{"id":1387,"date":"2024-10-24T10:04:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T09:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/library\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:30:20","slug":"open-research-blog-series-3-open-at-every-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/library\/open-research-blog-series-3-open-at-every-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Research Blog Series #3: Open at every stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The two contributions below are from researchers in different fields and at different stages of their careers. Chris is a senior lecturer and Open Research Lead for his School, while Calum is a postgraduate student at the early stage of a research project. Both used the Open Science Framework (OSF); a free open platform to support research and enable collaboration<\/a> to upload and share their research materials. In their Open Research blog pieces, they talk about the unexpected benefits this brought in terms of project planning, research collaborations, and citations<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We liked the idea of publishing these contributions together as it shows that Open Research practices can be applied by researchers at any career level to research at every stage of the life cycle. You don\u2019t have to wait until you are hold a senior position or are about to publish to put Open Research methods into practice. Starting with study pre-registration means the benefits of Open Research can be realised from the start<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have been engaging in open research practices since my PhD and they have brought many positive and often unexpected benefits to my own research career. For example, making the study materials and datasets associated with my publications freely available on the Open Science Framework has not just increased the impact of the original research, but has resulted in increased citations of my papers and multiple new research collaborations. I have co-authored several papers which I would never have been involved in if I hadn\u2019t made my data publicly available. Hence, having engaged with open science practices initially because it seemed the right thing to do for the research community, my career has also benefitted greatly from the increased engagement that resulted.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher Benwell <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Open Research Lead 
School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Engaging in open research practices is important for me. Earlier this year I published an open access protocol for a systematic review on the OSF registry. And while this could have been a checkbox activity before the study, I found it to be incredibly valuable. For a start, having an explicit written plan is always handy, and I found myself referring back to it many times as a sort of guide or reminder. But it also provided a useful explanatory tool when explaining what I was planning to others.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it also provides a time-stamped record of what was planned, and therefore helps to guide good practice in explaining how and why things deviated from this over the course of the study. And being able to list the protocol in the Discovery Research Portal was incredibly helpful in making it findable, not least by me!\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calum MacGillivray <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Postgraduate, Education and Society
School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Open Science Framework platform allows researchers to plan, work on, and share their research at every stage of the process<\/em>.  
 
On OSF researchers can apply Open Research practices including preregistering studies, collecting and analysing data, and publishing preprints. Research materials can be shared within teams and stakeholder or made public for wider collaboration.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research materials stored on OSF can also be uploaded to the Discovery Research Portal<\/a> as research outputs. Get in touch with Open Research and Publishing to find out more \u2013 discovery@dundee.ac.uk<\/a> <\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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