Dear All,
This may be of interest to you and your users. Please refer to the
trailing email.
https://octopuspublishing.org
Regards,
S M Pujar
Chief Librarian
IGIDR, Mumbai
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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: LIBLICENSE
Date: Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 7:23 AM
Subject: Octopus: New research platform 'will disrupt research culture
for the better'.
To:
From: Bev Acreman
Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2021 at 4:11 AM
06 August 2021
Funding agreed to develop platform that will change research culture
Research England grants £650,000 to help build Octopus into a new
global service for scholarly communication
Funding has been agreed to help develop a ground-breaking global
service which could positively disrupt research culture for the
better.
Announced today by the science minister, Amanda Solloway, Octopus
Publishing Community Interest Company (CIC), in collaboration with
Jisc, will receive £650,000 over three years from Research England’s
emerging priorities fund.
The money will support development of a new platform for the
scientific community. Called Octopus, it will provide a new ‘primary
research record’ for recording and appraising research ‘as it
happens’.
Developed by Dr Alexandra Freeman, Octopus breaks down the publication
of scientific research into eight elements, unlike a traditional
journal article.
The eight elements are:
· Problem
· Hypothesis/rationale
· Methods/protocol
· Data/results
· Analysis
· Interpretation
· Real-world implementation
· Peer review
Elements are linked together on Octopus, to form chains of
collaborative work. These smaller units of publication encourage
faster sharing, and credit can be given to individual work at all
stages of the research process, including peer review.
The platform is free for researchers to publish their work, free for
anyone to read and embeds the principles of openness and transparency
throughout. Its aim is to reset the incentive structure in research to
reward best practice in every aspect of the scientific process.
Research England’s director of research, Steven Hill, said:
“The funding to support Octopus aligns with Research England’s strong
commitment to open research and the government’s People and Culture
Strategy.
“There is real potential for this service to positively disrupt the
publication landscape and provide a tool for the research community,
which is owned by the community.”
Director of open research services, at Jisc, Liz Bal, said:
“The vision for Octopus is strongly aligned with Jisc’s overall
mission in leveraging technology to improve research. Open by design,
Octopus represents an entirely new publishing model, with the
potential to transform research communication and research culture.
“Our goal for Octopus is that it is driven by the needs of the global
research community and that the underlying technology and processes
are open, robust and scalable.”
Director of Octopus, Dr Alexandra Freeman, said:
“My hope for Octopus is that it breaks down barriers to access to
scientific research, helps remove hierarchies and the culture problems
that those cause, and encourages a new culture of collaboration,
constructive critique and fast sharing of work.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown not only how important fast and open
publication of research is, but also what can be achieved when the
scientific community work together towards a common goal.
“Covid research shouldn’t be the exception - all research should be
this transparent, and freely available to all.”
The design emphasis will be on speed and ease of use - both for
authors to share their own work and to search for relevant work of
others.
Research England’s funding will support the technical development
required to move the experimental Octopus tool from a prototype to an
active service that’s available world-wide. It will also support
marketing and outreach, a programme of evaluation and user research,
and work to develop a sustainable model for Octopus in the long-term.
ENDS
About Jisc
Jisc’s vision is for the UK to be a world leader in technology for
education and research. It owns and operates the super-fast national
research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security
protection. Jisc also provides technology solutions for members
(colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public
sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating
sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on
digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further
education and research funding bodies and member institutions.
About Research England
Research England shapes healthy, dynamic research and knowledge
exchange in English universities. It distributes over £2bn to
universities in England every year; works to understand their
strategies, capabilities and capacity; and supports and challenges
universities to create new knowledge, strengthen the economy, and
enrich society. Research England is part of UK Research and Innovation
alongside the seven Research Councils and Innovate UK.
For more information, contact:
· Octopus –alex.freeman@maths.cam.ac.uk / 07984 900487 /
@alex_freeman; @science_octopus
· Jisc – kate.edser@jisc.ac.uk / 07918 562869
