Contents
Partner Institutions
Partners of the Research England Open Research ProgrammeUniversity of Reading
UKRN links
Institutional lead: Etienne Roesch (0.2 FTE)
Local Network Lead: Anna Tsakalaki (0.1 FTE)
Open Research Coordinator: Evangeline Gowie (1.0 FTE)
Open Research
Statements:
Signatory to concordats and other national and international declarations:
- Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics (04/2018)
- UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity (2012) – through UUK
- Concordat on Open Research Data (2016) – through UUK
- Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2019) – through UUK
- UK HR Excellence in Research (2009)
- European Charter for Researchers (2009)
Statement on supporting research staff
Governance:
The University Board for Research & Innovation (UBRI) oversees research activities, and reports to Senate and the Executive Board. The Commitee for Open Research and Research Integrity (CORRI), chaired by Prof Parveen Yaqoob (PVC and Dep VC), reports to UBRI and oversees strategy, policies and implementation of activites to foster best practices in research, open research and research integrity. Its remit includes academic and professional services, as well as the Graduate School.
Guidance and policies:
Open research / Data/software management policies
Tools and systems:
Training
Implementing the 2019 University’s Strategy for Research & Innovation, the CORRI developed an Open Research Action Plan 2021-23 that organises and funds training activities across all Schools and Functions, interdisciplinary research centres, and campuses. In the current period, this has included an OR Champion scheme, training on software engineering, reproducibility and statistics. The CORRI also developed training on research integrity that is scheduled to be deployed and incorporated in University processes (probation, awards and promotions) from January 2023. The ORAP complements training that’s available to staff and students, developed and provided by Functions independently, on various platforms. Moving forward, the CORRI aims to consolidate the training available on a single, open platform.
Under the Researcher Development Concordat, each researcher is allocated:
- A minimum of 10 days professional development, pro rata, per year,
- Further time to enable them to develop a research identity and broader leadership skills,
- Professional advice on career management, across a breadth of careers
Training resources openly available on open research, including on the following topics:
Responsible Research Assessment / Recognition and Reward for open research
The University made a conscious decision to sign the Leiden Manifesto, instead of DORA until it was certain that it could comply with its requirements, which we perceived as more strict. The CORRI established a dedicated working group to evaluate current processes, identify and map the steps required to incorporate the changes into policies. As for December 2022, the current workplan sees the University formally signing DORA (and being able to prove compliance) in the academic year 2022-23. See:
Research Ethics and Integrity
The CORRI oversees both research integrity and ethics policies, and in compliance with the Concordat to Support Research Integrity publishes annual statement (See 2021-22 statement). Whilst we have had efficient processes to regulate ethical practices in research, through both School-level and University-level Research Ethics Committees, the CORRI working group on research integrity has developed and trialed in-house RI training, which is scheduled to launch in the Spring 2023. All material of the training will be made available for others to use.
Other
Dr Roesch, UKRN Institution Lead, is an active member of the UKRN Supervisory Board, and lead for the Workstream “sharing practice” on the UKRN Research England national programme. He is also Secretary of the Emerging Applications Section of the Royal Statistical Society, within which he is raising awareness of issues related to reproducibility and open research.
He is also PI on projects funded by the Research Data Alliance, the European Open Science Cloud and the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, with the central aim of developing and sharing best practices in open and robust research.