Department of CS newsletter

This is the last Newsletter until we all officially start again in September. I realise any implication of stopping will not be widely applicable, but do try your best.

It's been a very hard year and next year is going to be hard too. As a Department we performed very well this last year under the peculiar circumstances - everything has kept going. As you will have heard, we again have massively over-recruited UG students and, yet again, this means even higher workloads. this will force changes to how we teach and some of the changes will be uncomfortable. It's difficult to be upbeat and I don't want to strike any false notes. On the bright side, however, the department has done very well not only its teaching performance, doing a REF submission, but also in terms of its research, including the submission and acquisition of research funding, with more than half of research active staff being awarded a grant this year - this is cool.

Collectively we've done marvellous things this year, both in teaching, research and keeping the show on the road. Long live the Department of Computer Science. Robert.

From Wednesday, 11 August the University will no longer support Gold Open Access (OA) payments for articles in subscription journals (known as ‘hybrid OA’) that do not have a plan for moving to a fully OA model.

The change applies to ‘hybrid’ journals only. It will not affect researchers' ability to submit to their chosen journal because:

Currently, almost all subscription-based publishers allow compliance with funder policies through deposit of the peer-reviewed article to Pure following an embargo period of between 6-24 months (known as Green OA). The Library's Open Access Gateway service makes this process simple for authors.*
The Library’s Open Access Gateway processes involve checking journal embargoes. If an unacceptably long embargo period is identified during the current UKRI block grant year, the team will liaise with the author to arrange Gold (immediate) OA as an exception, ensuring compliance with the funder’s OA policy.
Payments related to publication in fully OA (Pure Gold) journals are unaffected and will continue to be paid from the UKRI block grant.

This change is needed to ease demand on this year's UKRI OA block grant, ensuring funds are available to pay for publications in fully OA journals. It will also enable the University to continue to support more innovative OA business models.

This change is consistent with a sector-wide shift away from the subscription journal business model as funders and universities put pressure on publishers to stop restricting access to articles by placing them behind expensive paywalls. It is also consistent with Plan S, a coalition of funders launched in 2018 with the aim of accelerating the transition to OA. As a Plan S signatory, UKRI has confirmed that from April 2022 they will no longer fund publication charges in hybrid journals unless covered by a transitional agreement agreed with Jisc. The Library will provide more information on changes to UKRI’s OA policy over the coming months.

In response the Library is signing transitional deals with publishers that are designed to shift spending from subscriptions to OA. These deals allow full read access whilst allowing Manchester authors to publish OA at no extra cost. More information on the current deals is available on the Library website.

There is also a need to drive down costs to sustainable levels. The costs associated with enabling University staff and students to read subscription journals remain fixed. At the same time our OA publishing costs are increasing as Plan S continues to rapidly expand the University's OA publishing output. All large research-intensive universities are seeing increasing OA publishing costs and many, including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and UCL, have already taken the step to end support for hybrid OA costs from their UKRI block grant where a compliant Green OA option is available.

Therefore the University's Research Strategy Group, on the recommendation of the Open Research Strategy Group, decided to stop financially supporting OA in subscription journals that are not moving to a fully OA model. Further information, including FAQs is available here.

For the latest Open Access news visit the Library’s Open Access website, or if you have questions or comments email uml.openaccess@manchester.ac.uk.

*This is compliant with the current UKRI and REF2021 OA policies. UKRI will introduce new OA requirements in April 2022. Any new open access policy for a future REF will not be applied retrospectively and will not require UKRI funded outputs to meet different open access requirements than those contained in the new UKRI Open Access Policy.

You may also have noticed that UKRI has last week announced changes to its OA policy which will come into effect from April 2022. We will provide more information on these changes over the coming months.

Regularly updated

https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/staff/index.php/Wellbeing

And remember to get in touch with any suggestions or ideas. Contact Karon Mee:  Karon.mee@manchester.ac.uk

In-person activity will be 10 am-4 pm on Saturday, October 23rd and Monday, October 25th in the Performance Space at Central Library. Digital activity can be live or pre-recorded. This year's theme is to help inform our local population about climate change, the environment, and how they can make a difference. With this in mind, ScienceX looks to host activities that fit within this theme only.

We are looking for activities for both the online platform and face-to-face events from individuals and teams.

If you want to participate or obtain further information about ScienceX 2021, please contact Lucas Cordeiro (lucas.cordeiro@manchester.ac.uk).

Discussions with various research groups and divisions has highlighted that there is growing demand for access to a social media data archive/repository and data collection and analysis tools at the University. A social media archive is typically used to store social media data and metadata (eg tweets, Facebook posts etc.)

As a result of this, the Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP) are undertaking an exploratory review to build a better picture of the use of social media across the University’s research community.

The RLP team have put together a short survey to understand how social media data is collected, curated, stored and analysed at the University, and to better understand the high level needs and requirements of those working directly or indirectly with social media data.

The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete and will close on Thursday, 30 September.

• Take the survey

Your views on changes to REDCap

The Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP) would like your views on something which is changing in REDCap. Currently REDCap is used by a small number of researchers across the University. It is anticipated that once the new service is rolled out and publicised to the wider University, there will be an increase in users. The RLP are exploring a cost model in order for us to sustain the effort to provide the requisite support.

The majority of UK Higher Education institutions already charge a fee for the use of REDCap (or in the process of doing so). If this is something that you have views on, the RLP welcomes them. Please get in touch with Carly Moseley to discuss further:

• Carly Moseley, Business Change Manager - carly.moseley@manchester.ac.uk

The project's recent update can be found below, including information on the launch date moving to early October.

• Project update: REDCap survey tool

P&DR’s

As you are aware it is currently P&DR season. Please upload your 20/21 P&DR form to the system if you haven’t already done so and let the CSops team CSOps@manchester.ac.uk or Hodpa HoDPA.cs@manchester.ac.uk know if you have had your P&DR, as we need to log it on the system. Further details are here: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/human-resources/current-staff/career-development/p&drs/

Deadline: 06 Oct 2021

* Please note projects awarded under this ICF Call deadline must aim to start by 1st November as the ICF funding needs to be spent by 31st March 2022. Any costs after March’22 must be covered by the external collaborator.

* As there is a tight timescale for the ICF funding, we can only accept projects with named staff, including all DI Staff (e.g. PDRAs).

The Industry Collaboration Fund (ICF) is a combination of grants awarded to The University of Manchester through the EPSRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA), BBSRC IAA, and STCF IAA.

Academics are encouraged to apply for a joint Research Council award, with funding from at least two of the research council IAAs, to support multidisciplinary projects (subject to the individual Research Council eligibility requirements, set out in the scheme guidance documents).

The aim of the ICF is to increase and accelerate the impact of EPSRC, BBSRC and STFC research outputs from the university through a range of knowledge exchange activities. Running until March 2022, the ICF will aim to ensure the university fulfills its strategic knowledge exchange objectives in the domains covered by EPSRC, BBSRC and STFC research. The Knowledge Exchange Team is pleased to announce the ICF Call 4 for Proposals under the following mechanisms:

Proof of Concept Scheme providing support for the very early stage of transforming research outputs into commercial opportunities

o   Application Form
o   Guidance Notes
 

Eligibility

Applications for the EPSRC and/or BBSRC IAA funding are only permitted for projects focused on the exploitation/application of knowledge or technology generated through EPSRC or BBSRC funded research. EPSRC and BBSRC IAA projects must also link to one or more of the EPSRC Themes or BBSRC Responsive Mode Priorities, respectively. For STFC IAA funding, projects do not have to link back to previous STFC research, but they must meet and address at least one of the STFC Strategic Themes.

Eligible collaborators are UK-based businesses (including UK sites of international businesses), UK charities, and UK public sector organisations such as the NHS. Non-UK based businesses may be eligible where there is demonstrable evidence of the intention for inward investment during or beyond the lifetime of the project (e.g. establishing a UK site, job creation). If you have any queries regarding user organisation eligibility, please contact the Knowledge Exchange Team.

Do you have a potential project?

The Knowledge Exchange Team provide active support for the development of ICF submissions. Prior to applying, academics are strongly advised to contact a member of the KE Team for support, and ideally at least 1 month before the call closing date of 6th October 2021. Initial contact should be made via ke@manchester.ac.uk.

Additional information on knowledge exchange opportunities are available here.