Supporting the wider open research ecosystem
The University of York Library proudly supports a range of initiatives, tools and infrastructure services which are helping to facilitate the shift towards a culture of open research practice.
These deliver benefits to York researchers across a variety of disciplines as well as the global research community and wider public. Financial support is provided through formal memberships, subscriptions and one-off donations.
The Library engages with consortia-based frameworks such as SCOSS and Jisc OACF when considering how and where to pledge our support. Our decision-making is guided by the following 8 principles:
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- The aims and objectives or values and ethos of the initiative should broadly align with the University of York Open research statement. It could also align with the activities towards opening up knowledge and research set out in the Library, Archives and Learning Services Combined Strategy Action Plan.
- There should be a clear existing or potential use case for the initiative at the University of York, including applications across a range of disciplines where possible.
- There should be evidence that the initiative is sustainable (and/or established for at least two years) and has appropriate governance and development staff/infrastructure in place.
- There should be transparency in how the initiative is funded and how our additional funding will be utilised, with a clear roadmap or objectives for long-term development.
- The initiative should hold non-profit or charity status in the country in which it is based, or it should be affiliated with or owned by a research or educational institution.
- There should be an opportunity for supporters to be involved in governance or development of the initiative going forward.
- There should be minimal barriers in place for those who wish to use the initiative. Any resource implications (e.g. integration or user training requirements) should be clearly stated, with guidance provided if needed.
- The costs associated with supporting the initiative should be transparent, affordable and in line with commitments made to similar initiatives.
The Library proudly supports a range of models and small presses which are helping to facilitate the shift towards a culture of open access publication in scholarly monograph publishing. These include 'diamond' open access publishers who do not charge author-facing processing fees, programmes to directly support monograph publication for ECRs (Early Career Researchers) and ebook subscription models which also fund the publication of front-list open access titles.
These services provide essential infrastructure for the benefit of open access monograph and journal publishers across a variety of disciplines.
Researcher and industry-led communities and associations are essential in the delivery of a global open research ecosystem. These communities fulfil many roles including sharing experiences, best practice, providing leadership and running their own journal publications.
These directories provide unified platforms where researchers can look up books, journals, repositories, policies and funder compliance information.
These registries provide directories and identifiers which help enable the discoverability and correct attribution of researchers and their work on a long-term basis.
Materials ranging from research theses through to instruments, preprints, manuscripts and other outputs are shared openly through these repositories. IRIS and OASIS were developed by the University of York Digital Library team with colleagues from the Department of Education, whilst White Rose eTheses Online and White Rose Research Online are our shared repositories with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield.
DMPonline supports researchers writing their Data Management (and Sharing) Plans through the provision of templates, guidance and other features (see Planning your data management for further guidance on using DMPonline). Programming Historian delivers openly-licensed and open source peer reviewed tutorials which help arts and humanities researchers discover new digital tools, techniques and workflows.