‘OR4’ – Recognising and rewarding open research

By Karen Desborough, Research Culture Officer

Cardiff University leads on the community of practice deliverable of the ‘OR4’ project, part of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) Open Research Programme. OR4 is a major collaborative initiative to reform how open research is recognised and rewarded in recruitment, promotion and appraisal practices. Over 50 UK academic research institutions now participate in the community of practice, including 14 as case study institutions.

Last week, the OR4 project openly published the Recognising and rewarding open research toolkit. This is a suite of management tools including a maturity framework and implementation guide which will be of interest to those involved in developing policy and practice related to the responsible assessment of researchers. For more information, please see this news item.

The materials, and the wider OR4 community, will be presented and discussed at an online event on 19 November, which is now open for registration.

OR4 runs until August 2027 and aims to provide freely available tools to institutional leaders incentivising recognition and reward for open research practices, measure institutional improvement in implementing responsible researcher assessment recognising open research and foster a community involved in implementing research assessment reforms. Project deliverables include a project website with web pages for case study institutions, information about the project and UKRN partner institutions’ policies, practices and resources; and tools and resources developed by OR4.

Case study institutions undertaking reform of their research assessment procedures will engage with the project team by providing data on their progress, sharing documentation pertaining to institutional activity and policy, and providing input and feedback on project tools and resources. The wider community of practice will also have the (optional) opportunity to engage, pilot project tools and resources, and share good practice and experience.

By participating, institutions will gain early access to project tools and resources, benefit from support in planning and implementing reform, foster a network of colleagues working in this area and become a leader in open research reward and recognition practices.

For further information, email: Dr Karen Desborough DesboroughK@Cardiff.ac.uk