Office for Scientific Information Management in 2022

For the newly established Office for Scientific Information Management (OSIM) at EMBL, 2022 was an exciting year. Three new colleagues started their work, EMBL implemented its Open Science Policy (published in December 2021), and the library found a new home in the ATC.

Even though OSIM existed on paper in 2021, 2022 marked its true birth. Victoria Yan and André Sartori became the first staff members in Open Science Support in 2022, joining the new Archive and Records Manager Maria Papanikolaou. Together with the established library team, they form the three pillars of OSIM: Szilárd Library, Archive & Records Management, and Open Science Support.

Archive and Records Management

This year, the EMBL Archive and Records Management restarted operations under a new structure, as part of the OSIM. When the new Archive and Records Manager, Maria Papanikolaou started in March, she helped with one of our first initiatives for the year, establishing our first Archives and Records Management (ARM) User Group. The Archive demonstrated its role as the dynamic creator and custodian of EMBL history and institutional knowledge and allowed EMBL staff and external researchers to share stories from EMBL's vibrant past, as well as to verify or document EMBL history.

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EMBL Szilárd Library

For the Szilard library, this year marked its first as part of OSIM and was mostly focused on organising the library’s move. The new reading room was officially opened on 8 December, followed by several events during the opening week. It is located at the very top of the ATC-B helix, is bright with natural light, amazing views, and access to the balcony. The library has twelve working places, plus a small lounge area with popular magazines and daily newspapers. The new reception desk is set up for librarians to welcome and support users.

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Open Science Support

As a part of EMBL's commitment to promote transparency, trust, and inclusive research in life sciences, EMBL released its Open Science Policy in December 2021, and began implementing it in January 2022 as well as supporting EMBL lead authors with a central budget for open access fees. In addition, we helped EMBL researchers increase the amount of preprints, open data, open source software and the use of ORCID.

In line with Open Access Week 2022's theme, #OpenForClimateJustice, we discussed with EMBL experts the importance of open science for food security and preserving global biodiversity.

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