Developing a policy for metrics at UCL

UCL has been developing a set of principles on the responsible use of bibliometrics and other ways to measure research. This builds on UCL’s signing of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment in 2015; responsible evaluation practices in the 2017 UCL Academic Careers Framework; and UCL’s commitment to Open Science.

This Town Hall meeting and panel discussion aims to get feedback on the proposed principles, which we are planning to develop into a formal policy in the coming year, and to discuss the issues surrounding the use of quantitative research metrics.

The meeting will be followed by a public survey on the use of metrics and the proposed principles, to gather additional feedback from those unable to attend.

Registration for the event (via Eventbrite)

Schedule

– Introduction – Professor David Price, Vice-Provost (Research)

– Responsible metrics in practice – Dr. Elizabeth Gadd, Loughborough University

– Overview of the new principles – Dr. Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost (UCL Libraries)

– Panel discussion and public questions

We are pleased to announce the following workshops and events taking place in the up and coming weeks.

Knowledge Quarter Codes Technical Social – 21 November 2018

The popular UCL Research Programming Technical Socials are now expanding under the name ‘Knowledge Quarter Codes’ in order to welcome participation from academic and industrial organisations across the Knowledge Quarter – the area within a 1-mile radius of King’s Cross station. This is an informal event aimed at anyone with an interest in the computational methods and technology behind research and innovation. The next event will be hosted by Prof. Luca Vigano from King’s College London on Explainable Security – a new paradigm in security research.

This event will take place in UCL’s Chandler House premises on the 21 of November from 5pm to 6:30pm. You can register for the event here.

Dive into Data Challenge 2019

UCL researchers from across all disciplines are cordially invited to take part in the Dive into Data Challenge 2019. Researchers are encouraged to develop novel and innovative ways to analyse and/or data from the Consumer Data Research Centre to gain insights into UCL’s Grand Challenges priority themes through data re-use. Participants will also have the chance to win a £500 prize and present their work at the UCL Conference in June 2019. 

• Deadline for expression of interest and brief summary submission is 18 January 2019.
• Any questions you have about the challenge can be answered at the next RITS drop-in sessions on 15 November and 12 December 10am-12pm.

More information on the challenge is available here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/domains/eresearch/diveintodata

Digital Skills Development Opportunities

There are new dates available for Digital Skills Development courses and workshops for both staff and students. These workshops will cover sessions on Excel, Word, STATA, R, Unix, Photoshop plus many more. A weekly drop is also provided for individual guidance. A full schedule can be found here.

JISC will be running a workshop on research notebook management in London on the 19^th of November. The event will cover the requirements of research notebooks, the tools needed to manage them and how this relates to researchers’ own subject specialisms.

Researchers with an interest in exploring the use and management of lab notebooks are strongly encouraged to attend.

An Eventbrite is available for any researchers who are interested in attending the session.

As part of open access week 2018 (22nd-28th October 2018), UCL Library services have organised a series of events covering open access, REF, RPS, data sharing and Open Science. These events include training sessions, film screenings and drop-ins.

The Research Data Support team will be running a lunchtime session on the most effective ways to share your research data.

The first half of the session will give researchers an introduction to the principles and practicalities involved in data sharing. It will also seek to outline the principles of FAIR data and how this relates to the production and use of data over the research lifecycle.

During the second half of the session, UCL’s Research Data Management team and Open Access team will host a drop-in to help answer any questions about sharing research data, Open Access Publishing, RPS or Open Science.

This session will take place on the 25th of October between 13.00-14.00 in the Common Ground, Institute of Advanced Studies, South Wing, UCL Main Building (www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/south-wing).

An Eventbrite listing is available but you don’t need to register to attend.

Full listings and further details of all the events organised as part of open access week at UCL can be found on the open access blog.

SES Open:  Harnessing FAIR Data Symposium

Harnessing FAIR Data (3 September 2018, 13:00 – 17:00) focuses on researchers who employ or are seeking to use data in their work. FAIR is a set of guiding principles to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. In this thematic context we aim to better understand the cross-disciplinary practice of sourcing, using and managing data and its associated implications, such as ownership, standards and metadata, and access and licensing. Experienced speakers from around the UK will come together to explore FAIR data and services, and a panel session will help to identify key questions that researchers face when considering using data in research.

Register online

Programme highlights:

Realising the Potential: Final Report of the Open Data Task Force. 
Prof. Pam Thomas, University of Warwick
The Re-use of Consumer Data for the Social Good
Prof. Paul Longley, Department of Geography, UCL
Using socio-ecological simulation models to make the most of hard-won paleoecological data 
Andrew Lane, Department of Geography, King’s College London
The CLOSER consortium of longitudinal studies: Opportunities and obstacles in harmonising data from diverse sources
Dr. Dara O’Neill, CLOSER, UCL Institute of Education
Publishing FAIR Data in Chemistry
Dr. Charles Romain, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London

Panel members: Prof. Pam Thomas, Dr. Paul Ayris (UCL), Prof. Henry Rzepa (Imperial College London)

This event is hosted by QMUL, UCL eResearch Domain and the SES Consortium.

Photo by Mike Laurence / CCBY

Research Data Management (RDM) is an increasingly important skill for researchers across all disciplines and career stages. Most research funders are introducing new requirements around Data Management as part of the application process. Often researchers will be asked to produce a Data Management Plan or be required to share data at the end of a project.

This workshop will provide a practical overview of the major issues in RDM including how to meet funder requirements, how to effectively store data during your project, and making decisions about whether to share research data. As part of the workshop participants will begin to develop their Data Management Plan.

This new regular course will start in September 2018. Booking is open for the following dates, 16 January 14:00-15:30 and 13 February 14:00-15:30.

This new course is part of the support services already provided by the Library RDM team to write Data Management Plans. Online resources will remain available to understand funders’ requirements, see examples of Plans and ask for review.

The Research Data Management and Research IT teams run regular drop-in sessions. These sessions are open to all UCL research staff and research students and will be attended by someone from the Research Data Management team as well as representatives from all of the RITS service areas; if you have any questions or problems related the following areas, you should find someone there who can help:

• research programming
• workflow automation
• finding tools and services for your research programmes
• high performance computing
• handling large datasets
• handling sensitive data
• data storage
• Research Data Management (including Data Management Plans).

There’s no need to book, but we can make sure there’ll be someone there to help with your problem if you email rits@ucl.ac.uk ideally two days before the session.

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Research Data Management (RDM) is an increasingly important skill for researchers across all disciplines and career stages.

Research funders are increasingly introducing new requirements around Data Management as part of the application process. Often researchers will be asked to produce a Data Management Plan as part of a funding application or be required to share data at the end of a project.

This workshop will provide a practical overview of the major issues in RDM including how to meet funder requirements, how to effectively store data during your project, and making decisions about whether to share research data. As part of the workshop participants will begin to develop a datamanagement plan.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• identify the main considerations in RDM for their project
• understand how to comply with funder policies
• make more informed decisions about effective data sharing
• produce an effective Data Management Plan

This session will take place on the 2nd of May, 14:00-16:00. Further details and booking available through Organisational Development

Free event for UCL researchers and staff.

This one day workshop will explore the facets of Open Science and how these are/could be pursued by UCL researcher. In the morning speakers will discuss different aspects of and perspectives on Open Science with afternoon workshops offering practical advice. There will also be opportunity to discuss the steps UCL should take to support Open Science. This free event will be open to all UCL staff and is delivered by UCL Library Services with support from UCL Organisational Development.

Speakers include:

• Prof. David Price, Vice-Provost (Research), UCL
• Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL Library Services
• Catriona MacCallum, Director of Open Science, Hindawi
• Emily Sena, University of Edinburgh
• James Wilsdon, University of Sheffield
• Simon Hettrick, Sustainable Software Institute

Afternoon workshops will cover:

• How do we make Open the default at UCL
• How to make your data open (and FAIR)?
• Citizen Science
• Open Peer review
• Open Education

Registration available via Eventbrite. Please contact lib-researchsupport@ucl.ac.uk with any questions.

Photo by A.Wilkinson / CC BY

This regular training course introduces PhD students to research support available during the course of their studies. It is relevant for all PhD students, whatever the stage reached in their project and is applicable to all disciplines.

The half-day session focuses on Research Integrity, Research Data Management, Data Protection, Research Ethics, Open Access and Research IT. The course highlights good practices in these areas, explains the expectations of researchers and points them to relevant UCL support services.

The last session of this academic year will take place on Tuesday 24/04 (10am-1pm).

Booking information is available on the Doctoral Skills Development Programme website.