The HardiBlog

For many years, open publishing has been described through colours of Green, Gold, Hybrid, Diamond, and Bronze. For those working in the space, these terms are familiar and easy to say. For authors and researchers, I would question how useful they are, especially for early career authors. At University of Galway, we have been changing the way we talk about open. Rather than asking authors to start by understanding a set of colours, our guidance increasingly begins with Routes to Open  describing what the author needs to do, where the open version will be available, what rights are involved, and whether payment is required. Currently OpenAlex and its Community Advisory Board are consulting on a more fundamental revision of open-access classification, potentially replacing the colour categories with a system based on access, location, and licence [1,2]. Why we started changing the language The problem we perceived is in what colour terms communicate to an author. In 2025, our own Re...

The first  ReproducibiliTea Galway journal club  workshop for semester 1, 2026 will focus on the MORPHSS project  - Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences . J oin Dr. Jen Smith from the Library Research Services team and Dr. Jenni Adams, MORPHSS Research Associate, for our hybrid session on the 7th October. The  ReproducibiliTea Galway journal club takes place  on the first Wednesday of each month for October, November and December 2026 . Researchers at all levels  who are interested in open research, open science, and open scholarship  are welcome to participate.  While most researchers in the STEM disciplines have a basic understanding of what "data" means in their work, it can be harder to define the term for the humanities and social sciences (HSS), which has meant that open " science "/research practices have evolved in different ways. T he MORPHSS project (Materialising Open Research Practices in the Huma...

The Library’s Research Services team supports academic staff, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD researchers throughout the research lifecycle. We provide workshops and one-to-one consultations on research discovery, literature searching, systematic and scoping reviews, research publishing, open access, rights retention, open research, research data management, digital methods, and repository publishing. The Library offers a programme of researcher workshops and events designed to support all stages of the research lifecycle. Whether you are developing your first PhD project or leading a large research team, you can access expert guidance and practical training or contact the Research Services team for more tailored support.  Workshops for Semester 1, 2026-27: 17-Sep-26  AI Literacy for Researchers   22-Sep-26  Starting your Research Data Management Plan   7-Oct-26  ReproducibiliTea Galway jou...

The Research Data Steward role was introduced to the University of Galway Library in May of last year. The role's primary purpose is to provide essential support and advice for research data management (RDM) and data governance across the research lifecycle. RDM consists of data tasks of planning and design, sourcing and collection, processing and analysis, and publishing and preservation, all through the lens of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) principles.  As the University of Galway Library's first Research Data Steward, I have been developing resources to support researchers, addressing gaps in RDM support and building a roadmap for its future. With progress being made in these areas, it was time to get the word out to University of Galway researchers by embarking on an RDM Roadshow to each school to introduce myself and speak on key updates. The goal of these Roadshows was two-fold: first, to provide an overview of RDM services and resources offer...

We are delighted to introduce Arushi Sharma from Project SCOIR (Trinity College Dublin), who will be the keynote speaker at our next Open Research Forum: “ University of Galway's Research Publishing Policy: Empowering our Research Community ” on 20 May 2026. Please join us to hear Arushi, along with Claire O’Connor and Martin Leahy, followed by a light lunch. Arushi Sharma is an Associate Researcher with Project SCOIR (Secondary rights, Copyright, Open access, Institutional policies, and Rights retention), where she has contributed to the development of the draft Research Outputs and Open Access Bill 2025.  Arushi has also engaged in discussions with policymakers and presented on rights retention and open research policy in academic settings. She also served as Communications Officer for Project SCOIR, supporting national-level engagement on open research and rights retention. She is also a PhD researcher in Law at Trinity College Dublin, where her research focuses on data protect...

Save the date  for our next Open Research Forum on  2 0   May  2026 ,   “ University of Galway's Research Publishing Policy: Empowering our Research Community ” . This event is hosted by  University  of Galway  Library  Research Services .      Agenda :  Wednesday, 20 May   12.00: Opening: Cillian Joy, Head of Library Research Services 12.05: Keynote: Arushi Sharma, Project SCOIR, Trinity College Dublin    12.25: Claire O'Connor,  Director of Planning and Institutional Research   12:35: Martin Leahy, Research Integrity Officer   12:45: Panel questions and responses, moderated by Jen Smith, Open Research Librarian   13:00: Light lunch     Venue:  Hardiman Building Seminar Room, THB-G010, University of Galway     Please register here for catering purposes:  registration link .   Topic   Research  publishing  attains  its highest st...