The York Open Research Awards provide an inclusive opportunity to highlight projects and initiatives across all disciplines which engage with, reflect upon or advocate for open research practices and principles. We are celebrating case studies from across our research community, in particular work which encourages dialogue and broader thinking about open research and its implementation. The 2023 awards have been organised in collaboration between the University Open Research Advocates, Operations and Strategy Groups, with support from Research England Enhancing Research Culture funding.
Entrants were invited to submit a brief case study reflecting upon how open research practices and principles are embedded in the work, and any benefits or challenges encountered or dealt with along the way. Our judging panel focused on recognising ECR-led projects from each academic faculty, and additional prizes were offered to other projects they felt were deserving of recognition.
A summary of this year's awardees is provided below. We are now working with entrants to develop open research in practice case studies and other training and advocacy materials based on their submissions, which we plan to publish in time for the 2023/24 academic year.
(In alphabetical order by submission title)
Dr Emma James, Lecturer, Psychology; Paul Thompson (University of Warwick); Lucy Bowes (University of Oxford); Kate Nation (University of Oxford)
Reflecting on barriers to transparency and addressing some of the challenges and surprises encountered whilst working towards openness in the context of a secondary data analysis.
Dr Ruth Naughton-Doe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School for Business & Society; International Centre for Mental Health Social Research: Prof Martin Webber, Professor of Social Work, School for Business & Society; Dr Beth Casey, Research Associate, School for Business & Society
Embedding the principles of open research throughout a project focusing on underserved communities, with an aim to maximise reach and impact, invite collaborations and improve the research strategy.
Kirsty Ryder, Postgraduate Researcher, Archaeology
Partnering with a local organisation and working with non-academic audiences to emphasise and celebrate involvement in the women's suffrage movement, resulting in the installation of two commemorative plaques for International Women's Day 2024.
Laura Wiggins, PhD student, Biology; Dr Will Brackenbury, Senior Lecturer, Biology (co-supervisor); Prof Julie Wilson, Mathematics (co-supervisor); Dr Peter O'Toole, Head of Imaging and Cytometry, Biology (co-supervisor); Stuart Lacy, Research Software Engineer; Killian Murphy, Research Software Engineer; Alice Lord, previous MSc student in Brackenbury lab, Biology
Developing an easy-to-use and accessible open source toolkit for the characterisation of cellular phenotypes from time-lapse images, accompanied by documentation to enable reuse by researchers of all backgrounds.
Entrants retain all copyright ownership and intellectual property rights to their work. Project summaries are adapted (with permission) from submissions provided by entrants. No further copying is permitted without permission from the researchers except where allowed under the terms of a public reuse licence where indicated at source, or as permitted by legal exception.