Jenny Evans - Creative thinking building research support services and systems at Middlesex
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Jenny Evans summarizes her experience building research support services from the ground up at Middlesex University over the past few years. When she started, the university had recently invested in academic staff for the REF2014 but lacked resources and infrastructure for research support. Her priorities included developing relationships, knowledge, advocacy, training, and infrastructure to help establish a research culture. Key achievements include embedding the research support team, improving the research repository, and developing research data management and open access policies and training. Continued challenges include further establishing a research culture and balancing compliance with promoting best practices.
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Jenny Evans - Creative thinking building research support services and systems at Middlesex
- 1. Creative thinking: building Research Support Services from the ground up at Middlesex University Jenny Evans Research Information Manager J.M.Evans@mdx.ac.uk @jennye
- 2. © Middlesex University About Middlesex University | 2
- 3. © Middlesex University 3 Faculties made up of 6 Schools | 3 Faculty ofArts School of Art and Design School of Media and Performing Arts Faculty of Science andTechnology School of Science andTechnology Faculty of Professional Studies Business School (and Institute forWork Based Learning) School of Health and Education School of Law 19,000 students in London
- 4. © Middlesex University Research Facts and Figures Annual research grant turnover ~ £5m per annum ~ £21m research projects in progress ~ 850 academic staff ~1300 registered research students REF2014 Best modern university in London for research power REF ranking in total research funding improved 11 places (56th) Top performing modern university in London for research funding in cash terms | 4
- 5. © Middlesex University Library & Student Support | 5
- 6. © Middlesex University State of play when I started in June 2014 University invested heavily in academic staff for REF2014 Change in scholarly communications environment had led to a recognition that investment was needed University publications policy working group established Appointment of consultant (Jenny Delasalle) Research Repository (EPrints) 0.5 FTE Repository Manager 0.2 FTE Repository Assistant Remit to manage and develop repositories and other software systems, drafting strategy and policies for their operation, provide expert advice and training and ensure compliance with access conditions | 6
- 7. © Middlesex University Where to start? | 7
- 9. © Middlesex University Existing challenges Lack of resource within my team EPrints hosting Lack of understanding by some stakeholders about supporting research IT infrastructure set up to support ‘students’ and ‘staff’ - very desktop based Corporate website very ‘student recruitment’ focussed Implementation of Office365 and move to new data centre Very different research disciplines No university-wide Research Committee | 9
- 10. © Middlesex University However…I did have: Jenny Delasalle’s interviews with academics and other key stakeholders – and access to her knowledge and experience ProfessorAnne-Wil Harzing Well connected colleagues within LSS who were able to suggest starting points Copyright Officer Repository Manager Interested senior academics willing to speak to me Draft open access policy document and guidelines Enthusiasm! | 10
- 11. © Middlesex University What to do to get started? By building: Relationships Knowledge Advocacy Training Infrastructure …and contributing to the development of a research culture across the University | 11
- 12. © Middlesex University Building internal relationships and knowledge Engaging with people, talking to them, listening and learning from them Extending my understanding of disciplines after many years working with mathematicians and physicists Taking advantage of existing forums Advocacy and training Drinking lots of coffee! | 12
- 13. © Middlesex University | 13
- 14. © Middlesex University Using my existing external network and extending it and using events to build knowledge Colleagues in related roles Visiting similar institutions Volume of information to take on board, assimilate and then disseminate key points internally Events focussing on topics such as the REF OA policy really helpful Digital Curation Centre Jisc London specific networks – LondonArea Research Data Group, London Open Access Group | 14
- 15. © Middlesex University Open Access publications policy 1. Getting buy in from researchers 2. Once the policy was approved – advocacy and training Research Committees Targeted training – School, Department or Research Area Online guidance Open Access corporate website pages 3. Systems development Changes to Eprints CRIS? 4. More advocacy and training | 15
- 16. © Middlesex University Research data management policy and service What do we mean by research data? How is archival data different to active data? Developing RDM policy alongside Open Access policy – confusion around what research data management means Many stakeholders involved Danger of getting stuck in the detail | 16
- 17. © Middlesex University Building an RDM service | 17
- 18. © Middlesex University Achievements Embedding of Research Support team across the University - Increased staffing and recognition of roles - Research Repository RSS Feed to Staff Profiles - Research Repository improvements to interface, increase in deposits - Discipline specific training - Corporate website web pages for RDM and Open Access - Pilot institution for Jisc Research Data Shared Service project | 18
- 19. © Middlesex University Challenges require some creative thinking • Building research culture • Lack of infrastructure • Misconceptions • Balancing compliance (stick) vs ‘good practice' (carrot) • NewVice-Chancellor - changes to University Executive • Vacant Research Publications Manager post in team • Increased success has meant increased workload • Managing expectations | 19
- 20. © Middlesex University Next steps… Recruiting Research Publications Manager CRIS EPrints development Jisc RDSS project ORCiD DataCite Training - liaison teams and research students Metrics | 20
- 21. © Middlesex University Questions? Jenny Evans Research Information Manager Middlesex University J.M.Evans@mdx.ac.uk @jennye | 21
Editor's Notes
- Started when St Katherine’s College opened in Tottenham in 1878 7 additional colleges and training institutions across north london followed and joined together to form MDX polytechnic in 1973 Granted university status nearly two decades later - 1992 4 campuses – main campus in Hendon, North West London – Dubai, Mauritius and Malta 19,000 students in London 38,000 students across 4 campuses
- Very recent restructuring of Schools into faculties Positive move – Schools now represented at Executive level Senior academic lead for research sits within SAT Work I have done very much School based My role focuses on London – although I do provide some support to Dubai Provide e-resources to overseas campuses
- Submitted to 10 Units of Assessment
- Research Support sits within Library & Learning Enhancement alongside most ‘library’ functions except Library System which sit within Operations and Resources Copyright Officer and Inter Library Loans sit within Collections Liaison Teams
- RCUK Common Principles on Data (April 2011) EPSRC Policy Framework on Research Data (May 2011) Finch Report (June 2012) RCUK Policy on Open Access (April 2013) House of Commons BIS Committee report on OA (Sept 2013) Uni recognised investment needed WG – as an entity fairly temporary JD – developed draft OA policy and associated guidelines – JD continues to do some work for us when we need her Role appealed – university-wide role – opportunity to influence and lead policy development and systems as well as training and advocacy
- No small list This won’t be the first time I mention a CRIS!
- - Research Repository key university system lacking enough staff to properly support it - Had some challenges with our EPrints hosting - CCSS – explain about set up – no one person responsible for research - SAT – research computing set up – provide adhoc advice to other schools - Marketing as a whole a challenge – one area – to begin with didn’t seem to have people who understood the need to have a ‘research support’ presence – repository / staff profile integration problems - Office 365 / move to data centre put pressure on available computing service resource – has impacted on time they have been able to spend supporting elements of RDM - OA – very journal based discussions – but also – due to HEFCE OA Policy – also very journal based – has led to confusion – made it more difficult to get people on board - We have many different outputs – impacted by OA and copyright
- JD – 4 days of interviews – lots of useful info / suggestions OA policy gave me a reason to speak to people
- All about getting buy-in Using mechanisms – research committes, MDX Research Forum, Profs meeting Informal comms
- Demonstrate the breadth of people supporting researchers – do provide quite a co-ordinating role Incremental development Key relationships – mainly teams with a few key posts - Research leads and committees – and ind academics Director of research – OA policy – comms strategy – CRIS bid Grant funding team – Reporting for publications census, RDM – DMP lead - Digital marketing – Repository / Staff profile integration – taken 2 years and about 4 different web managers infrastructure manager – more RDM / also authentication side of Eprints / director of ccss – cris bid records manager and archivist – archivist – RDM – IGG - research support degrees team – phd theses also training for research students - ethics – rdm survey / ethics software has dmp questions
- No institution is the same but crossover in roles DCC online info
- Network building listening Embedding the team Easy enough to get into most research committees – one took a year – luck / serendipity Training already happening – repository focussed – extended this Danger of having all Schools in the room – Research Forum Event Note re policy – green policy – don’t have any Gold OA funds – get approx £12k from RCUK Block grant – managed by RKTO – 1 Sch does pay for Gold OA Focus on journals / conf proceedings does cause huge challenges Disciplinary differences really relevant Funder policies very journal focussed CRIS – researchers having to manually add metadata – very resource intensive checking
- Disciplinary differences Definition – RDM briefing meeting – spent half an hour discussing this Recent focus group RDM vs open data Good thing but challenging If Achievement Committee had had its way there would have been a lot of very fine detail in rdm policy
- DCC – Institutional Engagement programme Jisc – RDSS Project Continued to build on relationships RDM Briefing meetings – Jan and Dec 2015 – well attended – all key stakeholders in the room Requirements gather + Policy dev happened alongside each other – DCC IE programme – lack of understanding around archived data – danger that concerns around active data would overshadow what we were trying to achieve – DAF – didn’t learn huge new things – list of interested people Guidance, training and support – RDM website (based on Bath’s developed as part of a Jisc project) – work in progress – getting approval to put on corporate website really highlighted our changed relationship with marketing Training – area of neglect – Autumn 2016 all going well DMP – DMP Online – lead by RKTO – involved in discussions – link into ethics software Jisc project – huge opportunity for us – not only to get software but to get support to develop the integrations – technical architect – don’t have this expertise in house – relationship building with CCSS – ADFS team – HR system team – ORCiD – Datacite – publications repository development IGG – new COO – used to flag lack of CRIS decision
- Made case – temp change - Review of directorate – opp to make permanent Discipline specific training – A&D example Jisc – access to expertise; knock on effect re R/R