The Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) at Cambridge University aims to enhance the open conduct and dissemination of research through engagement and support for the research community. In 2016, the OSC provided extensive training, policy compliance assistance, and hosted numerous events, while also upgrading their repository systems and increasing thesis digitization efforts. The OSC engages actively in research projects, community outreach, and has a dynamic team involved in various professional activities.

1. Office of Scholarly Communication
The OSC at Cambridge –
a lightning tour
CUP Librarian panel
28 November 2016
Dr Danny Kingsley
Head of Scholarly Communication
University of Cambridge
@dannykay68

2. OSC Initiative of the University Library & the Research Office
http://www.osc.cam.ac.uk/

3. OSC
Strategic goals
Our value statement
The Office of Scholarly Communication works in
a transparent and rigorous manner to provide
recognised leadership and innovation in the
open conduct and dissemination of research at
Cambridge University through collaborative
engagement with the research community and
relevant stakeholders.
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/about-scholarly-communication/strategic-
goals-office-scholarly-communication

4. OSC
Training
Of the library and research community

5. OSC
Two programmes for library staff
Supporting Researchers in the 21st century
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/supporting-
researchers-21st-century-programme
Research Support Ambassador
Programme
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/research-
support-ambassador-programme

6. OSC
Training of the research community
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/phd-
training-sessions
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/training/pas
t-events-researchers
The OSC has held over 80 sessions for researchers in 2016

7. OSC
Policy compliance
HEFCE, RCUK and COAF requirements to
make articles and the underlying data
available

8. OSC
The MEANS and the TIMING all conflict
RCUK – Green & Gold | HEFCE – Green only | COAF – Gold only

9. OSC
What the researcher hears
From Bill Hubbard Getting the rights right: when policies collide
http://www.slideshare.net/UKSG/hubbard-uksg-may2015-public

10. OSC
Compliance levels
Blog: “How open is Cambridge?” 25 October 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1080

11. OSC
Huge workload

12. OSC
Research Data Management
http://www.data.cam.ac.uk/

13. OSC
RDM services
Award size <£100k
£100k -
£500k
£0.5m -
£2m
£2m -
£5m >£5m
Number of awards in this category per year 111 186 95 23 11
Proposed charge (in £) per grant in this category 165 450 450 450 450
Revenue from each grant category (in £) 16,650 74,400 38,000 9,200 4,400
Total revenue from grants per year (in £) 160,065
Total Facility cost per year 159,543

14. OSC
Data deposits
Blog: “Beyond compliance – dialogue on barriers to data sharing” 12 September 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=868

15. OSC
Theses programmes
• Legacy thesis programme in 2015 – doubled
the number of theses in the repository
• Digitising 1,400 theses on microfilm at the
British Library – upload early 2017
• Digital thesis pilot for eight departments
starting late 2016 -
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/theses/digital-thesis-
pilot

16. OSC
Upgrading our systems
Cambridge was a ‘testbed’ institution for
DSpace and has had the repository for
over a decade. But it was in poor shape.

17. OSC
Relaunched & renamed
http://repository.cam.ac.uk
“Mission Open Access: the Apollo repository launches”
28 October 2016 https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1156

18. OSC
Well used
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-access/open-access-policies/oa-cambridge-oct-2016

19. OSC
Request a Copy
Blog about Request a Copy - https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=889

20. OSC
Popular!
We are receiving about 300 requests a month – 45% of the article requests are for papers
not yet published.

21. OSC
Well used
Repository use 26 October 2016 – 25 November 2016

22. OSC
Jisc RDM shared repository pilot
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/research-data-shared-service
Cambridge is one of the pilot organisations for the Jisc RDM shared repository

23. OSC
Automating workflows
We are moving from mediated deposit into DSpace to
Researcher deposit via Symplectic Elements which
generates a DSpace record through Repository Tools

24. OSC
That was then
www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk

25. OSC
Tell us a bit about your work

26. OSC
This is the future

27. OSC
This is the future

28. OSC
This is the future

29. OSC
This is the future

30. OSC
Can you see the problem?

31. OSC
Outreach
The OSC is very loud and proud!

32. OSC
Internal publications

33. OSC
• Websites
– www.data.cam.ac.uk/
– www.osc.cam.ac.uk
– www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk
• Twitter
Online presence
https://twitter.com/CamOpenData
https://twitter.com/CamOpenAccess

34. OSC
In 2016 we published 41 blogs:
– Eight on Scholarly
Communication
– Eight on Open Research
– 14 on Open Access
– Nine on Research Data
Management and
– Two on Library & training
matters
The OA Week blogs were
accessed 1630 times that week
alone
Blog – Unlocking Research
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/

35. OSC
Monthly newsletters
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-access/oa-
newsletters
http://www.data.cam.ac.uk/datanews

36. OSC
Promotional material

37. OSC
Events for researchers
Livestreaming -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG_
4KArVuDA
Organising conferences – eg: OpenCon
Cambridge satellite event
https://storify.com/CamOpenAccess/opencon
cam-2016

38. OSC
• The OSC team attended
over 80 events in 2016
– Keynote speaker x 4
– Speaker x 18
– Session chairs x 2
– Maters class x 1
– Session convenors x 2
Huge conference presence
http://www.slideshare.net/DannyKingsley
• ‘It is all a bit of a mess’ Observations from Researcher to Reader conference – 18
February 2016 https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=539
• Consider yourself disrupted – notes from RLUK2016 – 14 March 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=601
• Watch this space – the first OSI workshop – 24 April 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=614
• Beyond compliance – dialogue on barriers about data sharing – 12 September 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=868
• Taking a Principled stance – the Scholarly Commons – 22 September 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=919
We share our slides and write up events

39. OSC
Community engagement
• Within the University:
– Instigated Joined up Communications group
– Engaging with researchers on policy eg: Is CC-BY really
a problem or are we boxing shadows? – 3 March 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=555
• Externally:
– Political engagement eg: An open letter to Blood – 24
October 2016
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=1018
– Funder engagement eg: RCUK Open Access
Practitioners Group

40. OSC
Research
We practice what we preach

41. OSC
Current research projects
• Analysis of job advertisements in the area of
Scholarly Communication
• Survey of educational background of people
working in Scholarly Communication (over 500
responses worldwide)
• Survey of journal editors about the training
and support they receive

42. OSC
Pilot research project
http://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-research/call-participants-open-research-pilot-
project

43. OSC
Altmetrics research grant
Dr Lauren Cadwallader was the first recipient https://www.digital-
science.com/blog/news/first-annual-altmetric-research-grant-awarded/

44. OSC
Staffing
This is very tenuous.
The whole thing could fall over tomorrow.

45. OSC
Head of Scholarly
Communications
Research
Operations
Office
Research
Strategy
Office
Cambridge
University Press
University
Information
Services
OSC Projects
Coordinator
Research Skills
Coordinator
Digitial Initiatives
admin support
Repository
Integration Manager
OA Research
Assistant –
Finance
Research Repository
Assistants
(x4 part time)
Research Data
Facility Manager
Research Data
Advisor
Repository
Manager
Communications
and Marketing
Coordinator
Legal Office
OA Research
Advisor – OA
Manager
Research Data Facility – paid by Business Case
Paid by RCUK Block grant
Library staff – paid by Library
This is V24 of the staff chart
OA Research
Advisor – OA
Manager

46. OSC
This means a LOT of HR work
• Tenuous finance:
– Ringfenced RCUK funds to an OA Service Operational Fund
– Non-recurrent grant for the Research Data Facility after
considerable preparation and negotiation
– Five staff members are on one year contracts, another is a
temporary staff member
• In 2016 alone:
– 143 job applications assessed
– 42 interviews
– 27 probationary interviews
– 6 PD33 (job descriptions) written, sent to Grading and then
established
• That’s before I start actually managing anyone

47. OSC
Professional activities
• OSC staff are:
– On editorial boards
– Peer reviewers
– Publishing articles & book chapters
– Presenting at conferences (including keynotes)
– Serving on committees
– Obtaining grants
• This is a very engaged, active and dynamic group
of people.
• I am very lucky.

48. OSC
The team

49. OSC
Thanks and questions
• Email:
– info@data.cam.ac.uk
– info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk
– info@osc.cam.ac.uk
• Web:
– www.data.cam.ac.uk
– www.openaccess.cam.ac.uk
– www.osc.cam.ac.uk
• Unlocking Research blog:
– https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/
• Twitter:
– @CamOpenData
– @dannykay68
– @CamOpenAccess