To find out more about open research, click visit our Open research hub.

 

Open access policies

Data sharing policies

Health Open Research

Join initiatives

Lead by example

Additional resources

 

Open access policies

Over a third of AMRC members have open access/research policies and a further 40% are either developing or planning to develop one (as of February 2022). Open access policies should explain the stance of the charity, what the recommendations or requirements are, and how to comply. When developing these policies, charities need to consider:

  • how strict to be;
  • how to support researchers with compliance;
  • what funding they can provide to cover costs such as open access article processing charges;
  • how or if they will monitor compliance;
  • and how they will incentivise and reward compliance.

Many AMRC members also incorporate clauses into their grant terms and conditions about sharing research outputs and open access.

Policies should include detailed guidance on:

  • what types of publications the policy applies to;
  • which publishing routes are acceptable;
  • how open access costs can be covered;
  • how to properly acknowledge the funder;
  • and how to notify the funder about publications.

They can also include requirements around data management and sharing if there is not a separate data sharing policy, provide guidance on writing lay summaries, and link out to guidance and resources.

Data sharing policies

Over 75% of AMRC members encourage or mandate their grant recipients to make underlying research data openly available (as of February 2022). This can be through incorporating dating sharing requirements or recommendations into their open access policies and/or grant terms and conditions, or by having separate data sharing policies. Funders can also require data management plans as part of the grant application and award process.

Health Open Research

The Health Open Research platform (founded by AMRC) enables researchers to publish any research outputs they wish to share regardless of novelty or outcome, supporting reproducibility, transparency and impact. It uses an open research publishing model that enables rapid publication, followed by open invited peer review. In addition, articles must include citations to all supporting data, enabling reanalyses, replication and reuse. Many AMRC members encourage their researchers to publish research outputs on the platform by promoting it on their websites, in newsletters, on social media, and by including information in their policies and grant terms and conditions.

Join initiatives

AMRC members can join initiatives that encourage open and transparent research behaviour and responsible research assessment, like the ones described in the What’s happening in open research page. As of August 2022, 20 AMRC members are funders of Europe PMC, which ensures all publications arising from their funding will be automatically deposited in PMC on passing peer review, as soon as possible and at least within six months of the publisher's date of final publication. Several members of a range of sizes have signed up to DORA (nine members as of August 2022).

Lead by example

AMRC members can model open and transparent behaviours as individual organisations by sharing their own reports and outputs in an open and accessible manner. This could include publications resulting from commissioned or in-house research, research strategies, funding landscape reviews, impact reports and policy documents.

Charities can also share information about the research they are funding, including grants data, in the public domain for other funders to view. The Health Open Research publishing platform, founded in partnership with AMRC, supports publication of non-peer reviewed content of this type, giving it a permanent digital footprint (DOI) and making it discoverable.

AMRC members can make sure that all information about research they share is easily understood by a general audience, whether this is content on their website, social media and newsletters, or the research outputs and articles themselves. Encouraging or requiring researchers to include plain language summaries alongside their articles is a great way to keep information accessible, and charities should also provide guidance and support to their researchers so that they are empowered to do this properly.

Additional resources