Open Research
Find out more about the Open Research activities at the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Open Research Roadmap
The Edinburgh Open Research Roadmap will guide our move towards Open Research as the "new normal" across all research disciplines in the university. As an active member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) we have based this roadmap on the "Open Science and its role in universities: a roadmap for cultural change" (https://www.leru.org/publications/open-science-and-its-role-in-universities-a-roadmap-for-cultural-change) paper published by LERU in 2018.
Our progress against the 2022 roadmap has been reviewed and an updated 2023 roadmap is now available. This reflects the progress that has been made and the challenges that remain. We would welcome any comments or feedback on this updated plan, these should be sent to Dominic Tate (dominic.tate@ed.ac.uk) as tracked changes on the word version of the Roadmap.
Over the next few years we will continue to make progress on this roadmap and an updated version will be published in January of each year.
The 2022 version of the Roadmap can still be downloaded below.
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Open Research, or Open Science as it's commonly known in much of the rest of the world, is research conducted and published via a combination of two or more of the following attributes:
- Open Access publication
- Open research data
- Open source software and code
- Open notebooks
- Open infrastructure
- Pre-registration of studies
At Edinburgh we have made a conscious choice to use the more inclusive term "Open Research" over "Open Science" in order to underscore the relevance of the terminology across the entire University, from Physics to Fashion. It is not a binary, either-or situation, but rather a continuum that runs from fully closed to fully open.The drivers behind Open Research are both idealistic and pragmatic: it argues that publicly funded research is a public good, and ought to be accessible by everyone with minimal barriers or paywalls, and also that openness benefits society by speeding up the research process, facilitating the reuse of research outputs for new purposes, and increasing transparency and public trust. By making the full record of research "as open as possible and as closed as necessary", and taking active steps to preserve not only research publications but also the data, protocols and documentation that support them, the conclusions of research remain accessible and reproducible for contemporaries and future generations alike.
Edinburgh Open Research Conference 2023
*SAVE THE DATE* The University’s Library Research Support Team is planning the 2nd Edinburgh Open Research Conference, which will be held in the John McIntyre Conference Centre and Online on the 15th - 17th June.
Edinburgh Open Research Initiative – EORI
Edinburgh Open Research Initiative (EORI) is a grassroots collective of students and staff based primarily at the University of Edinburgh, promoting awareness of and training in Open Research practices and policies, and lobbying for these to be implemented and formally recognised by the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh ReproducibiliTea
ReproducibiliTea is a world-wide network of open research (journal) clubs that discuss ideas about improving transparency and reproducibility in research work, and the open research movement at a larger scale.
Research Data Service
Research Data Service provides a suite of tools and support that helps staff and students be effective with their research data before, during and after their project.
Research Information Management
Systems support for Pure, Worktribe, Research Professional and Equipment.data. This team looks after the system administration, training and reporting for the University's various Research Information Management systems, including Pure, Worktribe, Research Professional and Equipment.data.
Publishing your research
Support for Open Access, REF 2021 (Research Excellence Framework), electronic Theses and Dissertations and ISBN allocation.
Edinburgh Diamond
Edinburgh Diamond is a service provided by Edinburgh University Library that supports the publication of academic and student-led Open Access books and journals, using Open Journal System (OJS) and Open Monograph Press (OMP).
Open Research Hub
The IAD Open Research Hub has more information on Open Research tools at the University of Edinburgh
Open Content LibGuide
Our Open Content LibGuide tells you eeverything you need to know about Open Access and Open Educational Resources.
Software Sustainability Institute
The Software Sustainability Institute cultivates better, more sustainable, research software to enable world-class research.
We help people build better software, and we work with researchers, developers, funders and infrastructure providers to identify key issues and best practice in scientific software.
protocols.io
An online platform for the creation, management, and sharing of research protocols or methods. The University has a subscription to the protocols.io service and it is available to all staff and students of the University.
Noteable
Create and share computational notebooks hassle-free for teaching and learning through your VLE. Use any language and environment through a centralised hub. Built from the powerful Jupyter project, Noteable.
RSpace notebooks
The University of Edinburgh-hosted RSpace service benefits from integration with local infrastructure, allowing researchers to log in with their University login (EASE), link to files on DataStore, and archive data in DataShare.