One Stop Shop for Open Research

Institutions now have a one-stop-shop for making research open with the Open Research Toolkit.

The Open Research Toolkit was launched in November 2021 by the Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) and Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). The Toolkit supports Australasian institutions to implement or further develop open research policy, strategy and practice.

It was created by the Open Research Working Group, comprising representatives of the Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), with the support from others in the research management community, including the ARDC.

The Toolkit contains information, resources and good practice examples related to all aspects of open research, including policy, governance, pathways and processes. It also includes resources for individual researchers interested in engaging in open research practices and training materials for support services fostering open research within their organisations.

The ARDC was especially involved in creating the Toolkit sections on FAIR data and FAIR software, pointing to existing policy, guidance and examples. FAIR data and FAIR software are crucial elements in ensuring the research process is open and reproducible.

The ARDC strongly supports the FAIR principles and believes in making data and software ‘Open where possible, only closed where necessary’.

We do this in our co-investment projects, support this process through our services, provide guidance and support and facilitate communities to develop standards and approaches.

What is Open Research?

Open Research or Open Science is a broad term that is increasing in popularity globally, with the 2021 UNESCO recommendation on Open Science, its priority status with the European Commission and the ‘Transform to Open Science’ initiative led by NASA.

In the words of UNESCO: “Open science is defined as an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community”

In the Australian context we have translated Open Science to Open Research to emphasise that it covers all fields of research, including humanities and social sciences.

The University of Melbourne states: ‘Open Research extends the principles of Open Access publishing to the whole research cycle, inclusive of research protocols, data, code, software, and much more. It is about being as open as possible, as often as possible, and only being as closed as is necessary. It encompasses all disciplines and types of research. Through planning many elements of the research lifecycle can be made open, transparent, and reproducible.’

Open Research or Open Science is a broad term that is increasing in popularity globally, with the 2021 UNESCO recommendation on Open Science, its priority status with the European Commission and the ‘Transform to Open Science’ initiative led by NASA.
In the words of UNESCO: “Open science is defined as an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.”

In the Australian context we have translated Open Science to Open Research to emphasise that it covers all fields of research, including humanities and social sciences.

University of Melbourne states: ‘Open Research extends the principles of Open Access publishing to the whole research cycle, inclusive of research protocols, data, code, software, and much more. It is about being as open as possible, as often as possible, and only being as closed as is necessary. It encompasses all disciplines and types of research. Through planning many elements of the research lifecycle can be made open, transparent, and reproducible.’

We encourage you to promote the toolkit widely within your institutions.

The ARDC is funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) to support national digital research infrastructure for Australian researchers.