Cancer Research UK are piloting a new pathway alongside the grant application and review process for researchers to submit Registered Reports to journals for peer review. This pilot is being delivered by Cancer Research UK, working with a consortium of 13 journals and evaluated by the TARG Meta-Research Group at the University of Bristol. This aims to promote research integrity and reproducibility.

Agenda

Embedding open research in routine practice – the case of Registered Reports

Prof Marcus Munafò, TARG Meta-Research Group

What are Registered Reports Funding Partnerships?

Dr Jackie Thompson, TARG Meta-Research Group

Perspectives from a Publisher

Dr Nonia Pariente Penamaria, Editor-in-Chief, PLOS Biology

The CRUK Pilot and how does it work?

Dr Anbu Paramasivan, Cancer Research UK

Speaker Biographies:

Prof Marcus Munafò

Marcus Munafo is a Professor of Biological Psychology and MRC Investigator at the University of Bristol. He has a long standing interest in the factors that influence research quality, and in 2019 co-founded the UK Reproducibility Network (www.ukrn.org).

He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and a member of the Cancer Research UK Prevention and Population Research Committee.

Dr Jackie Thompson

Dr Jackie Thompson is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Bristol, where she recently led a meta-research project examining how Registered Reports funding partnerships between funders and journals affect the efficiency and quality of research. She herself has published and reviewed several Registered Reports.

Jackie completed her PhD in experimental psychology (University of Oxford), where her interest in improving research practice began. In the intervening years she has led several efforts in training and educating researchers on open and robust research practices, including developing primers, videos, and training workshops for the UK Reproducibility Network.

Nonia Pariente Penamaria

Nonia received a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Autonoma University of Madrid, the latter for studies on RNA virus evolution and new antiviral strategies in the lab of Esteban Domingo. Nonia then moved to UCLA for postdoctoral research, where she focused on developing lentiviral vectors for gene therapy in Irvin Chen’s laboratory. In 2007, Nonia joined the EMBO reports editorial team and over 8 years, held various editorial roles in which she was responsible for a broad range of topics within molecular and cell biology. In 2015, Nonia joined the launch team of Nature Microbiology and, after handling microbiology at Nature for a year, became Chief Editor of Nature Microbiology in 2019. In March 2020, Nonia joined PLOS Biology as Editor-in-Chief.

Dr Anbu Paramasivam

Anbu Paramasivam has worked at Cancer Research UK since late 2017, where he works as a Research Programme Manager mainly in strategic activities associated with its Prevention and Population Research Committee. After completing a PhD in Pharmacology, he has since worked in research grant funding over 12 years- initially at the Royal Society and now at Cancer Research UK.

We welcome everyone to join this webinar, however due to time constraints in the Q&A please note that we will prioritise questions from researchers, including those interested in applying to the funding schemes, in the first instance. Participants are welcome to follow-up by emailing policies@cancer.org.uk

Cancer Research UK is committed to being an inclusive funder and to ensuring the researchers we attract, support and retain are as diverse as possible. We encourage you to complete the form in full, so we receive enough information for data analysis.

Find out more about the pilot on our website: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/how-we-deliver-research/positive-research-culture/registered-reports

Further details to follow.

Registered Reports at Cancer Research UK