Open research – publishing with greater transparency than open access
| 1 July, 2024 | Jack Nash |
In the ever-changing landscape of academic research, openness stands as a cornerstone for transparency and collaboration. However, it’s crucial to recognise that not all approaches to openness are equal.
What is open access?
Open access (OA) provides immediate, permanent, and free access to scholarly research published online so that anyone, anywhere, can read and build upon research.
An article or research output is considered ‘open access’ when anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for, and search within that output. Open access material can also be reused under the terms and conditions of its specific license. Unlike the traditional ‘pay to read’ publishing model, the open access ‘pay to publish’ model allows readers to access scholarly information without having to pay a subscription fee. Instead, when an author chooses to publish an article open access, they may be required to pay an article processing charge (APC), or they may be eligible to publish open access with no author-facing fees, depending on the type of open access publication they choose to publish with.
Why open access?
The primary goal of open access is to ensure research discoveries are widely accessible and can be built upon to drive real change in the world.
Research advancement leads to improved quality of life, more efficient treatments, new industries, and solutions to challenges like the COVID- 19 pandemic and climate change. As such, the more people can read and build upon the latest research, the more likely we will benefit as a society.
Yet, research breakthroughs are often hampered by technical, legal, and financial barriers, including paywalls. This prevents the timely use of valuable new research findings because many are not able to access research findings.
This is where open access publishing can help. With its ability to reduce barriers, expand access, and promote innovation, open access accelerates research and solves societal issues.
However, there are limitations to the openness available in open access models, and open research provides a suitable alternative.
Difference between open access & open research
Open research goes beyond open access. To publish your research openly and reach a wider readership, it’s important to understand all aspects of openness.
Open research is a set of principles and practices that prioritize openness, transparency, and collaboration across the entire research cycle, whereas open access focuses only on the primary output, for example, a research article.
In STEM disciplines, open research is often referred to as ‘open science’. However, open research is inclusive of the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Arguably, research in any discipline can achieve its maximum potential impact when it is disseminated as widely as possible.
Advocates of open research believe that all research outputs should be freely available and reusable to support reproducibility and equal access to knowledge. This includes the final research article and the underlying data, methods, software, and code.
How to achieve an open research approach
There are many approaches which can be adopted to make the publishing process more transparent. These include:
Making data freely available for all readers
Open data is data that is available for everyone to access, use, and share. For researchers, this refers to any datasets collected or created as part of your research project. Your research data is the evidence that underpins your findings and can be used to validate the claims made in your publication. By making this available, others can build upon your findings, offering opportunities for collaboration and furthering your work.
Using an open peer review model
Open peer review is an open research practice that enables transparency and accountability in the peer review process. Typically, it refers to any peer review model that makes aspects of the peer review process publicly available before or after publication. These may include:
- Open reports: Peer review reports are published for anyone to read.
- Open identities: Author and/or reviewer identities are shared publicly.
- Open participation: The wider research community are given a forum to comment on the research.
For advancing knowledge and driving innovation, openness in research is paramount. Understanding openness, from open access to open research, is crucial for navigating academic research and communication. To find out how to publish your Gates-funded research with Gates Open Research, click here
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