Table 1 Open research practices and the career benefits they confer. Definitions are lifted from [43]
From: What senior academics can do to support reproducible and open research: a short, three-step guide
Open research practice | Definition | Competitive advantages |
|---|---|---|
Open Access Publishing | A scholarly output accessible to the public free of charge. This can include green, gold or platinum/diamond forms of open access. Open access can be applied to the following scholarly outputs: peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, monographs, and images | Publishing via open access is associated with higher citation rates and improves the speed and breadth of dissemination of scholarly outputs [44, 45] |
Open Data | Publicly accessible, digitally-shareable data that are necessary to reproduce the reported results | Facilitates collaboration [46]; increases efficiency and sustainability [47]; published papers linked with open data and/or materials are associated with a higher citation rate on average [23, 45, 48]; when published with a digital object identifier (DOI), open data and/or materials can be a citable publication [49]; synthetic datasets can help cross-validate analysis and improve reproducibility of analysis workflows [50] |
Open Materials | Publicly available components of the research methodology needed to reproduce the reported procedure and analysis (e.g., code, software, workflows, etc.) | |
Open Peer Review | A findable, freely and publicly accessible, and signed peer review either pre- or post-publication | Academics who act as reviewers can get credit for their work [51] |
Preprints | Complete, non-peer-reviewed manuscript entered in a time-stamped and publicly accessible location, usually an institutional or disciplinary repository (e.g., PsyArXiv, LawArXiv, UCL Press, MedrXiv). Preprints are often also submitted for peer review and publication in a traditional scholarly journal, but this is not mandatory | Wider, faster, and cheaper dissemination of research [52]; greater opportunity for feedback outside of formal peer-review [24]; posting a manuscript as a preprint before formal publication can increase citations and impact [53, 54]; improves chances of publication in journals with high impact factors [55] |
Preregistration | A publicly available time-stamped study design and/or analysis plan that is registered in an institutional registration system (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, Open Science Framework, AEA Registry, EGAP) | Boost a researcher’s reputation [56]; preventative measure against post-hoc critique (i.e., CARKing—critiquing after the results are known) during peer-review [39, 57, 58]; prospective registration of a study design can be a citable publication; comply with submissions guidelines set by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) |
Registered Reports | A peer-reviewed journal article where the decision to publish is based on a two-stage peer-review process. First, following successful peer-review, a pre-specified study and/or analysis protocol is accepted in principle by a participating journal before data has been collected or accessed. Second, providing the authors closely followed the protocol and successful peer-review, the final manuscript is published regardless of the results | Guaranteed publication regardless of study results, providing the registered protocol and/or analysis is followed [59]; reduces CARKing [39, 57, 58]; cited at comparable or slightly higher levels than conventional peer-reviewed articles [60]; stage one peer-review provides additional peer-review feedback |