Integrity and Open Research
Founded in 2023, the University of Portsmouth Open Research Network (UoPen) aims to provide a supportive platform for an open collaborative research community, acknowledging and drawing upon expertise from different disciplines. Our approach emphasises that the process of generating knowledge through research should be accessible, rigorous and transparent.
As a reflection of the University’s commitment to the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), UoPen has adopted a collaborative leadership structure with Dr Matt Miller-Dicks as the Institutional Lead, and Dr Stefana Juncu as the Local Network Lead. Matt’s role is to work with senior research leadership across the University to advocate for open research practices and research integrity. Stef’s role is to support the grassroots network of researchers who are keen to engage with open research, as well as to understand engagement levels across different faculties, and increase awareness of UoPen. Please reach out to Stef or Matt if you are interested in getting involved, organising events, or if you have any specific questions about open research at Portsmouth.
Stef and Matt work with a wide-range of people from across the University, including open access and research data management staff as well as academic Faculty Open Research Leads. Please feel free to get in touch with any of the Faculty leads if you want to discuss local ideas and opportunities with them.
UoPen Origins
ReproducibiliTea
The Portsmouth open research network started in 2019, through ReproducibiliTea, which is a grassroots journal club initiative that offers a platform to discuss diverse research issues, papers, and ideas about improving research, and reproducibility. ReproducibiliTea at Portsmouth was created and led by PhD students, and attended by both students and academic staff, and has been running every year since its inception, moving online during COVID. ReproducibiliTea continues to be a PhD-led initiative and we are currently recruiting new organising members so please get in touch with Stef if you would like to get involved.
The formation of UoPen and Launch event 2023/2024
The University of Portsmouth Open Research (UoPen) Network was formed in 2023, by Matt Miller-Dicks and Beatriz Lopez with membership of staff from across the University, including Stef Juncu, Jo Corbett, Gary Pike, Simon Kolstoe, Joy Watts.
UoPen aims to bring together a multidisciplinary team of academic and professional support staff, with a range of relevant expertise to identify how best to support staff from a wide diversity of research and innovation activities across all faculties at UoP, and to help implement and develop open research practices. The work in the first year of UoPen culminated in a launch event in the summer of 2024, with a series of talks that had the collective aim of: (1) raising awareness of open research among colleagues; (2) encouraging staff to start thinking about how they can implement open research practices in their own work; (3) sharing examples of effective practice in open research; and (4) highlighting opportunities for staff to begin to contribute to the UoPen network.
Doctoral College Workshops
The UoPen network has delivered Faculty-specific talks to support the development of PhD students of the relevance of open research to their research area. Some of the Faculty leads have also attended some of these sessions to highlight their experience with engaging with Open research in their own research topic, and using various methodologies. We are excited to organise more events for PGR students across the university. If you are interested in organising small group training events for your School/Faculty please get in touch.
Future events and activities
Stef and the OR Faculty Leads are currently organising a Faculty Roadshow, including at least one event per each Faculty on how Open Research fits with their research methodologies and processes. We are trying to base these meetings around specific research techniques and types of engagement with open research with the aim of connecting people across the Faculties to have conversations together and to understand the different needs of researchers within and between research areas. More information will be added about these events soon but please get in touch with Stef if you would like to find out more.
Relevant information about external events will be added here, but one easy way of keeping up with these is via the Open Research Calendar.
