What is Open Research?
The concepts
Across the globe research is undergoing a cultural shift towards embracing and rewarding open research practices. Although Open Research has been recognised as having multiple meanings, a widely accepted definition is the following:
an umbrella term used to refer to the concepts of openness, transparency, rigour, reproducibility, replicability, and accumulation of knowledge
Crüwell et al. (2019, p. 3)
What is Open Research?
The practices
Open research can be defined by the application of its core concepts through a range of research practices. Open research practices will differ according to discipline and research context; however, a number of common themes can be identified:
- using online tools and services to increase the transparency of research processes and methodologies;
- using open collaborative methods to increase efficiency and widen participation in research;
- making the outputs of research, including publications, data, software and other research materials freely accessible;
- making scientific research more reproducible by increasing the amount and quality of information placed on the public record;
- using alternative models of publication and peer review to make the dissemination and certification of research faster and more transparent.
Find out more about open research practices and they can be used in your research.
Open research is relevant to you
There are a wide range of cultural contexts (e.g. discipline, career stage) that influence both the capacity for, and appropriateness of, fully open research. However, open research is relevant to all disciplines. All researchers can, and should, apply to their research.
Why you should increase the openness of your research
Given public and charity funding of research, researchers have a moral imperative to conduct research using open practices. Open research also supports good practice in your research field reducing unnecessary research and enabling faster discovery. However, you should also increase the openness of your research because of what it delivers for your research.
Openness is good for your research!
There has been an increased focus on issues around reproducibility in research. In January 2017, the government launched an enquiry into research integrity, where the background information included the comment that over a quarter of researchers at 26% of survey respondents (primarily researchers from higher education institutions) had felt tempted or under pressure to compromise on integrity and standards.
A strain of the Open Research discourse addresses such perceived dysfunctions in the way scientific research is reported and validated. Discussion of the so-called reproducibility crisis has highlighted high rates of failure to replicate results of published studies. Various reasons have been adduced for this, including poor reporting of research methods, weaknesses in study design and statistical analysis, and failure to provide access to data and software code supporting published results.
Reproducibility means that research data and code are made available so that others are able to reach the same results as are claimed in scientific outputs. Closely related is the concept of replicability, the act of repeating a scientific methodology to reach similar conclusions. These concepts are core elements of empirical research.
Improving reproducibility leads to increased rigour and quality of scientific outputs, and thus to greater trust in science.
Best practices in reproducibility offers benefits to the individual researcher themselves improving the planning, organization, and documentation of research.
Open methodologies, analytics and publications optimise the reach and scope of your research by capitalising on the benefits of networked and accessible knowledge.
Open Research:
- Stimulates and increases dialogue across society by using collaborative methods to widen participation in your research;
- Allows potential research collaborators, partners, or audiences to access your work without being restricted by paywalls;
- With permissive licences like CC BY, researchers are empowered to build on existing research quickly;
- Allows your work to be used freely in an educational context
- Makes your work more visible to search engines.
In the world of research impact, colleagues often refer to the ‘pathway to impact’, meaning the specific activities a researcher can undertake to ensure that the benefits of their research are realised. More often than not, a successful pathway to impact relies on the researcher being open about their findings and disseminating their results via appropriate channels.
Numerous studies have shown that publishing openly – whether in an Open Access journal, or self- archiving in an open repository – confers a citation advantage.
The Open Access Citation Advantage Service, maintained by SPARC Europe, kept a list of relevant citation studies and summaries of their results. In 2016 SPARC Europe decided not to further update The Open Access Citation Advantage Service since the citation advantage evidence had now become far more common knowledge.
Two- thirds of the studies found a significant citation advantage of publishing openly. The open access citation advantage holds for diverse fields, with maximum percent increases in citations from 36-600%!
Studies that share their data openly tend to get more citations than studies that do not make their data available.
Ulster's Citations webpage provides more guidance and direction on increasing your citations.
Many subscription publishers require authors to sign a copyright transfer agreement which gives ownership of your work to the publisher who subsequently decides who can read, share, and reuse the content.
You can negotiate the terms of your publishing agreement, for example:
- do you want to retain your copyright?
- The right to post a free copy in an open repository?
- Do you want to reuse the content?
You can read about your rights and how to protect them in this resource from SPARC.
Of course, instead of negotiating with a subscription publisher, you can go with an open access publisher and keep all your rights.
Open access publishers do not require a copyright transfer agreement; authors retain copyright. Articles are most often distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows anyone to read, share, and reuse the content provided they attribute the original source.
For more information about licensing for open research see licensing and copyright for open research.
Researchers become more discoverable and visible when their work is openly available, enabling others to find them and their expertise and often leading to meaningful collaborative solutions that strengthen research outcomes, nurture trust and extend powerful research networks. Creating opportunities and making connections
