Chat is Offline

The University of Galway Library supports researchers with a comprehensive Open and Digital Research services suite. Our mission is to provide the resources, guidance, and tools necessary to facilitate and enhance your research activities, with a strong focus on open publishing, open research practice, research integrity, digital creativity, and innovation.

Open Research

Open Research

Open Research ensures accessible research processes and outputs, with transparency, reproducibility, and openness enhancing research integrity.

Open Practice Guide

Digital Research

Digital Research

Our Digital Research and Innovation services enhance research through advanced data extraction, text recognition, and digital archives.

Ask about Data Services

Libraries play a pivotal role in enabling open practices and digital innovation and fostering an environment where information is accessible, collaborative, and trapansparent. Below are several services and help we provide to contribute to Open and Digital Research:


How we Help

Support for Open Practice

Libraries play a pivotal role in enabling open practice and fostering an environment where information is accessible, collaborative, and transparent. Open Practice is an activity that cuts across all Open and Digital Research, and newer areas that we offer advice and guidance on our open research workflows, open peer review, pre-registration, pre-prints, engaging the public and involving citizens in research, open code and code management, but overall focusing on reproducibility and research integrity.

Benefits 

  • Community support and engagement at each stage of your research helps you to reflect on it and improve your work iteratively.
  • Increased visibility of your work can lead to new academic collaborations and more citations.
  • Licencing your work for reuse and remixing makes it more sustainable and allows other researchers to build on it, particularly those who can’t afford commercial journal subscriptions.
  • By fostering a culture of research integrity, we enhance the impact of our research and innovation and sustainability.

Best Practices 

Consider making your work more reliable, robust, rigorous, and transparent as you plan, conduct, and evaluate your research. Components of open practice may include:  

Key Services 

  • Consultations on how to embed open practice in project proposals at the planning stage 
  • Training and workshops  
  • Facilitating networks to build communities in Galway and beyond.

Read the Open Practice Guide

Contact: Jen Smith, Open Research Librarian

Research Skills Training and Support (Databases, Finding Information, and Workshops)

The Research Services Librarian provides a range of training and other supports for research staff and students:

A to Z of all Guides

Contact: Rosie Dunne, Research Services Librarian, Phone: 091-495961

Digital Research and Innovation (Projects)

Our Digital Research and Innovation services provide advanced research project support for creating, analysing, and disseminating digital content.

Benefits

  • Increased research impact.
  • Enhanced efficiency, innovation, and partnering.

Examples

  • Successful digital archiving and text analysis projects.
  • Collaborative digital research initiatives.

Best Practices

  • Ensuring data accuracy and integrity in digital projects.
  • Using open-source tools and platforms for sustainability.

Key Services

  • Content Support includes data extraction, processing and enrichment, including OCR (Optical Character Recognition) or HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition). 
  • Project Support offers assistance with project management, partnership facilitation, community building, and funding/budget planning.
  • Innovation Support enhances efficiency and impact by guiding the integration of digital tools into research workflows.

Examples and Resources

Read more about Digital Projects

Contact: Oksana Dereza, Digital Library Developer. Booking a consultation is required.

Digital Publishing Platforms

The Library maintains open and digital publishing platforms for locally created research outputs, digital projects, digital exhibitions, and open educational content.

Benefits

  • Wide and free accessibility, visibility, and preservation.
  • Support open research and practice, publishing, education, and diverse collections.

Repository platforms

Read more about our Digital Publishing Platforms

Contact: Oksana Dereza, Digital Library Developer. Booking a consultation is required.

Research Data Management (RDM, DMP)

Effective data management is crucial for successful research. We provide information, advice and training to help you responsibly manage, store, and share your research data.

Benefits

  • Improved data quality and reusability.
  • Increased efficiency, collaboration, and preservation.

Best Practices

  • Adhering to FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
  • Regularly updating data management plans to reflect ongoing research developments.

Key Services

  • Data Management Plans assist with creating your Data Management Plans (DMPs) tailored to your research needs.
  • Training and Workshops provide regular sessions on best practices in data management, including FAIR principles, documentation, metadata, and finding and sharing data.

Resources

Read the Research Data Management Guide

Contact: Trish Finnan, Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian, Phone: 091-495961

Data Tools and Data Services (Using Data in Research)

The Library guides students and researchers who want to incorporate new data methods, tools, and technologies into their projects. Our team helps evaluate which tool or technology will meet your objectives and points you to the relevant resources and guidelines.

Benefits

  • Expert guidance and skill development.
  • Resource access and enhanced research quality.

Key services

  • Data Collection & Modelling
    • Data Collection guidance on web scraping and using tools like Google Forms.
    • Data Preprocessing assistance with OCR and OpenRefine for data cleaning.
    • Linked Data advice for linked data management.
  • Data Analysis
    • Advice on Natural Language Processing technologies and Text and Data Mining corpus tools.
    • Data Visualisation guidance on MS Excel, Tableau, Gephi, Dash, and Shiny.
    • Programming Languages & Tools information on Python, R, and Git.
    • Assistance with Machine Learning methods and tools.
    • Advice on fair use of AI Tools for literature search, coding and writing assistance, and creating visuals.
  • Workshop and webinars

Read the AI for Research Guide

Contact: Oksana Dereza, Digital Library Developer. Booking a consultation is required.

Open Publishing (Making your Publications Open Access, Research Repository, Green, APC)

We support Open Access to maximise the visibility and impact of your research. We focus on open publishing through the green route, which involves depositing a version of your research in an open repository, making it freely accessible while complying with publisher policies.

Benefits

  • Increased research visibility and citation rates.
  • Compliance with funder mandates.

Best Practices

Key Services

  • Repository Support assists in depositing your work in the institutional repository, University of Galway Research Repository, ensuring compliance with publisher policies and funder mandates.
  • Policy Guidance provides information on publisher policies regarding self-archiving and how to navigate them effectively.
  • Open Access Compliance ensures your research outputs meet the requirements of funders and institutions for open access.
  • Publishing Support gives guidance on publishing in Open Access commercial journals and repositories.
  • National deals for APCs provide information on commercial publisher agreements and for nationally funded APCs. Contact Fiona Quinlan, Open Access and Projects, to learn more about APC Publishing at the University of Galway.

Read the Open Publishing Guide

Contact: Trish Finnan, Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian, Phone: 091-495961

Publishing Services (including DOIs and other PIDs)

Publishing services provided by the library include Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for research outputs, ISBNs for books, information about ORCIDs, the Research Repository for Green Open Access publishing, Pressbooks platform for Open Educational Resources publishing tools, publishing deals for journal articles. 

Persistent identifiers such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) are essential for ensuring the discoverability and citation of your research outputs. 

Best Practices

  • Using Open Access publishing options. 
  • Consistently using DOIs and ISBNs in all publications and datasets.
  • Registering identifiers early in the publication process.

Key Services

  • DOI and ISBN Assignment: We assist with obtaining DOIs for datasets and publications and ISBNs for books and monographs.
  • Guidance and Support: Information on the benefits and correct usage of persistent identifiers.
  • Research Repository for Green Open Access publishing.
  • Pressbooks platform for Open Educational Resources publishing tools.
  • Publishing deals for journal articles. 

Resources

Read the Identifiers Guide

Read the Open Education Resources (OER) Guide

Contact: Trish Finnan, Digital Publishing and Data Management Librarian, Phone: 091-495961

Networks (Galway Open and Digital Research Communities)

Key Open and Digital Networks in Galway 

  • Open Scholarship Community Galway: local branch (including Atlantic Technological University) of the International Open Science and Scholarship Communities network, with 2300 members across 18 countries 
  • ReproducibiliTEA journal club: hybrid meetings to discuss a pre-selected paper—an ideal way to start your journey to open research. Paper suggestions and volunteer introductions are always welcome! 
  • Digital Humanities Research Group (DHRG): seminars offered by the DHRG covering digital projects undertaken by Galway researchers
  • Open Research Café: informal meetings in person for researchers and support staff to share experiences and ask questions 
  • Open Research Forum: This forum covers broad research topics aimed at campus scholars and researchers. It is often a hybrid meeting with invited speakers.
  • MakerSpace: all staff and students have access to free 3D printing, drones, VR headsets, tripods, and more in the MakerSpace. Come to a workshop and see how you could incorporate these resources into your next project! Students will receive full training on all the equipment when they volunteer to facilitate workshops and help to maintain the space.

Guides for Open Research and Digital Research