Partner Institutions

Partners of the Research England Open Research Programme

Cardiff University

cardiff.ac.uk

UKRN links

Institutional lead Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen (% FTE)
Local Network Lead Professor Candice Morey and Jennifer Davies(% FTE)

Open Research Coordinator: Karen Desborough

Open Research

OR statements

Signatories to concordats and other national and international declarations (e.g. DORA – DORA, Leiden, UK Concordat for the Support of Research Integrity)

Cardiff University’s committee structure includes groups representing a range of Academic and Professional Services staff to provide strategic direction, support and technical solutions for Open Research delivery at a University, College and School level. This includes regular Directors of Research meetings, Operational Groups, an Integrity and Ethics Committee and a Research Administrators’ Forum.

The University’s Open Research Operational Group (OROG) supports the development of an open research culture and aims to improve the accessibility of our research.  As well as championing the value of open research, OROG is working on ways to help researchers overcome the barriers to greater sharing and openness across our diverse range of research activities and disciplines through appropriate infrastructure, training and systems. OROG reports to the University’s Open Research, Integrity and Ethics Committee and is responsible for maintaining and undertaking the University’s Open Research Action Plan

Open Research Position Statement

We are a member of the UKRN but do not have a specific Reproducible Research policy.

Open Research Action Plan

The Open Research Action Plan sits with the University’s Open Research Operational Group

The University is committed to embedding open research as an integral part of good research practice. We encourage our research community to explore the possibilities and benefits of using open practices in their research, to discuss their needs with us and to draw on the available support. Open research practices have significant benefits, including:

  • improving the visibility, and therefore the discoverability, of research outputs (including underlying data)
  • effective communication and collaboration between researchers
  • improving the rigour, validity and reproducibility of research by making evidence more readily accessible for scrutiny and interrogation, and data more available for re-use and adaptation
  • accelerating and increasing the impact of research both within the research community and beyond.

Tools and systems

We are currently out to tender for a research data repository.

Training and development offered to all staff groups

Cardiff Researcher programme – Research – Cardiff University

We offer training to support career development and progression and support for specific initiatives, such as fellowship applications.

The Cardiff Researcher for Research only staff

The Cardiff Researcher Programme offers a wide range of training and development opportunities to all staff employed within the Research only career pathway. Opportunities include hands-on workshops for developing key skills, as well as information-based sessions and one-to-one coaching.

The training programme is divided into four domains, in line with Vitae/Research Councils’ RDF

  • Domain A: Knowledge and intellectual abilities
    The knowledge and intellectual abilities needed to be able to carry out excellent research.
  • Domain B: Personal effectiveness
    The personal qualities, career and self-management skills required to take ownership for and control of professional development.
  • Domain C: Research governance and organisation
    The knowledge of the standards, requirements, and professionalism to do research.
  • Domain D: Engagement, influence and impact
    The knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage with, influence and impact on the academic, social, cultural and economic context

Responsible Research Assessment / Recognition and Reward for open research

As a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), Cardiff University supports and promote the responsible use of metrics and quantitative indicators of research.

DORA commits us to assessing research in all its forms through a process of qualitative review rather than using proxy measures of quality, such as publication in journals with a high impact factor.

Our commitments:

 

As a University

  • We will not use journal-based metrics (e.g. journal impact factors) as surrogate measures of the quality of individual research articles when assessing an individual researcher’s contributions, including in recruitment, promotion, or funding decisions.
  • We will be explicit about the criteria used to reach recruitment, probation, and promotion decisions highlighting that the scientific content of a paper is more important than publication metrics or the reputation of the journal.
  • We will consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) and be attentive to a broad range of impact measures, including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.

As individual researchers and decision-makers

  • We will make assessments based on scholarly content rather than publication metrics in decision-making (e.g. internal funding, recruitment, probation, or promotion).
  • We will, wherever appropriate, cite primary literature in which observations and research findings are first reported rather than reviews, thereby giving credit where credit is due.
  • We will use a diverse range of article metrics and indicators on personal and supporting statements as evidence of the impact of individual published articles and other research outputs.
  • We will challenge research assessment practices that rely on journal impact factors and promote best practice that focuses on the value and influence of a diversity of research outputs.

Research Ethics and Integrity

Cardiff University is committed to upholding the principles of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity and to fostering a research environment which enables and encourages all of its researchers to maintain the highest standards of integrity in all aspects of research.   The University has robust governance arrangements and support structures in this area, including a dedicated University-level committee responsible for the oversight of Research Integrity, Research Ethics and Open Research and for ensuring the University meets the requirements of the Concordat (the “Open Research Integrity and Ethics Committee” (ORIEC)).  ORIEC is chaired by the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Enterprise who is also the University’s named senior academic lead for Research Integrity.  

ORIEC has established various sub-committees and groups to take the lead in advancing specific areas of work (subject to ORIEC’s approval, where required).  The current sub-committees and groups are as follows: 

  • School Research Ethics Committees (each of the University’s Academic Schools has a dedicated Research Ethics Committee and School Ethics Officer) 
  • Human Tissue Standards Committee
  • Biological Standards Committee 
  • Joint Research Governance Group 
  • Open Research Operational Group 

ORIEC also receives regular reports from the University’s Research Culture Development Group to help ensure that the University’s work in the areas of Research Integrity and Research Culture are mutually reinforcing and aligned. 

The University has a dedicated, public facing, “Research Integrity and ethics” webpage which provides further detail about the University’s approach to Research Integrity, together with the University’s Annual Statements on Research Integrity.  The University also engages closely with external bodies in areas of relevance to Research Integrity and is a member of UKRIO, UKRN, and various sector groups, including the Russell Group Research Integrity Forum. 

“Openness” and “Rigour” both feature as core Research Integrity values in the University’s Research Integrity and Governance Code of Practice (the University’s framework for good research practice) and within the University’s Research Integrity Training which is mandatory for Academic Staff, Doctoral, MRes and MPhil students.  There are institutional expectations and guidance on openness and rigour embedded within the Code of Practice and within the Research Integrity Training, alongside a dedicated intranet area on “Open Research” which provides further guidance and signposting to other relevant policies and procedures (those relating to Open Access, Open Data and registered reports for example).   As part of the University’s commitment to Open Research, and aligned to our institutional Open Research Position Statement and membership of UKRN, work is underway to further bolster the University’s guidance in this area and to ensure that Open Research practice is embedded across the research portfolio.