What is Open Research?
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In this episode of PGR Matters, Matthew Sillence and Grant Young introduce postgraduate researchers to open research, exploring how transparency, FAIR and CARE principles, and ethical considerations shape the way research—especially in the humanities—is made accessible, reusable, and accountable.
This first episode of season 2 on PGR Matters introduces Open Research and why it matters for postgraduate researchers. Matthew explores how open access policies (especially UKRI from 2021) have reshaped expectations that publicly funded research outputs should be freely available and reusable, with evidence that open access work gains wider and more diverse citations.
Our guest in this episode is Grant Young, Head of Open Research at the University of East Anglia Library and in conversation, move from open access publications to open research across the whole project lifecycle. Key ideas include transparency (making methods, decisions, and processes visible where appropriate), the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), and planning for future reuse of data by both humans and machines.
The episode also introduces the MORPHSS project and CARE principles (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, Ethics), stressing that open practices must be balanced with ethical responsibilities, especially when working with marginalized communities.
[00:00:11 – 00:04:11] – Series introduction, definition of open research, UKRI policy, citation benefits
[00:04:11 – 00:11:25] – Grant Young’s role, open research beyond publications, transparency as a research attitude
[00:11:25 – 00:19:49] – Funders, public money, research impact, and the open research support team in the library
[00:19:49 – 00:30:08] – FAIR principles, especially interoperability, metadata, formats, and AI/machine readability
[00:30:08 – 00:34:35] – Open research in the humanities and cross-disciplinary learning between humanities and STEM
[00:34:35 – 00:39:54] – MORPHSS, reproducibility vs replicability, FAIR vs CARE, ethics and marginalized communities, next-episode teaser
Links
- Arthur, Paul Longley, and Lydia Hearn. 2021. ‘Toward Open Research: A Narrative Review of the Challenges and Opportunities for Open Humanities.’ Journal of Communication 71 (5): 827–53. APA PsycInfo (2022-60288-008). https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab028.
- Ensuring open research – UKRI
- Knöchelmann, Marcel. 2019. ‘Open Science in the Humanities, or: Open Humanities?’ Publications 7 (4): 65–65. Directory of Open Access Journals (edsdoj.5fc9ac3e28c04ae8b32e598c5f86fb10). https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7040065.
- MORPHSS – Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Open Research - UEA Library at University of East Anglia
Licence
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Credits
Music by Matthew Sillence.