Newcastle University and Open Research

1. What is Open Research?

Open Research:

• Makes the processes, materials, and outputs of research openly available so that others can understand and build upon them.
• Enhances transparency, accessibility, reliability and reproducibility with the potential to improve public trust, promote inclusivity and lead to the creation and use of new knowledge.
• Strengthens the rigour, clarity, credibility and integrity of research.
• Can be applied to all disciplines although practices may vary
• Maximises the visibility and impact of research for public benefit in accordance with the University Vision and Strategy.

2. Why is it important?

Newcastle University recognises that open research supports the delivery of our research strategy's ambition to catalyse transformative research within and between disciplines. It helps build a positive, inclusive, and thriving research culture. As part of the University's Research Culture Action Plan, we aim to embed open research practices into 'business as usual'. 

Our commitment to open research is fully aligned with government and major funder requirements for greater transparency, collaboration and sharing.  

Our statement is informed by, and supports, global open research initiatives including DORA and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access.

3. Principles

Research culture and methodology in different disciplines influences the approach taken to demonstrate a commitment to Open Research. Some of the different ways in which researchers can achieve this are:

1. making research methods, software, outputs and data open as early as possible
2. archiving and sharing data, code, data management plans, methods in an appropriate data repository (abiding by principles of FAIR data and funder requirements)
3. pre-registering research study plans and submitting them to an appropriate registry
4. sharing pre-prints in appropriate subject-specific repositories (e.g. arXiv, BioRXiv)
5. publishing research outputs in open access journals or on open access platforms and including a data access  statement where appropriate
6. ensuring you register and update your ORCiD, linking this and other researcher identifiers to all grants, datasets and publications
7. encouraging research students to engage with Open Research practices (including for PhD theses)
8. engaging in public discussions about research including science communication, data visualisation and citizen science
9. incorporating open and participatory methods into research, e.g. open notebooks, co-production, participatory action research and citizen science

4. Expectations

Newcastle University is committed to improving access to and the discovery of Open Research, and expects researchers to incorporate open research practices into their workflows to make their research ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’.

5. Support

To support our researchers in meeting these expectations we:

• provide guidance, training, and systems to enable open sharing of research outputs
• provide guidance on institutional and funder open research policies
• support and invest in sustainable open access models

Open Research at the University is underpinned by our open access and research data policies

Further support is available on the library website

6. Monitoring

The University monitors the adoption of open research practices to inform and guide institutional policies and systems to support the aims of the statement. The University also monitors and reports on open research practices as required by funders.

Monitoring includes, but is not limited to, the use of internal and external systems and software that support open research, for example the University’s institutional repositories, other approved repositories and the use of open access funding.

 

Approved 18.03.2026