News

The UOC at International Open Access Week

16/10/2018
The university aims to become an open knowledge hub

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.

Knowledge is everywhere, both in individuals and in non-academic groups and institutions, but the mechanisms to gather and connect this knowledge are scarce. Marta Aymerich, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, said “This is a commitment by the University to open up our knowledge, thus speeding up the impact of research and collaboration among scientists”.

In light of the need to renew the knowledge generation and distribution system to give it greater legitimacy, the Vice President for Globalization and Cooperation, Pastora Martínez Samper, underlined that, “as our president likes to say, at the UOC we want make ourselves hubs for knowledge; a global, open knowledge hub projecting the knowledge we generate, knowledge that is enriched by external contributions. In short, we want to become a more accessible and participative university, one that contributes to overcoming global challenges, many of which are identified in the 2030 Agenda. A truly global and social institution”.

The UOC’s Open Knowledge Action Plan

As part of International Open Access Week (OAW), to be held this year between 22 and 28 October, Martínez Samper will be presenting the Open Knowledge Action Plan at the Fourth Scientific Publishing Seminar, organized by Library and Learning Resources.

Nadja Gmelch, the Plan's coordinator, said “This Action Plan has been a collaborative task involving figures from multiple areas of the UOC, as it directly affects many departments, faculties and research centres”.

One of the Open Knowledge Action Plan's cornerstones is open access to scientific publications, with Clara Riera, director of the UOC’s Library Services for Research, at the helm. As she put it, “The aim is to raise awareness among the scientific community of the benefits of open access publishing and highlighting the UOC’s commitment to open science. In this vein, we must ensure that the knowledge generated at the UOC is open and that our UOC institutional repository, O2, serves to disseminate it and make it visible”.

The UOC at International Open Access Week (OAW)

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

From Open Science to Open Knowledge: Presentation of the UOC’s Action Plan

At 12 pm on Monday 22 October there will be a lecture on open science. It will be held at the UOC’s Tibidabo centre and is open to the public. This is part of 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.

You can register here.

Micro-MOOC on Twitter

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 in English ‒ where content will be published every day ‒ between Monday 22 and Friday 26 October ‒ at 10 am for the Catalan version and 12 noon for the English version. You can post your comments, mentioning this account and including the hashtag, to interact with the organizers. Although aimed primarily at researchers and university students, the initiative is open to anyone who is interested.

More information in this link.

Documentary – Paywall: The Business of Scholarship

A free screening of the documentary Paywall will take place at Cinemes Girona at 5 pm on Wednesday 24 October. 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.

You can register here.