The response of open access science to the coronavirus

Two open science platforms: Frontiers and Figshare are doing their part in the fight against the virus.

“The Frontiers community is mobilizing to help mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, Frontiers have launched our Coronavirus Knowledge Hub – here you will find the outputs of several new initiatives intended to coordinate and support the efforts of our community, as we confront the public-health, economic and societal effects of the rapidly spreading disease.

As part of this initiative, Frontiers is assembling many of the world’s leading coronavirus scientists and epidemiologists to participate in the Research Topic: ‘Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Management and Public Health Response’. This article collection will highlight how interdisciplinary research can provide insights into the COVID-19 epidemic, addressing knowledge gaps and generating evidence for its improved management and control.

Coronavirus Knowledge Hub
A trusted source for the latest science on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

Frontiers has also waived Article Processing Charges (APCs) and established a priority peer-review process for manuscripts submitted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will further help ensure robust scientific research becomes openly available as soon as possible, for other researchers to build on and to enable evidence-based decision-making for public authorities worldwide.

As we pull together as a community – calmly, responsibly, and resolutely – during this COVID-19 outbreak, Frontiers is keen to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to send your ideas for new research directions, stakeholder engagement and initiatives around coronavirus and the current global health crisis. Making science open has never been more essential to global well-being and Frontiers thank you for your contribution and dedication”

Figshare is also committed to continuing to provide a platform to share the latest research on an international scale. As such, Figshare will continue to supply and maintain our normal service during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are also in a unique position to help the research community during this time so the team has been working on some new initiatives to aid the rapid dissemination of research in any form, be it preprints, datasets, presentations, or software.
The significance of sharing research is vitally important, now more than ever, which is why we want to help in any way we can. To allow researchers to publish any COVID-19 related research, we’re launching a free portal at https://COVID19.figshare.com/.

All researchers will need to do is create an account on Figshare and upload content with COVID-19 as one of the keywords on their metadata form and we’ll pull it into the COVID-19 Open Research Portal.

Please note, if your institution uses Figshare as a data or institutional repository, please continue to use that platform to store and share your COVID-19 research. COVID-19 research stored in institutional Figshare platforms will also be aggregated into https://COVID19.figshare.com.

If you’d like to learn more about the https://COVID19.figshare.com portal or have any questions, please visit the Figshare blog, here or reach out at support@figshare.com.

Research Workshop: Understanding the ethics of interdisciplinary research with refugee communities

Friday June 15th. Arts Tower, Room 13.17, Sheffield, UK | Time: 9:30 – 14:15
This workshop is free to attend. Please register here

Speakers
Dr Jason Hart (University of Bath) and Dr Lucy Mayblin (University of Warwick)
Also featuring PhD researchers Aya Musmar (Architecture) and Sarah Linn (Urban Studies and Planning), and Mrs Lindsay Unwin, Ethics & Integrity Officer, University of Sheffield.

jason-hart-27921-0002 Lucy Mayblin
Dr Jason Hart, Senior Lecture University of Bath. Co-Investigator EPSRC/GCRF funded project ‘Healthy Housing for the Displaced’ Dr Lucy Mayblin, Assistant Professor in Sociology, University of Warwick. PI ESRC Future Research Leaders project ‘Asylum, Welfare and Work in the Age of Austerity’.

The workshop, sponsored by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC), aims to explore the ethics of interdisciplinary research with refugee communities, in the context of displacement in refugee camps and host communities. Through a series of presentations from established and early career researchers in the area, delegates will be able to discuss the different challenges, approaches and best reflexive practices of interdisciplinary research with refugee communities. A particular focus throughout will be on bringing together disciplines for which the issues are challenging but broadly familiar (principally within the Social Sciences), with those such as Science and Engineering which have been less used to engaging with the ethics of working with vulnerable groups, but now need to in the context of interdisciplinarity and impact, and funding streams which support this (such as the GCRF).
Coffee and light lunch will be provided.

Organisers: Dr Marcia Vera Espinoza (Politics); Dr Steve Connelly (Urban Studies and Planning); Helen Woolley (Department of Landscape); Aldous Everard (Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures).

*Any views expressed within the workshop do not necessarily represent the views of the UREC.
For more information please contact marcia.vera@sheffield.ac.uk

Register Here

Science4Refugees Workshop: European Research with a view to integrating refugees

Next 15-16 March 2017, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation will organise the Science4Refugees (S4R) workshop “European Research with a view to integrating refugees” in Brussels (AREA 42. 46A, rue des Palais, 1030). The workshop will bring together researchers and refugees with an academic research profile and representatives of institutions to discuss ways of successfully integrating refugees into the culture of the host institutions. The objective of the S4R workshop is to facilitate this integration by learning from and informing about existing matchmaking mechanisms at national level; good practices to optimise the communication process between refugees and potential employers; and to stimulate an open dialogue between all stakeholders involved, thereby boosting refugee researcher careers.

Seats are limited. Registration HERE. Travel arrangements can only be accommodated if you are travelling from an European country.