OECD Recommendation's draft concerning access to research data from public funding: A review

Sharing research data from public funding is an important topic, especially now, during times of global emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, when we need policies that enable rapid sharing of research data. Our aim is to discuss and review the revised Draft of the OECD Recommendation Concerning Access to Research Data from Public Funding. The Recommendation is based on ethical scientific practice, but in order to be able to apply it in real settings, we suggest several enhancements to make it more actionable. In particular, constant maintenance of provided software stipulated by the Recommendation is virtually impossible even for commercial software. Other major concerns are insufficient clarity regarding how to finance data repositories in joint private-public investments, inconsistencies between data security and user-friendliness of access, little focus on the reproducibility of submitted data, risks related to the mining of large data sets, and sensitive (particularly personal) data protection. In addition, we identify several risks and threats that need to be considered when designing and developing data platforms to implement the Recommendation (e.g., not only the descriptions of the data formats but also the data collection methods should be available). Furthermore, the non-even level of readiness of some countries for the practical implementation of the proposed Recommendation poses a risk of its delayed or incomplete implementation

Demonstration experiments for solid state physics using a table top mechanical Stirling refrigerator

Liquid free cryogenic devices are acquiring importance in basic science and engineering. But they can also lead to improvements in teaching low temperature an solid state physics to graduate students and specialists. Most of the devices are relatively expensive, but small sized equipment is slowly becoming available. Here, we have designed several simple experiments which can be performed using a small Stirling refrigerator. We discuss the measurement of the critical current and temperature of a bulk YBa2Cu3O(7-d) (YBCO) sample, the observation of the levitation of a magnet over a YBCO disk when cooled below the critical temperature and the observation of a phase transition using ac calorimetry. The equipment can be easily handled by students, and also used to teach the principles of liquid free cooling

Photoemission Investigations of Non-Metal/Metal Transition in Thin Discontinuous Antimony Films

The electric and photoelectric properties of very thin discontinuous antimony films deposited on an insulating (sapphire) substrate were investigated in order to explain the "surfactant" role of Sb atoms in the growth of other metal films on this substrate. The results show that the properties of pure Sb films on a sapphire are similar to those observed for other metals and cannot explain an essential change in the growth of Ag, Au, Ga and other metals when the substrate is pre-germinated with antimony