Scholarly Communication & Research Infrastructures
Enabling Open Science
The Scholarly Communication & Research Infrastructures Committee was part of LIBER’s 2013-2017 Strategy.
It was in charge of Strategic Priority #1: Enabling Open Science, and encompassed Working Groups on Scientific Information Infrastructures and Metrics.
Why This Priority
Research libraries play a key role in enabling Open Science. They can provide advocacy and metrics for Open Science, and build partnerships. Research libraries provide access to cultural heritage and collections, and offer their collections for (re)use and innovation beyond institutional boundaries (eg. in the digital humanities).
Action such as these lead to better transparency and quality of research, a higher level of citizen engagement and a faster pace of scientific discovery through data-driven innovation. In addition, libraries enable the building of the ‘research commons’ by ensuring accessibility and long-term availability of research results, fostering new forms of publishing and knowledge discovery, and by opening up metadata. Libraries are also key for the development of supporting infrastructure and services.
Achievements
An implementation plan was published, and the following was achieved through the Committee and its Working Groups.
- A successful Webinar Series was launched;
- A survey on Research Data Services in Europe’s Academic Research Libraries was conducted;
- Numerous workshops were held: Skills for Supporting RDM (LIBER 2016), RDM In Libraries (LIBER 2015) and Libraries & RDM: What Works? (LIBER 2014);
- 11 Case Studies on Research Data Management were published;
- An infographic and a Factsheet on Libraries & RDM were published;
- Through the FOSTER project, a course Open Science at the Core of Libraries was developed;
- Work started on a library of Data Management Plans. This has been taken over by the current Research Data Management Working Group;
- Competency profiles were published in collaboration with COAR, ARL and CARL
- We contributed to EDISON events and deliverables;
- We partnered in Open Science Infrastructure Projects, EUDAT, the EOSCpilot, and the OpenAIRE APC pilot.
2013-2017 Steering Committee Members
- Dr Wolfram Horstmann, Göttingen State and University Library, Germany (chair)
- Dr Birgit Schmidt, Göttingen State and University Library, Germany (secretary)
- Mr Lluís Anglada, CSUC, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Ms Diane Geraci, Central European University, Hungary
- Ms Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen, National Library of Finland
- Dr Márta Virágos, Debrecen National and University Library, Hungary
- Ms Wilma van Wezenbeek, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands