UK researchers’ behaviours and the drive for open knowledge

Branwen Hide

April 24th, 2010

Open Knowledge Conference 2010

Outline Introduction Use of Web 2.0 information sharing tools by

UK researchers Data sharing/Open research practises of UK

researchers Factors that influence researcher behaviour Conclusions and recommendations

Use of Web 2.0 information sharing tools* by UK researchers

 All survey

respondents Frequent Users Occasional Users Non-adopters

All respondents 100% 14% 44% 40%

Position

Professor 18% 20% 21% 19%

Reader 7% 6% 9% 5%

Senior Lecturer 14% 15% 18% 11%

Lecturer 11% 13% 9% 12%

Research Fellow 16% 18% 15% 15%

PhD Student 28% 20% 22% 31%

(RIN 2010) Use and relevance of web 2.0 for researchers

*posting or commenting on Blogs, creating/contributing to wikis, posting slides, text, images or video, commenting on or rating online journal articles

Data sharing/Open research practises of UK researchers

Many researchers are very reluctant to share their data openly But they do share with trusted individuals

Over the past few years researchers have becoming slightly more open in their practises

With older, more established researchers being more likely to be an open scientist

Differences between disciplines and at different stages of the research life cycle

Effectiveness and efficiency gains: share within projects rather that publicly

Open working can increase the visibility of the researcher group

Different level of knowledge is required to understand secondary data

Easier to keep data closed than to figure out what to release, when and how

Factors that influence researcher behaviour Research assessment The extent to which researchers engage in

collaborations Encouragement and support provided by the

local research environment Size and cohesion of research environment Need for standards and documentation Cost of gathering data vs. analysis of existing data

Conclusions There is increasing momentum and support for

open knowledge principles Advocates and skeptics are both working within the

constraints of their research environment Growth in open access publishing and data sharing

initiatives Growing acceptance of publications describing

datasets and resources But researchers do have concerns about IP,

copyright, inappropriate use of data, ethical implications, misinterpretation of data, quality assurance (if publishing everything)

Need for recognition and reward

Recommendations Need for recognition of specialists directly involved in

supporting open science/data sharing Need for infrastructure as well as skills and resources, to

support and develop open science practices Research funders need to develop and coordinate policy on

data sharing and open working Need to establish the means to be able to measure scientific

value of open datasets and research materials Need for tools and guidelines to help researchers asses the

openness of their research processes and help identify the opportunities that exist to open them further

Need to establish mechanism to provide recognition and reward for engaging with principles of open knowledge principles

Reference To share or not to share: research data

outputs Communicating knowledge: how and why

researchers publish and disseminate their findings

Use and relevance of web 2.0 for researchers Open science case studies

All available at http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work

Branwen HideLiaison and Partnership OfficerResearch Information Network

Branwen.hide@rin.ac.uk

www.rin.ac.uk