OSC Podcast

So-called predatory publishers regularly approach researchers via email to solicit manuscripts and conference papers. With the emphasis on publishing as a measure of academic success still strong it can be easy to give in to temptation and flattery but this can do more harm than good to a future career. This podcast looks at whether these publishers are a problem, how to spot a potential problem publisher or conference and the best advice to offer researchers if they are approached

How do you create the perfect copyright recipe? 

Creative Commons licenses sit alongside existing copyright regulations as a way to help researchers use existing creations and share their own work with others. This podcast will explore the history of the Creative Commons movement, explore how the licenses can be put together and how librarians can encourage their researchers to use them to their best advantage. 

Open Access is a fast moving area but it can be hard to find time to keep up with the latest developments. This podcast offers a brief update on the biggest changes both within Cambridge and the wider world in the last year. 

From the fair dealing to sharing your research online, it seems that nothing with copyright is ever simple. There are few black and white rules about copyright but there are consequences for getting something wrong! 

This podcast will cover some of the most common grey areas in copyright such as fair dealing and expiry dates and offer librarians some strategies to make decisions and help advise their research community on copyright issues.

Learn about the layers of copyright in a range of common outputs and why it's important for both researchers and librarians to investigate these. 

Created as part of the Research Support Ambassador Programme from Cambridge University Libraries.

The overreliance on metrics to assess academic outputs has led to the call for a more responsible use of these measures. This mini podcast outlines the key principles of the responsible metrics movement

Created as part of the Research Support Ambassador Programme from Cambridge University Libraries.

Data means different things to different people but however you define it, having a good management strategy in place can help to avoid problems later in a project. Join the OSC to learn about the different reasons why data needs to be managed.

 Created as part of the Research Support Ambassador Programme from Cambridge University Libraries 

Everyone is talking about Open Access but many (researchers) still see it as a pain. How can we convince them otherwise?

This mini-podcast highlights some of the key advantages of making work openly available for both researchers and the general public.

Created as part of the Research Support Ambassador Programme from Cambridge University Libraries.

The academic library is changing but what can librarians do to keep up?

This mini-podcast covers the major changes to the research and publication landscape in the 21st century and how this can impact both librarian roles and services. 

Created as part of the Research Support Ambassador Programme from Cambridge University Libraries.

Do metrics really add up? 

Metrics have long been used as an indicator of academic success and as a way to make key decisions. As the measurement of impact becomes increasingly important within academia there has been something of a backlash against trusting purely quantitative methods of assessment. The Responsible Metrics movement aims to ensure that metrics are used fairly alongside other measures to gather a true assessment of impact.  This podcast will discuss what the Responsible Metrics movement is, why it was developed, its importance and how library staff can best educate their research staff. 

You’ve heard of it but what’s all the fuss about? 

Since it was announced in September 2018 there has been a great deal of coverage around Plan S – the new initiative for Open Access publishing. The plan calls for all scientific publications resulting from grants funded by public research to be made available on compliant journals or platforms. This decision has drawn both praise and alarm from the research community but what does it all mean? This podcast will discuss the history of Plan S, the principles that make up the plan and the arguments both in favour and against. 

Solving the problem of Open Access or causing more trouble? 

Open Access can be hard to understand at the best of times but one term that causes particular confusion is ‘mirror journals’. Promoted as one way of solving the problem of a lack of publisher interest in Open Access, these titles are appearing in every discipline but what are they?  Join the OSC for this podcast to find out all about mirror journals, their history, the problems they can solve and those that they can potentially cause! 

Peer review is a process integral to the scholarly publishing system but concerns have been raised about it by those both within and outside academia. Join the OSC for this short podcast on the problems of peer review and some potential solutions.