Making Sense : a researcher centred approach to funder mandates - OAGP Pathfinder Project - JISC final report

Description

Oxford Brookes University has a growing research portfolio and engagement with open access (OA). Whilst good practice in research management is often driven by research-intensive universities, it is clear that the solutions to research problems are often not suitable to those with a different research base. This project will contribute towards taking forward the application of OA in a way that can be applied across the HE sector within similar Universities. Oxford Brookes (OBU) is the lead institution working with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and the University of Portsmouth (UoP). The project will provide the infrastructure and processes to support researchers working within non research-intensive universities to conform to funder mandates. These institutions have a different agenda to the larger research-intensive institutions with a growing and developing, rather than a mature and stable, research base. This project will build on OA experience by considering human behaviours and how engagement with systems and processes can be improved. It will provide the necessary support for researchers working within their specific contexts. This will be informed by a methodology inspired by the book, 'Moment of Clarity' which employs an ethnographic approach to the understanding of the researcher and the research environment. The project outcomes will be integrated within research workflows, as opposed to being an additional burden imposed upon the researcher, and transferable across a range of institutions with a growing research profile. This project will embed compliance with funder OA mandates within workflows of each of the project institutions. By working alongside the individual researcher it is intended that there will be an increased awareness within academic community as a whole through direct communication and engagement within their research context. OA compliance will significantly advance the embedding of OA good practice within each of the institutions both with respect to funding council requirements and to the wider issue of the HEFCE post-2014 REF requirements. Within each of the project sites there will be an increased awareness of compliance requirements and an appropriate increased support from with library and research support offices. The benefit for each institution will be the establishment of co-operative working both within and across institutions, specifically between library, research office and researchers. There will also be benefits delivered beyond the immediate scope of the project. Community-wide benefits will follow in the form of established good practice in scoping issues, creating models, applying a methodology and implementing solutions for HEIs similar in profile to the project participants.