The library answers your questions on Open Science

We find that authorities, research funders and the public express a desire (and often a demand) for a more open research practice. The expected effects of this implementation point to increased verifiability, higher value creation and facilitation of innovation, in addition to a general democratization of research and knowledge. 

The term "open science" has many aspects, and as a researcher, there is a lot you can do to open your research. The university library offers several services: 

Open Access publishing 

Open Access Publishing is a well know term within the field of science and research. In short, it means that scientific articles and other publications are made openly available to everyone and can be read and downloaded at no cost. The rules for what you are allowed to do with the open publications is determined by the Creative Commons license under which it is published. 

There are different models for open publications. The University of Stavanger is engaged in several publishing agreements that make it easier to publish openly (See "Publisher agreements"). The library offers advice and guidance, and we are happy to assist if you need help choosing a good open journal, or if you are wondering whether a journal you are considering is suitable. There are a number of journals you may want to avoid, so it is important to be aware of possible predatory journals (See under "Avoid predatory journals"). 

If you already have published in a subscription-based journal and the article is not openly available, it is possible to upload an accepted peer-reviewed version (postprint) of your article in Cristin. It will then be made openly available in the science archive UiS Brage (or new national science archive). 

It should be mentioned that studies show that openly published articles are more cited than those that are not. 

UiS Publishing Platforms

Do you have a publication you want to make available, or are you thinking of starting a new journal? The university library manages the platforms University of Stavanger: Open Journals for publishing journals, and UiS Scholarly Publishing Services for publishing books and series. The platforms make it easy to establish and publish open journals and other publications, as well as converting existing journals and writing series to become openly accessible. 

Everything posted on the platforms gets its own DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and becomes searchable in Oria and other databases. Staff at the university library can help you through the process of publishing in UiS Scholarly Publishing Services, from manuscript submission to final publication. We also aid editors who have journals on the UiS Open Journals platform. 

You can read more about UiS publishing platforms here. 

Managing research data 

Research data is information in form of numbers, text, images, sound, or video that is generated in research projects, in other words all data that is collected or used during a research project. It is desirable that research data be made available to increase research visibility and verifiability, as well as facilitating sharing and reuse of data. 

The university library offers support for research data management. We offer advice and guidance on how to make your data as FAIR as possible, and researchers at UiS have the opportunity to share their data in the Dataverse archive. All types of research data can be made available in Dataverse, given that there is no subject-specific archive that may be more appropriate to use. 

Furthermore, it is expected that all research projects that receive public support must have a data management plan. The data management plan is used to get an overview of what data you will collect and how you will handle it. The plan also describes how research data must be handled throughout the research project.  

The library can provide advice and guidance when completing your data management plan. We can give tips on good templates that can be used, and review what you have filled in and give feedback if you have external funding and are going to submit the plan to a financier. 

You can read more about data management plans and research data here. 

Contact us! 

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about open publishing. We are also open to come visit faculties, institutes or research groups that need help or information. 

Contact publisering@uis.no with questions on open publishing or the UiS publishing platforms. You can also contact us here if you have questions about any of the publishing agreements UiS is part of. 

Contact datahandtering@uis.no if you have questions about research data or data management plans.  

Contact ub-brage@uis.no if you have questions about uploading or publishing to UiS Brage.