Open knowledge at the UOC

The open access (OA) movement is the outcome of the electronic publishing facilities and Internet. This movement advocates permanent, free access, without restrictions imposed by certain exploitation rights, to scientific, academic and educational contents with the goal of fostering their accessibility and impact for the benefit of science and society.

International declarations about open access:

• (2002) Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI)
• (2003) Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing
• (2003) Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Science and Humanities
• (2012) San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)

• Increased visibility of scientific literature.
• Increased impact of publications: increase in citations of authors and publications.
• Perpetual access to documents.
• Easy retrieval of contents published in open access.
• Guaranteed preservation of research results.
• Increased visibility of institutions.

Infographic: Benefits of publishing in institutional repositories link opens in a new window

(Font: REBIUN)

Self-archiving: green route

Self-archiving in institutional repositories, such as the O2, or in thematic repositories, enables the following:

• Publication of a copy of the articles (published and reviewed).
• Publication of the version sent (preprint), accepted (postprint) or published (publisher's PDF).
• Access to publications with the possibility of free access, embargoed access or restricted access.

In the case of scientific publications, you must consult the self-archiving policies of the publishers where you have published your works:

• International: SHERPA/RoMEO
• Spanish: Dulcinea

Open-access journals: gold route

The gold route consists of publishing in journals that do not charge any subscription fee for access to the articles, but which have business models that enable them to cover their publishing expenses (for example: an author pays to publish in open access).

Hybrid model

With the hybrid model, the journals publish the articles with immediate open access after the author or institution owning the articles has paid a fee to finance access.

• Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science
• UOC Open Knowledge Policy

On 12th April 2021 the Executive Board approved the Open Access Institutional Policy at the UOC. The aim of this policy is to establish the institutional framework to allow the UOC to openly share and transfer the knowledge it generates as a result of its research, teaching, innovation and institutional management in the university's various disciplines.

• Digital preservation policy of the UOC institutional repository, O2
• Metadata Policy. O2 Repository UOC
• Law 14/2011, of 1 June, on science, technology and innovation
• Horizon 2020

Recommendations and good practices

• How the open access mandates must be fulfilled
• Compromisos de las universidades ante la Open Science

• International Open Access Week at the UOC

The contents of the UOC's micro-MOOC on open knowledge

A free online course on open knowledge taught via the  @moocmicro Twitter account.

• Basic concepts of open science 
• Open-access publications
• Open data
• Participatory research
• Research assessment

What is an institutional repository?

According to the definition given by Crown (2002) for the Scholarly Publishing Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) in The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper, an institutional repository is “a digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution, with few if any barriers to access. In other words, the content of an institutional repository is:

• Institutionally defined;
• Scholarly;
• Cumulative and perpetual; and
• Open and interoperable."

Cooperative repositories in which the Virtual Library takes part

• TDX, doctoral theses on the Web
• RACO, open-access Catalan journals 
• RECERCAT, Catalonia's research depository
• MDX, teaching materials on the Web
• Research data repository by the CSUC (Catalan University Service Consortium)

The Library takes part in Strategic line 3 (enhance the development and use of the digital library 2.0, Internet and the social media) of the Network of University Libraries (REBIUN) and coordinates this network's Repository GT.

Repository directories 

• OpenDOAR - The Directory of Open Access Repositories
• The Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)

International Open Access Week is back – this year from 19 to 25 October – to raise awareness of the benefits of the open access movement. Over seven days, participants will be organizing activities and disseminating information to promote access to academic content for anyone, anywhere in the world, online, free of charge and permanently.

The UOC has prepared a range of contents to mark this annual event as part of our commitment to knowledge and open science and our contribution to solving the global challenges of the 2030 Agenda.

Results of the Open Knowledge Action Plan

This new information graphic looks at the key points of the UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan. The action plan was launched in 2018 with the aim of opening up the knowledge generated at the UOC in order to contribute to its globalization and raise the profile of the excellent research and teaching it carries out.

The UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan is structured into six core areas for the promotion of open publications, open research data, open learning, open innovation, a university open to society and new research assessment models, in addition to a further three universal branches of work focused on training, communication and awareness raising in this area; open infrastructure development; and participation in leading forums with regard to this reality.

Infographics: Taking stock: results of the Open Knowledge Action Plan (2018-2020) link opens in a new window

Defining a new open knowledge policy

There is an open knowledge policy in the works. Want to help design it?

The UOC is planning to launch an internal, transparent and collaborative participatory process to define, implement and disseminate a new open knowledge policy involving the participation of its teaching and research staff. The aim is to adapt the current policy, drawn up in 2010, to the advances made in the fields of open access and open science in recent years.

 

Glossary of open terms

To learn more about the open access movement and open science, we offer a short glossary with the definition of twenty frequent terms.

Infographics: #OpenUOC glossary link opens in a new window

The UOC's institutional repository, O2

The UOC's O2 repository preserves and disseminates nearly 14,000 contents produced as part of the UOC's academic and research activity.Since the Open Knowledge Action Plan was put in place, the number of scientific articles deposited in the O2 has increased significantly, rising from around 300 articles to over 2,000 in the last three years alone.

In the repository, you can also consult teaching and learning materials (final degree projects, continuous assessment activities and open learning resources), other research documents (data, book chapters, doctoral theses, conference papers and reports) and institutional documents.

Explore the UOC's O2 repository

The UOC's O2 repository preserves and disseminates nearly 14,000 contents produced as part of the UOC's academic and research activity.

 

Open books by Editorial UOC

This year, to promote online teaching during the lockdown, Editorial UOC has, for the first time, published in open access a collection of around 80 e-books on social sciences and the book in Spanish Decálogo para la mejora de la docencia online. Propuestas para educar en contextos presenciales discontinuos.

During Open Access Week, Editorial UOC is taking part in the Vives Network campaign with the book La Comunicació no verbal by Teresa Pont i Amenós.

Emergency online teaching

In this guide, you will find a collection of tools and a readings that UOC experts shared during the various sessions as part of the "Emergency online teaching" initiative carried out in the midst of the lockdown. More than 9,000 teachers from 47 countries took advantage of the training sessions to learn about other possibilities for teaching online.

Open education for educational change

Open educational resources (OERs) have been created to help usher in educational change. Unlike other materials, thanks to their licence, they promote use, reuse, redistribution, remix and sharing. We have prepared some materials for you to learn more about them:

Infographics: Open educational resources link opens in a new window

Infographics: Type of open educational resources link opens in a new window

Infographics: Les 5R dels recursos educatius oberts link opens in a new window

Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute.

Infographics: Most common resource licences link opens in a new window

Copyright, Creative Commons and Copyleft.

Infographics: Where to find open educational resources link opens in a new window

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya will be running a free online course on open science from 21 to 25 October, coinciding with International Open Access Week. Its medium is Twitter. Now being run for a third time, this micro-MOOC is a pioneering initiative supported by eighteen universities from around Spain, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and five European partners.

Every day of Open Access Week the @moocmicro account will be tweeting on basic concepts and ideas relating to open science, the benefits of publishing in open access, standards and tools for managing, sharing and safeguarding research data, participative research, social impact, research integrity, citizen science and new ways of evaluating scientific output.

Thanks to collaborative efforts, followers will be able to access this third edition in Catalan, Spanish, Galician, Basque and English. To find the tweets in the language you want, check the publication times (Central European Summer Time) and hashtags listed below:

• 9 am: in English: #OpenScienceMOOC19
• 10 am: in Catalan: #CiènciaObertaMOOC19
• 11 am: in Spanish: #CienciaAbiertaMOOC19
• 12 pm: in Galician: #CienciaAbertaMOOC19
• 1 pm: in Basque: #ZientziaIrekiaMOOC19

Open Access Observatory

The purpose of the Open Access Observatory is to monitor the current status of open access publications in the three participating institutions: the University of Barcelona, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the UOC.

Every year the Observatory updates its information on scientific articles in open and closed access, using Web of Science and Scopus as sources. It is now possible to consult the percentages of articles published in gold, hybrid and green access over the last six years.

Data shows us that the majority of the open access publications from the UOC have been published using the gold route, in other words, articles published in open access journals. The second most popular route is green, whereby publications are self-archived in the UOC's institutional repository, O2.

The Library service for open access publications

This infographic tells you about the services the Library offers to help you publish your work in open access.

• Publish in the UOC's institutional repository, O2
• Data management support
• Open access publishing support
• Open access publication of doctoral theses
• Support service for academic journals

Infographics: Open acces support services link opens in a new window

Course on Open Access

The objective of the course is to know the benefits that open access can provide and to learn how to publish both publications and research data openly. In short, to make understand why open access, public commitment and scientific education are important in strengthening the role of science in society and in culture.

You can download the learning resource available in the O2 UOC Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/10609/101366  

UOC's O2 Repository in figures

Infographics: The UOC's O2 repository link opens in a new window

The UOC will be participating in a number of activities for OAWeek this year, aiming to raise awareness about open access and generate commitments to open publishing.

Micro-MOOC on Open Acces

From 22-10-2018  to 26-10-2018 

• 10:00 catalan version
• 12:00 english version

This free Twitter course, running for a second time, will be given this year in Catalan and English. Simply follow the @moocmicro account and the #OAMOOC hashtag - #OAMOOC18 for English - where content will be published every day.

Infographics: Micromooc 2018 link opens in a new window

UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan

22-10-2018 12:00 UOC's Open Knowledge Action Plan

Sala d'actes, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Avinguda Tibidabo

The UOC is launching its Open Knowledge Action Plan, the general idea of which is to open up the University and to co-create and share knowledge. This drive aims to contribute to the University's globalization and raise the UOC's profile of excellence in research and education.

Pla d'Acció de Coneixement Obert | UOC

One of the Open Knowledge Action Plan's cornerstones is open access to scientific publications. To ensure that the knowledge generated at the UOC is open and to highlight the UOC's commitment to open science, it’s necessary to boost UOC institutional repository, O2, to disseminate it and make it visible.

 

4th Scientific Publishing Seminar

22-10-2018 10:00

Sala d'actes, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Avinguda Tibidabo

Register

A lecture on open science will be held in our 4th Scientific Publishing Seminar, organized by Library and Learning Resources. 
Ernest Abadal, Professor in the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Library and Information Sciences, will talk about the theoretical precedents to Open Science, the values connecting them and the current political programmes to put it into practice. 

Documental Paywall: The Business of Scholarship

24-10-2018 17:00, Cinemes Girona

Register

A free screening of the documentary Paywall will take place at Cinemes Girona. Paywall, produced and directed by Jason Schmitt, is a critique of the current scientific publications system, and offers ideas for future improvements

This is an initiative led by Julio Meneses, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, and David Masip, director of the Doctoral School, and jointly organized with the University of Barcelona. After the screening there will be a debate with Professor Alexandre López from the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences, and Brian Russell, activist and volunteer with Collaction.org, a Dutch NGO devoted to finding solutions to collective action issues, including open science.

Observatory of Open Access

The Observatory of Open Access aims to monitor the state of open access in participating universities. Currently there are data from the University of Barcelona, the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). 

The open scientific production of these institutions is measured and shown, and the costs and habits of the researchers are analyzed when publishing openly.

The observatory shows, for each year since 2011, the scientific articles of each university published in open and closed access. The sources of information used are Web of Science and Scopus. The information is updated annually.

These final projects are self-published in accordance with the Guide to depositing Final Degree Projects, Final Master's Projects and Practicums in O2, the UOC's institutional repository.

The author, that is, the student, is asked to publish the project personally in the repository, as by self-publishing, the student expressly authorizes open-access publication.

The professors and course instructors will ensure that the final degree projects, final master's degree projects or practicums are deposited in the institutional repository and will encourage their students.

Each degree course may ask its students to publish their final projects in open access following different assignment selection criteria. Thus, there may be programmes that require open-access publication of all of their students' final projects and others that only require a selection.

UOC students are asked to publish their final degree projects, final master's degree projects or practicums in the institutional repository, where they are freely available for consultation.

When a student is asked to publish his or her final project, this document must necessarily comply with the following requirements:

• The project must not be affected by any confidentiality agreement with third parties.
• The project does not infringe third parties' industrial and intellectual property rights.

If there are any data that must be protected, such as confidential data, or which infringe industrial and intellectual property rights, this information must be removed before depositing or, alternatively, consultation may be restricted to UOC community users. If the student has any query, he or she should contact his or her teachers.

By publishing their final projects in open access in the repository, UOC's students give visibility to their academic output.

However, publishing in the repository allows retrieval of these projects not only from the repository itself, but also from the Web, as all material included in the repository is indexed. Therefore, a targeted search in Internet will retrieve the project from the information available in the record accompanying it (author(s), title, keywords, abstract, etc.).

Furthermore, with validation of publication of the project in the repository, a handle or permanent URL is assigned that the UOC undertakes to preserve, irrespective of any changes that may be made in the repository's interface. This handle may be shared by the student, with the certainty that the digital record to which it refers will always be retrievable on Internet.

The repository stores published resources in three main sections: Academics, Research and Institutional.

UOC students' final projects are all located in the Academics section. This contains the teaching materials and learning objects generated by the teaching activity and deposited both by the UOC's faculty (teaching modules, educational videos, study guides, continuous assessment tests, examinations, exam decisions, etc.) and by students (final degree projects, final master's degree projects or practicums).

Within Teaching, the main communities basically correspond to the different courses of study given by the UOC. And within the communities, we can find multiple sub-communities, which represent the different branches of knowledge given within the courses. Often, the sub-communities correspond to one or more programmes given by the UOC.

Finally, the last level of the repository's hierarchy consists of the collections. Specifically, the collections where the final projects will be located all share the following designation: “Final degree projects, research projects, etc.”