News from the world of open science (July 2024)
From the newsletter of the Centre for Open Science UK:
New design of the Research publications repository
The Research publications repository has recently undergone significant changes not just in its visual form. In addition to optimizing the clarity of the design, the navigation has been simplified, so that users can access all sections and functionalities of the repository more easily. The amount of displayed information on the landing page of the publication has also been increased to help users quickly decide whether the publication is relevant to their needs. If you actively use the repository, we would appreciate your feedback!
Signing the Barcelona declaration on open research information
Charles University is among the first signatories of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. Alongside other institutions, the university commits to making information about its research openly available and to supporting services and the sustainability of the infrastructure that works with open research information. Open research information may then be used, for example, to compile transparent university rankings that are not dependent on commercial entities.
Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) on the Centre’s website
The Open Science Support Centre is committed to developing its support services to respond to the needs of the academic community. One of the interesting topics that appear ever more frequently are electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs). An ELN is a software tool which, in its most basic form, replicates an interface similar to a page in a paper lab notebook. In an ELN, you can enter protocols, observations, notes and other data and metadata. Some ELNs can also manage inventories of samples, reagents and other supplies, as well as track equipment and maintenance schedules and a lot more. You can now read more information about ELNs on the Centre’s website. Do you use electronic laboratory notebooks in your work, or do you know someone who does? We’d love to hear from you at researchdata@cuni.cz!
Expanding open access publishing opportunities with ORE
The Open Research Europe (ORE) platform operated by the European Commission announced that it is expanding the list of eligible funding programmes where researchers can use the platform to publish open access without additional charges (APCs). Currently, the platform can be used by authors from more than forty programmes, the full list of which can be found here.
ORE provides authors with pre-publication editorial services, open peer review, immediate DOI assignment, and facilitates indexing in Google Scholar. After the peer review process, the articles will be indexed by services such as PubMed, OpenAlex, or Scopus, and will be deposited in the Zenodo repository. ORE also plans future collaboration with institutional and national repositories to allow the deposition of articles in various repositories.
EU AI Act
During May of this year, the EU Council approved the draft of the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act), which is the very first European regulation of artificial intelligence. The aim of the Act is to create a legal framework for introducing AI systems to the market according to their risk levels. The framework introduces prohibited practices in the field of AI and addresses the regulation of high-risk systems and general AI models. AI models developed solely for research purposes are excluded from the scope of the Act, which also applies to the research and development of systems before they are introduced to the market. The regulation has a phased effectiveness, with the first part concerning prohibitedpractices in the AI field taking effect 6 months after the Act’s entry into force.
In relation to that, the European Commission also developed Guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research, which address issues of responsibility, transparency, and the protection of personal data and copyright while using AI for research activities.
Open Science Support Centre team