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An open research newsletter is circulated every month, summarising open research news and events at the University of Sheffield and beyond. You can see the latest newsletter below, and an archive of previous newsletters is available at the bottom of this page. You can sign up to receive the newsletter here.
The University of Sheffield Open Research Newsletter February 2025
Created and distributed by the Open Research Working Group with input from members of the community.
News
Love Data Week 2025 - our programme of events
The week beginning 10th February 2025 is Love Data Week, an opportunity to consider the multiple practical, legal, ethical and policy issues that frame the ways we handle and share research data. Find brief details of our programme of events below (full details can be found here):
Tuesday 11th February, 12-1: Research Data Management for Staff (in person) - join this training session for a Library-led overview of research data management for all staff including discussion of data organisation, storage and sharing, and writing a data management plan. Book here.
Tuesday 11th February, 13.30-14.00: How to Share…Code and Models (online) - join this bitesize webinar to hear from Dan Pollard (SCHARR) about best practice when making a methodology resource openly available.
Wednesday 12th February, 12-1: Open Research Conversation: Spotlight on Data Journals (online). Data journals offer researchers an opportunity to increase the impact of their openly available data by further documenting a dataset and highlighting the possibilities for its exploration and reuse. Learn more from authors and editorial board members in this session - book your place here.
Wednesday 12th February, 2.00-3.30: Launch of the TUoS Data Stewards Network (hybrid). This event for members of the Data Stewards Network will provide an opportunity to learn more about the Network, to meet with colleagues engaged in data steward activities and roles across the University, and to hear short talks from a few of these colleagues about their experiences. Book here (please join the network first using the link above if you haven’t already done so).
Open Research Conversations - Spring semester programme published
Our programme of Spring Semester Open Research Conversations is now available - featuring open research across different epistemic cultures, early career researchers and open research, indigenous data sovereignty and more! Take a look at the programme and book your place.
MORPHSS: Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences
A new collaboration, MORPHSS aims to investigate and promote open research practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This is a three-year, £800k collaboration project between the University of Sheffield, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Digital Humanities, Coventry University and the University of Southampton, with the Sheffield part of the project led by Professor Stephen Pinfield of the Information School. Find out more about the project here.
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Training and resources
11 February 2021, 11-12 (online): Staff Copyright Refresher Training
This short training session is suitable for all staff who want a refresher on the copyright basics. We will look at fair dealing for permitted use and when and how this can be relied upon. The session will also look at open licences, and there will be an opportunity to ask any questions around copyright issues you have encountered in your teaching or research activities. Book here.
Tuesday 18th March, 2-3 (online): REF 2029, UKRI and rights retention: making sense of open access requirements
Confused about open access policies? Do they apply to you? Do they apply to your book chapters? What do you do if you can’t publish gold open access? Has this changed now we no longer have a ‘big deal’ with Elsevier? In this webinar, members of the Library’s open access team will explain what TUoS staff and PGRs are required to do with their research outputs in order to be eligible for REF 2029, as well as to comply with UKRI and other funder open access policies. Learn how the University’s Research Publications and Copyright Policy and our repository, White Rose Research Online, support you to retain the rights over your author accepted manuscript and enable you to meet REF and funder requirements.
The webinar will be followed by a Q&A, and is open to all staff and PGRs.
25 February 2025, 10-11 (online): Copyright and open access: Your thesis and beyond
What is copyright and how does it affect you as a researcher? Sign up to this session to find out how you can reuse material fairly and legally in your writing - and how copyright protects works that you produce. Discover the possibilities of open access publishing and what your responsibilities are as a doctoral researcher to make your research available to the widest possible audience. Book here.
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Community activities
Open Research Champions - update
The TUoS Open Research Champions are currently formulating plans and ideas for activities this semester in and across their departments and Faculties to support discussion about aspects of open research. If you have a suggestion for an activity or event you’d like to see happen, contact your local ORC by finding their details on the above webpage.
ReproducibiliTea journal club - next meeting
The next meeting of the Sheffield ReproducibiliTea journal club will be take place on 3rd March 2025. The TUoS Head of Research Software Engineering, Romain Thomas will be presenting the paper The replication crisis has led to positive structural, procedural, and community changes.
Details can be found on the group’s webpage.
UKRN newsletter
The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) is a peer-led consortium aimed at promoting open research and a positive research culture across UK research organisations. Each month it provides a newsletter with useful information related to the world of open research. You can find the latest issue of this newsletter here. Some key highlights mentioned this month include a report on the UKRN reproducibility games, and information about a one-day conference in Amsterdam on open qualitative research on 28th March 2025.
Removing barriers to co-produced research
Co-produced (Co-Pro) and participatory research is a big part of the national and international research agenda and a key method in the toolbox of open research practices. For this reason, it’s firmly embedded within the TUoS Research Culture Action Plan and is an important aspect of excellence in impact. Staff involved in research are invited to contribute to a new inquiry being co-led by Sheffield, exploring the barriers to co-produced and participatory research. You can find out more, including how to contribute to this inquiry, here.
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Upcoming events at the University of Sheffield
Wednesday 12th February, 12-1: Open Research Conversation: Spotlight on Data Journals (online)
Data journals offer researchers an opportunity to increase the impact of their openly available data by further documenting a dataset and highlighting the possibilities for its exploration and reuse.
In this Open Research Conversation, we’ll explore the phenomenon of data journals from a number of different perspectives and disciplinary contexts. Vanessa Higgins (University of Manchester) will explore her role as editorial board member for the Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences, while University of Sheffield researchers Tecla Bonci (Mechanical Engineering) and Jacob MacDonald (Urban Studies and Planning) discuss their own experiences of publishing in data journals.
Key areas of discussion will include the significance of data journals in Humanities and Social Science as well as STEM disciplines, the aspects and use cases of a dataset that publication in a data journal allows academic authors to showcase, and the impacts that can result in terms of visibility, transparency and collaboration.
Book your place here (Eventbrite link)
25 February 2025, 4.15-5.30, Research Seminar: The Future Forms of Public History, School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, in person (Pam Liversidge Building) - details here
19-21 May 2025 (proposals due by 14 February 2025) Pint of Science 2025
Are you interested in the accessible communication of research? Pint of Science is a worldwide science festival which brings researchers to local pubs, bars and cafes to share their research and scientific discoveries with the public. The four themes for this years Sheffield programme are:
Atoms to Galaxies: physics, chemistry, maths, astronomy
Beautiful Mind: neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry
Our Society: law, history, politics, policy, languages
Planet Earth: geosciences, plant sciences, zoology
Talks and demonstrations must be based on recent research, fit within one or more of the above themes, be around 20 mins in length and should be aimed at a non-specialist, general public audience. Pint of Science is run on a purely voluntary basis by all involved and there is no fee for speakers. Submit a proposal here
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Upcoming events elsewhere
4 February 2025, 11.00-12.00 - Town Hall on the REF People, Culture and Environment Pilot (online) https://2029.ref.ac.uk/about/how-to-get-involved/#town-halls
24-27 February 2025 - Open Research Week at Edge Hill University, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, and the University of Essex (online)
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/open-research/open-research-week-2025/
3-13 March 2025 - Oxford Forum of Open Scholarship (OxFOS), (online and in person) https://openaccess.ox.ac.uk/oxfos25
5 and 12 March 2025 - UKRIO Authorship Advisory group stakeholder workshops
The UK Research Integrity Office has convened an advisory group to discuss collaborative thinking in research, and issues around authorship. They are seeking input via stakeholder workshops on 5th and 12th March. If you wish to express an interest in taking part you can submit your EOI by 31st March. Further details are available here.
28 March 2025 - Qualitative Open Science: Challenges, Opportunities, Tensions and Synergies conference
Free 1-day conference being held in Amsterdam. The schedule for the day can be found here, and you can register using this Google Form.
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Suggest an item for the next issue
If you have an item you'd like to suggest for inclusion in the newsletter, please submit it to us using this form:
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Previous issues
Previous issues of the Open Research Newsletter can be found here.
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You can access open research newsletters from previous months here:
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