2020 Conference Recap Video 

A 3-minute video giving a impression of the 2020 Conference is available on YouTube.

 

2020 Conference Programme 

The Programme for the 2020 Researcher to Reader Conference, which featured thought-provoking content, with first class international speakers, panellists & moderators, is shown below.

There are links to PDF versions of the slide sets below, and videos of the presentations are on our YouTube channel.

The timetable is shown here, with more Programme information below.

To download the Print Programme in PDF format, click one of the links below:

R2R 2020 Programme (shortened lo-res – 500KB)

R2R 2020 Programme (full hi-res – 7MB)

Monday 24 February 2020

Registration & Networking

Welcome

Welcome and Introduction to the Conference        < slides (pdf) >

Mark Carden
– Managing Consultant at Mosaic Search & Selection

Opening Keynote

Research Ecosystem Dynamics                         < slides (pdf) >
Publication adaptation, evolution or extinction

Dr Jonathan Adams
– Chief Scientist at the Institute for Scientific Information

Workshops: Introduction & First Meeting 

Laura Cox (moderator)
– Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Ringgold

Workshop A: Equitable OA in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries
How do we ensure that a wholesale transition to OA improves equality rather than creating new barriers?

Rob Johnson
– Founder and Director at Research Consulting
Andrea Powell
– STM Outreach Director and Publisher Coordinator at Research4Life

Workshop B: Improving Peer Review Support for Researchers
How can Researchers, Librarians, Publishers, Funders, Editors and Research Managers work together to enhance the quality and efficiency of peer review?

Dr Christine Tulley
– Professor of English at The University of Findlay
Dr Heather Staines 
– Head of Partnerships at MIT Knowledge Futures Group

Workshop C: Transformative Agreement Collaboration
What are the best practices to support innovation and effectiveness in Transformative Agreements?

Christopher Kenneally
– Director of Content Marketing at Copyright Clearance Center
Scott Delman
– Director of Publications at the Association for Computing Machinery

Workshop D: Practicality and Purity – Commerce in the Academy
In what ways can both commercial and non-commercial organisations most usefully operate and collaborate in the scholarly communications ecosystem?

John Larrier
– Director of Business Development at MPS Limited

Workshop E: Open Access Price Transparency
What services are needed to clearly and effectively present transparent data about OA publishing and prices?

Dr Alicia Wise
– Consultant at Information Power
Chris Banks
– Assistant Provost & Director of Library Services at Imperial College London

Presentations: Open Access Models and Impacts

Research4Life and OA                              < slides (pdf) >
The impact on access to e-resources in Africa

Dr Solomon Derese
– Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi

Open Access Models for Society Publishers                < slides (pdf) >
A framework for institutional Publish & Read deals

Tasha Mellins-Cohen 
– Director of Publishing at the Microbiology Society

Debate: Journal & Article Metrics

Journal Brands and Impact Measures
The venue of its publication tells us nothing useful about the quality of a paper

Rick Anderson (moderator)
– Dean at Marriott Library, University of Utah
Dr Mike Taylor
– Software Guy at Index Data
Toby Green
– Managing Director at Coherent Digital
Pippa Smart
– Editor-in-Chief of Learned Publishing and Publishing Consultant
Dr Niall Boyce
– Editor of The Lancet Psychiatry

Presentations: Researcher Behaviours & Communication

Measuring Science Your Way              < slides (pdf) >

Dr Sabine Hossenfelder 
– Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies 

Catch 22 – Women Research Publishing                   < slides (pdf) >
Improving female researcher visibility in peer review and publishing

Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers
– Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England

Workshops: Second Meeting                                                            

A:   Equitable OA in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
B:   Improving Peer Review Support for Researchers
C:   Transformative Agreement Collaboration
D:  Practicality and Purity – Commerce in the Academy
E:   Open Access Price Transparency

Tuesday 25 February 2020

Panel: Research Metrics

Assessing Social Research and Research Metrics
Looking beyond traditional modes of impact measurement

Caroline Porter (moderator)
– Executive Publisher at SAGE Publishing
Euan Adie
– CEO at Overton
David Carr
– Programme Manager at The Wellcome Trust
Professor James Wilsdon
– Director of Research Policy at RoR Institute

Workshops: Third Meeting

A:   Equitable OA in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
B:   Improving Peer Review Support for Researchers
C:   Transformative Agreement Collaboration
D:  Practicality and Purity – Commerce in the Academy
E:   Open Access Price Transparency

Presentations: Reproducibility & Reusability

Applying the Reproducibility Manifesto                     < slides (pdf) >
How Elsevier journals used the manifesto for reproducible science by Munafò et al to benchmark its reproducibility programme

Catriona Fennell
– Director Publishing Services at Elsevier

From Data Policy Towards FAIR Data For All                 < slides (pdf) >
How standardised data policies can improve research data sharing and reuse

Rebecca Grant
– Research Data Manager at Springer Nature

Presentations: Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial Intelligence in Scholarly Information             < slides (pdf) >
A guide to the current landscape

Olly Rickard (for Jim Longo)
– VP Product Manager at Highwire

Using AI in the Academic Workflow                 < slides (pdf) >
Why has the take-up of AI been so limited in the academic publishing workflow?

Michael Upshall
– Head of Business Development at UNSILO

Workshop Feedback                                             < slides (pdf) >

A:   Equitable OA in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
B:   Improving Peer Review Support for Researchers
C:   Transformative Agreement Collaboration
D:  Practicality and Purity – Commerce in the Academy
E:   Open Access Price Transparency
                                                                                                         

Conference Summary

A Brief Summary of the Conference              < slides (pdf) >

Mark Allin
– Principal at ContentAll and former CEO at Wiley

Closing Keynote

Is free information a threat to freedom of information?                < slides (pdf) >

Richard Charkin
– President of Bloomsbury China and President of The Book Society.

 

Sponsors of the 2020 Conference

Gold Sponsor

HighWire is the technology partner of choice for world-leading commercial and academic publishers. With offices globally, HighWire provides digital publishing solutions and platform expertise across all aspects of the publishing life cycle, including content management and hosting, e-commerce, analytics, access and identity management, manuscript submission and tracking. HighWire also delivers strategic consulting services for developing systems and applications and improving the customer experience. For more information, please visit highwirepress.com

Silver Sponsors

Atypon develops publishing technologies for getting mission-critical content into the hands of the practitioners and researchers who need it most. Atypon’s online publishing and website development tools let publishers manage, deliver, and monetize all of the content they distribute — from standards and scholarly articles to online courses and videos. Atypon’s tools for researchers let them easily author, discover and access the content they need. Founded in 1996, Atypon is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with over 470 staff in 9 offices around the world.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is an international organisation connecting chemical scientists with each other, with other scientists, and with society as a whole. Founded in 1841 and based in London, the RSC has an international membership of over 50,000. The RSC uses the surplus from their global publishing and knowledge business to give thousands of chemical scientists the support and resources required to make vital advances in chemical knowledge. The RSC is a catalyst for the chemistry that enriches our world.

Ingenta is one of the leading providers of content solutions to publishers. Drawing on over 40 years of industry experience, Ingenta can help you to simplify, manage, promote and deliver your content – wherever you are.  Ingenta’s vision is to build long-term partnerships, and to supply practical and professional software and services to unlock the future of your business.     

Bronze Sponsors

Research Information is a bimonthly full-colour magazine, sent six times a year at no cost to publishing and information professionals.

Mosaic Search & Selection is an executive search firm, specialising in publishing and media in the UK and internationally.

 

Other Sponsors:

Copyright Clearance Center
The pace of change in publishing is rapid and dramatic. Publishers, authors, and agents need to reach global markets quickly. When they need innovative licensing and content solutions, powerful open access management tools, and world-class custom solutions created by technology experts, publishers around the globe turn to Copyright Clearance Center.

Ringgold curates a global, multi-sector database of organizational identifiers with comprehensive hierarchies and deep metadata in multiple formats to enable interoperability across the research and scholarly publishing community.

Aries Systems Corporation, the developer of Editorial Manager and ProduXion Manager, is committed to enhancing how publishers and scholars disseminate knowledge on a global scale. Aries’ cloud-based workflow solutions enable the submission, peer review, and content management of high-value documents, and are used by thousands of journals and hundreds of publishers worldwide. Publish faster, publish smarter, with Aries Systems.

Scientific Knowledge Services works with researchers and their support organizations like publishers and libraries to improve the production and dissemination of knowledge and to make Open Science a sustainable reality that enables higher quality in research. SKS started Focus on Open Science series in 2015. Through discovery trips, SKS cultivates communities of knowledge transfer. SKS offers consultancy for science administration.

EBSCO provides discovery services, online research content (databases, archives, e-books, e-journals & e-packages) and subscription management services for all types of libraries. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: http://www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944. 

 

Registration

The current Terms & Conditions for registration and attendance at the Researcher to Reader Conference are shown below, and all delegates are be asked to confirm their agreement to these on the Registration Portal.

The Conference is organised and operated by Scholarly & Academic Services Ltd, which is a limited company registered in England (company number 9679524).

Delegates who register and/or attend the event agree, in consideration for the services provided by the Conference organisers, to be bound by these Terms & Conditions.

1. Registration, Payment and Rates

Payment by credit card is normally required immediately upon registration. Delegates unable to pay by credit card may request an invoice; such invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date. Delegates will not be admitted to the event unless the appropriate registration fee has been paid.

2. Tariffs & Rates

The regular and discounted tariffs listed below are normally available. To use a discounted rate, someone registering must be able to show that they are qualified for the selected discount category, otherwise the full delegate fee will be payable.

Regular Delegate Rate:                
For anyone registering who does not qualify for a discount under any of the other tariffs.

Returning Delegate Rate:           
For anyone registering who has attended a previous Researcher to Reader Conference.

Librarian or Academic Rate       
For anyone registering whose main occupation is as a Librarian or an Academic Researcher.

Concession Delegate Rate          
For anyone who is currently unemployed, who works in an organisation that employs 4 or fewer people worldwide, or who has been invited to use this concessionary rate by the event organiser. For the avoidance of doubt, this rate does not normally apply to employees of substantial academic, governmental or not-for-profit organisations.

Sponsor Discounted Rate            
For anyone who is currently employed by an organisation that has already made a commitment to sponsor the upcoming R2R Conference, as evidenced by this having been announced on the Conference website.

Sponsor Complimentary              
For anyone who has been explicitly named by an organisation that is a Gold, Silver or Bronze sponsor of the upcoming R2R Conference, as the person who is entitled to the sponsor’s allocation of one or more complimentary registrations.

Contributor Complimentary      
For anyone who is an approved speaker or other contributor to the upcoming Conference, or who has been invited to use this complimentary rate by the event organiser.

There are no additional or alternative discounts or tariffs available, and in particular we are unable to offer special concessions for employees of ‘not-for-profit’ organisations of offer one-day rates.

Additional discounts may be available for super early-bird or early-bird bookings, during the periods shown on the registration website. In order to qualify for any early bird rates, the registration must be completed by the deadline date as set out on the registration site, and payment must be received within 14 days of this date.

The registration fee entitles the delegate to attendance at the full two-day event. Single-day registration is not available, as the event organiser recommends that all delegates attend the complete event, particularly because the workshop that a delegate attends will span both days.  Substitutions are permitted as set out in these Terms & Conditions.

Registration also includes the event documentation, and the refreshments provided.  Travel and accommodation is not included in the registration fee.

3. Registration Cancellations, Refunds and Substitutions

A full refund is available for any registration that is cancelled by the last day of January in the month before the conference. Any cancellations received during February will not be eligible for a refund.

An alternate person from the same organisation may be registered as a substitute delegate for the delegate originally registered, for both days, if the event organiser is notified in advance, by 15 February.

An alternate person from the same organisation may attend as a substitute delegate for the delegate originally registered, on either or both days, without notice, but is unlikely to be included in delegate lists, is unlikely to be provided with an appropriate name badge, may not have their dietary requirements accommodated, and will be allocated to a workshop by the event organiser.

An alternate person from a different organisation cannot be registered or attend as a substitute delegate for the delegate originally registered, with or without notice.

4. Event Alteration, Postponement, Relocation or Cancellation

The event organiser reserves the right to alter the content and timings of the advertised programme at any time and for any reason. The event organiser reserves the right to change the location of the event and will endeavour to advise the delegates as soon as this change is known. Any reasonable change of location will not constitute a reason to refund the registration fee. The event organiser reserves the right to postpone the planned date of the event to any date within one month of the planned date of the event. Any reasonable change of date will not constitute a reason to refund the registration fee. If the event is cancelled for any reason, the event organiser will seek to refund a portion of the registration fee paid, less reasonable costs. Any refund is not guaranteed, and the refund value will be determined at the event organiser’s discretion, depending on the circumstances of the cancelled event and the ongoing financial position of the company. The event organiser is not liable to pay any costs incurred by delegates or others resulting from any alteration, postponement, relocation or cancellation.

5. Speakers and Content

Any views, advice, information, data or items provided by speakers, delegates or sponsors are their own opinions or items and are not necessarily supported, approved or authorised by the event organiser. The event organiser cannot accept any liability for views, advice, information, data or items provided by speakers, delegates or sponsors at the event, or in any material provided to the delegates in any way. The event programme, presentations, handouts, photographs, audio & video recordings and other materials that are created or provided in association with the event are the copyright of the event organiser except where otherwise stated. The event organiser reserves all rights to these materials, and these materials should not be reproduced without the event organiser’s permission.

6. Photography, Audio & Video Recording

Audio, video and photographic recording may take place throughout the event, and all participants, by their attendance, authorise the event organiser to use these materials in any reasonable manner, including providing a record of the event and promoting other events, products or services. The event organiser will attempt to remove a delegate from these recordings on request, if notified in advance of the event date.

7. Privacy and Data Protection

By submitting registration details, delegates acknowledge that they have read and consent ted to the privacy notice available on the event website, and also agree to allow the event organiser to use this information to contact them regarding the current event and any other events, products or services offered by the event organiser, or by the event organiser’s sponsors, affiliates and partners. Delegates may opt out of these communications by contacting the event organiser or by selecting the unsubscribe option in email communications. The name, role and affiliation of registered delegates will be placed on the attendee list which may be passed to all delegates, sponsors and potential sponsors. This attendee list may also be used by the event organiser in promoting or seeking sponsorship for future events. Delegates who wish to be removed from the delegate list should contact the event organiser at least one month in advance of the event date. The event organiser is committed to ensuring that sensitive information, such as credit card details, is handled in a safe and secure manner. The event organiser employs reputable and reliable service providers to ensure such information is protected. All information held is kept secure with access limited to personnel charged with the processing of such data. All personal data is gathered and processed in accordance with the provisions and intent of Data Protection Act. The payment service used by the event organiser only collects information to confirm a financial transaction and does not store financial details. The event organiser will retain details of the individuals attending an event, to maintain records of the event, and to inform individuals about the event or other events, products or services. This does not include any form of financial information, other than the amount of the registration fee paid.

8. Risk, Insurance and Liability

The event organiser has taken reasonable steps to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with delegates’ participation in this event, however the event organiser cannot be responsible for unforeseen or accidental hazards, including adverse reactions to allergens. It is the responsibility of the delegate to mitigate any personal risks associated with their own attendance at the event, and to arrange appropriate insurance cover in connection with their attendance at the event. The event organiser’s liability for loss shall be limited to a claim for damages; the maximum aggregate liability will be the registration fee paid by the delegate for the event. The event organiser will not be liable for indirect, special or consequential loss (including but not limited to travel or accommodation costs).

9. Law & Venue

The participants accept, by their registration, that the terms and conditions contained within this document are governed by English Law and that any litigation will take place in the Courts of England.

 

Call for Papers for the 2020 Conference

The Call for Proposals for the 2020 Researcher to Reader Conference opened on 1 July and closed on 23 August 2019.

Proposals were submitted using an Excel form that can be downloaded here:

Click Here To Download The Proposal Form

The Conference organisers have used their best efforts to ensure that this downloadable form does not contain any viruses, trojans or other malicious code, but recommend that anyone downloading this file uses appropriate methods to protect their own systems.

Announcement

The next annual Researcher to Reader Conference will take place in London on 24-25 February 2020.  The Advisory Board is inviting proposals for presentations, panels, debates and workshops on the subject of international scholarly communications.

We are particularly seeking proposals from librarians, researchers, editors and funders, and from people based outside the UK and under-represented demographics.

Proposers are invited to provide an abstract (50-100 words) and a fuller description (100-300 words) by 23 August 2019.

To make a proposal for participation in Conference, please first explore the R2R website for more information, then download, complete and return the proposal form.

Call For Proposals – Summary Information

Conference Background

The Researcher to Reader Conference is a key forum for discussion of the international scholarly content supply chain – exploring how academic knowledge is conveyed from the researcher to the reader.

The Conference takes place annually in London each February and is attended by around 150-200 senior delegates from all parts of the scholarly communications community, including funders, researchers, research managers, editors, publishers, distributors, technologists and librarians.

Topics and Themes

The Conference covers the full life-cycle of scholarly communications, from the researcher who creates content to the reader who consumes content. We particularly value topics that are of broad interest across the diverse range of people and organisations that participate in scholarly communication, rather than subjects that focus on a particular silo. Our delegates are primarily interested in the interactions between the various parts of the scholarly communications supply chain, and how different people and organisations can work together more effectively. The Conference also values topics that are practical, informative or supported by evidence – we are interested in facilitating what could be done, rather than merely debating what should be done.

We are very open to a wide range of subjects that could be explored within this framework, but some topics that our Advisory Board feels could be particularly interesting in the current climate include:

• Are the new business models in an open world working? Including Big Deals, Transformative Agreements, Read-and-Publish, Publish-and-Read, Subscribe to Open, Freemium, and all the others…..
• The effectiveness of lofty and unilateral declarations, manifestos, initiatives, campaigns and plans – how powerful have all these pronouncements been, and is there a better way to make progress?
• Research incentives, behaviours, integrity and trust – how scholarly communication can be assisted or impeded by ‘the tenure track’ and other incentives? Does research culture need to change?
• Preprints and Peer Review – is it enough to have scholarship communicated, or does it also need to be credibly communicated, having been judged, approved and rated?
• Is curation and brand important in scholarly communication? Are diligent curators and trusted brands (such as funders, universities, libraries, publishers, societies or journal titles) important as arbiters of quality and as maintainers of legacy?
• Is ‘commercial’ always compromised and ‘not-for-profit’ always pure, or can the efficiencies of the business world successfully co-exist with academia?

Session Formats

The Conference has a variety of session formats, intended to give different topics an appropriate expression and to provide a varied and interactive timetable for the delegates.  Our two-day programme usually includes a mixture of the following formats:

Presentation: Given by a single speaker for 20-30 minutes, within a plenary session comprising 1-3 speakers, followed by Q&A.

Panel: A lively moderated discussion amongst knowledgeable and well-prepared pundits, which also involves the delegates. Typically running for around one hour, and involving little or no formally presented content.

Debate: A challenging and divisive proposition argued for or against, in a formal setting, by two (or four) well-prepared debaters, supervised by a strong moderator.

Workshop: A facilitated collaborative conversation, about a clearly-defined question or problem, with very high levels of delegate participation and engagement. Delegates pre-select one out of choice of parallel workshops, and each has a total duration of about 2½ hours, split over three separate sessions across the two days.

Proposal Formats

Proposers are invited to offer topics and/or contributors.  They may wish to:

• suggest a topic of interest;
• propose themselves or another person as a panellist, debater, facilitator or moderator, based on particular knowledge or skills;
• propose themselves or another person as a speaker, together with an appropriate topic;
• propose a panel, debate or workshop package, including a topic plus most or all of the other contributors.

Proposer Credentials and Affiliations

Proposals  should be relevant to the themes of the Conference, and can be given by any member of the research, publishing and library community. Presenters who are employed by commercial organisations are encouraged to participate, but their presentations must be of general interest to the community and faithful to the event’s objectives, not merely corporate messages.  Selling or demonstrating products or services as part of the programme, whether from a commercial supplier or a not-for-profit organisation, is absolutely unacceptable, and those with a promotional message are encouraged to become sponsors of the Conference.

The most effective workshops are created through a partnership between a subject expert and a facilitator, and we have particular focus on the quality of workshop facilitation.

Proposers are encouraged to provide evidence of their experience or suitability, based on past successes an evidenced where possible by video-recordings, although this is not essential.

Call For Proposals – Guidance for Proposers

Introductions

The information below provides additional guidance to help potential contributors to put forward proposal that are likely to be accepted by the Advisory Board.  We recommend that proposers study this guidance carefully as it should be helpful in ensuring that a proposal is efficiently and effectively prepared.

Session Formats

Presentations

Each of our presentations is normally given by a single speaker within a plenary session comprising 1-3 speakers, with each speaker having approximately 20-30 minutes, followed by a joint 10-15 minute Q&A, moderated by the session chair.

We find that the presentations most appreciated by our delegates are not product pitches (commercial or otherwise), are presented by just one speaker, are delivered in a lively but not ‘evangelical’ tone, and are supported by informative visual aids, not slides that appear to be merely the speaker’s notes in bullet-point form.

 

Panels

Our panels are lively open discussions amongst knowledgeable pundits, where the panel members are opinionated and well-prepared, the delegates are encouraged to participate, and good facilitation is crucial.  We typically allow about 1½ hours for a panel, including some scene-setting by the chair and/or panel members, the panel discussion itself, and contributions from the delegates.

We encourage active solicitation and management of delegate questions (often via Twitter or other tools), and we avoid so-called panels that turn out to really just be several long and loosely-connected presentations followed by a brief Q&A.

Debates

We had our first formal debate in 2019, and it was very highly rated by our delegates. We welcome proposals for a debate for our next programme, where a challenging or divisive proposition is argued, for or against, by structured speeches given by two/four well-prepared debaters, coached and supervised by a strong moderator.

Workshops

The workshops at R2R are dynamic facilitated conversations, with high levels of delegate participation and engagement. Each workshop discusses a clearly-defined question or problem, and attempts to reach a resolution.  Delegates pre-register for just one of a choice of five workshops. Each workshop has a total duration of about 2½ hours, split over three separate sessions spread across the two-day Conference.

A workshop topic may build on the content of a Conference presentation, or cover other issues of relevance to the creation, supply and consumption of academic research. A workshop could be used to gather scoping or qualitative responses as part of an academic research project or be part of a standards consultation.

Workshops tend to work well when they attempt to discuss and reach resolution on a clearly-defined question or problem. The workshops are not breakout presentations, but highly interactive discussions. Some of our most successful workshops have been created and run by a two-person team comprising a subject expert and a facilitator. The subject expert will frame the question to be worked on, and provide expert knowledge during the workshop. The facilitator will summarise the topic, lead discussions, encourage broad participation and ensure that the outcomes are documented. The Conference has a particular focus on ensuring high-quality workshop facilitation.

Contributors

All contributors who are invited to participate in the programme will generally be offered complimentary admission to the Conference, although we can only offer a maximum of two complimentary places per workshop. Any other costs for attendance will be the responsibility of the participant, although we are occasionally able to offer some support toward travel or accommodation.

Proposal Creation and Evaluation

To make a proposal for participation, please first explore the Conference website, and review recordings of past sessions at our YouTube channel.  Then the potential contributor should download the proposal form, complete it carefully and email it to us.

We would be grateful if proposers would provide thoughtful and complete information in their proposal, within the specified word limits, as our Advisory Board has a challenging task of interpreting and evaluating numerous proposals to determine the suitability of the topics and contributors for our delegates.

Titles, sub-titles, abstracts and biographies should conform to the standards set out, to increase the probability that they can be included in our published programme with minimal editing.

The Advisory Board has complete discretion regarding which proposals are accepted for the Conference programme and the Board’s decision is final. The Conference accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred in the preparation of proposals, or for any consequences of acceptance or rejection.

Proposers may be invited to modify their proposals to meet the needs of the Conference programme. Proposers may withdraw their proposals up to the point of acceptance, or when invited to make modifications.

Proposers agree that, if accepted, their proposal may form part of the Conference programme and that any presentation and biographical content may be included in Conference materials, including potential distribution of slides, scripts, transcripts or abstracts, and any video, audio or photographic recording.

 

 

Feedback

Analysis of the delegate feedback from the 2020 Researcher to Reader Conference, held in London on 24-25 February, shows increasingly high levels of satisfaction with the event, with delegates rating both the varied sessions and the event overall very positively.

The survey showed 96-98% of respondents agreeing that that the Conference was relevant to them professionally and valuable use of their time.  These sentiments were even more positive than the already encouraging 2019 feedback, with the percentage ‘strongly agreeing’ on relevance growing from 40% to 63% and on value from 32% to 56%.

The presentations at the Conference also received a generally positive response, with a large majority getting an average rating at least 3 out of 4. Only two out of the 11 presentations fell below last year’s minimum rating of 2.8.  Seven of the 11 presentations got over 80% favourable ratings.

The Workshops, Debate and Panel received generally positive feedback, with one workshop (Improving Peer Review Support for Researchers)  getting a perfect 4/4 rating, and two others getting a very strong 3.6.  The Debate received a score of 3.5, with very favourable comments.

The organisation and venue also rated highly, with the event administration narrowly missing out on last year’s 100% positive ratings, with just 2 respondents awarding ‘Fair’.  The temperature of the rooms continued to be a challenge, although only 15% rated it unfavourably –  an improvement on 2019.

Delegate comments were also very positive, with responses that included:

• An enjoyable and interesting two days with a good mix of session topics and styles.
• Fantastic event.
• Extremely thought-provoking and relevant across the scholarly landscape.
• Exceptional standard.
• Very practical and informative.
• Excellent, illuminating.
• This was an excellent venue and a very well managed event.
• Lively and encouraging presenters.
• Great conference.
• Thoroughly interesting and relevant.
• I will be back next year.
• Good service from venue staff.
• I enjoyed hands-on activities and representation from sectors across industry.
• These are just getting better.
• I really liked the mix of panels, debates etc; more engaging than straight presentations.
• Thank you for a very interesting two days.
• Couldn’t be more ideal.
• Networking opportunities were good.
• A really great meeting to learn more about the industry and meet a range of people.
• Excellent mix of topics, speakers, formats.
• Good range of insights, good engagement from the audience.
• The programme was thoughtfully put together.
• I love this conference.

 

R2R 2020 Reviews

Some reviews of the 2020 Conference can be found here:

Published in Research Information, and written by Heather Staines.

Research Information Report (website)

Research Information Report (yudu)

Published in Against The Grain, and written by Anthony Watkinson.

ATG Report (website)

Written by Michael Upshall in his blog.

Review by Michael Upshall (blog)
http://www.consultmu.co.uk/2020/02/25/the-researcher-to-reader-conference/