Statement on Open Research

The University of Dundee strategy states that our purpose is to “transform lives, locally and globally through the creation, sharing and application of knowledge”, and believes that unrestricted access to publicly funded research is conducive to the public good.  Open Research, and the practices associated with it, ensure that we uphold this statement by making our research outcomes, and the processes used to obtain them, as freely available and as transparent as possible.

Open Research practices can be defined as, but are not limited to:

• open access to research publications
• engaging with the wider Open Research community, including publishers and other open platform suppliers, to deliver better access to research
• establishment and maintenance of an institutional repository to capture and provide access to the sum of the University’s research output the adoption of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible) principles with regard to data sharing
• enabling citizen science
• provision of free online learning environments, such as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), to share outcomes and educate the wider community
• the creation and use of open software
• the sharing of code, protocols and methods
• assigning persistent identifiers such as DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) to a range of outputs.
• the adoption of ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) as a researcher unique identifier

All of these practices facilitate access to research and remove barriers to knowledge.

Expectations of staff and students

The expectations of staff and students undertaking research are detailed in the University of Dundee’s Open Research Policy.

The University recognises that implementation of Open Research will vary between disciplines, but expect staff and students undertaking research to:

• incorporate open practices into their research processes from the very beginning of a research project, i.e. from initial proposal through to the final dissemination of results and publication.
• adhere to funders’ policies and to the University of Dundee’s associated policies, including: the Policy to Govern the Publication of Research, Policy to Govern the Management of Research Data and the Code of Good Practice in Research.
• publish their research as open access as early as possible.

The University also recognises that legal, ethical and commercial reasons may result in the research not being communicated or shared with the preferred immediacy but expects that at some stage of the research process findings and outcomes will be made openly available, wherever possible.

University of Dundee’s Support for Open Research

The University is committed to supporting those involved in research by facilitating access to the necessary tools and advisory services required to deliver an open research culture and environment. We will respond to changes in policy, technology and society ensuring that we maintain our strategic commitment to sharing knowledge.

Responsible Use of Research Metrics

The University of Dundee has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and, as a research institution we will implement the recommendations laid out in the statement. We expect our staff to follow the recommendations stipulated for researchers.

Contact details

Please contact the Assistant Director (Research and Resources), Library and Learning and Culture and Information for enquiries on this statement, or Research Services at discovery@dundee.ac.uk for support.