CSUSB Libraries has received a National Sciences Foundation grant to coordinate two research conferences between the U.S. and Japan focusing on promoting Open Access and Research Data Management (RDM).

The conferences, both titled “The CSUs Explore RDM Infrastructure: A Collaboration on Open Science with the National Institute of Informatics,” will take place at the Pfau Library in the spring and fall of 2025.

Leading the two-year project is Jennifer Beamer, the John M. Pfau Library’s scholarly communications librarian, who examined open-access infrastructure at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan, as a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar.  She holds a doctorate in communications and information science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  

Jennifer Beamer
Jennifer Beamer

“This grant gives CSUSB Libraries the opportunity to be a leader in open access and build capacity and expertise in the CSU system,” said Rebecca Lubas, dean of CSUSB Libraries, a longtime advocate for open access. “Dr. Beamer brings a wealth of insight, experience, and expert knowledge to her role as the project’s principal investigator.”

Public Access – the free availability of federally funded scholarly materials to the public – has long been championed by librarians. The librarians in the California State University system have been instrumental in providing social and technical support for the principles and practices of open access as adopted by their research and publishing communities. 

“This award aims to further the socio-technical understanding by building capacity among the CSUs to explore and advance our readiness to support RDM,” said Beamer. “The research will assist the CSUs adapt to the 2022 Office of Science and Technology Policy Memorandum on ‘Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research and the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research.’” 

The conferences will explore a sustainable RDM platform for open data from an international perspective, generating research findings and deliverables, while leveraging knowledge of existing RDM cyberinfrastructure between the CSUs and Japan’s National Institute of Informatics.

For questions or more information about the conferences, contact Jennifer Beamer at Jennifer.beamer@csusb.edu.