Understanding the impact of Open Research at the University of Birmingham.
In June 2023, the library kicked-off a project, supported by internal Quality-Related funding. A Project Officer with coding expertise analysed data about publications, datasets and other outputs produced by Birmingham academics. Conversations with researchers from many career stages and disciplines were also conducted, exposing exemplars of good practice and open research culture.
Overview
- We combined Dimensions data and the coding skills of our PGR Project Officer to show the relationship between Open Research practice to citation rates and policy mentions.
- We visualised University of Birmingham Open Research activity school by school to inform ongoing conversations.
- We conducted conversations with researchers from PhD to Professor to find stories about how open research could be performed and how open culture could be cultivated.
Findings
- There are correlations in Open Access publication and citations at the University of Birmingham.
- There have been encouraging increases in Open Research activity in the institution.
- There are exciting, scalable exemplars of practice to be found at the University of Birmingham.
Legacy
- Coding assets to enable improved compliance monitoring.
- Bank of advocacy assets and inspirational stories
- Intelligence to brief schools on Open Research achievements.
- Professional Services experience for PhD project candidate Project Officer.
- New relationships/partnerships with Professional Services colleagues and Open Research academic champions.
Messages from Open Researchers
- “Open code shared by Software Engineer colleagues have enabled open digital humanities resources like mine to be created in other countries”
- “I share ‘practice research’ outputs with those who have helped me create them”
- “As a new PI, I know from experience to cost OR into grant proposals”
- “I have taught my supervisor how to use Open Science Framework to register her protocols”
- “My fourth year undergraduates create GitHub accounts, upload code and add the link to their CV”
Further reading