Open Science training

The Performance division offers an open science training program which is organized in different pathways. The trainings cover the entire lifecycle of research projects, covering topics such as scientific publication, research data management, the use of open research evaluation infrastructures, the university’s open editorial services. Trainings help to adopt open research practices which are transparent and reproducible. Each pathway is composed of multiple, independent courses, meaning that participants can participate either to single courses or to all courses within a pathway. 

Participation is subject to registration and is open to all research and teaching staff at the university of Milan, at all career levels. 

Pathway 1: Publishing research

This pathway explores key topics related to scholarly publishing, its current models, the challenges facing the publishing system, and the tools available to address them.

a. Where not to publish: predatory journals and publishing practice
b. The costs of publishing
c. Peer review
d. Alternative publishing models
e. Copyright: publishing agreements
f. Preprints

Pathway 2: Managing and publishing research data 

Appropriate research data management ensures that results are verifiable, citable, and reusable—and it begins on the very first day of a project, continuing beyond its completion. The five courses in this pathway cover the entire research data lifecycle: Open Science requirements in European funding programmes, data management planning (DMP), managing sensitive data, research software management, and depositing data in the institutional repository.

a. Sharing research data on Dataverse
b. Writing a Data Management Plan (DMP)
c. Managing sensitive and special categories of personal data
d. Managing research software
e. Integrating Open Science requirements into national and European research funding proposals

Pathway 3 – Increasing research visibility and using open infrastructures

This pathway provides theoretical and practical information on those tools which are essential for researchers, such as obtaining and managing an ORCID identifier, depositing research outputs in the University's institutional repository (AIR), and understanding and using major open research information infrastructures (such as OpenAlex, OpenAIRE, and OpenAPC). 

a. Using AIR
b. ORCID
c. OpenAlex
d. OpenAIRE
e. OpenAPC

Pathway 4 – Research evaluation and assessment

This pathway discusses quantitative and qualitative research evaluation, exploring the limits of quantitative evaluation practices and presenting CoARA, along with its principles and their implementation. 

a. CoARA: Towards a New Approach to Research Assessment
b. Research Assessment in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines
c. Research Assessment in STEM and Life Sciences disciplines

Pathway 5 – Open Publishing

This pathway presents the university’s publishing house, the Milano University Press, and all the available services which are available, such as opening and managing journals without any costs for researchers affiliated to the university, publishing books and creating book series. The pathway also explains how to deposit correlated and supplementary material on Dataverse UNIMI: this course is for all those who are involved in the editorial processes of UNIMI’s journals. 

a. Introduction to Milano University Press – Books
b. Introduction to Milano University Press – Journals
c. Sharing Research Materials through Dataverse for UNIMI Journals

Besides the courses for the academic community, the performance Division offers other pathways which are reserved to specific groups. 

Research data management and writing a data management plan for PhD candidates

This pathway is reserved to PhD candidates enrolled in a PhD course and is an in-depth course on research data management and on how to write a high-quality data management plan, providing also tailored, one-to-one support throughout the entire PhD. 

AIR for PhD candidates and medical residents

This pathway illustrates how research data and PhD theses can be deposited on the institutional repository for research outputs, AIR. 

Bring your Own Data workshops on research data management 

These practical workshops are open to all research and teaching staff at the university of Milan, at all career levels. 

Our University has launched the "Open Science: basic principles" badge for students of Master's and single-cycle degree programmes who have followed the training course promoted by the University of Milan on Open science and research data management (Open Access, Fair data).

The open badge will be awarded to all those who will participate in at least 70% of the training course organized by the University of Milan. This course is currently available to students of Master's degree programmes in Social, Political and Economic Sciences (SPES), Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics, Chemistry, Humanities.

Please check our dedicated web page on Bestr for details on the proposed badges and the corresponding skills.

Our University attaches great importance to the training of PhD students on open science issues. A specific open science course is offered as part of soft skills courses and training. These seminars cover the issues of the openness of science, with a focus on accessibility, reproducibility and transparency.

A pilot project launched in 2020, with the aim of training PhD students and their tutors in FAIR data management, and teaching them how to draft a data management plan for their research projects. So far, 20 PhD students from different academic fields and departments have taken part in the pilot project.

We offer specific (elective) training on the subject of research data management.