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2023 marks five years of HRB Open Research – the innovative publishing platform launched by the Health Research Board (HRB) to support its grantees in publishing their findings openly and transparently.

In this blog, we explore:

• How the open research landscape has changed in Ireland since 2018
• How the HRB’s open research policies and strategies continue to evolve to meet these changes
• The role of HRB Open Research in supporting Irish researchers
• Key publishing highlights from the last five years.

Open research: a changing landscape in Ireland

“I am delighted to see HRB Open Research reach this milestone date, and to have achieved such success in that time.

Over the past five years, and as led by the HRB’s open research policies and strategies, this innovative platform has led to a much greater appreciation of the benefits of open research and the importance of collaboration and transparency in the research ecosystem. Ultimately, this will establish more trust in the research process.

I look forward to seeing HRB Open Research build on these achievements and celebrate many more milestones to come.”

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, Chief Executive Officer, Health Research Board

HRB Open Research was launched in 2018 when open research and open access publishing continued to gain momentum in the research community.

According to Dimensions data, 2,183 publications were published open access in 2018 across Ireland. That number has since risen to 3,668 publications in 2021 and 3,309 publications in 2022 – a 68% and 52% increase respectively.

While some of that may be attributed to the so-called ‘Covid spike’ in research, it’s clear that open access publishing continues to increase its footing among researchers, funders, and institutions alike.

This is supported by widespread policy changes at both an international and national level, with work in Ireland driven in part by the National Open Research Forum (NORF).

Established in 2017, NORF is responsible for driving the Irish agenda for open research and published its National Action Plan 2022-2030 last year. The Action Plan outlines objectives and actions for the next chapter in Ireland’s transition towards open research and serves as a roadmap for a series of actions, some of which are already being funded and making progress.

The HRB’s support for open research

Open research and open access have been central to the HRB for many years. The first policy on open access came into effect in 2014, and the commitment to enhancing real-world impact of research was once again underlined in the 2021-2025 HRB strategy – Health research – making an impact.

Mandating that all peer reviewed publications resulting from HRB funding must be published open access, the policy is designed to support greater transparency, accountability, and public awareness of the results of publicly funded research, and the free flow of information across national and international research communities.

As a result, there has been a significant increase in HRB-funded work being published open access over the past five years, with 358 HRB-funded open access publications in 2018, rising to 611 publications in 2021 and 518 publications in 2022 – a 70% and 45% increase respectively (Dimensions data).

Alongside its own policies, the HRB has contributed to multiple open research initiatives over the years, from signing the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) agreement in 2017 to endorsing the National Action Plan for Open Research in 2022.

Spotlight on open data

“Five years of HRB Open Research is something all of us at the HRB are really proud of.

Future practices should continue to grow and evolve, characterised by a greater emphasis on sharing research data, methods and results; increased transparency and accountability in the peer review process; and shaped by changing technologies and social norms.

Through HRB Open Research, we have surrounded ourselves with people who have challenged our expectations on delivering open research, and this approach is supporting us to make better long-term decisions for our entire portfolio of funded research.”

Dr Patricia Clarke, Programme Manager: EU Programmes and Policy, Health Research Board

Open data as a key element of open research has come more to the forefront in recent years, with an increased emphasis on sharing all data and software openly and in a reusable way.

The FAIR guiding principles outline a framework for sharing data in a way that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable, with many researchers beginning to implement this in their own work.

HRB-funded researchers are encouraged to share their data as openly as possible following the introduction of the HRB policy on management and sharing of research data in 2020, with open data sharing also mandated as part of publishing with HRB Open Research.

This commitment to open data is underlined in the HRB’s 2021 – 2025 strategy, with better access to, and use of, health and social care data identified as a key objective. This will include the establishment of a national COVID-19 data hub for research, working with international partners to facilitate better data sharing, and acting as a key spokesperson for encouraging open data throughout research.

On HRB Open Research, our data-sharing policies match the commitments of the HRB, requiring authors to share their underlying data in a repository. Our editorial team also supports authors in this aim, advising on all aspects of data sharing and writing data availability statements.

Highlights from five years of publishing

HRB Open Research is a key component of the HRB’s support for open research, providing a fully open access publishing venue for all HRB-funded research with no author-facing fees.

Supporting 11 different article types to enable researchers to publish their work at every stage of the research project, the Platform is underpinned by open data and open peer review, with a focus on research-level metrics rather than journal impact factors to help advance changes in research assessment.

In the past five years, over 2,000 authors from across the HRB host institutions, in addition to international co-authors, totalling 379 different institutions and 39 different countries have published their research with the Platform, with over 380 articles covering everything from the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to long-term palliative care planning in Ireland.

Authors have fully embraced the ability to publish their research outputs at every stage of the research journey through diverse article types, with 22% of all research published as a traditional Research Article, and the other 78% made up of non-traditional article types such as Study Protocols and Systematic Reviews.

Publishing work open access has also helped amplify the reach of HRB-funded researchers, with over 231,000 article views, over 21,000 article downloads, and over 980 article citations across the Platform, including coverage in news outlets such as RTÉ and The Journal.ie.

Publish your own research with HRB Open Research

HRB Open Research will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of Ireland’s researchers and the open research landscape more widely.

If you’re ready to join the thousands of HRB-funded researchers already publishing with HRB Open Research, find out more about the Platform and submit your research today.

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