Join us for a half-day workshop at the prestigious Crick Institute in London, hosted by ChronosHub in collaboration with Accucoms. This event will bring together members of the UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) community for a day of insightful presentations, networking opportunities, and meaningful discussions on the challenges faced in open science and scholarly communication workflows.
On October 1st, ChronosHub, together with its sales partner Accucoms, had invited UK Higher Education Institutions to gather at The Francis Crick Institute in London in order to discuss challenges and solutions to pressing OA management challenges. The half-day event was titled ‘Meeting Evolving Open Access Challenges’.
Summer firmly behind us, and ignoring the evolving deluge outside, delegates from institutions in London and nearby counties, as well as representatives from ChronosHub and Accucoms, spent a productive and lively morning and early afternoon together in an effort to discuss the impact of OA mandates and policies and the complexities around its many business models, in a variety of settings and formats. The aim was that in a short space of time, be able to come together collaboratively in an effort to tackle some of the most pressing questions in the OA ecosystem, or, at least, would walk away with new ideas and approaches.
Beth Montague Hellen, head of the library at the Francis Crick Institute, gave a brief and fascinating intro to the research conducted on site, and to the many cultural challenges encountered in the transition towards open access, including the sector’s sluggish acceptance of the Green OA model.
Martin Jagerhorn, head of business development at ChronosHub, further set the scene by discussing the results of a pre-event survey, which asked participants to paint a picture of their internal OA needs and workflow challenges. The issues addressed in the survey were further discussed in a lively interactive workshop, in which three mind-maps were elaborated on the challenges around green, gold and hybrid/OA agreements respectively.
Strengthened by a hearty lunch, and safe from downpour at the lovely Crick premises, the afternoon was kicked of by Louise Zambianchi, Open Access Manager at Lancaster University. She shared Lancaster’s experiences of working with ChronosHub to automate the workflows along the publishing journey, and what the learnings and benefits have been so far to the library and researchers. This triggered many questions related to UK specific topics, such as how to deal with UKRI block grants, VAT returns, and REF compliance as well as common sector challenges like incorrect data from the publishers on agreements.
The afternoon continued with a second interactive workshop focused on ideating collaborative solutions to the identified key challenges in the first workshop. Still grouped into gold, hybrid/agreements and green teams, many practical solutions were put forward by the participants, some of which we at ChronosHub will think of supporting, including a collaborative solution for publishers to use ChronosHub’s new Journal Manager and enabling the UK institutions to share costs and agreement data for their ChronosHub Journal Guides.
At the end of the event, we all had to brave the rain, but it seemed we were ‘stepping high’ buoyed by new ideas and the conviction that challenges, no matter how fast evolving, can be met collaboratively in the spirit of true library musketeers – All for one and one for all!
Stay tuned for the formal agenda. We’ll also be sharing a survey ahead of the event, and we’re excited to discuss the results with you on the day.
We look forward to hearing about your daily challenges and discussing how ChronosHub can help address them. Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to the conversation and network with peers in the industry.
If you'd like to join, please email Jan at jr@chronoshub.io
Coffee and refreshments
Speakers: Jan Rylewicz, Business Development Consultant, ChronosHub Rob Turner, Regional Sales Manager, Accucoms A brief welcome from ChronosHub and Accucoms, the event’s host and co-host.
Speaker: Beth Montague-Hellen, Head of Library & Information Services, The Francis Crick Institute Opening remarks from The Crick Institute, setting the context for the day's discussions on Open Access.
Speaker: Martin Jagerhorn, Head of Business Development, ChronosHub Introduction to Open Access management, giving an overview of current trends, with an analysis of the reponses from the pre-event survey sent to UK university librarians, highlighting the main challenges and themes emerging from the data.
Facilitators: Jan & Rob Attendees will be invited to reflect on the survey results in small groups, discussing their own experiences and identifying key priorities for their institutions. Each group will share a summary of their discussion with the others.
A catered lunch break, providing an opportunity for networking and informal discussions.
Speaker: Louise Zambianchi, Open Access Manager, Lancaster University Louise will present Lancaster’s journey with ChronosHub, discussing how they have managed Open Access challenges, and their strategies for improving OA workflows.
An open Q&A session where attendees can ask Louise about her experiences with
ChronosHub and Lancaster’s approach to OA management.
Facilitators: Jan & Rob Attendees will be grouped again to brainstorm practical solutions to address key Open Access management challenges through collaboration with other institutions, publishers, funders, service & technology providers and key stakeholders like Jisc. Each group gets to choose a topic (i.e., journal selection, APC management, OA agreement, repository deposits) and share their top collaboration suggestions.
Facilitators: Jan & Rob An open discussion where attendees can raise additional thoughts, share insights gained from the interactive sessions, and reflect on key takeaways from the day.
Speaker: Martin Closing of the event with final thoughts of the day and on the future of Open Access management at UK universities.
Jan is passionate about scholarly publishing’s move towards Open Access and a more equitable, knowledgeable world. He thrives on helping UK-based institutions succeed in their OA journeys.
Rob has previously worked at Future Science Group as their Global Channel Manager, and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry and a wealth of knowledge on STM & academic publishing.
Laura has several years of experience working in Higher Education as both a lecturer and an administrator. There’s not a question she can’t answer about Open Access and our platform. Laura is also a researcher within the field of arts.
Martin leads our collaboration with institutions, publishers, research funders, and technology partners across the ecosystem engaged in scientific and academic publishing.