Library Research Support Services
Open Research, when practiced throughout the research cycle and not just in the final dissemination of outputs, supports a more transparent & reproducible, collaborative & democratic research culture whilst maximising the reach of research.
What is 'Open Research'?
'Open Research' refers to the practice of openness throughout the research process, in terms of both how research is performed, knowledge is shared and how research is assessed. All of these components, when conducted with transparency, can support a healthier research culture:
- Transparency of research methods encourages ethical data collection and verifiable results.
- Research findings and methods can be more easily reproduced, which supports the rigour & integrity of research findings.
- Institutions transparent in their use of research metrics support an inclusive research culture reducing the risk of individuals prioritising research goals & strategies that may result in lower quality research findings.
- Open research findings are freely discoverable to support public trust in academia & public engagement activity & impact.
UNESCO recognises Open Research as a critical accelerator for the achievement of the UN SDGs:
There are links between Open Research practice and Research Culture & Integrity
A research culture that favours and rewards publication solely in traditional High Impact factor journals (journals which may be paywalled or charge a high APC for Gold Open Access) is a culture that equates publication in such venues with prestige and research excellence. This can create, "...a hyper-competitive research environment... encouraging researchers at all stages to prioritise research goals that are likely to have short term impact, and (in particular) strategies that may contribute to lower quality research findings." UKRN position on responsible research evaluation.
Actions researchers can take to be more open
Open Research can support the development of a healthier research culture as it endeavours to foster transparency and collaboration that can challenge traditional academic hierarchies. Some of the ways in which Open Research practice is evolving to change research culture:
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Creating a Data Management Plan and publishing open data for reproducibility and verification
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Publishing preprints
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Using platforms such as Octopus.ac (UKRI & JISC backed) to 'deconstruct' the research publishing process, enable transparency/critique of the research journey and gain credit for 'publishing' different part of the research process
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Pre-registration of studies where proposals e.g. hypotheses, are formally & publicly 'registered' and commit a researcher to disclose a process for accomplishing the research. Various platforms exist e.g. Open Science Framework or Prospero.
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Publishing methods papers and reporting null results (often published as preprints)
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Sharing software and code with version control
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Conducting participatory indigenous research; patient & public involvement; citizen science
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Rights Retention & open licencing e.g. CC-BY (why are you signing away your work to a publisher to profit from and prevent your re-use of your work?)
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Open peer review: in order to bring more transparency, accountability and inclusivity to the peer review process. It doesn't always mean reviewer names are shared, it can simply mean the review is posted next to the preprint. In some models, the public can post reviews alongside the preprint or comment on a review. Reviewers' expertise & time given to peer review can be listed in ORCiD profiles.
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Narrative CVs (now required by UKRI) are a direct result of funders' commitment to assessing research outputs during funding decisions on the intrinsic merit of the work and not to consider the publication channel, its impact factor (or other journal metrics), or the publisher.
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CRediT: crediting all contributions to published articles and stating the role played e.g. Technicians
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Using Open Educational Resources and open-source tools for teaching
