Is the Irish Research community “ready” for Open Research practices and Responsible Research Assessment?

Early findings from the NORF funded ABOARD project.

Is the Irish Research community “ready” for Open Research practices and Responsible Research Assessment? This question is at the heart of the NORF-funded ABOARD project, to which the Irish Humanities Alliance is a contributing partner, and which aims to develop a roadmap for system-level incentivisation of Open Research practices.

Open Research is commonly understood as the embracement of a range of “open” practices such Open Access Publication, open peer review, pre-prints and pre-registration of publications as well as FAIR Data Management and Public Engagement.

Responsible Research Assessment refers to the recognition of a broad range of research practices, activities and outputs in research assessment, as well as basing assessment principally on qualitative evaluation and avoiding an inappropriate use of metrics.

Early findings from the project’s 2024-2025 workshops and self-assessment survey completed by approximately 200 Irish researchers and 9 research funding organisations (RFOs) indicate:

High level of support for  the principles of Open Research and Responsible Research Assessment: a clear majority of researchers favoured stronger incentivisation and a wider use of these principles.  RFOs are keen to deliver on their dual role namely by adopting responsible research assessment practices in their own decision-making processes, and by incentivising, supporting and facilitating Open Research practices across the Irish research landscape.
Common Frameworks and Infrastructure: a substantial desire for common guidelines and frameworks.  In practical terms, researchers and RFOs would welcome joined-up, national-level infrastructure and responses the issues arising from transitional Open Access agreements, often resulting in high costs to researchers and institutions.

Diverse Indicators: There is broad agreement that traditional research metrics, such as Journal Impact Factor and h-index, don’t tell the full story of research! Both researchers and RFOs voiced their preference for  indicators that value, recognize and thereby incentivise open and transparent research practices, and reflect and encourage diverse research outputs, public engagement and evidence-based policy making.

“What really stands out to us is a universal call for sectoral alignment in approach and policy at all levels and between all stakeholder groups – and in overall coherence with international frameworks such as CoARA (the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment(opens in a new tab))” says Dr Sally Smith, Director of Research, Trinity College Dublin, project co-lead.
What’s next?

Following this extensive engagement with the key stakeholder groups in the Irish research system, the project is currently finalising recommendations, a position paper and a roadmap for the incentivisation of Open Research practices in Ireland. These outputs will be presented at the ABOARD capstone conference in early 2026.

“We look forward to welcoming everyone involved in research assessment, and most importantly, researchers themselves” says Dr David O’Connell, Director of Research Support and Policy, University College Cork and co-lead of the ABOARD project. “These themes will shape the future of research practices and how research outputs will be assessed, and as such will have a major impact on research careers.”

For further information email: aboard@ucc.ie