2. Outline
• Open Research at Reading
• UKRN and the Open Research Programme
• The OR4 project – reward and recognition
• Opportunities and benefits for libraries
2
4. Beginnings 2016/17
• Research support
• Publications and RDM functions split between Library and Research Services
• Lack of research focus in Library
• We are not open enough!
• Little evidence of open practices beyond OA
• Low levels of data sharing
• Poor staff attendance at OA and RDM training
• Open Research not integrated into University research strategy
4
5. 5
• >50% of researchers could not reproduce their own experiments
• >70% could not reproduce the work of others
Nature 533, 452–454 (26 May 2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/533452a
6. Open Research initiative
• Developing the conversation (2017-2020)
• Communicating knowledge, understanding needs
• Building the coalition – senior management, professional services, members
of the research community
• Driving strategic cultural change (2020-)
• Open Research Action Plan (3-year funded programme)
• Developing support and training, embedding OR norms in systems and
processes
• Cultivating the ground – Open Research Champions
6
7. 7
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
• Open in Practice 1
• Open Research stakeholder
consultations
• Open Research
Statement/web pages
• Open In Practice 2
• Open Research Award 1
• Committee on Open
Research and Research
Integrity
• Research and Innovation
Strategy
• Library Research
Engagement team
• UKRN membership
• ReproducibiliTea Reading
• Open Research Action
Plan 2021-23
• Open Research
Champions
• Open Research Award 2
• UKRN Open Research
Programme funded by
Research England
• Responsible assessment
recognising OR in recruitment
and promotion WG
• UKRN OR4 project
9. OR Action Plan - key themes
• Developing support services and training
• Research Engagement and research software engineering (RSE) teams
• Open Research training
• UKRN Open Research Programme
• Embedding Open Research norms in institutional systems and processes
• OR criteria in recruitment and promotion – working group established
• OR objectives in research planning and performance review at Research Division and individual researcher
level
• UKRN OR4 project
• Cultivating grassroots activity
• Open Research Champions
• UKRN Local Networks
9
12. ‘Open science refers to the process of making the content and
process of producing evidence and claims transparent and
accessible to others. Transparency is a scientific ideal, and
adding ‘open’ should therefore be redundant. In reality, science
often lacks openness: many published articles are not
available to people without a personal or institutional
subscription, and most data, materials and code supporting
research outcomes are not made accessible, for example, in a
public repository.’
12
13. UKRN
Vision
For the UK research system to be outstanding in conducting and promoting
rigorous and transparent research.
Purpose
The purpose of the UKRN is to enable researchers, institutions, and other
stakeholders working in the UK to collaborate, so they are better able to
conduct and promote rigorous, reproducible, and transparent research.
Methods
Investigating, sharing, training, influencing, coordinating
14. Peer led network of networks
• Local networks
• Informal participation
• Local Network Lead
• Institutional members
• Formal participation
• Institutional Lead
• Commitment to research improvement and
collaboration
• External stakeholder organisations
• Funders, learned societies, publishers,
infrastructure services, professional bodies
18. UKRN is for everyone
• UKRN has grown from a narrower focus on empirical
reproducibility to a broad research culture remit
• It is addressing issues that are relevant for all research, and is
working hard to engage across disciplines
• While primarily researcher-led, it is open to and engages with
other stakeholders (such as librarians!)
18
19. The Open Research Programme
https://www.ukrn.org/open-research-programme/
19
‘to accelerate the uptake of Open Research practices’
21. Training
• Training syllabus and resources catalogue
• Train-the-trainer programme
• Trained cohort deliver courses at their institutions
• Curating open-licensed training resources
21
22. Evaluation
• Survey of Open Research practices and support requirements
• All UKRN institutions invited to participate
• Will inform development of training
• Baseline 2023, likely future iterations
• Evaluation of training interventions
22
23. Sharing
• Institutional pages on project website
• Resources/tools to support implementation of Open Research
• UKRN sustainability – business model
• Reward and recognition – OR4 project
23
25. 25
‘Open Research criteria will be fully included and used appropriately in
recruitment, reward, promotion and performance assessment’
26. Background at Reading
• Research Publications Adviser and I lobbied for Research
Evaluation in Recruitment and Promotion WG (2022)
• Research Dean (Chair), Library, Research Services, HR, Head of School, senior
academic, ECR
• University statement on responsible use of metrics (2018) was not
well-known or supported by procedures
• Deprecated metrics such as JIF and H-index still used
• Open Research not specified or used in recruitment and promotion
26
27. Outputs other than research articles will grow in importance in assessing
research effectiveness in the future, but the peer-reviewed research paper
will remain a central research output that informs research assessment. Our
recommendations therefore focus primarily on practices relating to
research articles published in peer-reviewed journals but can and should
be extended by recognizing additional products, such as datasets, as
important research outputs.
5. For the purposes of research assessment, consider the value and impact
of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to
research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures
including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on
policy and practice.
27
28. • Openness of processes and outputs is integral to research quality
• The full range of research outputs should be recognised and considered
• Open behaviour such as early knowledge and data sharing should be
rewarded
29. Reading WG
‘To implement responsible assessment practices and use of Open
Research criteria in recruitment, probation, promotion and
professorial review’
• Engage stakeholders
• Sign Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment/join Coalition
• Publish Responsible Research Assessment Policy
• Develop guidance, tools and support
• Pilot, implement and monitor changes to policies and procedures
• Sign DORA
29
30. UK situation
• Many institutions had signed DORA or published statements/policies but there
was the same disconnect with actual practice
• Open Research criteria non-existent or minimally specified and not assessed
• Opportunity to share emerging practice and foster capability across UK
institutions
• Discussions with UKRN colleagues initiated project and brought it under Open
Research Programme
• I was involved in establishing the OR4 project and developed the project plan
30
31. OR4 project (2022-26)
• ‘To support the institutional implementation of responsible researcher
assessment policies and procedures that reward and recognise Open
Research’
• Team of 20 (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Greenwich, Keele, Leicester,
Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Reading, Southampton, Surrey), led by
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (Research Dean Cardiff)
• Project plan on website
• Subscribe to Jiscmail UKRN-RRA for updates and community discussion
https://www.ukrn.org/or4/
CC-BY-NC-SA: https://technofaq.org/posts/2020/03/how-to-motivate-your-teams-with-rewards-and-recognition/
32. Objectives
• Develop implementation toolkit for institutional leaders and
managers
• Track implementation in UK institutions over the course of the
project
• Foster a national community and facilitate sharing of practice
• Engage internationally with related initiatives and expert
stakeholders
CC-BY-NC-SA: https://technofaq.org/posts/2020/03/how-to-motivate-your-teams-with-rewards-and-recognition/
33. Deliverables
• Institutional policies and
practices survey
• Knowledgebase of initiatives,
resources and tools
• Longitudinal case studies
with selected institutions
• Maturity framework and self
assessment tool
• Implementation guide for
institutions
• E-learning modules
• Implementation workshops
34. UKRN - opportunities and benefits
for libraries
• UKRN is very active in Open Research/research culture -
there is strategic alignment with libraries’ activities in this area
• It is researcher-led, so there will be opportunities to engage
the research community
• For UKRN members, the Institutional Lead can be a powerful
ally in senior management
34
