In August 2023 the Open Research team welcomed three postgraduate researchers, Kirralise Hansford (Psychology), Luqman Muraina (Interdisciplinary Global Development) and Melissa Kays (Archaeology), as Graduate Engagement Leads for Open Research in each of our academic faculties. The purpose of their roles was to work with the Library, staff and students across departments and schools developing open research training, advocacy and community-building initiatives. Kirralise, Luqman and Melissa wrote about their early successes and plans in a previous post, Next steps for the open research community at York. In this post we’ll summarise their achievements over the past twelve months and highlight some areas where work is still to be done.
Funding for the Graduate Engagement Lead posts was secured through an Enhancing Research Culture grant from Research England, and the role description and expectations have been closely aligned with the University’s Research Culture commitments. There was no precedent for a role such as this at York, and the first task for the Engagement Leads was to agree upon a set of achievable objectives and working patterns – hybrid and flexible – to make the most of their time working with us alongside completing their PhD.
A key priority has been to formulate training and advocacy activities based on the needs and expectations of our research community. The Engagement Leads soon got to work developing an evidence-gathering survey for staff and students which was launched in the middle of semester one. The survey was tailored to each faculty and shared widely at both University and departmental level, making the most of our Engagement Leads’ knowledge of local contacts such as email and WhatsApp groups. We received over 300 responses from a wide range of disciplines and roles which have provided valuable insights and helped to inform a comprehensive set of recommendations in our survey report. The team benefitted especially from Kirralise’s skill in designing the survey instrument and analysing the data to allow for reproduction of figures and statistics, and further exploration of the responses. The survey report has been shared openly with the accompanying data and R analysis script on our Open Science Framework (OSF) project site.
In terms of new resources for training and advocacy, three Open Research in Practice case studies have been created to highlight researcher perspectives into open research-engaged projects from the departments of Archaeology, Psychology and School for Business and Society. Further case studies have been lined up from a variety of departments based on submissions to this year’s Open Research Awards scheme, which were co-organised and judged by the Engagement Leads in partnership with Dr Nathalie Noret (Education). Melissa used her skills in research communication to create case study posters and launch a new Instagram account, helping us reach a broader audience and create a more visual narrative around open research at York activities. We also created an internal Open Research Newsletter which has been published every two months to provide timely updates and researcher perspectives. The audiences for these new communication channels are relatively small – around 100 followers and subscribers each – but we aim to continue developing these and review our use of social media as we assess the long-term sustainability of X/Twitter and possibility of migrating to other platforms.
We have taken the opportunity to communicate our Engagement Leads’ achievements amongst other library professionals and open research enthusiasts with a poster on delivering open research culture change, delivered at this year’s Edinburgh Open Research Conference. Kirralise also attended the Oxford/Berlin School on Open and Responsible Research and Melissa participated in the British School at Athens Communicating Archaeology course, both of which provided opportunities to network and further their knowledge of open research-aligned practices in their disciplines. We hope to find more opportunities to share our successes and recommendations with the wider sector through conferences and publications next academic year.
The Engagement Leads have continued to work closely with our Open Research Advocates network, aiming to increase engagement through consultations, occasional meetings and a revised set of guiding principles to set out the mission, benefits and expectations of membership. We have also strengthened our connections with other grassroots networks across the University including the ReproducibiliTea journal club and colleagues involved in the Enhancing Research Culture Workshops in Biology, recognising the essential role these groups play in the development of a practitioner-led, positive research culture at York. We would have liked to have done more in collaboration with practitioner-led groups this year, but we recognise that their efforts are often voluntary and everyone’s time is limited. Coordination of the Advocates network will remain a key objective going into next academic year, and we hope to involve them in a planned series of open research-aligned discussion seminars which Luqman has taken a key role in developing. We look forward to sharing further news of these events very soon!
It has also been a year for reflection, as some activities were not as effective as we would have hoped. There was little engagement with a series of drop-in enquiry clinics we offered during Open Access Week, and mixed levels of interest in the Open Research at York events fortnight we organised in May. The discussions were nevertheless appreciated by those who attended and produced a useful set of recordings and resources on diverse areas such as open research in archaeology and heritage and writing lay summaries with AI assistance. We will continue to learn from these experiences as we develop the aforementioned seminar series and try to address topics which meet the most urgent needs and interests of our research community.
The Open Research team is hugely grateful for the work that Kirralise, Luqman and Melissa have contributed this past year, especially in terms of being able to learn from their perspectives and experiences as new ECRs. We are sorry to report that Kirralise and Melissa will be leaving us at the end of the summer as they focus on completing their PhDs, but we wish them all the best in the next stage of their careers and hope that they maintain their enthusiasm for open research in their future roles! Fortunately, Luqman will continue his work with the team and we look forward to building upon our achievements with his focus being on engaging with researchers in Social Sciences.
Here are some final thoughts from our three Engagement Leads:
I have enjoyed my time over the last year working as graduate open research engagement lead for the Faculty of Sciences. This role has really shown me another side to open research focussing on how practices and resources can be implemented at a university level, and the challenges that can be associated with this. I hope that over the next year the work we started can continue to develop in ways which help researchers and students to access as many open research opportunities and practises as they wish to
Kirralise Hansford, Graduate Engagement Lead for Open Research (Sciences)
I take it as a great privilege to be appointed the Graduate Engagement Lead role. It’s personally provided a learning curve for me vis-a-vis the weekly meetings, completing team and individual tasks, in addition to making progress in my PhD research. As I continue in the role, I look forward to the development of the university’s research culture (especially in the Social Sciences), such that open research becomes the default.
Luqman Muraina, Graduate Engagement Lead for Open Research (Social Sciences)
The Open Research team at York is such a valuable asset to the university, and it’s been a great experience to aid in spreading the word about our tools, trainings, and events this year. For the Arts and Humanities faculty, Open Research often looks different from the sciences, and we were able to work together to identify areas of overlap and areas where we can create new opportunities for students. I look forward to seeing how the team continues to create innovative solutions and resources for University of York students in the future
Melissa Kays, Graduate Engagement Lead for Open Research (Arts and Humanities)
The Open Research team works in partnership with staff and postgraduate researchers to help you plan, publish and share your research. Further information about the University’s commitments, governance and support for open research can be found at Open research at York.