Open research and responsible reward and recognition

The University has signed up to a large-scale national collaboration coordinated by the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) to create a community of practice to incentivise and enable open research through institutional research assessment practices. The OR4 project (Open and Responsible Researcher Reward and Recognition) is a major initiative to reform how open research is recognised and rewarded in recruitment, promotion and appraisal practices. 43 UK academic research institutions are participating in the initiative – 14 as case studies and 29 in a wider community of practice.

OR4 will run until August 2026 and aims to provide freely available tools for recognition and reward of open research practices and to foster a national community of practice.

The project will create a website with information about participating institutions’ policies, practices and resources, as well as tools and resources developed by OR4, which will include a institutional self-assessment tool and maturity framework, and a guide to implementing recognition and reward for open research.

The University of Reading is participating in OR4 as a case study institution. We will share information about our progress, provide input and feedback on project tools and resources, and share good practice and experience through the wider community of practice. The University will benefit from support in planning and implementing reform, and stands to become a leader in open research reward and recognition practices.

Professor Adrian Bell, Research Dean for Prosperity & Resilience, said:

“Being part of the OR4 project will be an invaluable part of our drive to develop fairer and more inclusive ways of assessing the quality of our research. The OR4 resources and network will help us track our progress towards more open, transparent and equitable ways of working and we are delighted to be one of the case study institutions.”

As a partner in UKRN’s national Open Research Programme, of which OR4 is a part, the University is a leading member of the OR4 project team, and has been instrumental in developing project resources to support institutional planning and implementation.

A major impetus for OR4 was the work initiated by the University’s working group on Research Evaluation in Recruitment and Promotion, which arose out of discussions at the Committee for Open Research and Research Integrity (CORRI). This supports our declared intention to review and align our research assessment practices and processes to be in a position to sign the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), with robust and fair approaches to research assessment.

Find out more

Read our Statement on Responsible Metrics

Professor Adrian Bell explains why we have also joined the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment.