National Open Research Festival: early career researchers call for research assessment reform
| 14 December, 2023 | Zoe Brooke |
On 2-3 November 2023, the inaugural National Open Research Festival was held by the National Open Research Forum (NORF) at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. HRB Open Research was represented at the event by Hannah Wilson, Publisher at F1000; Patricia Clarke, Programme Manager at the HRB; and Irene Castellano, Project Officer at the HRB.
The programme for the two-day event aimed to provide a forum for stakeholders from all parts of the research community to discuss opportunities related to Ireland’s transition to open research.
In a great sign of interest in and commitment to Ireland’s open research future, registration for the Festival reached maximum capacity, so those unable to join in person were able to watch a live stream of day one of the event, which can be viewed here.
In our blog, we highlight some of the key takeaways from the Festival.
Sharing the success of HRB Open Research
Hannah Wilson, Publisher at F1000, gave a lightning talk at the Festival to share the experiences of launching and nurturing the platform over the last 5+ years.
In this session, Hannah shared data on how HRB Open Research is being used, the article types being published, who is using it, and how it may be contributing to an open culture more broadly among Irish health researchers.
The session focused on the popularity of Study Protocols on the platform, presenting data that showed protocols citing HRB grant funding across all journals have grown from fewer than 20 in 2017 to 68 in 2022.
This trend has also been reflected among the broader Irish health research community, with researchers publishing three times the number of protocols in 2022 compared with 2017. This culture shift, driven in part by HRB Open Research, is seen as a positive step for increasing transparency and rigour at this early stage of health research projects.
With some NORF-funded projects dedicated to investigating new diamond publishing models for Ireland, the lightning talk was an important opportunity to share what we have jointly built with the wider community.
Giving early career researchers the floor
In a move that was applauded by many attendees, the sole panel of the Festival was dedicated to early career researchers (ECRs): Yensi Flores Bueso from University College Cork, Noémie Aubert Bonn from the University of Manchester, Irene Castellano from the HRB, Stefan Müller from University College Dublin, and Melissa Sharp from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.
During this session, the panellists gave their perspectives on research assessment, its impact on research culture, and their thoughts on the changes that are needed to ensure that the transition to an open research future for Ireland is achievable.
Noémie set the scene by sharing insights from focus groups and surveys conducted with researchers in Belgium. These surveys and focus groups demonstrated that publications are, by and large, still how the majority of researchers feel they are assessed – regardless of what researchers say they value and see as important in advancing science.
There were also interesting findings around publishing negative results. Researchers reported that they know it is important to advance science, but that there are too many barriers to publishing this work, and that sharing failures in this way can feel dangerous to future career advancement, especially for ECRs.
Melissa gave a passionate testimony of the experiences of ECRs in Ireland, the reasons to be optimistic, and the realities of research assessment in practice. Melissa highlighted the lack of transparency in institutional assessment panels and their processes, in addition to the power that anonymous review can hold, as mirrored in closed peer review systems. She ended with a call for increased transparency in review panels and processes.
Stefan called for a shift in terminology towards ‘additional’ rather than ‘alternative’ research metrics, acknowledging that peer reviewed publishing will likely always be a key part of how researchers are assessed but should not be at the expense of other outputs. Stefan highlighted some of these other outputs such as sharing data, code, and open source software, which can have highly valuable impacts in the community but are currently undervalued and therefore seen as risky for ECRs to dedicate time to.
Finally, Irene spoke on behalf of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) to share their stance that research assessment practices are restricting diversity in academia, both in the workforce and in the way research challenges are approached. Skills that are critical to a strong research ecosystem, like teaching, trans-disciplinary working, and communications, are undervalued and not being nurtured. The MCAA Policy Brief on responsible research career assessment can be found here.
Through the Q&A and discussions that continued into the breaks, the consensus seemed clear that ECRs know that open research is the right direction of travel for both researchers and society – but progress towards that goal will only happen if the research system ECRs are working in adapts to match this reality.
Momentum for change
Building on the six NORF projects funded in 2022, attendees at the Festival also had the chance to hear from representatives from some of the 13 newly funded consortia-based projects launched in October 2023.
These projects cover disciplines from the arts and humanities to medical and health sciences, and examine open research from all angles, including data management and training, publishing venues, public engagement, and more.
It’s exciting to watch what outputs these projects will bring, and hopefully the next Festival will bring an opportunity to hear what they achieve.
HRB Open Research and research assessment reform
Research assessment reform is critical to the move toward open science in academia and scholarly publishing. The Health Research Board is committed to supporting this reform as both a signatory of CoARA and DORA and in providing HRB Open Research.
Many of the practices underpinning HRB Open Research can help achieve this, including
- Not having a Journal Impact Factor, instead promoting the responsible use of individual article indicators.
- An open data policy, including software and code, that facilitates the reproducibility of research and helps demonstrate researchers’ involvement in open science practices.
- Supporting 11 article types, including dedicated Data and Software article types, and brief article types that can aid in working with stakeholders and policymakers, such as Research Notes, Case Reports, and Correspondence.
- A broad scope that supports all results, including publication of confirmatory, null, and negative results.
- Opportunities for increased credit for additional academic activities, such as peer reviewing and co-reviewing for ECRs (each peer review report can be cited independently from the article).
Find out more about HRB Open Research and research assessment reform.
If you’re an HRB-funded researcher, you can publish your work with HRB Open Research at no cost and benefit from these alternative measures in research assessment, including rapid publication, open access, open peer review, and diverse article types.
Find out more about submitting your research today.