Implementing the Communication Strategy for PubLists and QMRO Series - part 1 - Speaking engagements

So, to start the ball rolling on this series looking at the different communication methods I will be using during this implementation project, I thought I'd talk a bit about speaking engagements.

I don't think anyone has ever accused me of being short of a word or three.  When considering what to say during these all-important speaking engagements, this can be both a blessing and a curse!  Whilst the fear of speaking before large groups has long since subsided, knowing what to say, and when to keep schtum has always been a difficult one for me.  I also find it difficult to navigate the fine line between 'formally informal' and just downright 'chatty'.

I recently spoke at two different 'events', one of which was a strategy group meeting, whilst the other was a larger research centre staff meeting.

The Research Centre meeting was an invitation to 'talk about open access' in 15 minutes.  Note the 'invitation, not a begging of time slots by me, but someone actually asking me if I could come and speak (could I ever!).  The staff attending this meeting were researchers in the main, so a really good opportunity to get my message across.  I therefore limited myself to the following four topics that I knew would be high on the agenda, and kept it quite informal, whilst I did use a presentation, I mostly spoke without notes (which I prefer anyway) and kept the slides to the minimum:

Benefits of open access (wider exposure is a good thing!)
The green route (you don't have to pay lots to do it!)
Copyright compliance (we check everything before we make it available)
Method of deposit (it's quick and easy)

For a first foray into speaking about open access at a research centre meeting, it actually went really well.  It was a post-lunchtime slot (not the best time to get everyone awake) and there was one person who basically sat and smirked the whole way through - which I prefer to imagine was due to the rather delicious luncheon they had partaken of before coming rather than any personal sleight on my presence at the meeting - otherwise, the audience seemed responsive, interested by the self-archiving option, and whilst nobody leapt up and volunteered to be the first one to become 100% OA, I left hopeful of some new uploads to the repository within a few days.

OK, so how naive am I?  Zilch.

The other event was a strategy meeting for faculty and was investigating the necessary information to put together a faculty-wide policy on open access.  This was an interesting opportunity to test my understanding of OA and research funding T&Cs, and also to get some useful ideas on where information is lacking on our webpages and in the literature we produce.  I have to say, I did feel like I'd been grilled quite thoroughly when I'd finished, and there were lots of questions that I needed to go away and find the answers to, but this was all good work that has helped the policy to be drawn up and for us to have started on a pilot implementation plan.

This second meeting has actually turned into a much bigger piece of work for me; resulting in a pilot project to talk on a 1:1 basis with researchers and engage them individually as well as at the broader centre, school or institute level.  Something I hadn't planned for in my strategy and which I have now added as an option.

From these two quite different meetings has come the following:

1. People are not wholly unaware of open access and they do recognise that they need to engage at some point
2. There is willingness and a recognition of the importance and benefits of OA
3. There is a recognition that the responsibility lies with the researcher to engage
4. Whilst I haven't encountered outright resistance yet, there is perhaps reticence, or just hearing it from me is not enough to get people started - is it a technical barrier, a time barrier or a knowing where to start barrier?  Probably all three
5. There is growing awareness that not engaging with conditions on research funding concerning open access could lead to significant problems down the line - and this is leverage

No doubt there will be more meetings a long the way and more to learn in the process.

Implementing the Communication Strategy for PubLists and QMRO - part 1

Back in the heady days (January 2011) of the JISC-funded RePosit project, I drew up a Communication Strategy that I planned to use to identify routes and methods of communication and advocacy once Queen Mary Research Online was launched.  At the time, this seemed like a long way off and I set it aside as something to work with 'later'.  Well, 'later' arrived with somewhat more bang than I expected in September 2011 with the strategy being taken up by the powers that be and with my strategy turning into a full blown project.

So, here I am 'Implementing the Communications Strategy for PubLists and QMRO' with a series of blog posts about my endeavours to engage the various echelons at QM in open access and publications management.

PubLists - QM's research publications management database, running on Symplectic Elements
QMRO - Queen Mary Research Online - the institutional repository, running on DSpace

To start with, my strategy needs a project plan, something I haven't drawn up before, and which is proving a bit daunting.  However, some of the strands on my strategy are already taking shape, so there is progress even without the plan itself having been finalised.

Over the course of the next few weeks I hope to do a series of updates focusing on various elements of the strategy, the first of which will follow shortly.

The views expressed in this blog are mine and are not representative of Queen Mary, University of London.