Developing an open educational resource for open research: Protocol for the PaPOR TRAIL project

Abstract

Background: Open research involves actions at all stages of the research cycle to make the research process and outputs more transparent and accessible. Though a number of initiatives exist for researchers at PhD, post-doctoral and more senior levels, there remains a critical need for educational resources for research students at earlier career stages and across disciplines. The aim of the Principles and Practices of Open Research: Teaching, Research, Impact, and Learning (PaPOR TRaIL) project is to develop an open educational resource (OER) on the principles and practice of open research for undergraduate and master’s students. Methods: In stage 1, interviews and surveys of students and supervisors are being conducted to explore students’ and supervisors’ knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of open research, in addition to needs and preferences for the content and delivery of the OER. Stage 2 involves development of the OER content and delivery, based on Stage 1 engagement and national and international guidance on best practice in conducting and teaching open research. In Stage 3, students and supervisors will evaluate the developed OER and provide feedback in terms of OER usability, learning experience and learning outcomes. This feedback will guide revisions and finalisation of the OER content, format and learning activities. Discussion: The PaPOR TRaIL project will develop an evidence-based OER that provides a foundation in all aspects of open research theory & practice. Teaching undergraduate and master’s students open research will promote development of core research values and equip them with transferable competencies and skills, including how to conduct and use research in a trustworthy and ethical manner within and beyond academia. Enhancing teaching and learning of open research will promote better teaching and research outcomes that will benefit individuals, universities, and science more broadly.

Exploring factors that influence the practice of Open Science by early career health researchers: a mixed methods study

“…Third, ECRs can ‘get inquisitive’ by conducting research on research that would facilitate and promote open research practices, such as addressing sensitivities of data sharing and identify evidence-based ways of balancing ethics with data transparency. Further research is also needed to explore, develop, implement and evaluate the impact of different initiatives and interventions, such as the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research (FOSTER) ( Pontika et al, 2015 ) and Principles and Practices of Open Research: Teaching, Research, Impact, and Learning (PaPOR TRaIL) ( Egan et al, 2020 ), at different levels (e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral) to help overcome the obstacles to open science faced by ECRs working in health research and across other disciplines and improve open science practices.…”

Development of the Brief Open Research Survey (BORS) to measure awareness and uptake of Open Research practices

“…Initiatives exist and have been recommended globally to increase the uptake of Open Research behaviours (G7 Open Science Working Group, 2021; NASA Science, 2022;UNESCO, 2021). Educational initiatives include embedding Open Research training into undergraduate and postgraduate teaching (Azevedo et al, 2022;Egan et al, 2020; Student Initiative for Open Science, 2022) and providing banks of educational resources to facilitate this (Pownall, Azevedo, et al, 2021). Incentive initiatives include journal badges issued to papers with Preregistration, Open Data and Open Materials (Kidwell et al, 2016;Rowhani-Farid & Barnett, 2018), awards for Open Research practice (Merrett et al, 2021), and funder partnerships for Registered Reports Clark et al, 2021).…”

“…Short-term contracts, highly prevalent at preand post-doctoral career levels, also emphasise the need for quick research over quality and transparent research (Allen & Mehler, 2019). Wider culture change is required to adopt and recognise the need for slow science (Frith, 2020) , and training for Open Research practices is being implemented by organisations, such as the UKRN (e.g., Towse et al, 2020) and beyond (Egan et al, 2020). Open Research training is also evident in some UKRN institutions (University of Reading, 2022; University of Surrey, 2022), largely tailored to their own institutional staff and students.…”

Embedding open and reproducible science into teaching: A bank of lesson plans and resources.

“…As such, OERs have been championed in the open scholarship conversation. For example, Egan et al (2020) describe the Principles and Practices of Open Research: Teaching, Research, Impact, and Learning (PaPOR TRaIL) project that aims to develop an OER for teaching open research through interviews and student surveys. OERs have the capacity to foster uptake of new pedagogies, promote best practice, and reduce workload constraints of educators who wish to embed new approaches to teaching and learning.…”