Open Research (also known as Open Science) is the practice of applying principles of openness to every stage of the research lifecycle. Openness in research increases transparency and removes access barriers. This approach aligns with the University of Manchester's core aims of advancing knowledge through research and contributing to the wellbeing of society, and has the potential to increase both opportunities for collaboration and impact.

At this first Open Research Exchange event, organised by the University of Manchester Library, attendees will hear about the University's roadmap for supporting and facilitating open research practices. Attendees will also hear from a multidisciplinary lineup of researchers who are embedding open research principles in their practice.

The event is free and open to all. Presentations from open research practitioners will intend to spark conversations, encourage attendees to exchange their own experiences, and inspire others to embed open research principles in their work.

Register to attend now and Zoom details will be sent closer to the date of the event.

The speakers

Andrew Stewart (Division of Neuroscience & Experimental Psychology)

Andrew Stewart is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology in FBMH and a Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute. He co-founded and chairs the University of Manchester's Open Research Working Group, and represents the University as a member of the UK Reproducibility Network. In his presentation, Andrew will give a brief overview of the so-called "replication crisis" in the biomedical and life sciences and describe ways in which researchers can engage with and adopt open and reproducible practices in their own work. 

Jade Pickering (Division of Neuroscience & Experimental Psychology)

ReproducibiliTea is a grassroots journal club initiative that helps early career researchers create local groups at their universities to discuss diverse issues, papers, and ideas about improving research, reproducibility, and transparency. Founded in 2018 at the University of Oxford, the initiative has spread to over 100 universities across the globe. As part of Jade's community building role in the international ReproducibiliTea parent organisation, and co-founder of the University of Manchester’s group, she will be talking about how they try and create a space to empower early career researchers to be the voice of positive change.

Nathan Khadaroo-McCheyne (Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research)

Citizen science is often cited as a subcategory of open science, for example by the European Union's Digital Agenda for Science. However, questions have been raised about how open Citizen Science is in practice, with issues ranging from a lack of norms around data sharing and research integrity to mostly irreproducible results. In this talk, Nathan will outline how Citizen Science often fails to live up to its open science reputation and suggest some ways in which we can move forward.

David Eisner (Division of Cardiovascular Sciences)

David Eisner researches the mechanisms which control  the strength of the heartbeat with a particular emphasis on the regulation of intracellular calcium concentration.   He has had a long association with scientific publishing  and is currently Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of General Physiology.  His experiences as both author and Editor have made him interested in the “reproducibility crisis” which he has written about  doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2017.10.009

Sarah Bridle (Department of Physics and Astronomy)

Sarah spent the last 20 years doing research in astrophysics and saw the field move from paywalled journals to arXiv as the primary means of communication between researchers. About 15 years ago she collaborated with UCL library on a project to investigate attitudes to author-pays and overlay journal models - but found that this idea was ahead of its time. For the last 4 years she has been researching the topic of how different foods impact the environment and experienced a very different environment - more like astrophysics was some time ago.