On the afternoon of 22nd October 2025, 40 people gathered in Bentham House to celebrate the winners and honourable mentions of this year’s UCL Open Science and Scholarship Awards.

Sandy Schumann and Jessie Baldwin, the UKRN Local Network Leads at UCL, hosted the ceremony and awards were presented by David Shanks, UCL’s UKRN Institutional Lead. Sandy began by congratulating this year’s cohort – 69 applications were submitted for consideration this year, so the competition was fierce! She also thanked the judges, as well as UCL Press for sponsoring the event.

There were five categories in total, and after the awards were presented, the overall winner of each category showcased their project.

The first category was, ‘Activities Led By Non-Academic Staff’, won by Vassilis Sideropoulos (Senior Research Technical Professional, Department of Psychology and Human Development, IOE) for his work establishing an open research training programme and practice community within the IOE. Vassilis saw the need to make open research practical and relevant, and created a programme with modular training covering topics such as Data Management and Pre-Registration. Following feedback on the initial training programme delivered between 2019-2023, he spent 18 months considering how to improve it, which led to a revamped programme with more applicable guidance. Alongside this, he recognised that researchers were seeking a community, a place where they could reach out to someone who could train them and respond to their questions, which led him to establish an open research practice community.

To encourage engagement with the practice of open science, an understanding of what researchers need is vital. By listening and responding to feedback, Vassilis recognised this and has created a programme that has transformed the ways in which IOE researchers engage with and understand open science.

The winner of the second category, ‘Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open-source software/analytical tools’, was Deyu Ming (Lecturer in Mathematics and Data Analytics, School of Management, Faculty of Engineering) for the development of the open-source package ‘DGPSI’, which allows for scalable surrogate modelling of expensive computer models and model networks. In his showcase, Deyu took us on the journey of this project. From the origins of the idea in 2019, to translating it into something that others could use and publishing it on GitHub in 2020, to it subsequently appearing on the python package index and on CONDA in 2022. But it didn’t stop there. In 2023, the package started making considerable impact through the UKRI-funded projects Net Zero Plus and ADD-TREES, which support AI-enhanced tree-planting decision tools used by DEFRA, Forest Research, the National Trust, and other stakeholders to advance the UK’s Net Zero 2050 goals.

Since 2021, there have been 19 releases of the software, and it is now 60x faster than the original. As creator, lead developer, and sole maintainer of ‘DGPSI’, Deyu has worked incredibly hard on this open-source software, and with already over 100,000 downloads, it will no doubt continue to make a resounding and long-lasting impact.

The award for ‘Activities led by undergraduate or postgraduate students’ went to Yinan Chen, Eric Chen and Adelina Xie (undergraduate students at the Department of Statistical Science, Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences) for developing an open peer-review system for statistical science undergraduate coding assignments as part of a UCL ChangeMakers project. The problem they set out to address was the limitation in Moodle (the learning platform used at UCL) with regard to peer review, as students could only receive general feedback on coding assignments. Since Moodle only supports the review of PDF outputs and not raw R code, there was no option for line-by-line code reviews, and they felt that collaborative learning opportunities were being missed. Their solution: GitHub and Moodle integration. This innovative hybrid approach, with GitHub’s powerful code review system and Moodle’s familiar interface, has led to a practical, accessible and scalable tool designed for students, by students.

This is a recently concluded pilot project, but it is already having significant impact. A paper is being written on it for the Journal of Open-Source Education, and it has attracted interest for presentation at the Royal Statistical Society’s education conference, which shows its potential for nation-wide statistical education – testament to Yinan, Eric and Adelina’s hard work and dedication. Alongside this, their commitment to the practice of open science at such an early stage in their academic career was inspiring to see.

For the category ‘Activities led by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open publishing’, the award was presented to Adam Crymble (Lecturer of Digital Humanities, Department of Information Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities), for the open publishing initiative ‘Programming Historian’ which he co-founded. Programming Historian offers over 250 peer-reviewed tutorials for digital humanities in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Adam explained how a gap in digital skills amongst humanities professionals was the motivation for the project, and from its humble beginnings as a blog, it has become a financially self-sustaining open publisher. By offering practical applications and case studies in each tutorial, as well as ensuring translations are culturally adapted, this project has had far-reaching influence and continues to do so.

Since the outset, community and collaboration have been vital in the development of Programming Historian, and Adam has worked hard to expand the project’s global community and to ensure inclusivity. This approach, alongside the use of open peer review and the promotion of open data and open-source tools, epitomises the principles of open science and was fantastic to hear about.

The final category was ‘Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Enhancing open science and reproducibility capacity in the academic community’, won by Martin Mokros (Lecturer in Earth Observation, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences) for his COST Action 3DForEcoTech project. Four years ago, Martin noticed the issue of scientists undertaking similar forest ecosystem research but not talking to each other about it. He wanted to standardise laser scanning technologies for forest ecology and inventory to allow for collaboration, and so launched COST Action 3DForEcoTech – the first global open-science network focused on ground-based 3D forest monitoring. With over 600 members from 50+ countries, the reach is impressive, and it is an innovative approach to scientific practice. Open science was a key motivation for the project, and it incorporates fully accessible datasets, algorithms and benchmarks results, as well as open-source software and an algorithm library.

Alongside the provision of open data and tools, this project has engaged with open science by creating equitable access to knowledge and opportunities through supporting ECRs, enforcing gender balance and ensuring participation from underrepresented regions. The idea of equitable access underpins the entire concept of open science, and by making it a central tenet to the COST Action 3DForEcoTech project, Martin has provided an excellent example of how this can be done.

Each of these award winners have advocated for, harnessed and showcased open science in various fields of research and study, and we are delighted that they have received recognition with a UCL Open Science & Scholarship Award.

We are looking forward to hearing about these projects’ ongoing impact and wonder what new initiatives they might inspire!

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities.

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Guest post by Sheetal Saujani, Citizen Science Coordinator, and Christiana McMahon, Research Data Support Officer

This year’s theme for International Open Access Week 2025, “Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, asks us to reflect on how knowledge is created, shared, and controlled, and whose voices are included in that process. It’s a question that aligns closely with UCL’s approach to citizen science, which promotes openness, collaboration and equity in research.

Citizen science provides a powerful lens to examine how knowledge is co-produced with communities. It recognises that valuable knowledge comes not only from academic institutions but also but also from lived experience, community knowledge, and shared exploration.

Through initiatives like the UCL Citizen Science Academy and UCL Citizen Science Certificate, we support researchers and project leads to work in partnership with the public, enabling people from all backgrounds to take part in research that matters to them. These programmes are designed to be inclusive and hands-on, helping to build confidence, skills and shared responsibility.

For those of us working in academia, this theme reminds us that open access isn’t just about making papers free to read – it’s about changing how research is produced. Involving citizen scientists in forming research questions, collecting data, and interpreting findings opens up the research process itself, not just access to its outputs.

The Principles for Citizen Science at UCL emphasise respectful partnerships, transparency, and fair recognition. They reflect our belief that citizen scientists are co-creators whose insights – rooted in everyday experience and local knowledge – bring depth and relevance to academic work.

In particular, the fifth principle for Citizen Science at UCL states that CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance should be considered when working with marginalised communities and Indigenous groups. These principles are: Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics, which remind researchers that creating knowledge from Indigenous data must be to the benefit of Indigenous Peoples, nations and communities. These Principles support Indigenous Peoples in establishing more control over their data and its use in research. The Research Data Management Team encourage staff and students to engage with the CARE Principles in addition to the FAIR principles.

So, who owns our knowledge? At UCL, we believe the answer should be: everyone. Through citizen science and its principles, we’re building a future where knowledge is created collectively, shared responsibly and made openly accessible – because it belongs to the communities that help shape it.

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities.

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Guest post by Catherine Sharp, Head of Open Access Services at UCL

“Who Owns Our Knowledge?”, the theme of this year’s International Open Access Week, asks how “communities can reassert control over the knowledge they produce”. With commercial publishers continuing to monetise academic content through ever-increasing subscription and open access fees – the costs of so-called “transformative” agreements to UK HEIs is around £140m – and to report substantial and growing profit margins, while at the same time attempting to restrict authors’ rights in their own work, this remains a challenge for all HEIs. Against this background, the UK’s rights retention movement is a vital tool in the effort to free academic research and empower authors to use and share their knowledge.

UCL’s Intellectual Property (IP) Policy has long enshrined the principle that UCL staff own the copyright in their own scholarly materials, and that UCL has the right to use them for academic and research purposes. This year, with the introduction of an updated Publications Policy, UCL has joined a number of other universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and Manchester, in taking action to assert this right. This is known as rights retention.

In practical terms, this means that from 2026, having notified publishers of UCL’s pre-existing licence, UCL will make the accepted manuscripts of scholarly articles by UCL staff open access without an embargo in UCL Discovery, UCL’s open access repository, under the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) (unless an alternative licence or exemption is requested). The CC BY licence allows widespread re-use and sharing, and is the licence that research funders, including Wellcome, UKRI, NIHR and EC funders, require.

While UCL will continue to provide opportunities for authors to publish Gold open access through transformative agreements and in fully open access journals, articles that are not Gold open access will also benefit from immediate open access, on publication, in UCL Discovery. This will allow all UCL authors to meet their funders’ (including REF) open access requirements while continuing to publish in their journals of choice, and to benefit from open access through higher impact, increased citations and more collaborations.

The policy also benefits co-authors, and UCL authors are encouraged to let their co-authors know about it and to take advantage of it. Aside from that, authors do not need to take any action other than to upload their accepted manuscripts to RPS, on publication.

We are looking forward to seeing the practical effects of the policy as more UCL research is made available, more freely, than ever before.

 

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities.

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The UCL Open Science and Scholarship Awards are a joint programme between the UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship (OOSS) and the local network chapter of UKRN, the UK Reproducibility Network. Together we are delighted to be running these awards for the third year and are proud to say that the quality and volume of applications has only continued to grow year on year.

We would like to invite you to join us in celebrating our award winners during the Open Access Week festivities. At the awards presentation on Wednesday 22 October we will be presenting all of the awards as well as hearing from a selection of winners and honourable mentions about their research. There will also be the opportunity to network with our winners at a reception sponsored by UCL Press.

And without further ado – our award winners! Each category has an overall winner and two honourable mentions.

Category – Activities led by non-academic staff

• Winner: Vassilis Sideropoulos, Senior Research Technical Professional, Department of Psychology and Human Development, IOE — Leading the IOE Open Research Practice Community and an open research training programme
• Honourable Mention: Nikoloz Sirmpilatze, Research Software Engineer, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, Faculty of Life Sciences — Technical lead of ‘movement’, an open-source Python package for analysing animal body movements
• Honourable Mention: Samarth Pimparkar, Research Technician, Clinical and Movement Neuroscience, Faculty of Brain Science — Contributions to building open-source resources that preserve and share valuable patient-derived material

Category – Activities led by undergraduate or postgraduate students:

• Winner: Yinan Chen; Eric Chen; Adelina Xie undergraduate students at the Department of Statistical Science, Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences — Developers of open peer-review system for statistical science undergraduate coding assignments
• Honourable Mention: Chaeyeon Lim, MSc student at the UCL Interaction Centre, Faculty of Life Sciences — Lead-developer of NatureNest
• Honourable Mention: Ka Ying Ivy Chan, MSc student at the Faculty of Brain Sciences — Introducing the OSF to fellow master’s students

Category – Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open-source software/analytical tools

• Winner: Deyu Ming, Lecturer in Mathematics and Data Analytics, School of Management, Faculty of Engineering — Lead developer of ‘DGPSI’
• Honourable Mention: Michal Ovadek, Lecturer in European Institutions, Politics and Policy, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences — Lead developer of ‘eurlex’
• Honourable Mention: Pietro Lubello, Research Fellow, Energy Institute, Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment — Lead developer of the Kenya Power System Model and the Kenya Whole Energy System Model

Category – Activities led by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Open publishing

• Winner: Adam Crymble, Lecturer of Digital Humanities, Department of Information Studies, Faculty of Arts and Humanities — Co-founder and first chair of Programming Historian
• Honourable Mention: Anastasia Kokori, PhD student in the Astrophysics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences — Founder and coordinator of ExoClock
• Honourable Mention: Annabelle South, Principal Research Fellow in Research Impact and Communication, MRC Clinical Trials Unit, Faculty of Population Health Sciences — Innovating how results of clinical trials are shared with participants

Category – Activities by academic staff (including post-docs) or PhD students: Enhancing open science and reproducibility capacity in the academic community

• Winner: Martin Mokros, Lecturer in Earth Observation, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences — Chair of the COST Action 3DForEcoTech
• Honourable Mention: Dongyi Ma, PhD student in the Connected Environments Lab, Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment — Founder of UrbanHeatSense IoT initiative
• Honourable Mention: Lewis Jones, NERC Independent Research Fellow, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty Mathematical & Physical Sciences— Founder of the Palaeoverse

 

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities.

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Guest post by Sheetal Saujani, Citizen Science Coordinator in the Office for Open Science & Scholarship

Citizen Science, where members of the public contribute to academic research, is reshaping how we do research. It opens new possibilities for data collection, community engagement, and impact, and at UCL, it’s increasingly seen as a key part of open and inclusive research.

In this post, we explore some of the platforms that make Citizen Science possible, including iNaturalist, and share insights from Professor Muki Haklay’s (UCL Extreme Citizen Science) blog to inspire UCL researchers to get involved.

Why Citizen Science platforms matter

Citizen Science platforms aren’t just bits of technology – they are powerful tools for bringing people and research together. They help researchers:

• Collect data on a large scale, across different locations and time periods
• Work with diverse communities in ways that feel meaningful
• Enhance the impact of their research by opening it up to the public
• Recognise and include lived experience and local knowledge as valuable data

Citizen Science platforms make it easy for anyone to take part by connecting researchers with thousands (or even millions) of contributors. Whether it’s identifying wildlife, tracking pollution, or classifying stars, Citizen Science tools make it easy for anyone to take part.

But not every platform fits every project. It’s worth considering how easy it is to use, the quality of the data, ethical considerations, and how long the platform can be supported. It’s great that there are now a wide range of tools out there to support different research areas.

Popular platforms to explore

Here are a few Citizen Science platforms worth considering:

1. Zooniverse – a platform for crowdsourced data analysis in fields ranging from climate science to history.
2. Cochrane Crowd – global community classifying health research to support systematic reviews, open to all with no prior expertise needed.
3. SciStarter – a hub connecting volunteers to projects across science, health, and the environment.
4. GLOBE Observer – a NASA app for environmental monitoring including cloud cover and mosquito habitats.

Many of these tools are open source or open access, which aligns with UCL’s Open Science approach to research.

Spotlight on iNaturalist

iNaturalist is one of the world’s leading Citizen Science platforms, built to help people record and share observations of biodiversity. With over 150 million contributions, it reflects the core values of open Citizen Science: it’s user-friendly, community-driven, and open in its data policies.

If you’re interested in tracking urban wildlife, exploring plant ecology, or examining environmental change, iNaturalist offers:

• Community-powered species ID: observations are confirmed by a global network of experts and enthusiasts.
• Open data integration: verified sightings feed directly into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), supporting research and conservation worldwide.
• Educational value: a powerful tool for learning about local ecosystems, supporting outreach, and involving the public in meaningful fieldwork.

For UCL researchers in ecology, conservation, education, or public engagement, iNaturalist offers a ready-made platform for collaborative projects, supporting both academic outcomes and community impact.

Reflections on iNaturalist from Prof. Muki Haklay

At the CAPS25 conference, iNaturalist’s Executive Director, Scott Loarie, delivered the opening keynote sharing five key lessons from the platform’s 17-year evolution – from an MSc project to a global biodiversity tool.

In a follow-up blog post, Professor Muki Haklay (UCL Extreme Citizen Science) reflects on these insights, highlighting iNaturalist’s focus on a pressing challenge: documenting species before they disappear. With one in three species at risk, the platform’s mission is urgent.

Prof. Haklay praises iNaturalist for making participation fun and not too complicated, empowering people to contribute meaningfully – from spotting rare birds to discovering new butterflies. He also emphasises the social side of Citizen Science, where events like the City Nature Challenge become global celebrations of biodiversity.

He describes iNaturalist as “a new kind of scientific instrument” – open, scalable, and powered by AI. Millions of photos help track species distribution, detect invasive spread, and even reveal behavioural patterns. AI/computer vision is “providing a new journey,” he notes, with tools that link images to DNA and uncover new species.

For UCL researchers, Prof. Haklay’s reflections remind us to think beyond data collection. How can we design Citizen Science that’s inclusive, engaging, and makes a difference in the world?

Next steps

Citizen Science can enhance public engagement, enable large-scale data collection, and support the co-production of knowledge – especially when linked with Open Science values. To get started:

• Choose a platform that fits your research needs
• Pilot a small-scale activity or join an existing project
• Reflect on inclusion, ethics, and sustainability from the outset
• Connect with UCL’s Citizen Science community for guidance and support

Let’s collaborate

Have you used a Citizen Science platform in your research or teaching? Or are you just getting started and curious about the possibilities?

Platforms like iNaturalist show how Citizen Science can be rigorous, inclusive and impactful – offering new ways to collaborate, engage communities and produce knowledge. As UCL advances its Open Science agenda, now is a great time to consider how Citizen Science can enhance your work across disciplines.

The UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship is here to support you. Our Citizen Science Support and Training resources include guidance on integrating Citizen Science into your projects, information on key platforms, and our favourite Citizen Science initiatives from around the world. You can also explore the Principles of Citizen Science at UCL to shape your approach from the outset.

Whether you’re starting a project or exploring ideas, we’d love to hear from you. Visit the UCL Citizen Science website to learn more – and let’s work together to make research more open, inclusive, and collaborative.

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This year we are pleased to share our Advent Calendar of Research Support with you!

We will be posting links every day on our Bluesky account. If you’re not on Bluesky yet, don’t worry — we’ve shared the calendar below for you to view at your own time. We will also keep this post updated throughout the month with an accessible version of the content.

1 December: On the first day of advent, improve the visibility of your research by updating your UCL public profile, recently revamped with key fields in RPS, including the new UN Sustainable Development Goals section, to align your research with global initiatives.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/open-science-research-support/ucl-profiles/getting-started-your-public-profile

• UCL front quad, looking towards Cruciform, an elegant red brick building. It is dark and the picture is lined with trees with purple and blue lights.

2 December: Countdown to Christmas with Citizen Science…Join UCL’s first Citizen Science community event on 9 December! Let’s discover, share and network this season. Don’t forget to join our online network too! https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/11/13/get-involved-ucls-first-citizen-science-community-event-on-9-december-join-our-online-network/

• Image by Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho” on UCL imagestore. A group of three women in warm clothing toasting with cups of coffee at night.

3 December: Is Santa’s Christmas naughty or nice list copyrighted? Think of it as research data…Take our Christmas copyright quiz to learn more! https://ucl-global.libwizard.com/f/copyright_Christmas_quiz Image created using Copilot on 22 November

• Image: cartoon of a copyright symbol with a white beard and Christmas hat.

 

4 December: Today we are celebrating the 10 years since the IOE’s merger with UCL. Check out the action on the UCL Press channels.

• Image from UCL Press. A perspective shot of the IOE looking up, looks like a stack of big concrete blocks.

 

5 December: Learn how to connect your ORCID to UCL’s Research Publications Service (RPS) for up-to-date records and easier #OpenAccess compliance. More info: https://buff.ly/3WALW3s

• Image by Mary Hinkley on UCL imagestore. UCL front quad at twilight. In front of the portico is a Christmas tree decorated with yellow lights. To the right of the image is a leafless tree decorated with purple and pink lights which can be seen reflecting off the white building beyond.

 

6 December: Tis the season…for data management planning!
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/open-science-research-support/research-data-management/policies/managing-data-across-research

• Image by Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho” on UCL imagestore. Image shows a Christmas garland over and arch with people walking through, slightly out of focus. The garland is threaded with yellow lights and the words Happy Holiday Season are written in pink lights.

7 December: Ever wondered if your publications are being cited in policy documents, and where? With policy and grey literature databases like Overton, you can discover who is citing your work and how it’s influencing decision-making documents. https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/research-metrics/overton

• Image by Mat Wright on UCL imagestore. A girl with dark hair and wire rimmed glasses wearing a yellow jumper sits at a laptop. In the background can be seen colourful book stacks.

8 December: Explore this year’s Open Science Conference collections available on UCL’s Media Central and Research Data Repository! Access talks, posters, and insights from UCL researchers advancing open science, and share in the wealth of knowledge supporting our open research community.
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/07/11/from-policy-to-practice-ucl-open-science-conference-2024/

• Image by John Moloney on UCL imagestore. A group of people in business attire socialising with drinks. Picture is taken from a distance and slightly above.

9 December: Early Christmas Present?.. Yes please! Learn more about archiving your research outputs using the UCL Research Data Repository: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/open-science-research-support/research-data-management/ucl-research-data-repository

• Image by UCL Media Services on UCL imagestore. A close up of a bright purple bauble on a tree with some blue lights.

 

10 December: What did the copyright support team bring you this year? Read our Christmas blog!
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/copyright/2024/12/02/the-twelve-gifts-of-copyright/

• Image by Tony Slade from UCL imagestore. A top-down photograph of four students working individually at wooden desks. To the right of the image are wooden bookcases full of colourful books.

11 December: It’s UK Disability History Month (14 Nov – 20 Dec)! Take this opportunity to learn about the UCL Digital Accessibility team’s work to make research and resources more inclusive. Catch up on our profile with Ben Watson, leading the way on digital accessibility at UCL!
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/07/08/spotlight-on-ben-watson-champion-of-digital-accessibility-at-ucl/

 

12 December: Preprints as a way to share your initial findings to influence decision-makers: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2020/11/06/case-study-disseminating-early-research-findings-to-influnce-decision-makers/

• Image by Tony Slade on UCL imagestore. A close-up perspective shot of a bookcase. Black books with gold writing are in the foreground and red, orange and blue volumes are further back.

13 December: Want to learn how UCL Press is committed to providing free, high-quality educational resources to support students and educators globally? Read Dhara Snowden’s blog on how #OpenAccess textbooks are reshaping the future of learning and education! https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/10/23/oa-textbooks-ucl-press-perspective/

• Image by Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho” on UCL imagestore. A plate of mince pies.

 14 December: This holiday season, we’re celebrating meaningful partnerships between researchers and the public with the Principles for Citizen Science at UCL. The principles ensure that projects involving citizen scientists are inclusive, ethical, and impactful – a perfect recipe for success!

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/open-science-research-support/open-science/citizen-science/principles-citizen-science

• Image by Mary Hinkley on UCL imagestore. A close up of a Christmas tree covered in yellow lights and small silver leaves. In the background can be seen a grey building, some leafless trees and a dark grey statue of a man.

15 December: An RDM film recommendation – Coded Bias (Netflix)- When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms. https://youtu.be/_84k600_6bg?feature=shared

• Image by Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho” on UCL imagestore. An arm and hand in profile holds up a mobile phone with the camera open. The phone shows the UCL portico and Christmas tree. The background is out of focus but appears to show Christmas lights.

16 December: Creative Commons licences embrace the spirit of Christmas. Learn how they work: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2023/10/23/how-creative-commons-licences-support-open-scholarship/

• Image by James Tye on UCL imagestore. Image shows a view through a gap in books to a woman with light brown hair holding the books open and appearing to be searching the shelf.

17 December: Earlier this year, we introduced the UCL Statement on Principles of Authorship, created through community consultation and co-creation. This document is designed to promote more equitable and transparent authorship practices across UCL. Learn more: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/2024/10/25/announcing-ucl-statement-on-principles-of-authorship/

• Image by Alejandro Walter Salinas Lopez on UCL imagestore. Six people in office attire facing a bright yellow wall covered in postit notes

18 December: Have you ever questioned which university ranks highest for collaboration or open access? Explore the Leiden University Rankings, based exclusively on publication data, to find the answer. https://www.leidenranking.com/ranking/2024/list

• Image by Mat Wright on UCL imagestore. A student with long blonde hair studies in the foreground. Behind her are rows of wooden desks and book stacks in arches sit further back.

19 December: UCL Press Play: Check out the new podcast series from @uclpress.bsky.social hosted by Philip Schofield (UCL’s Bentham Project). Join UCL experts as they explore Jeremy Bentham’s legacy, covering utilitarianism, queer aesthetics, historical views on non-binary diversity, and more.  Listen now: shorturl.at/Nvqzl

• Image by KamranAydinov on Freepik. Blue headphones surrounded by christmas decorations, stockings, candles, tree lights and pine cones.

20 December: Ever hit a paywall when trying to access scholarly publications? Get the popcorn ready, and be prepared to have your eyes opened by watching this documentary ‘Paywall: the Business of Scholarship’ at https://paywallthemovie.com/ #OpenAccess #ResearchSupportAdvent

• Image by Mary Hinkley on UCL imagestore. A mixed group of people around a table working at laptops.

 

21 December: An RDM stocking filler – Research Data MANTRA training – up your RDM skills with this external online course: https://mantra.ed.ac.uk/

• Image by Mary Hinkley on UCL imagestore. Two large and several small icicles against a wintery sky.

 

22 December: UCL staff and students: join our new Copyright Literacy Community on Teams!

• Image by KamranAydinov on Freepik. Top view of hand holding a pen on spiral notebook with new year writing and drawings decoration accessories on black background.

 

23 December: Interested in discovering which UCL department or faculty collaborates most with yours, or identifying the most common research theme in your department? Explore the My Organisation data in InCites to uncover trends for your department or faculty. https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/web-of-science/incites

• Image by Alejandro Salinas Lopez “alperucho” on UCL imagestore. A Christmas tree with white lights at night in front of columns lit with colours of the rainbow.

24 December: From all the team here at the UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship we want to thank you all for your collaboration and interaction this year, and wish you all a great break! We’ll be back after 6th January!

• UCL portico in the background lit up in white at twilight. In the foreground and to either side trees are lit in a variety of rainbow colours.

As we conclude International Open Access Week, we have been inspired by a wealth of discussions and events across UCL! This week, we have explored balancing collaboration and commercialisation, highlighted the work of Citizen Science initiatives, discussed the role of open access textbooks in education, and addressed key copyright challenges in the age of AI to ensure free and open access to knowledge.

Today, we are excited to introduce the UCL Statement of Principles of Authorship. This new document, shaped through a co-creation workshop and community consultation, provides guidance on equitable authorship practices and aims to foster more inclusive and transparent research collaboration across UCL.

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The team at the UCL Office for Open Science & Scholarship is pleased to launch the UCL Statement of Principles of Authorship. These principles have been built up from a co-creation workshop and developed in consultation with our academic community and are now available for wider use, linked from our website.

In August 2023, the OOSS Team posted a discussion about the challenges of equity in authorship and the co-production workshop held during that year’s Open Science & Scholarship Conference. We outlined some preliminary considerations that led to the workshop, summarised the discussion and emerging themes, including the need to more widely acknowledge contributions to research outputs, the power dynamics involved in authorship decisions, and ways to make academic language and terminology accessible for contributors outside the academic ‘bubble’.

The outcomes of the workshop were then used as the basis for developing the new Statement of Principles of Authorship. This document provides general advice, recommendations and requirements for authors, designed to complement the UCL Code of Conduct for Research and align with existing published frameworks, such as the Technicians Commitment or CRediT. The document outlines four core principles and a variety of applications for their use across the broad range of subject areas and output types that are produced across the institution. It also proposes standards for affiliations and equitable representation of contributors.

While it is true that academic publishing is a complex and changing environment, these principles are intended as a touchstone for discussions around authorship rather than explicit expectations or policy. They can guide decision making, help understand how affiliations should be presented for best consistency and traceability in the long term, and empower people to request inclusion or make plans to include citizen scientists or other types of collaborators to their work.

We look forward to hearing the many ways that these principles can be used by the community!

For a full overview of our #OAWeek 2024 posts, visit our blog series page. To learn more about the Principles of Authorship and stay updated on open science initiatives across UCL, sign up for our mailing list.

 

Guest Post by Dominic Allington-Smith (Open Access Publications Manager)

UCL Publications Board and the Open Access Team are delighted to announce that on Monday 24 June, UCL’s institutional repository, UCL Discovery, reached the milestone of 50 million downloads! UCL Discovery is UCL’s open access repository, showcasing and providing access to UCL research outputs from all UCL disciplines. UCL authors currently deposit around 1,675 outputs in the repository every month (average figure for the current academic year).

The 50 millionth download was of the paper ‘Replenishing IRAK-M expression in retinal pigment epithelium attenuates outer retinal degeneration’ originally published in Science Translational Medicine by a team of researchers including UCL co-lead author Professor Andrew Dick.  This paper found that increasing the levels of a key protein in the cells at the back of the eye could help protect against the age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss among older adults.

UCL Discovery hosts over 178,500 open access publications at the time of writing, comprising mostly self-archived copies of research outputs published elsewhere to bypass publisher paywalls, but also including doctoral and research master’s theses (contemporary submissions and historic digitisations), and books published by UCL Press.  This variety of resources is displayed when viewing the highest-downloaded publication within the UCL hierarchy:

• Faculty of Arts and Humanities: A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education (UCL Press book, 2017)
• Faculty of Laws: Confessions, illegally/improperly obtained evidence and entrapment under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984: changing judicial and public attitudes to the police and criminal investigations (thesis, 1999)
• School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies: The Gesta Hungarorum of Anonymus, the Anonymous Notary of King Béla: A Translation (journal article, 2009)
• Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences: How the World Changed Social Media (UCL Press book, 2016)
• Faculty of the Built Environment (Bartlett): Why are most buildings rectangular? (journal article, 2006)
• Faculty of Engineering Sciences: Semi-structured qualitative studies (book chapter, 2013)
• Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences: The Traditional Four Steps Transportation Modeling Using a Simplified Transport Network: A Case Study of Dhaka City, Bangladesh (journal article, 2012)
• Faculty of Brain Sciences: What is mentalization? The concept and its foundations in developmental research (book chapter, 2012)
• Faculty of Life Sciences: Evaluation of the scale, causes and costs of waste medicines. Report of DH funded national project (report, 2010)
• Faculty of Medical Sciences: Textbook of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (UCL Press book, 2016)
• Faculty of Population Health Sciences: Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective (report, 2006)
• Institute of Education: Teaching at a distance in a digital age: perspectives from the Philippines (thesis, 2013)

This amazing milestone shows the scope and reach that sharing research through UCL Discovery has. There are a number of ways you can share your research at UCL, and we encourage you to continue sharing your research publications via UCL RPS and Profiles. Additionally, consider sharing other types of outputs such as data, code and software to further enhance the visibility and reproducibility of your work. The Research Data Management team maintain a guide on best practice for software sustainability, preservation and sharing, and can give further support to UCL researchers as required.

Congratulations to everyone involved in reaching this incredible milestone, and let’s continue to push the boundaries of open access and research sharing at UCL!

Get involved!

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, LinkedIn, and join our mailing list to be part of the conversation!

 

 

 

 

Date and Time: Thursday, June 20, 2024, 1:00 PM – 6:30 PM GMT+1.

Location: IAS Common Ground, G11, South Wing, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

We invite you to participate in an afternoon of discussions and presentations centred around Open Science and Scholarship at the UCL Open Science Conference 2024! Join us on Thursday, June 20, 2024, at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, IAS Common Ground (Room G11), South Wing, UCL Wilkins building.

Discover pioneering practices and innovative research and initiatives at UCL that embody the principles of Open Science and Scholarship. This internally focused event aims to showcase the dynamic landscape of Open Science at UCL and explore its practical applications across scholarship and research domains, including Open Access Publishing, Open Data and Software, Transparency, Reproducibility, Open Educational Resources, Citizen Science, Co-Production, Public Engagement, and other open practices and methodologies.

Open to all UCL staff and students, our annual conference will feature various thematic sessions, followed by a poster session and networking opportunities in the evening for all attendees. Whether you’re an academic, researcher, student, or member of staff – or simply interested in Open Science/Open Research – this conference is the perfect place to learn, connect, and exchange ideas with colleagues. Early career researchers and PhD students from all disciplines are particularly encouraged to participate.

Our conference will adopt a hybrid format, offering both in-person and online participation options, with a preference for in-person attendance. Session recordings will be available for viewing after the conference.

Please book your free tickets using the Eventbrite link. 

We look forward to welcoming you to the UCL Open Science Conference 2024!

Get involved!

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, LinkedIn, and join our mailing list to be part of the conversation!

 

Guest post by Dr Christiana McMahon, Research Data Support Officer, in celebration of International Love Data Week 2024.

From that spark of an idea through to publishing research findings, the Research Data Management team have once again been on-hand to support staff and students.

What’s been happening?

A new version of the Research Data Repository is now available simplifying the process of archiving and preserving research outputs here at UCL for the longer-term.

In 2023 we published 200 items 151 of which were datasets.

 

Over the past year…

• The most downloaded record was: Griffiths, David; Boehm, Jan (2019). SynthCity Dataset – Area 1. University College London. Dataset.
• The most viewed record was: Heenan, Thomas; Jnawali, Anmol; Kok, Matt; Tranter, Thomas; Tan, Chun; Dimitrijevic, Alexander; et al. (2020). Lithium-ion Battery INR18650 MJ1 Data: 400 Electrochemical Cycles (EIL-015). University College London. Dataset.
• The most cited record was: Manescu, Petru; Shaw, Mike; Elmi, Muna; Zajiczek, Lydia; Claveau, Remy; Pawar, Vijay; et al. (2020). Giemsa Stained Thick Blood Films for Clinical Microscopy Malaria Diagnosis with Deep Neural Networks Dataset. University College London. Dataset.

More information is available about the UCL Research Data Repository.  Alternatively, check our FAQs.

Data Management Plan Reviews

The RDM team can review data management plans providing researchers with feedback in-line with UCL’s expectations and funding agency requirements where these apply. In 2023, we reviewed 32 data management plans covering over 10 different funding agencies. More information is available in our website.

Mini-tutorial: Research data lifecycle

The RDM team often refer to the research data lifecycle, but what is it? Essentially, these are the different stages of the research process from planning and preparation through to archiving your research outputs, making them discoverable to the wider research community and members of the public.

The four stages:

1: Get ready – You’ve had an idea for a research study so it’s time to start making plans and getting prepared. Have you considered writing a data management plan?

• Remember, if you are in receipt of external funding, there may be data management requirements to consider.
• Feel free to reach out to Open Science and Research Support to assist you.

2: Let’s go – You are now actively researching putting all those research plans into action.

• Don’t forget to revisit your data management plan and update it to reflect your latest decision making.
• It’s also useful to consider documenting your research as you progress.

3: Ta-dah – The research is complete and it’s time to archive your research outputs to preserve them for the longer-term.

• Aim to utilise subject-specific archives and repositories where possible.
• Creating a metadata record in a public facing online catalogue with links to any related publications can be useful to building online networks of linked research outputs.
• Consider making your research outputs as openly accessible as possible remembering that controlling or restricting access is fine as long as it is justified and there is a set data access protocol in place to facilitate a data access request.
• Did you know you can archive most research outputs in the UCL Research Data Repository?

4: Wow! I think I can use this – making your research discoverable to others for potential reuse can help to maximise research opportunities

• Consider having an agreement in place between parties before sharing research outputs – issues like copyright, IP, commercialisation of (subsequent) work may be discussed here.
• For secondary researchers, time to head back to the start to begin the research process.

And so the research data lifecycle begins again!

Get involved!

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship invites you to contribute to the open science and scholarship movement. Stay connected for updates, events, and opportunities. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, and join our mailing list to be part of the conversation!