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University of Leeds Open Research Statement

The University of Leeds is a values-driven university committed to fostering open research to achieve our mission to advance knowledge, transform lives and shape a better future for our communities, our region, and the world. 

 In the context of a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative research culture, open research practices strive for collaborative working, sharing and openness throughout the entire research cycle to enable transparency, reproducibility, and the reduction of inequalities. These practices include: 

  • Open research methodologies, to include protocols, code, software, tools, and services 
  • Open access to research publications and their underlying data 
  • Research collaboration, transparency, and public engagement  

 As a university we are committed to the following actions to embed open research practices throughout our institution: 

  • Supporting open research infrastructure, systems, and processes to ensure the long-term sustainability of open research materials 
  • Improving the discoverability and external engagement with our open research outputs 
  • Training and development of our staff and students across all disciplines in open research practices 
  • Promoting open research through the reward and recognition of best practice and a network of Open Research Champions 
  • Engaging with external stakeholders to promote open research practices globally 

 In recognition that not all outputs can be made openly available for ethical, legal, or commercial reasons, we adhere to the principle that all research should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” throughout the research cycle. Therefore, we ask all our researchers at every career stage, where possible, to: 

  • Prospectively register and share protocols and methodologies openly 
  • Share software, code, and datasets openly 
  • Use persistent identifiers consistently throughout your workflow i.e., DOI and ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier) 
  • Ensure all publications and other forms of research outputs are available open access, consider use of pre-print servers 
  • Apply appropriate open licences to your open material e.g., Creative Commons 
  • Adopt the practice of Engaged Research, engaging with appropriate stakeholders early and often in your research with the goal of establishing knowledge exchange 

 Fundamentally, we believe that an open research culture will increase research quality, reach and reproducibility, facilitate interdisciplinary and international collaboration, and ultimately advance knowledge and transform lives. 

 Open Research Group 

June 2022 

 This position statement is underpinned by the University Publications Policy and the Research Data Management Policy: 

It is also informed by policy statements and recommendations from organisations including research funding bodies and the UK government: 

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