From autumn to Christmas, and beyond the turn of the year – the summary of blog articles

Have you already lost track of what has been written in the University of Helsinki’s Think Open blog in recent months? Don’t worry, the concise summary below will guide you to the topics of open science from October 2022 to January 2023.

(Tämä artikkeli on saatavissa myös suomeksi.)

The annual overview of open science 2022

• The opening part of the annual overview of open science (in Finnish) goes through the results of the work of the national Open science and research (OScAR) network: the latest national policies, guidances and recommendations. In addition, this blog post presents the funding models for Finnish scholarly journals and a brief overview of the results of the national monitoring of open science.
• The second part (in Finnish) presents three key themes – all of which include new initiatives – that were discussed last year: (1) promoting responsible research evaluation in Europe, (2) supporting free of charge open access publishing (diamond OA) and (3) updated U.S. policy guidance that makes research publications openly available by 2025.
• The third part (in Finnish) offers the most interesting news and reading recommendations. The news highlights, among other things, the total costs of open access publishing in Finland, new initiatives of open science at the University of Helsinki and the opening of citation data.

Researcher perspectives on the publishing culture

• Thinking about the principles and practices of scientific publishing is already a daily routine for researchers – or is it? In his blog article (in Finnish), Olli Silvennoinen, postdoctoral researcher in general linguistics at the University of Helsinki, ponders how well the culture of scientific publishing is known among researchers and how research training increases this understanding.
• Heidi Partti, professor of music education at the University of the Arts Helsinki, critically examines the practices of scientific publishing in her blog article (in Finnish), both through her own experience and more broadly.

EOSC – European infrastructure for data services

• At what stage is the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), an ambitious attempt to build a European research infrastructure? The answer to this is sought in the dialogue interview, EOSC aims to be the internet of research within ten years, where Sara Garavelli, who is responsible for CSC’s EOSC program, and researcher Anca Hienola discuss EOSC.

University of Helsinki’s open science coordination group

• In autumn 2022, the University of Helsinki set up an open science coordination group, with representatives from every campus as well as research management and services. The group is tasked with coordinating the development of open science and teaching at the University. In this blog post, the group’s members discuss the work ahead and the related challenges.

Open access books

• Last year, 44 books were published in the Helda Open Books collection. There are books used in teaching, older classics and also new books that are published for the first time through HOB. A blog article (in Finnish) introduces each book.
• In the interview (in Finnish), Helsinki University Press (HUP) publishing director Leena Kaakinen and managing editor and communications manager Anna-Mari Vesterinen discuss the issues of open access monograph publishing from the perspectives of both the costs and funding of open publishing.

Research data management (RDM)

• The undertaking on transfer of rights has been attached to employment contracts since the beginning of 2022 at the University of Helsinki. What does it actually aim for? The blog article (in Finnish) examines the the transfer of rights from the perspective of research data management.
• What will be left of the digital age for future generations? In the sixth part of his blog series (in Finnish), information specialist Aleksi Peura raises tricky questions about long-term preservation.
• How to get even more out of data management plans (DMP)? DMP is a tool for research quality and risk management, but it also offers new opportunities for organisations, for example, the development of data services and data reserves. These opportunities are explored in the national DMP consortium (the blog article in Finnish).

A perspective on measuring research data

• Should the value of producing research data be supported by measuring them in the same way as research publications? In her blog article (in Finnish), information specialist Mari Elisa Kuusniemi provides on view what research data are and why they are so difficult to measure. At the same time, she presents alternative ways to promote the production of research data.

Citizen science

• In her article (in Finnish), researcher Minna Santaoja examines the role of citizens in scientific research. Santaoja has conducted research related to citizen science, and her article offers a concise and up-to-date overview of the core themes of the subject.

Information security

• The war in Ukraine has changed the security situation, and the threat of increasing information security threats has also been taken into account in Finnish higher education institutions. The current overview of security (in Finnish) examines the change in the security environment and gives advice on promoting information security.