GW4 Open Research Week: showcasing practices that make research accessible, transparent, reproducible and visible
22 November 2023
Open Research, or Open Science as it is sometimes known, essentially means research that is accessible to others. It is a term that is increasingly used by funders, publishers, institutions and the academic community, supported by a wide variety of requirements and policies. The overarching premise is that Open Research practices make research more accessible, transparent, reproducible, and visible. It encompasses Open Access to publications, open research data, open software, and open standards. Whilst the concept of open research is understandable and aspirational, the practical application can be daunting and confusing for many, making any wider cultural change around open research practices an ongoing challenge.
These are all issues pertinent to the members of the GW4 Alliance: the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. The GW4 Open Research working group, established for research teams in the GW4 library services to share ideas and best practice across the four institutions, came up with the concept of an Open Research Week, whereby advice, training and updates on open research activities within individual institutions could be showcased, while also addressing wider issues in open research relevant to all of GW4.
The result is the inaugural GW4 Open Research Week, a series of events that focus on current considerations and communities in the world of open research relevant to GW4, alongside a variety of institutional sessions highlighting support available and examples of open research practices. Running from 20-24 November 2023, there will be a mixture of online, hybrid and in-person events, which will be open for members of the GW4 Alliance universities to attend; a number of events will also be open externally.
The week will focus on the theme of the Theory of Change, drawing on the Center for Open Science’s Strategy for Culture Change pyramid. Each day is based around a particular stage of the theory of change, with relevant events:
- Monday 20 November – Basic Environment: Make it Possible
- Tuesday 21 November – Enabling Environment: Make it Easy
- Wednesday 22 November – Communities: Make it Normative
- Thursday 23 November – Incentives: Make it Work
- Friday 24 November – Policy: Make it Required
From the Cardiff viewpoint, we have sessions on a number of topics including Cardiff University Press and the forthcoming institutional research data repository, as well as drop-in sessions to discuss individual queries with the Library’s Open Research team.
As part of the week, the GW4 universities will also host the first ever joint GW4 Open Research Prize, open to submissions from all internal researchers (including postgraduate research students) in all disciplines across the four universities.
Building on the success of the University of Bristol Open Research Prize in recent years, prizes of £250 will be awarded for the best submissions across four categories: Improving Quality; Widening Reach; Poster Session; and Early Career Researcher (ECR) Monograph Prize.
The applications are shortlisted by a panel of judges from across the universities, and entries judged by their ability to demonstrate Open Research practices. The winners will be announced as part of an event on Thursday 23 as part of the incentives theme. You can find out more about the prize, via the GW4 Open Research Prize 2023 webpages.
We hope the GW4 Open Research week will be a springboard for cross-institutional discussions around open research within the wider university research culture. We are looking to make this an annual event that will grow and expand each year, as open research becomes an ever more important aspect of good research practice.