The following blog is based on a portion of a recent webinar exploring the current state of open science adoption. You can watch the full recording here. Scott Taylor from Manchester was the representative on the webinar on April 10, 2024.
The University of Manchester is developing a formal framework to comprehensively support open science across its departments, encouraging transparency and integrity in research practices. Through its approach, the university, which is an OSF Institutions member, can monitor progress toward open research goals and identify areas needing improvement.
Prioritizing Open Research
Open research is a priority area in Manchester's research and discovery plan, with the objective to nurture a healthier and more collaborative research culture. A key component was the creation of an Office for Open Research and an accompanying strategic action plan. The strategic plan focuses on five projects, with one dedicated to building an open research indicator framework to foster a culture of transparency and open research within the institution. The framework has three key components:
Building Bridges at VCU Defining and Measuring Open Research Practices
The first component focuses on identifying and defining what aspects of open research the university can realistically measure. This initial step involved careful consideration of the university's existing data access capabilities. Alongside this internal evaluation, the team investigated the potential of machine learning to support open research practices and analyzed a sample of 1,000 journal articles published within the past year and authored by Manchester researchers. COS commissioned this sample from DataSeer, a commercial provider. This analysis provided valuable insights into the prevalence of data, code, and reprint sharing across research disciplines.
The university is also actively contributing to UK initiatives to set standardized indicators for the research community. One pilot project, which COS co-leads, focuses on measuring the prevalence of pre-registration. Another pilot investigates the inclusion of data accessibility statements within journal articles.
Building a Sustainable Infrastructure for Open Research Data
The Office for Open Research is developing a custom, open-source platform that allows for the collection of information in a scalable, sustainable, and open way. Currently, the platform restricts access to staff, students, and researchers for security purposes. Researchers can view data about their own outputs, while administrators have full access. Future plans include enriching data visualizations and creating a public-facing view of the data.
Creating a Maure Reporting Mechanism
The final component focuses on creating a robust reporting mechanism for the open research indicator framework. This involves combining data from the open research tracker with information from additional sources, such as publication databases.
This combined dataset, referred to as the Mosaic, allows for richer visualizations and reporting on open research practices. Importantly, the university is utilizing large language models (advanced AI systems) to generate scripts for data analysis. Incorporating AI empowers the research metrics team, traditionally focused on citation analysis, to perform more complex data exploration beyond their usual capabilities. Scott Taylor, head of the Office for Open Research said, “The latest developments within AI have changed the picture.. We can take this range of indicators that are becoming available and do some really powerful things with them … to help inform insight.”
The Benefits of Tracking Open Research
The University of Manchester's approach to tracking open research practices offers valuable insights. By developing a comprehensive framework, the university can monitor its progress toward open research goals and identify areas needing improvement. This initiative can serve as a model for other universities striving to achieve greater transparency and accessibility in research.
Are you looking to enhance or adopt open research practices at your institution? Learn more about the tools, insights, and supports available through OSF Institutions.
