Septentrio Conference Series

Painting the Mona Lisa?

Agata Morka, Emma Ganley, Leo Lahti, Rebecca Kirk — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Would Leonardo da Vinci have shared the precise methods behind his masterpieces? Would he guide us step by step through his process to recreate the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa? While art often celebrates the elusive and irreplicable touch of genius, contemporary science expects and relies on reproducibility to maintain trust and rigor. More than a decade has passed since the reproducibility crisis was first diagnosed, yet progress in addressing this issue has been gradual and unevenly distributed (Korbmacher, M. et al, 2023). Researchers are increasingly required to produce detailed data management plans and to ensure that their data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). However, questions often overlooked in the quest for FAIR data include: Where do the data come from, and how were they generated (Weissgerber, T. et al, 2024)? Detailed methods reporting enhances the value of shared data and makes replication of results more efficient, reducing research waste while also fostering a more equitable research culture, ensuring that up-to-date methods are available to all (LaFlamme, M, 2024).

Workshop objectives

This workshop will explore how stakeholders within the research science ecosystem can advance reproducibility by encouraging the uptake of methods and protocols sharing. Drawing on a recent set of recommendations from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, we will spark a meaningful dialogue around translating these recommendations into practice across the scientific community (European Commission et al, 2024). By engaging participants in problem-solving and role-playing exercises, we will consider dilemmas and tradeoffs that may stand in the way of a more responsible, reproducible research culture.

Workshop Structure

Role-Playing Group Activities: Participants will be divided into groups, each presented with a real-life scenario related to methods and protocols sharing. Participants will assume different roles, such as a researcher, a department head, a librarian, or a funder. Within their respective groups, participants will:

Discuss potential strategies to advance reproducibility within their assigned roles.
Identify challenges (e.g., incentives and/or disincentives) and propose practical action plans to address them.
Develop tools and communication strategies tailored to their stakeholder group.

Group Presentations: Each group will present their scenario and proposed actions, explaining how they developed their approach.
Synthesis: The workshop will conclude with a collaborative session where participants will discuss common challenges surfaced by the scenarios and collectively identify the most effective approaches to overcome them. Participants will be encouraged to state practical, tangible steps they will take after the workshop to promote methods and protocols sharing in their organizations.

Target Audience: This workshop is designed for anyone who is committed to advancing reproducibility in scientific research. We hope that attendees from the stakeholder groups mentioned above will participate.

Enhancing Diamond Open Access

Yannik Hampf, João Martins, Dr. Carsten Borchert , Sarah Bösendörfer — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) presented an action plan in 2022 to establish an "equitable, community-driven, academic-led and -owned" publication infrastructure, marking a significant step in developing the Open Diamond publication model. Despite over 30,000 Diamond OA journals worldwide, challenges persist, including funding, long-term quality assurance, sustainable publication workflows, and scalability options (Action Plan for Diamond Open Access).

The Open Source Academic Publishing Suite (OS-APS) addresses these challenges, promoting sustainable Diamond OA publications. This open-source application supports a single-source workflow for media-neutral publishing, accommodating formats like PDF, HTML and JATS-XML, and integrates with platforms such as OJS, OMP and DSpace. OS-APS includes Pandoc for DOCX import and uses community-shared open source templates, requiring minimal technical expertise. This enables small and medium-sized publishers to produce scholarly articles and journals efficiently, enhancing the OA Diamond model‘s viability.

OS-APS‘s open-source nature and user-driven development culture allow extensive customization through open source code development. The Specialized Information Service for Philosophy, the official test user, has utilized OS-APS for media-neutral publication of various OA journals, including the "2nd Philosophical Symposia of the DFG." A comparison between the media-neutral 2nd Symposia and the traditionally published 1st Symposia shows a significant increase in article visibility due to more flexible usage options. The access rates of the 2nd Symposia articles more than doubled in a short time compared to the 1st Symposia and additionally, a shift in users reading habits can be noted.

OS-APS can be pivotal in establishing Diamond OA as a sustainable publication model, promoting FAIR principles, democratizing knowledge and strengthening an independent scientific sector.

In our workshop, we will provide a comprehensive insight into the practical use of OS-APS, offering an overview of the project and its goals, ensuring participants understand the necessary details and context. The second part will be a practical session, covering the entire application process from Docker installation to article publication in Open Journal Systems (OJS), designed for both experienced software developers and people with little technical know how. In this way, participants should be able to set up their own OS-APS instance in order to be able to use the advantages of the software independently.

The Open Science Wheel of Prosperity

Aisling Coyne, Sarah Coombs, Katrine Sundsbø — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This is a 90-minute interactive workshop session presenting the game we have been developing with our UKSG Innovation Award – "Open Science Wheel of Prosperity". This is a competitive Open Educational Resource ‘game’ designed to create discussion around common open science concepts and ideas that everyone should understand but do not always fully grasp. This workshop is suitable for all audiences with, or without previous understanding of open science. Through this game participants will be introduced to the key concepts for discussion of open science, what that means for them and their institution, and what concrete steps they can take to make a difference going forward as part of the open science movement. The aim of our workshop is not only to play the game to enhance knowledge but to facilitate playing it in institutions everywhere with implicit advocacy for Open Science built in. Participants do not need to prepare for this workshop in advance.

Unlocking the power of Open Education

Paola Corti — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The workshop will be based on the ENOEL Toolkit, a resource developed by the network librarians and supported by SPARC Europe. The ENOEL Toolkit aims to help raise awareness of the importance of Open Education by pointing out the benefits of its adoption for students, teachers, institutions, librarians and society at large. One way to discover and interact with the ENOEL Toolkit is by playing with one of its tools, which will be available before the MUNIN Conference. In this workshop, the facilitator will launch a conversation and community-focused problem-solving session to address the challenges that we face in Open Education. Participants in the workshop will enact a way to find and finesse solutions that players can work towards implementing in real life. The activity participants will experience is designed to be adaptable to local needs. During the workshop, the facilitator will suggest one of the possible ways to use it and share the rules to shape this experience.

Hidden in plain sight

Paola Corti — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This keynote speech delves into the transformative power of open education, spotlighting the often overlooked contributions of practitioners who make open education a tangible reality. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources such as poetry, nature, and innovative educational practices, the speech emphasises the importance of community, collaboration, and adaptability in fostering a more equitable educational future. It explores the interconnectedness of all beings and the lessons we can learn from non-human entities, such as ants and fungi, to create resilient and sustainable educational practices. The speech also invites the audience to adopt a mindset of curiosity and openness, challenging traditional educational models and embracing the complexities of open education. Through reflective questioning, the keynote aims to inspire participants to consider how they can contribute to a global movement toward open, inclusive, and adaptable education.