidly-developing environment. He sees his role as ensuring that the University's IT services continue evolving to meet new needs, whilst providing a secure and reliable service which maximises energy efficiency and value for money.
Professor Noel Lloyd CBE is retired Vice Chancellor at Aberystwyth University. He was awarded the CBE for Services to Higher Education in Wales. Prior to holding the posts of Vice-Chancellor, and Registrar and Secretary, he was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor, Dean of Science and Head of the Department of Mathematics at Aberystwyth University. He has served on various Research Council committees and editorial boards, and was editor of the Journal of the London Mathematical Society from 1983 to 1988. He has been a member of the HEFCW Quality Assurance Committee, and was a member of the board of the mid-Wales TEC and then of the mid-Wales ELWa Regional Committee. At present he is Chair of HEW (Higher Education Wales), and a Vice-President of Universities UK. He is a member of the board of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), chairing its Health and Safety Committee, and serves on the board of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), chairing the Access Recognition and Licensing Committee.
Professor Celia Duffy is director of academic development at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Before joining the Academy in 1999, she lectured in music at Goldsmiths College, University of London, worked in commercial software design and started the Performing Arts Data Service at the University of Glasgow. Celia sits on a variety of national boards and committees. She is an elected member and former chair of the National Association for Music in Higher Education, a board member of the Red Note Ensemble, member of the Scottish Funding Council's Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee and was recently invited to be part of an international panel for arts-based research financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research.
If you are interested in applying for one of the two vacant positions and to contribute towards taking JISC into the future, please contact Dr Kathryn Turton, JISC's board and transition manager: k.turton@jisc.ac.uk or apply direct for the role here.
Deadline for applications is 14th October 2011.
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JISC is pleased to announce the launch of a free online seminar series in which experts will lead discussions and share advice on technology issues for education and research.
The regular ‘webinars’ will be short sessions of 45 minutes to 1 hour focused on providing practical advice on topical issues and participants can join the session without having to travel anywhere, using just a computer, headset and internet connection.
Register now for the first webinar in the series on how to meet the research data challenge on Wednesday 12 October 2011 at noon. The webinar will share advice from Sarah Porter, JISC’s head of innovation, and Simon Hodson, JISC’s programme manager.
Sarah and Simon will give an overview of the key points for universities on managing research data, then discuss what managers can do now and how JISC can help.
The following seminar is on ‘Curriculum design – changing the paradigm’ on Wednesday 2 November at 2pm and will discuss how to join up information about different courses, and how to engage stakeholders in the curriculum.
Register now and find out more
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The images have been digitised and catalogued by the British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent, following a grant from JISC.
The seaside postcards are among a collection of 1,300 cards confiscated under the obscenity laws from 1951-61. Other images available online for the first time include British political cartoons from the last ten years, recent ‘pocket’ cartoons by cartoonists such as Matt of the Daily Telegraph, and images from Reg Smythe’s Andy Capp artwork for the Daily Mirror.
The new images come from the world’s largest collection of cartoons on political and social comment published in British press and held by the British Cartoon Archive. The Archive now offers free and easy access to more than 170,000 cartoons by by over 350 cartoonists, dating from 1790 to 2011 and featuring Prime Ministers from Pitt the Younger to David Cameron.
Also newly available are research and teaching aids on cartoons, including video interviews with leading cartoonists such as Stan McMurtry (Mac) of the Daily Mail, Nicholas Garland of the Daily Telegraph, Peter Brookes of The Times, Dave Brown of The Independent and Nick Newman of the Sunday Times and Private Eye.
Head of the archive Dr Nick Hiley said: ‘Our online catalogue already attracts more than 15,000 visitors a month, looking for cartoons for teaching and research, or just for enjoyment. The sheer volume of material - 19,000 cartoons from the 1970s alone - means that users can see several cartoons from the same day and on the same subject, by cartoonists from quite different newspapers.’
JISC programme manager Paola Marchionni said: ‘It's not just researchers who are demanding access to these collections; increasing numbers of teachers and lecturers are interested in using cartoons as a learning resource. The new tools to help teachers embed the cartoons into their lessons, both physical and virtual, will make these archives even more valuable for teaching, learning and research.’
Dr Hiley added: ‘Among our online cartoons are 1,594 Margaret Thatchers, which, perhaps surprisingly, is more than our 1,225 Winston Churchills. Of course, some of the cartoons of Mrs Thatcher show her dressed as Winston Churchill, but there are not as many as the cartoons showing Tony Blair dressed as Mrs Thatcher!’
Visit the British Cartoon Archive
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A new walking tour for the iPhone is set to help prospective students get to know a university virtually and help them settle in once they arrive – helping the institution meet its widening participation targets.
As part of its work to support open innovation, JISC funded the University of Bristol’s MyMobileBristol project in collaboration with Bristol City Council.
Mike Jones, senior developer in IT services research and development at the University of Bristol, said: “We are pleased that it has been so popular - the walking tour achieved 160 downloads from 21 countries in the first eight days of becoming available on the Apple iTunes website.”
The University plans to produce a printed version of the tour for people who can’t access the app, which is designed for iPads, iPhones and iPods.
Mark Newman, senior business analyst at Bristol City Council, said: “"The project to build a mobile website for central Bristol has helped forge greater links between Bristol City Council and Bristol University, created a great resource not only for all students studying in Bristol but visitors and the citizens of Bristol with a bonus of a fantastic Walking iPhones app."
It integrates information from partner websites and provides users with time and location-sensitive data helping them to get around the campus and the city more effectively.
Simon Whittemore, JISC programme manager, said: “This project is an excellent example of a University working in partnership with an external organisation – in this case Bristol City Council - for a shared objective and new business opportunities. The demonstrator delivered is an innovative use of web and mobile technologies that has already brought new benefits to – students, staff and visitors to the University’’.
If you’re interested in applying to run a similar project linking up with business or your local community, JISC has a call out now for bids
The code that the team used to design the software is now open source and other institutions have also been invited to a workshop to see how they could apply this to their own institutions.
The project is one of a series funded by JISC that challenged universities to use their ability to innovate to impact positively on their communities, working in partnership with outside organisations, by demonstrating the potential of integrated web services and online marketplaces.
The MyMobileBristol project also built a mobile website optimised for smartphones to assist people in finding their way around the University precinct and giving them information about buildings and facilities in the University and the wider city.
Download the walking tour from iPhones now
Read about the project on their blog
What are the best strategies for engaging with business and the community? Find out how JISC can help support your institution
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Would you like to help save the UK’s horse chestnut trees from a destructive moth?
A JISC-funded smartphone app developed by the University of Bristol and Hull University, will appear on the BBC’s One Show this evening to encourage everyone to help save conker trees by using their mobile devices.
Horse chestnut trees, whose conker seeds are responsible for hours of autumn fun, are under attack from a moth which arrived in London in 2002 and now covers half the country. The moth’s caterpillars eat the tree’s leaves from the inside.
The research teams at the Universities of Bristol and Hull have devised a mobile phone app allowing people to upload a photo of any horse chestnut leaves they come across, either with or without the indication of alien moths, which will pin-point their location and help to build up a picture of which areas of the country are suffering most, and how bad the problem is.
Dr Darren Evans from the University of Hull said: “This is an exciting opportunity to take part in a real scientific experiment on a national scale. It’s a big mission for which we’re reliant on the public’s help. Dr Michael Pocock from the University of Bristol added: “We’ve developed the mobile phone app to make it even easier for people to take in this research project. We have over 8000 people involved so far and we’re hopeful that they will play their part in discovering more about the threat to the future of our much cherished conker trees.
“We know that the moth moves at about 30 miles a year across the UK’s horse chestnut tree population. We’d like people in south west and northern England, Wales and Scotland to take part our conker tree science project so we can understand how far the moth has travelled, and people elsewhere else to report how bad the damage is in their area,” added Dr Pocock.
David Flanders JISC’s programme manager for the project says: “Science is for everyone and now anyone carrying around a smart phone can take part. The power of involving citizens scientists by utilising new technologies is only going to get more exciting in coming years as every one of us will be carrying around scientific tools in our pockets, which means we can help scientists and have fun doing it.
“The conker tree science - leaf app demonstrates how scientists are going to need to innovate new science techniques around tools like GPS (Geospatial Positioning Software) in combination with their science so we can all be citizen scientists working in a laboratory (virtually) beside them.”
Stephen Fry, one of the most prolific and followed twitterers with just under 3 million followers, tweeted about the app last month.
The study, the largest of its kind in the UK, will give the most up-to-date picture of the spread of the moth. The records will be checked by the project team and then passed to Forest Research to add to its national database, which has been recording the spread of the moth since its arrival and now covers half of the country, including most of south-central England, East Anglia, the Midlands and has most recently spread to Tyneside and Cornwall.
Take part in the experiment and download the app from the project website.
Conker Tree Science is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (www.nerc.ac.uk) and the development of the Conker Tree Science app is supported by JISC (www.jisc.ac.uk).
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Listen to the podcast (Duration 8:41)
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JISC is live streaming its research integrity conference today, 13 September, looking specifically at the importance of good research data management.
The aim is to bring together the current thinking on effective practice and give senior staff and researchers an opportunity to debate the thornier issues, like whose responsibility this is and how to manage freedom of information requests.
You are welcome to participate by submitting questions via twitter by using #jiscres11 or emailing jiscevents@gmail.com and your questions will be put to our panel.
There’s no need to register – simply join us online today from 09.45.
View resources and information about how JISC is supporting research excellence
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Ahead of JISC’s conference on ‘Research Integrity: the importance of good data management’ next week, a new study by JISC and the Research Information Network has found that data centres have been instrumental in developing a culture of data sharing among researchers.
‘Data Centres: their use, value and impact’: conclusions and implications
1. Data centres are a success story for their users, and funders and policy-makers should continue to support and promote existing national data centres.
2. Data centres are important both for reference purposes, and for novel research. Both these uses should be maintained and encouraged.
3. Data centre staff manipulate, interpret and support use of data sets, and this is highly valued by researchers. The role of data centre staff should be supported, and perhaps investigated further to support advocacy for data centre services.
4. Data centres should continue to collect information about users and usage for planning and advocacy purposes.
5. Although deposit levels are promising, researchers need more encouragement to deposit data. National and international initiatives in this area should be monitored and factored into any consideration of how to improve deposit rates.
6. If data centres are to support the grand challenges of modern research, they need to do more to facilitate interdisciplinary working. Improving facilities for data discovery across data centres may help.
7. The national data centres are just one part of a broader landscape for data curation and storage. Further work needs to be done to investigate how they can work most effectively with local, national and international services.
As part of a wider body of work, this evidence will help to build a case for improving data sharing practice in the UK. Although deposit levels are promising, the study concluded that researchers need more encouragement and support to deposit data in these centres.
Making data available for reuse helps maximize the value of publicly funded research in the UK by providing researchers with essential references, avoiding duplication, and allowing repurposing of information for new enquiries.
The report concludes that research data centres perform an important role by making high quality and reliable research results available in a way which makes it quick, easy and cheap for researchers to access.
Simon Hodson, programme manager at JISC, said: "This is a significant report which underlines the important role that data centres play in support of modern research. The study demonstrates that data centres offer many benefits to researchers and their work, and provides some evidence of benefits to wider society and the economy. It is clear also that researchers believe that many of the benefits of research data centres emerge because they are large, centralised and offer a range of services beyond simply providing access to data. The conclusion is that funders and policy-makers should continue to support and promote existing national data centres as a necessary part of the 21st century research infrastructure."
The study found that usage of data centres is high: most support thousands of researchers and millions of downloads each year. Data from every centre supports a variety of research activities, ranging from original research analysis, through combination and integration with other data, to reference purposes.
Simon Hodson adds: "Research data centres provide an essential service and perform valuable outreach and training, which researchers appreciate. The JISC Managing Research Data Programme – which involves partnerships with a number of national data centres – is helping develop capacity in terms both of skills and technical systems for improved data management in UK universities as part of a coherent national data infrastructure."
The study aimed to demonstrate the importance, relevance and benefits of effective sharing and curation of research data for the UK research community. It looked at the long-term usage and impact of data curated by a cross-disciplinary selection of established data centres. These included the Archaeology Data Service, the British Atmospheric Data Centre and the Economic and Social Data Service, which is part funded by JISC.
JISC’s ‘Research Integrity Conference’ on 13 September will explore the issues that universities and other organizations face when they are maintaining their research integrity - especially as it relates to the management and sharing of research data.
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A new report ‘The value of reuse of open educational resources’ produced by the HEA and JISC, highlights the need to support learners and academic staff alike in the referencing and the reuse of online resources.
Open educational resources (OER) are materials which educators make the content available online to learners and also to other educators, to share, re-use and remix. The report claims, that their use in teaching offers new and better ways to engage with learning anytime anywhere and raising the richness the course.
Given the huge volume and diversity of content on the Internet, the report suggests that ‘students are often nervous about their ability to critically evaluate...becoming lost in the web and risk wasting significant amounts of time engaging with resources which prove later to be off topic or unreliable.’
David White, senior manager development technology-assisted lifelong learning at the University of Oxford author of the Value of Reuse report says, “The report advises staff to help develop students’ digital literacy skills especially in the area of critical analysis of resources – for example by making them aware of citation standards that exist for online videos and podcasts.
“There is a challenge for providers of open content because the resources are out there on the web and open to all, it can be difficult to know how they are actually being used. We’ve used the analogy of an iceberg to show the extent of hidden use. It emphasises how many openly licensed and non-licensed resources may actually be being re-used in the classroom but invisible to the original resource authors.”
Amber Thomas programme manager at JISC explains why these reports were commissioned, “OER has a range of benefits, and we wanted to better understand its benefits to users as well as releasers, so the study on ‘the Value of Reuse’ was designed to analyse the relationship between use and impact.
Sean Mackney, HEA senior deputy chief executive, said, “OER is a fantastic example of how technology can be used to share innovation and excellence in teaching practice, not just here in the UK but right across the world. This report gives those involved in higher education teaching, particularly those who may not have considered the potential value of OER before, ideas around how they can make the most of the opportunities OER can provide.”
JISC will be enhancing the knowledge of UK universities and colleges in how to approach open educational resources and technology-enhanced learning through its digital literacies programme and oer work.
View David White's video blog at: http://bit.ly/prKyD9
Listen to a podcast with David White, the author of the value of reuse report (Duration 11:15)
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Colleges and universities now have a toolkit to help them make confident, informed decisions about the legal issues surrounding cloud computing.
JISC Legal has responded to a growing demand for guidance on cloud solutions by creating a comprehensive ‘Cloud computing and the law’ toolkit. The aim of this resource is to guide educational professionals through the legal aspects of implementing cloud computing solutions in their institutions.
Dr Stuart Brough, director of Information Services at the University of Strathclyde, welcomes its release: “Up till now it’s been difficult to find a practical toolkit on cloud computing and the law created specifically for the education sector. This timely new JISC Legal resource will fill that gap,” he said.
Colleges and universities have a particular responsibility to protect the intellectual property, research data and confidential records of staff and students. Compiled by JISC Legal’s team of ICT law experts, the toolkit contains accessible, up-to-date information about cloud computing in an educational context. It’s designed to meet the needs of a range of educational professionals, including academic, research and support staff.
Alex Hawker, JISC programme manager, said: “In this challenging economic environment, universities and colleges are now looking at new ways to provide services for their students and staff including using cloud-based technology. At JISC we’re aware that with innovative new technologies like cloud, many organisations will need support to understand the intricacies of how it works and what the legal implications are - so this guidance aims to build confidence among staff in working with a cloud provider.”
According to JISC Legal service director, Ralph Weedon: “We created this toolkit in response to a growing demand from the FE and HE sectors for up-to-date guidance on cloud computing in this area. It’s designed for a range of educational professionals and we hope that it will help them to feel more confident in their understanding of the legal aspects of cloud services.”
The five publications in the toolkit are:
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Access the toolkit and introductory video
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JISC Advance is furthering its work with adult learning providers by signing a memorandum of understanding with The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).
The memorandum sets out how the two organisations will work together to raise the quality of learning experiences for adults across the UK.
Guy Lambert, Managing Director of JISC Advance, said: “It is particularly important for JISC Advance to work in a complementary manner with membership organisations. Combining our expertise in technology with NIACE’s deep understanding of adult learning provides a unique capability to support learning providers and learners to get the best results from their endeavours.”
JISC Advance and NIACE already share a common commitment to ensure that adult learning, and access to it, is enhanced and enabled through the use of technology.
Sal Cooke, director of JISC Techdis and the stakeholder engagement lead for JISC Advance, said: “It is vital that work continues between these two key organisations to help the education sector meet the many challenges to come. This memorandum will help create a powerful synergy and ensure that even more providers benefit from the many services offered under the JISC Advance banner.“
The commitment is proven by their strong relationship to date; the nationwide network of Regional Support Centres work together with NIACE to provide advice and guidance on how technology can both improve the learner experience and increase efficiencies for providers.
This is further enhanced by the work of the JISC Advance services, such as accessibility experts, Techdis and training providers, Netskills.
Alastair Clark, digital lead for NIACE, said: “This document really does give us a firm footing on which to continue our excellent relationship. We already have plans for a programme of activities with JISC Advance’s Regional Support Centres and JISC Techdis, and can now look forward to extending this to include more of the JISC Advance services.”
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After 35 years of working in post-16 education and research, Dr Malcolm Read executive secretary at JISC will retire in January 2012.
Malcolm joined JISC in 1993 and has been central to championing digital technologies for education and research. His achievements include setting up the UK’s academic computer network JANET(UK) and being a passionate advocate of making publicly funded research widely available for everyone to benefit.
Alan Langlands HEFCE’s chief executive said, “Malcolm’s contribution both on driving policy and strategic development not only in the UK but across Europe and internationally has been tremendous. This was also recognised in 2010 when Malcolm was awarded an OBE for his services to further and higher education. We wish Malcolm well with his future plans.”
Dr Read has been central to setting up partnerships with The Knowledge Exchange, The British Library and the Higher Education Academy to create knowledge sharing as well as publishing papers and contributing to books, with his most recent publication being a chapter in The Tower and Cloud an e-book on the future of technology for education.
Upon retiring Dr Read will be following his passion for glaciology and will be travelling around Antarctica for two months.
HEFCE is now looking to recruit an executive secretary (CEO) for a fixed term for JISC’s transition period. To find out more and to apply for the post visit HEFCE’s careers website.
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At a time of economic constraint it is essential that libraries can evaluate usage and make a compelling case about the value of journal subscriptions.
But obtaining and analyzing usage data can be extremely labour intensive for librarians, with each library having to visit each publisher's website and download their own statistics.
Now 100 libraries are benefiting from the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) which offers single sign-in access to this crucial information.
The JUSP Portal provides a single point of access for usage statistics, meaning that users can easily and quickly compare usage across various publishers, subscription or academic years and journal titles.
Ben Showers, programme manager at JISC, said, "Libraries that use JUSP can now download usage statistics at the click of a button, transforming what used to be an arduous and time consuming task into an opportunity to interrogate and analyse business critical statistics. Librarians will be able to ensure that their management decisions are based on evidence and the evolving needs of their users.”
If you are a UK university and would like to participate please complete two copies of the Library Participation Agreement and return to Anna Vernon at JISC Collections.
If you are a publisher or intermediary interested in participating please contact Anna Vernon on 0203 006 6008.
The portal is a JISC-funded service which is operated through a consortium including JISC Collections, Mimas at the University of Manchester, Evidence Base at Birmingham City University and Cranfield University.
Cliff Spencer, librarian at Newcastle University, said, "Evidence-based library decisions rely on the timely analysis of usage statistics. JUSP has quickly matured into a highly valued service largely due to the team's skill in solving problems and presenting complex data within a clear and well-structured user interface.”
He added that the portal saves time and money by reducing the administration load on libraries and fitting in with workflow patterns.
Sarah Weston, data manager at the University of Portsmouth, said, “The project has a real community feel to it, in that it actively responds to user input and I think it is a really good example of collaborative working - something we should be striving towards to avoid us needing to reinvent the wheel! I think the team has worked very well with libraries in seeking their input."
"The more publishers you can get on board the better!” said Kate Newell, e-resources and serials team leader at the University of Exeter, adding, “The JUSP portal is already proving to be invaluable to us."
Visit the project website or contact Jo Lambert for more information.
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JISC is delighted that the Government has decided to endorse all the recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves outlined within his independent review of Intellectual Property (IP) and Growth.
The fundamental aim of the consultation was to identify barriers to growth within the IP framework, which consists of the rules and regulations covering how IP is created, used and protected in this country. Using evidence based responses, its aim was to create a picture of how well the current IP system serves to help promote entrepreneurialism, economic growth, social and commercial innovation.
Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary at JISC says, “We submitted an evidence-based response to the consultation and are encouraged that crucial recommendations have been included. Such as the need for exceptions for data/text mining, library archiving and parody to support research, teaching, learning. We also highlighted the need to prevent contracts from over-riding the exceptions to copyright, possible solutions for orphan works as well as the streamlining of the processes to clear rights - which have been supported by the Government.”
Copyright law risks becoming a law that is ignored, or viewed with contempt by users in the near future if policy measures and legal reform are not put in place to reflect education’s and research’s bona fide use of digital media and technologies. Ultimately, copyright law needs to be re-cast in order to reset the balance between the public and private sector, creators, educators, researchers, the creative industries and end-users.
Ultimately, the UK needs a modern copyright system that puts economic growth, competitive markets and commercial and social innovation at its heart. It should ensure creators, innovators, researchers and consumers can all capture the full range of benefits offered by the Internet and digital technologies. UK copyright law needs to be modernized and simplified to recognize and enable British entrepreneurs and creators to make the most of the opportunities provided by the digital age.
Dr Read added, “We believe that the implementation of the recommendations such as including the commitment to furthering easy, widespread access to information and resources, will ensure that technology and information management are placed at the heart of research and education.
“JISC supports the swift implementation of these recommendations to help create a robust IP framework which can optimise the impact of UK research and enable our world class universities to fully contribute towards the UK’s innovation and growth.”
| Read JISC’s previous statements on the Hargreaves report. See the Government’s response. |
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