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Research Data: Open methods

Tips and support for data management for researchers at ÅAU

What are open methods?

Open methods means that researchers transparently and openly describe and document the methods that form the basis of the research results. Reporting research methods and workflow as clearly and detailed as possible contributes to the reproducibility, replicability, quality and reliability of the research results. In addition, the methods can be more easily used for new purposes and further developed. Open methods are, for example, descriptions of procedures, standardized protocols, source code, laboratory notes, questionnaires and interview guides. Open methods also include activities that enable open and quick access to research results, such as preregistration.

In accordance with the FAIR principles, research methods must have an appropriate level of openness. According to the national policy on open research data and methods (2021–2025), research methods should be communicated in a sufficiently detailed and complete way that enables critical evaluation of how the results were derived and how the methodological choices affected them. In situations with ethical or legal restrictions on the openness of research methods, information about the methods must still be published openly through the sharing of metadata, in the same way as for research data.

Publish methods

Research methods are increasingly seen as independent research outputs and can be published and shared via different channels, for example in the same repository or data archive that you use for publishing research data. You can also open methods in methods sections and supplementary materials in journal publications, special methods publications and public records. These can often be cited and credit the researcher in the same way as traditional publications. Through transparency of the research methods, the research process can be opened at an earlier stage and enable the researcher to receive feedback while the research is still ongoing. In addition, both publishers and funders demand openness of research methods as well. For example, the Research Council of Finland assumes open access to research methods whenever possible, and a reliable implementation of the openness of research methods is seen as an advantage when applying.

A good way to increase the transparency of research methods is to publish protocols publicly. A published protocol consists of an abstract and a detailed method description. You can share protocols openly via protocols.io or OSF. Remember to assign them an open license.

Open research infrastructures

The national policy on open research data and methods (2021–2025) also supports openness of research infrastructures. Research infrastructures refer to instruments, equipment, information networks, databases and services used in research, for example libraries, laboratories, biological stations, computer hardware and software repositories. The national policy states that "publicly  funded  research  infrastructures  must  be  openly  accessible  for  the  widest  possible  audience  and  not  profit-oriented." Use of open infrastructures must therefore be free or at a reasonable cost that is charged for maintaining and developing the infrastructure. The policy further points out that "Researchers or research organisations should be able to apply for  infrastructure  services  based  on  public  calls  organised  by  the infrastructure provider." Open infrastructures expand researchers' opportunities and support research collaborations between different universities. In Europe, there are also several large-scale research infrastructures, such as CERN and EMBL.

Open source software

An important aspect of open research methods and infrastructures is the development of open source repositories. Open source software is shared with a license that gives re-users the right to use, interpret, modify and distribute the software for any purpose. "Source code of research methods provides complementary information in repeatability, reproducibility and reuse, compared to textual descriptions of algorithms" (p. 37, Open research data and methods. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021–2025). 

Guides and resources for open methods

Reproducibility

How can you increase the reproducibility or replicability of your research?

Reproducible, replicable... (Image by Scriberia for The Turing Way community, used under a CC-BY license https://zenodo.org/record/3332808)