Open access policy
University of Silesia in Katowice
All scientific publications presenting the results of research funded under public or private grants awarded by domestic, regional or international science funding institutions should be published in open-access journals, online platforms or relevant repositories. This is due to the provisions made by the group called Koalicja S (English name – cOAlition S), which associates 12 national agencies funding scientific research, including the National Science Centre. In 2018, the agencies combined their efforts to introduce the principle of publishing the results of scientific research in Europe in the so-called open access. The rule has been effective since this year.
Due to this, relevant measures were taken at the University of Silesia in Katowice to effectively implement the open access policy. One of them is the establishment of Open Access Coordinator, who also acts as Data Steward. Since 1 February 2021, this position has been held by Natalia Galica from the Science Department at the University of Silesia.
Coordinator for Open Access
photo by Julia Agnieszka Szymala
Natalia Galica is a graduate of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Silesia and University College Dublin in Ireland, scholarship holder of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (Great Britain). She coordinated projects at Polish and foreign universities for many years. She currently works in the Science Department of the University of Silesia, she is a doctoral student at the Doctoral School at the University of Silesia and participant of the first Polish edition of Data Steward School.
Contact
e-mail: natalia.galica@us.edu.pl
Who are data stewards?
The key task of Coordinator for Open Access at the University of Silesia is to promote knowledge about all aspects of the so-called open science. For this purpose, a community of data stewards will be developed at the University of Silesia. A special website and knowledge database called UŚ Open Science will be launched, and a series of expert articles will be published on the University of Silesia website. There will also be trainings organised for scientists, as well as for the employees of central and faculty administration who support research projects.
The priority action will be to create a unique community of data stewards at the University of Silesia. These individuals, representing scientific disciplines of the University of Silesia, will offer support to scientists and research teams, e.g. in the subjects related to:
- research data management,
- methods and techniques of primary and secondary data acquisition,
- quality data control,
- creation of metadata,
- data security, organisation and storage during and after the research process,
- selection of repositories,
- scientific reliability,
- regulations on personal data, sensitive data and intellectual property,
- data publication and publications in open access.
Data stewards will also cooperate with the Project Department and faculty teams for projects in the field of data management plans in grant applications.
In non-standard situations they will use expert consultations with individuals representing specialised units of central administration of the University of Silesia, for example in the field of copyrights or personal data protection.
Moreover, a tool supporting the creation of data management plans in Polish and English will be prepared and updated on an ongoing basis for each scientific discipline. Such a tool has effectively supported for a year the operation of Office for Evaluation and Service of Institutes at the Faculty of Social Sciences.