The open research decision tree
Here’s another chance to practice using the open access interactive decision tree. It has been designed to help you conduct open research in the future, by reminding you about the principles of open research and what actions you can take to make your research open, at any stage of your research project.
Activity 4:
Allow around 30 minutes
- Use the open research decision tree to remind yourself about principles in open research. Imagine you wanted to remind yourself about open access journals. You learned about this in Week 6. To do this, click the Principles button, then the Accessibility button. Then select the Open access articles and journal models option. What do you find there? How is the Principles branch of the decision tree organised?
- Now think about how you can apply open research principles (such as replicability, generalisability and robustness) to a research project you have already started. If you don’t have one in mind, think of an imaginary project. Use the open research decision tree to consider what actions you can take to make your project more accessible. To do this, go back to the beginning of the decision tree, click the Actions button, then I’ve started. Select Collaborating with others and publishing your paper. That will take you to parts of this course that relate to accessibility. Can you relate the actions to your project?
- Now compare what happens if you have finished your project. Think of an ongoing project, or an imaginary one. Go back to the beginning of the decision tree, click the Actions button, then I’ve finished. Select Making data and materials accessible. Again, you will find various links to the course about how you can make your research accessible. What are they? Can you find any other actions that relate to accessibility?
Use the text box below to write down what you found out:
When you are ready, press 'reveal' to see our comments.
Discussion
In Part 1, you should have been able to find your way to the section of Week 6 that refers to open access publishing. In other words, you moved from the principles of accessibility and open action to the action of publishing.
In Part 2, you may have found your way through actions like collaborating with others, publishing a preprint or publishing open access to ideas that relate to the principle of accessibility.
In Part 3, a prompt to check for geographical, cultural and language barriers may have brought you back to ideas of accessibility you learned in this chapter. The open research decision tree is organised in a way that throws up ideas and offers a quick way of accessing information from the course.
Limitations of big team science