Activity 3: Open Research

Purpose

Research should be shared openly and widely to maximise its impact, enhance integrity and minimise waste. With our distinctive, open mission, our University should lead the way in fostering an open researchculture.

Outcomes

We will set targets for:

• Increased data deposition on Open Research Data Online (ORDO) and increased downloads.
• Case studies of pilots for new publication routes.
• Increased output deposition on Open Research Online (ORO) and increased views and downloads.

Mechanisms

Establish a programme of open research advocacy to embed the principles and value of open research practices across the University.

Working in collaboration with the OU Library, we will introduce open research champions who work with research teams to increase their deposition of data/outputs and improve accessibility.

We will further invest in data archiving and research support infrastructure to maximise open availability and enable more use of archived content for future research activity.

Promote the use of innovative, accessible, and equitable models for research publishing that make research methods and results available quickly, at no cost to the reader, across all disciplines and career stages.

We will explore and pilot the use of new models for data and full paper publication.

We will ensure that promotion and recruitment processes value new repository and publication routes alongside traditional routes of academic publication.

Prioritise societal challenges and other projects that embed mechanisms to enhance open research. Our criteria for prioritisation for support will include commitment to open research.

For example, projects with innovative data deposition and output dissemination, accepting different practices across disciplines, will have a greater chance of receiving funding. Projects lacking these mechanisms will be supported to adopt best practice.

Collaborate with other universities and research organisations to share new open access mechanisms.

Given the Open University’s mission and unique place in higher education we will play an active role at UK level to share our expertise in open research.

Publicise a Quarterly Review of OU Research.

We will explore new ways of publicising our research for internal and external audiences.

A regular review that uses social media to bring to life our research could be a powerful way to raise our profile.