Purpose of the Statement
This Statement summarises the University’s approach to open research. It is aimed at all those at the University who are conducting, disseminating or supporting University research, either directly or indirectly. It sets out key principles for the conduct and support of open research at the University of Cambridge. The University encourages researchers (staff and students who are conducting research) to embed open research practices throughout the lifecycle of research projects and to make research outputs as open as possible, as closed as necessary.
This Statement is owned by the Open Research Steering Committee. It is supported by more detailed University Policy Frameworks on Open Access publication (which includes the Self-Archiving Policy) and Research Data Management. This Statement is informed by external frameworks including the UK ‘Concordat on Open Research Data’ (2016), the League of European Research Universities (LERU) advice paper ‘Open Science and its role in Universities: a roadmap for cultural change’ (2018), and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021).
This Statement aims to encourage at the University a culture of openness, transparency and inclusivity in research that transcends basic policy compliance, embraces all disciplinary areas and research practices, and invites researchers to explore the possibilities and benefits of open practices for their research. This serves to enhance research cultures at the University and to widen access to, and participation in, research more broadly. Open research practices and a culture based on openness together ensure that the University’s research and research outputs are of the highest integrity and quality, with the widest possible reach, impact and value.
1.1 Open research aims to provide open access to research outputs (e.g. publications, datasets, methods, code, software, hardware) in order to: unlock access to knowledge; increase the reach, reuse and impact of the University’s research; and increase equity, inclusivity and collaboration. Open outputs are available to everyone, everywhere, through free digital access. This increases opportunities globally for research participation and partnerships, building on and reusing previous knowledge to maximum effect. The University seeks to ensure not only that its own research is as openly available as possible but also aspires to encourage, support and advocate for models of open access that are equitable, affordable and inclusive of the research of others, to include those beyond the University of Cambridge.
1.2 Open research practices and outputs are critical to improving research transparency, as well as research reproducibility if applicable to the discipline or research being undertaken; both underpin research integrity and public trust in research.
1.3 The University promotes and supports open research across all disciplines, in all six Schools and non-School Institutions, to improve discoverability and maximise access to and reuse of knowledge and resources in accordance with our mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
1.4 An open research culture, based on mutual benefit across research communities, links researchers and the wider community through shared knowledge. By helping to further the global reach of Cambridge’s research and enabling Cambridge-based researchers to use open materials from other researchers, open research accelerates the pursuit of knowledge and innovation and fosters truly national and international collaboration.
1.5 The University strives to support the embedding of open research practices and principles in the varied research cultures that exist across the University, recognising and rewarding the open research contributions of researchers appropriately and responsibly while being sensitive and responsive to the requirements, practices and constraints (e.g. ethical, legal) of different fields of research.
1.6 The University is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and has committed to following its principles. DORA calls on institutions to recognise publications for their quality rather than according to any article-level or journal-level metrics (such as citation counts or journal impact factors). DORA also calls for the recognition in research assessment of the value of a broad range of research outputs, such as research datasets, software and code. The principles of DORA align with this Position Statement.
2.1 The University is committed to supporting the freedom of researchers to pursue new knowledge and to choose how and where to publish. Yet, within that free choice, the University encourages outputs of research to be made as open as possible and only as closed as necessary. The nature of research outputs, and their ownership, varies considerably both by discipline and by research context. Across the disciplinary spectrum there are a wide range of cultural settings that influence both capacity for and appropriateness of open research. It is recognised that restrictions to research output dissemination may apply, for example, when dealing with commercial interests, publisher requirements, third party rights holders, GDPR, participant or patient confidentiality, and confidential/sensitive data. Any access restrictions need to be proportionate and justified. Researchers are encouraged to work with the University’s professional services to determine the most appropriate approach in such circumstances, which may mean that certain research outputs, such as data (qualitative or quantitative), should remain closed or on limited access, or otherwise anonymised or pseudonymised. The University of Cambridge Research Data Management Policy Framework addresses how the University manages these issues while ensuring compliance with funder requirements.
2.2 The University relies on its researchers to uphold principles of scholarly rigour so that open materials are of the highest research quality and, where appropriate, will aid research reproducibility. It is expected that research transparency is exhibited in all disciplines, and that open and transparent research practices and behaviours are embedded throughout the course of research. This may include any of the following practices, as far as is possible and appropriate, thus recognising that some of these will not be feasible in all cases or applicable to all disciplines:
- Ensuring all article publications are made open access in a timely manner. This can be achieved by self-archiving the accepted publication in the institutional repository (i.e. ‘green’ open access, using the University’s Self-Archiving Policy) and by making the version of record open access with an appropriate open licence (e.g. ‘gold’, ‘hybrid’ or ‘diamond’ open access).
- Making early versions of papers available as preprints.
- Exploring open access publication options for books, book chapters and edited volumes that enable widest possible dissemination and access.
- Making the underlying data – in all its varied forms – relating to research projects and associated with publications openly available as early as possible and only as closed as necessary (e.g. to protect sensitive or confidential data).
- Making methods and protocols openly available as early as possible.
- Openly sharing non-traditional research outputs, such as code, software, hardware, creative works, reports, exhibitions, translations.
- Where appropriate to discipline, using study preregistration or registered reports as publication methods to support research transparency and sharing of null or negative results.
- Recording and curating metadata (information about the research process, research findings, research data, research materials) during the course of research and reporting this alongside relevant research outputs. This may include, for example, sharing digital or digitised versions of laboratory or research notebooks.
- Enabling discovery, access to and reuse of research outputs by: depositing those outputs, licensed appropriately, in a suitable online repository; adopting persistent identifiers for outputs (e.g. DOIs) and individuals (ORCID); providing identifiers relating to external funding; communicating and connecting related outputs by providing data/code/method availability statements in publications and citing outputs (and their persistent identifiers) within reference lists. Taking these actions when sharing data, metadata or code will help adherence to the FAIR principles, ensuring outputs are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.
- Exploring alternative and more open forms of peer review in which aspects of the peer review process are made publicly available, either before or after publication.
- Providing transparency around each author’s contribution to a work through author contribution statements or CRediT (Contributor Role Taxonomy), and fairly attributing others’ contributions to the research in acknowledgement statements.
- Sharing high quality educational resources openly to support open access to, and reuse of, materials to support research, teaching and learning.
- Widening participation in research by exploring collaborative and inclusive approaches to research and knowledge creation via, for example, citizen science and participatory research.
2.3 Researchers are expected to maintain an awareness of their funder’s terms and policies relating to open research and to always act in accordance with the expectations of those funding the research as well as with the minimum thresholds set by regulatory bodies.
2.4 Researchers are encouraged to enhance research culture locally and more generally by embracing and advocating openness, transparency, integrity, inclusivity and accessibility when collaborating and communicating with others, throughout the research lifecycle and during research dissemination. Researchers are expected to follow the University’s Guidance on the Responsible Use of Metrics in Research Assessment when assessing the work of others, while also supporting others to do so. This includes following the principles of DORA during hiring, promotion and appraisal processes, and recognition of open research practices and outputs in all their varied forms.
3.1 The University recognises growing enthusiasm for open research from its staff and students and acknowledges significant individual and collaborative efforts to engage with open research. Many researchers expend considerable efforts to practise open research, beyond basic compliance thresholds, and the University seeks to support, recognise and reward these efforts. University support is important to make open research simple, effective and appropriate, and to contribute to the development of a culture of openness throughout the organisation.
3.2 The University will support researchers through:
- Maintaining appropriate governance structure around open research at the University that underpins strategy, policy and operational developments.
- Recognising and responding to the diversity of requirements that exist in open research and related areas by providing advice and support to departments, research groups and individual researchers that is appropriate to their discipline, research practices or career stage.
- Providing a range of services (including but not limited to those deriving from Cambridge University Libraries, the Research Office, Cambridge Enterprise and University Information Services), and integrated systems, infrastructure and tools (institutional repository, current research information system, research data management services and others), to bring cross-disciplinary support to the University’s varied research communities and enable researchers to practise open research.
- Ensuring long-term availability and preservation of curated open materials through their deposit in the institutional repository, Apollo, and their ingest into digital preservation systems.
- Provision of training in open research, including, but not limited to, research data management, open access publication, responsible use of metrics and research integrity.
- Recognising the track record of researchers’ open research practices as part of institutional hiring, promotion and appraisal policies and procedures.
- Committing to openness, integrity and interoperability around the research information the University produces, hosts, uses and promotes to ensure fair assessment of research and researchers, and decision-making based on inclusive and high-quality data.
- Engaging with government and sector organisations, funding bodies and international consortia to ensure policy development and compliance is in keeping with the needs of the University and broader society.
- Committing to developing innovative approaches to support open research, to be leading and proactive in this area, and to build an open research community that provides safe environments for researchers to practice and debate open research.
Specific guidance on open research activities, support and policies are available on the University’s Open Research, Open Access and Research Data Management websites. These are managed by Cambridge University Libraries.
Additional guidance and support for Cambridge researchers is available from the Research Information site (University login required).
Please direct any questions or comments regarding the University's Open Research Position Statement to info@osc.cam.ac.uk
Version:
3
Date of Review:
October 2024
Name of Reviewer:
Dr Sacha Jones, Head of Open Research Services
Version Notes:
Version 1 (2018). Approved by Research Policy Committee at its meeting on 22 November 2018 and by the General Board of the Faculties on 16 January 2019.
Version 2 (2019). Corrected some minor typographical errors and updated language around provision of services.
Version 3 (2024). Content updated and expanded to reflect developments since 2019. Version approved by Research Policy Committee on 25 February 2025.
Original Creation Date:
November 2018
Name of Creator:
Open Research Working Group
Date for Next Review:
November 2026
Frequency of Reviews:
At least every two years, or after major policy changes.
Review is the responsibility of:
Open Research Steering Committee
Location of Policy:
https://osc.cam.ac.uk/universitys-open-research-position-statement
Persistent location of all versions: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.117834