Principles of Open Research at Lancaster University

Open Research champions the idea that all types of scholarly outputs (including data) should be shared as freely as possible and as early as possible in the research process across all disciplines, both within and beyond academia.

The Value of Open Research

Open Research offers numerous potential benefits: providing medical and health researchers with robust data to improve health outcomes, enabling scholars to work at the intersection of digital technologies and the arts and humanities, and driving innovation for business and entrepreneurs by providing them with access to leading research findings.

Open Research increases transparency and accelerates discovery and innovation, enabling all members of an enquiring society to learn from and build upon scholarship and science – improving the health of our communities, advancing our understanding of the human condition, and empowering small to medium businesses and third sector organisations. We all stand to benefit, and that is why open research is a key part of the research culture at Lancaster.

Increasingly, open practices are an essential condition of research grants as funders seek to maximise their return on investment and position research as a public good. The UK Research and Development Roadmap states that “we must embrace the potential of Open Research practices” to protect the integrity of our research and ensure that knowledge is shared and spread collaboratively all over the world.

Open Research Practices can vary across disciplines and research methodologies. They can include:

• Citizen Science and engagement
• Digital Archiving of research outputs
• Open Access
• Open Data
• Open Educational resources
• Open Hardware
• Open methodologies and protocols
• Open peer review
• Open source code/software
• Persistent identifiers such as ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) and Researcher Profiles.
• Preprints
• Pre-registration of research
• Publishing alternative outputs such as reports, policy documents, podcast, videos and open educational resources
• Publishing of negative results

Lancaster's Position

The University’s Charter states that its objective “shall be to advance knowledge, wisdom and understanding by teaching and research and by the example and influence of its corporate life”. This undertaking places a responsibility on members of the university to commit its research output for the good of all people.

The principles and practices of Open Research are aligned with our prevailing research culture, reflecting core values embedded within Lancaster University’s motto, Patet omnibus veritas ('Truth lies open to all'). Open Research is a major sub-theme within our Research-excellence Culture Action Plan (ReCAP) and aligns closely with our institutional Research Strategy.

The University has invested significant resources on Open Research, including the establishment of a dedicated team in the Library who work with colleagues across all disciplines of the University, with both a local and global focus, building on our links with institutions in the region and our international campuses. This activity is underpinned by Lancaster University’s Research Publications and Rights Retention policy, Open Access policy, and Research Data Sharing and Archiving Policy. The University is committed to ensuring research metrics are utilised responsibly, having become a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) in 2019.

We promote Open Research, which includes the transparency of processes and sharing of outputs, such as publications, data, code, corpora, protocols and methodologies. We explicitly recognise the benefits to the world-wide research community of research transparency and openness and look for reciprocal treatment from our research partners. The University will explore how we can recognise the efforts of our researchers in adopting the values/principles of Open Research.

By practicing Open Research our academic community may benefit from:

• Demonstrating their research is transparent and their data robust;
• Enabling other researchers to validate their results;
• Safeguarding the global research community against plagiarism and fraud;
• Facilitating rapid and accurate dissemination of research findings;
• Increasing the likelihood of citations and the peer recognition of the research output;
• Ensuring research grant applications align with funder expectations;
• Increasing the scope for further investment by funders in the research area;
• Helping other researchers to avoid duplicating research;
• Safeguarding the scholarly record in the long term, and preserving access to research outputs;
• Extending the social and economic influence and impact of the research; and
• Increasing opportunities for collaborations and partnerships.

Challenges and Considerations

Whilst the University advocates for Open Research, we acknowledge that challenges remain, including concerns around intellectual property, data privacy, and the resources required to make outputs openly available. We are committed to addressing these challenges by developing policies and best practices that balance openness with ethical, legal, and practical considerations, and that incentivise open behaviours.

The University acknowledges that engagement with Open Research will differ across disciplines and projects and may be determined by a variety of factors, such as but not exclusive to; commercial potential, industry partnerships, human participant data, and publisher requirements. All credible, practical and sustainable means of practicing Open Research will be supported by the University.

Last reviewed: July 2025

For review: July 2026