Monitoring Compliance with Open Access policies

In the last few years, academic communities have seen an increase in the number of Open Access (OA) policies being adopted at the institutional and funder levels. In parallel to policy implementation, institutions and funders have also been engaged in developing mechanisms to monitor academics and researchers compliance with the existing OA policies. This study highlights a few of the cases where compliance is being effectively monitored by institutions and funders. In the first section, Open Access is briefly overviewed and the rationale for monitoring OA policy compliance is explained. The second section looks at best practices in monitoring policy compliance with OA policies by funders and institutions. The case studies reflect on compliance with the UK Funding Councils and the USA National Institutes of Health OA policies. The third section makes recommendations on what processes and procedures universities and funders should adopt to monitor compliance with their OA policies. The final section recapitulates some of the key ideas related to monitoring policy compliance

Toward a Generalizable Framework of Disturbance Ecology Through Crowdsourced Science

Disturbances fundamentally alter ecosystem functions, yet predicting their impacts remains a key scientific challenge. While the study of disturbances is ubiquitous across many ecological disciplines, there is no agreed-upon, cross-disciplinary foundation for discussing or quantifying the complexity of disturbances, and no consistent terminology or methodologies exist. This inconsistency presents an increasingly urgent challenge due to accelerating global change and the threat of interacting disturbances that can destabilize ecosystem responses. By harvesting the expertise of an interdisciplinary cohort of contributors spanning 42 institutions across 15 countries, we identified an essential limitation in disturbance ecology: the word 'disturbance' is used interchangeably to refer to both the events that cause, and the consequences of, ecological change, despite fundamental distinctions between the two meanings. In response, we developed a generalizable framework of ecosystem disturbances, providing a well-defined lexicon for understanding disturbances across perspectives and scales. The framework results from ideas that resonate across multiple scientific disciplines and provides a baseline standard to compare disturbances across fields. This framework can be supplemented by discipline-specific variables to provide maximum benefit to both inter- and intra-disciplinary research. To support future syntheses and meta-analyses of disturbance research, we also encourage researchers to be explicit in how they define disturbance drivers and impacts, and we recommend minimum reporting standards that are applicable regardless of scale. Finally, we discuss the primary factors we considered when developing a baseline framework and propose four future directions to advance our interdisciplinary understanding of disturbances and their social-ecological impacts: integrating across ecological scales, understanding disturbance interactions, establishing baselines and trajectories, and developing process-based models and ecological forecasting initiatives. Our experience through this process motivates us to encourage the wider scientific community to continue to explore new approaches for leveraging Open Science principles in generating creative and multidisciplinary ideas.Peer reviewe

Pictures for Reflection: I am 10 Years Old: Watch me Grow

As boys and girls grow beyond early childhood and prepare to become adolescents, they experience a wide range of emotional, social, cognitive, and physical transitions. Frequently, for the 10 year old, these rapid changes leave them critically questioning, reflectively wondering, and deeply feeling. They navigate different affiliations, test their competencies, and assume a variety of roles.     &nbsp

Improving the Sustainability of HVL: A Translation of the SDGs for Higher Education Institutes and HVL Stakeholders’ Perceptions, Engagement and Recommendation in Relation to HVL Sustainability

Master Thesis in Climate Change Management Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Science GE4-304Higher education institutes (HEIs) have the potential to be key actors and leaders to transform society towards sustainable development (SD). They must function themselves as ‘Living Labs’, adopting a whole systems approach of SD to fulfil their role. This thesis focuses on improving the sustainability of Høgskule på Vestlandet (HVL), a HEI in Norway as currently they have no sustainability report or framework. To address this, this thesis firstly provides a translation of SDGs, along with their targets and indicators to be applicable for HEIs, for all four core functional areas of HEIs. This is the first translation of its kind. HEIs must also do more than just adopt a framework. All HEI stakeholders must have good understanding of SD; positive attitudes towards SD and good levels of engagement in HEI SD-related activities. Therefore, secondly this thesis carried out a quantitative and qualitative online questionnaire to gauge: HVL stakeholders’ knowledge of and attitudes towards SD and the SDs; the level of communication to HVL stakeholders of HVL SD-related activities; and provide a space for HVL stakeholders to share their voice. This is the first study of its kind at HVL. Results show that stakeholders’ knowledge is incomplete, but despite this they have strong attitudes; 81.6% want to learn more about SD, and 68.4% want to help support and participate in HVL SD-related activities. The level of communications could be improved, as two-thirds of respondents were not aware of HVL SD-related activities. Based on HVL stakeholders’ responses seven key recommendation actions were formulated for HVL engage in SD, and most specifically the SDGs. The most important being that HVL should adopt the SDGs in all core functional areas, should work to improve engagement with all HVL stakeholders (through improving communication channels), and that a sustainable development officer and team should be employed to manage HVL to transform.Samandrag på norsk Videregående institutter har en sentral rolle å lede samfunnet til å bli mer bærekraftig som steder for kunnskapsskaping og overføring. De må selv være en bærekraftig institusjon for å oppfylle sin rolle. Denne oppgaven fokuserer på case studie av Høgskule på Vestlandet (HVL), Norge. Denne studien fokuserer på hvordan man kan forbedre bærekraften til HVL, for tiden har de ingen bærekraftrapport eller rapporteringsramme. For å løse dette oppgir denne oppgaven først og fremst en oversettelse av SDG, sammen med deres mål og indikatorer som skal gjelde for Høgskoler, for alle kjernefunksjonelle områder av høyere utdanningsnivåer (utdanning, forskning, drift og styring og samfunnsoppsøkelse). Dette er den første oversettelsen av sitt slag og anses å være uvurderlig i feltet. Høgskoler må også gjøre mer enn bare et rammeverk. Alle interessenter i HEI må ha god forståelse for SD; positive holdninger til SD og gode nivåer av engasjement i HEI SD-relaterte aktiviteter. For det andre gjennomførte denne oppgaven et kvantitativt og kvalitativt online spørreskjema for å måle: HVL-interessenter kjennskap til og holdninger til SD og SD-er; nivået på kommunikasjon til HVL-interessenter av HVL SD-relaterte aktiviteter; gir endelig plass til HVL-interessenter for å dele sin stemme. Dette er den første studien av sitt slag på HVL. Resultatene viser at interessenters kunnskap er gjennomsnittlig, men til tross for dette viser de sterke holdninger; 81,6% vil lære mer om SD, og 68,4% vil bidra til å støtte og delta i HVL SD-relaterte aktiviteter. Kommunikasjonsnivået kunne forbedres ettersom to tredjedeler av respondentene ikke var klar over HVL SD-relaterte aktiviteter.GE4-30

Improving the sustainability of the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences: A translation of the SDGs for higher education institutions and carbon footprint assessment of the Sogndal Campus

Master Thesis in Climate Change Management, GE4-304 Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and SciencePURPOSE: The purpose of this thesis is twofold: (i) develop an initial draft of a sustainability assessment framework for higher education institutions (HEIs) based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and (ii) contribute to the assessment of the current sustainability performance of the Sogndal campus of the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) by analysing the carbon footprint of HVL-Sogndal. STRUCTURE: The thesis will therefore be structured in five parts. Part A is the Introduction, part B describes the background for this thesis and part C provides an overview over HVL and the Sogndal campus. Part D will then present and discuss the developed SDG-based sustainability assessment framework for HEIs. The last part (part E), which is the main focus of the thesis, will present the assessment of the carbon footprint of HVL-Sogndal. METHODOLOGY: The SDG-based framework was developed by linking and translating the relevant targets and indicators of the SDGs to each of the four functional areas of a higher education institution: Education, Research, Operations and Administration, and Community Outreach. Inspiration for the translation was taken from (TAHL ET AL., 2017). The carbon footprint of HVL was calculated for scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. This includes emissions from energy consumption, purchases, waste management, business travels and commuting. The Scope 3 Evaluator tool was used for the calculations. RESULTS: The resulting SDG-based sustainability assessment framework provides targets and indicators for all 17 SDGs for each of the four core functional areas, respectively. The carbon footprint assessment shows that the highest contributing emission sources are commuting, purchases and business trips. Energy related emissions only account for a maximum of 4% of the total emissions. LIMITATIONS: The SDG-based sustainability assessment framework is an initial draft, as the subjectivity of the authors could not be excluded completely. Ideally, this framework would be further developed with the participation of a large group of persons, thereby including different approaches and viewpoints. The carbon footprint of HVL-Sogndal is limited due to the limited quality of the input data and the methodology of the Scope 3 Evaluator. Further research should especially focus on increasing the accuracy of the commuting category as this is likely to be the largest contributor, and it is also the category with the highest uncertainty. CONCLUSION: This thesis provides a first attempt of a sustainability assessment framework for higher education institutions that is based on the SDGs. While there are other assessment frameworks for higher education institutions, these do not relate specifically to the SDGs. The SDGs are currently the most holistic framework to assess sustainability. Hence, other frameworks should link to the SDGs. The carbon footprint provides a first assessment of the emissions of HVL-Sogndal that includes all emission sources. The assessment can be used to develop a climate action plan for HVL-Sogndal.ZWECK: Diese Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele: (i) die Entwicklung eines konzeptionellen Bewertungsrahmens für die Nachhaltigkeit von Hochschuleinrichtungen, auf der Grundlage der von den Vereinten Nationen entwickelten Nachhaltigkeitsziele (SDG), und (ii) einen Beitrag zur Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeit des Sogndal-Campus der Vestlandet Hochschule (HVL) zu leisten, indem eine Analyse des CO2-Fußabdrucks des Campus durchgeführt wird. GLIEDERUNG: Diese Arbeit ist in fünf Abschnitte unterteilt. Abschnitt A beinhaltet die Einleitung, Abschnitt B beschreibt den Hintergrund der Arbeit und Abschnitt C liefert ein Überblick über die Vestlandet Hochschule und den Sogndal-Campus. Abschnitt D präsentiert und diskutiert die Methoden und Ergebnisse der Entwicklung des Bewertungsrahmens für die Nachhaltigkeit von Hochschuleinrichtungen. Abschnitt E befasst sich mit der Analyse des CO2-Fußabdrucks des Sogndal-Campus. Dieser Abschnitt ist der Hauptteil der Arbeit. METHODEN: Der auf den Nachhaltigkeitszielen aufbauende Bewertungsrahmen wurde entwickelt indem die relevanten Teilziele und Indikatoren den vier Aufgabenbereichen von Hochschuleinrichtungen zugeordnet und z.T. an diese angepasst wurden. Die vier Aufgabenbereiche von Hochschuleinrichtungen sind: Bildung, Forschung, Betrieb und Verwaltung, und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Inspiration für einen solchen Bewertungsrahmen lieferten TAHL ET AL. (2017). Der CO2-Fußabdruck wurde für die Scope 1, 2 und 3 Emissionen berechnet und beinhaltet die Emissionen des Sogndal-Campus aus Energieverbrauch, Einkauf, Abfallverwertung, Dienstreisen und Pendelverkehr. Die Berechnungen wurden mithilfe des Scope 3 Evaluator Tools durchgeführt. ERGEBNISSE: Der resultierende SDG-basierte Bewertungsrahmen liefert Teilziele und Indikatoren für alle 17 Nachhaltigkeitsziele in jedem der vier Aufgabenbereiche von Hochschuleinrichtungen. Der CO2-Fußabdruck zeigt, dass Pendelverkehr, Einkauf, und Dienstreisen die größten Emissionsquellen sind. Die Emissionen aus Energieverbrauch belaufen sich hingegen nur auf 4% der Gesamtemissionen. BESCHRÄNKUNGEN: Bei dem Bewertungsrahmen für Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschuleinrichtungen handelt es sich um ein erstes Konzept, da die Subjektivität der Autoren nicht ausgeschlossen werden konnte. Idealerweise sollte dieser Bewertungsrahmen in einer partizipativen Weise entwickelt werden, die mehrere Personen miteinbezieht und somit verschiedene Ansichtsweisen und Ideen berücksichtigt. Der CO2-Fußabdruck von HVL-Sogndal ist in zweierlei Hinsicht limitiert. Zum einen durch die mangelhafte Qualität der verwendeten Daten und zum anderen durch die eher simplen Berechnungsmethoden des Scope 3 Evaluator Tools. Weiterführende Untersuchungen sollten sich hauptsächlich auf die Emissionen aus Pendelverkehr konzentrieren, da diese Kategorie einerseits höchstwahrscheinlich die meisten Emissionen verursacht und zugleich die ungenaueste Kategorie ist. SCHLUSSFOLGERUNG: Diese Arbeit liefert ein erstes Konzept für einen, auf den Nachhaltigkeitszielen basierenden, Bewertungsrahmen für Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschuleinrichtungen. Es existieren zwar bereits mehrere solcher Bewertungsrahmen für Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschuleinrichtungen, jedoch bezieht sich keiner dieser Bewertungsrahmen speziell auf die Nachhaltigkeitsziele der Vereinten Nationen. Die Nachhaltigkeitsziele sind momentan das allumfassendste Konzept zur Bewertung von Nachhaltigkeit. Aus diesem Grunde sollten sich andere Bewertungsrahmen auf die Nachhaltigkeitsziele beziehen. Der hier vorgestellte CO2-Fußabdruck ist die erste Analyse der Treibhausgasemissionen des Sogndal Campus, die alle Emissionsquellen berücksichtigt. Die Ergebnisse können zur Entwicklung eines Klimakonzepts für HVL-Sogndal verwendet werden.GE4-30

Monitoring Compliance with Open Access policies

In the last few years, academic communities have seen an increase in the number of Open Access (OA) policies being adopted at the institutional and funder levels. In parallel to policy implementation, institutions and funders have also been engaged in developing mechanisms to monitor academics and researchers compliance with the existing OA policies. This study highlights a few of the cases where compliance is being effectively monitored by institutions and funders. In the first section, Open Access is briefly overviewed and the rationale for monitoring OA policy compliance is explained. The second section looks at best practices in monitoring policy compliance with OA policies by funders and institutions. The case studies reflect on compliance with the UK Funding Councils and the USA National Institutes of Health OA policies. The third section makes recommendations on what processes and procedures universities and funders should adopt to monitor compliance with their OA policies. The final section recapitulates some of the key ideas related to monitoring policy compliance