Open research embodies good research practices by opening up participation in, and access to, the research lifecycle. It covers a wide range of practices and principles related to how research is carried out and enables research to take advantage of technical advances.
Publications, data, protocols and equipment all support dissemination, verification and reproducibility of research findings as well as reuse by, for example, other researchers and industry. Open research has strong links with policies in other areas such as:
- research integrity
- research culture
- digital infrastructure
- talent and skills
- research ethics.
On this page, you will find resources predominantly referring to open access and open research data. However, we recognise that open research covers a much broader range of activities than this and new resources will be added as they become available.
Key principles
Open research describes a range of practices relating to the conduct of research and communication of its outputs. By improving access to research outputs according to best practices that enable research to be findable, accessible, reuseable and interoperable (FAIR) researchers have more opportunity to:
- engage, replicate and accelerate knowledge discoveries
- benefit society and the economy.
Key principles include:
- outputs from publicly-funded research should be freely accessible as soon as possible under conditions that maximise reuse to amplify social, economic and research benefits
- open access to publications and research data stimulates high-quality research by being transparent, opening research to scrutiny and by evidencing research findings
- sharing of research outputs must conform to all relevant ethical and legal obligations and conform with the principle of being as open as possible and as closed as necessary
- open research means acting in a manner which considers public value for money and transparency.
UKRI policies
For the new UKRI open access policy, existing research councils policy on open access and supporting guidance, see making your research publications open access.
For the UKRI and research council research data policies and supporting guidance, see making your research data open.
For information on how we are implementing the new UKRI open access policy, see shaping our open access policy.
UKRI has produced information pack about the new UKRI open access policy to support research organisations to engage researchers about the new policy.
Read Professor Sir Duncan Wingham, UKRI Executive Champion for Open Research, outlining the benefits of UKRI’s new open access policy.