National policy landscape and initiatives
Ensuring a positive and healthy research culture is crucial to building the UK’s reputation as a global leader in research.
R&D People and Culture Strategy
This strategy sets out government’s ambition to build the research and innovation workforce the UK needs, working in a positive and inclusive culture. In order to deliver this vision, action is needed in three key areas:
- People: Redefining what it means to work in R&D in the 21st Century – valuing all the roles that make it a success and ensuring the UK has the capability and capacity it needs.
- Culture: Co-creating a vision of the culture we want to see within the sector - working together to make lasting change happen so that researchers and innovators with diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking can thrive and do their best work in the UK.
- Talent: Renewing the UK’s position as a global leader in R&D in attracting, retaining and developing talented people, making sure careers in UK R&D are attractive to talented individuals and teams both domestically and internationally.
R&D People and Culture Strategy
Wellcome's vision and strategy
Diversity and inclusion and research culture are central to Wellcome's strategy.
Diversity, equity and inclusion strategy
Research culture: let's reimagine how we work together
Race and Gender in Science and Medicine
Wellcome Trust Strategic Project 'Emerging Research Cultures' has developed a resource on race and gender in science and medicine, listing readings, videos, and podcasts on these topics. Each item is annotated with a brief description of its content and the materials are divided into various useful sub-categories. One of the main divisions in the materials is between resources dealing with the makeup of the scientific community (the 'who' of science) and those looking at how race and gender biases find their way into the content of science, including scientific methodologies and results (the 'how' of science). It is designed to be a live resource so the content is growing.
Race and Gender in Science and Medicine
Royal Society’s the Résumé for Researchers
Résumé for Researchers can be adapted to a range of different processes that require a summative evaluation of a researcher, recognising that their relative importance will be context-specific. The four modules of the CV capture outputs and success measures found on a standard research CV, such as publications, funding and awards, as well as activities such as public engagement, training and knowledge exchange.
Royal Society’s the Résumé for Researchers
UK Funders joint statement: Exploring a shared approach towards a narrative CV
This joint statement, which has been signed by Alzheimer's Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, National Institute for Health Research, Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Research and Innovation, and Wellcome, commits to exploring a shared approach towards a narrative CV format based on Royal Society’s the Résumé for Researchers.
Russell Group's report: "Realising Our Potential: Backing Talent and Strengthening UK Research Culture and Environment"
The Realising Our Potential report examines the drivers and incentives that shape the UK academic research culture, and sets out practical ideas and suggestions to strengthen the working culture and environment for researchers.
Russell Group's Realising Our Potential report
Concordats and agreements: their role in supporting effective research culture and working environments
This review was commissioned by Universities UK, UKRI and Wellcome to gather insights on the adoption and impact of various concordats and agreements currently in place across the national research landscape.
The Researchers Development Concordat
The Researcher Development Concordat is an agreement between stakeholders to improve the employment and support for researchers and researcher careers in higher education in the UK. The University of Edinburgh is one of the signatories.
The Concordat sets out three clear principles:
- environment and culture
- employment
- professional and career development
The principles are underpinned by obligations for the four key stakeholder groups, funders, institutions, researchers and managers of researchers, to realise the aims of the Concordat.
The Researcher Development Concordat
Technician Commitment
The Technician Commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines.
The Commitment includes four areas of focus:
- visibility
- recognition
- career development
- sustainability
The University of Edinburgh signed the Technician Commitment in September 2017.
Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) research culture survey
ARMA Research Culture Survey was the first ever survey to focus on the experiences of those who support, manage and design many of the polices, processes and strategies that inform research culture. The Survey also explored how to improve research culture for all, including research administrators, librarians, lawyers, project/strategy managers, policymakers, and how to give a voice to those who are often overlooked.
ARMA Research Culture Survey 2020 (PDF)
UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) guidance on authorship
This guidance highlights particular challenges relating to authorship and aims to foster discussion on what might constitute good practice in the authorship of research publications.
UKRIO Good Practice in Research: Authorship (PDF)
CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy)
CRediT is high-level taxonomy that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to scientific scholarly output. It includes 14 roles that describe each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output:
- Conceptualization
- Data curation
- Formal Analysis
- Funding acquisition
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Project administration
- Resources
- Software
- Supervision
- Validation
- Visualization
- Writing – original draft
- Writing – review & editing
CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy
The UK Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management
The UK Metric Tide review, published in 2015, identified 20 recommendations for further work and action by stakeholders across the UK research system, including:
- supporting the effective leadership
- governance and management of research cultures
- improving the data infrastructure that supports research information management
- increasing the usefulness of existing data and information sources
- using metrics in the next REF
- coordinating activity and building evidence
These recommendations are underpinned by the notion of ‘responsible metrics’ as a way of framing appropriate uses of quantitative indicators in the governance, management and assessment of research.
The UK Metric Tide (PDF)
Research Integrity: a landscape study
Research integrity: a landscape study report was commissioned by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in response to a recommendation from the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.
Evidence submitted to the Committee suggested UK research culture may disincentivise research integrity and highlighted the need to better understand incentives and effects in the UK research and funding system that influence behaviour in the context of research integrity.
Research Integrity: a landscape study
Research Integrity Landscape in the UK
This is a map illustrating the complex landscape of those involved in UK research integrity. The resource was produced by the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO).
Research Integrity Landscape in the UK
UKRIO Research Culture resources