I aim to make my research open enough that all researchers can access my research and critically assess the results. There’s lots that goes into this, including making data and analysis code openly available and publishing everything as freely available preprints.Dr Hannah Fraser, Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, The University of Melbourne*
Open research is about making your research practice as open as possible.
This can be done by publishing and sharing digital materials from across the research lifecycle, so they are freely available to all. Digital research materials may include outputs such as data, reports, code, software, creative and practice-based works, media, educational resources, preprints, peer-reviewed publications, and more.
Often referred to as open science, open research encompasses all disciplines and all types of research.
Benefits of open research
Each aspect of open research will offer its own unique benefits. However, there are some core benefits that underlie all open research. These include:
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Whenever a stage of the research lifecycle is made open, the research project becomes more transparent.
Preregistered study designs and open notebooks offer transparency to your methods and workflows. These can give others confidence in the integrity of your research processes. Openly sharing data or code allows others to confirm the basis of your findings. Sharing your papers as preprints and embracing open peer review lets others see how your publications evolved.
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Bringing transparency and openness into more stages of your research aids reproducibility. If your results can be replicated or reproduced by others, your findings can be verified.
It can be very difficult to replicate results when so much of the research process is hidden from view. This has led to a “replication crisis” that extends across many areas of research.
Fortunately, there is a global movement to embrace open practices that enhance reproducibility. For more on reproducibility, see the Australian Reproducibility Network.
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When open research is embraced, more of the research process becomes accessible to more people. This includes people and organisations beyond academia, including practitioners and policy makers. In turn, this can result in greater influence on policy and practice, and faster progress on solving real-world problems.
Open practices also make research accessible to those in low- and middle-income countries. This is because database subscriptions and software purchases can be prohibitively expensive. Open research thus advances a more equitable and inclusive global research landscape.
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Opening up your research means sharing more work that can be cited by others.
For example, preregistering a study, releasing open data, making code open source, and uploading a preprint, all create additional outputs that can be discovered and cited. Being open, they can be freely accessed, shared, and reused, and can thus have a greater impact on research, policy, and practice.
Sharing research data has been shown to increase citation counts. A 2007 study of 85 clinical trial publications found a significant increase in citations when the paper linked to open data. A 2019 study likewise found that, on average, articles with open data receive 97 additional citations.
As we explore in "What is Open Access?," open access papers see more citations and attract more attention, on average, than paywalled ones.
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Embracing open research can create more opportunities for collaboration. This is particularly true when using open practices early in the research lifecycle.
For example, preregistering a study design allows it to be discovered by other researchers who might wish to contribute. Making data open can likewise result in other researchers suggesting collaborations to explore other dimensions.
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A growing number of publishers in data-driven fields require datasets, code, and other supplementary materials to be made open upon the publication of a research paper. When necessary, materials and data can be de-identified, but the idea is to be as open and transparent as possible.
The COS Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines establish open data policy frameworks that can be adopted by journal editors and publishers. For an example of a publisher’s relevant policies, see PLOS One’s Data Availability and Materials, Software and Code Sharing policies.
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A growing number of research funders have open access requirements.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) both have open access policies. These require that certain research outputs are open access immediately or within 12 months of publication. Both funders strongly encourage the open sharing of data, preprints, and related materials. See our Funder open access policies page for details.
ARC and NHMRC funded projects are also expected to align with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (the Code). This means providing open or mediated access to research data and primary materials.
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Australia is a signatory to the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. The Recommendation calls for countries, institutions, and researchers to embrace “open science principles and practices that aim to make scientific research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefits of scientists and society as a whole” (page 2).
Embracing open research means supporting these national commitments. In turn, this means you’re doing your part to help solve complex social, environmental, and economic challenges.
Open research and the research lifecycle
With some planning, many elements of the research lifecycle can be made open, transparent, and reproducible.
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Preregistration allows greater transparency and reproducibility. It also means researchers can let others know what they are working on, reducing the duplication of research.
The practice of preregistration is increasingly common across a wide range of disciplines. Preregistration of certain clinical trials is also required by Australia’s National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.
A growing number of journals also now publish Registered Reports. This involves study designs being peer reviewed and published before research is conducted.
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Researchers who embrace open notebooks make their research notes and records publicly available. This can be done gradually, as notes are recorded, or once the project is complete. Such materials may include lab books and other notebooks, and raw or processed data. Some de-identification may be necessary.
Drexel University researchers pioneered these ideas as Open Notebook Science. Fundamentally, Open Notebook Science requires “that all of the information available to the researchers to make their conclusions is equally available to the rest of the world. Basically, no insider information” (Bradley, 2006).
The University has a subscription to LabArchives, a digital notebook platform. This can be used for collecting and sharing all kinds of research notes. Jupyter Notebook, an open-source platform, can also be used for sharing research notes.
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Open source refers the practice of making your code and software freely available for others to download, use, adapt and redistribute.
A major benefit of sharing code and software in this way lies in receiving feedback or input from peer communities. This can lead to enhancements of your original creation. Reuse in this way may also result in faster outcomes for other researchers and their research projects. And when researchers use your code or software, you can receive credit for your work.
Researchers developing code and software can share these under open-source licences. Such licences often rely on “copyleft” principles, akin to the Creative Commons Share-Alike element. Open-source licences are detailed on the Open Source Initiative website. Creative Commons licences can also be used.
Code and software can be shared through specialised platforms such as GitHub or the University’s instance of GitLab.
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The term open collections can refer to many things, including collections of data, of papers, and so on. However, it often refers to open cultural collections.
Such collections include the historical images, books, and ephemera digitised by libraries and archives around the world. Most of these collections are in the public domain, with the digitisations being free from copyright.
Examples include the State Library of Victoria’s popular digitised collections, TROVE’s newspapers and gazettes, and the University’s Digitised Collections. Such open collections are vital to many areas of research, especially in the humanities.
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Citizen science is when amateur scientists and other members of the public participating in the research process.
Citizen science often involve the collection of data using open platforms. In many cases, this data is vetted before being made publicly available in open datasets. Initiatives may originate with amateur scientists themselves, or with research institutions or organisations.
Major citizen science projects include bushfire and flood recovery studies and biodiversity tracking. For more information on citizen science in Australia, see the Australian Citizen Science Association website and CSIRO’s citizen science programs.
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Planning for open data should occur early on in a research project. This is because permissions and consent may be required for sharing data. Many journals now require data to be shared openly alongside research articles.
Funders and institutions often encourage an “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” approach to research data. This accepts that not all data can be fully open due to privacy and confidentiality concerns. In such cases, de-identified datasets may be shareable. This approach underpins the F.A.I.R. principles.
Melbourne Figshare is the University’s institutional data repository. To find out more about managing and sharing research data at the University of Melbourne, visit the Managing Data @Melbourne and Digital Stewardship websites.
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A preprint is a scholarly paper that has been made available online before peer review.
Preprints allows research findings to be shared quickly and without barriers to access.
Sharing is usually done on preprint servers. These can be multidisciplinary or discipline specific. Such platforms typically allow authors to:
- receive feedback on their work,
- upload revised versions,
- link to final published versions when available, and
- use open licences.
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Approaches to, and definitions of, open peer review vary greatly. Ross-Hellauer (2017) suggests we understand open peer review as “an umbrella term for a number of overlapping ways that peer review models can be adapted in line with the aims of Open Science.”
Open peer review practices may include:
- disclosing the identities and affiliations of peer reviewers;
- openly publishing peer review reports and author responses; and,
- allowing broader participation in peer review.
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Open access is the term applied to publications that have been made freely available to all, with licences that permit sharing and reuse. The term is often applied to journal articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters. Although the term is sometimes applied to other outputs, such as data or preprints, it is most often associated with peer-reviewed publications.
There are two main pathways to open access: through publishers, and through repositories.
Open access publishing may involve a fee, although many open access journals and publishers are free for authors and readers alike. When fees are charged, they can sometimes be avoided by using one of the University’s open access publishing agreements.
For research behind a paywall, repository open access is often an option. This free pathway usually involves peer-reviewed accepted manuscripts of research papers being shared in a repository.
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The term Non-traditional Research Output (NTRO) can be applied to many digital assets and physical items. NTROs include outputs such as notes, reports, data, creative and practice-based works, code, software, databases and more.
For most digital NTROs, the best pathway to open is through Creative Commons licences. Note that copyright can be very complex for some NTROs, such as films and live performances. Discuss open licensing with all copyright holders before proceeding.
For physical NTROs, such as exhibitions, sculptures, and paintings, principles of “as open as possible” can be used. This may mean providing openly licensed digital copies of exhibition guides or photographs of the objects.
Open research helps to create a diverse and inclusive environment for all researchers regardless of your discipline. If you are a creative and practice-based researcher, it can make your research materials more accessible, enabling you to generate more creative and cultural impact.
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Further support
For enquiries relating to the open research practices above, please contact you discipline's Liaison Librarians.
The Digital Stewardship (Research) team provides advice, support, consultations and training in research data stewardship and management, open research and data publication, and the long-term preservation of digital materials.
* Read more about Dr Hannah Fraser's experience with open research: "How to produce robust, reliable and open research" (21/10/2021).
Page last updated 28 February 2025.
Unless otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence.