The Experimental Research Funder's Handbook (RoRI Working Paper No.6)
This Handbook aims to provide a practical resource for funders looking to move further or faster down the experimental path.

Send us a link
This Handbook aims to provide a practical resource for funders looking to move further or faster down the experimental path.
A responsible research assessment would incentivise, reflect and reward the plural characteristics of high-quality research, in support of diverse and inclusive research cultures.
Self-archiving is a key aspect of Open Access. Read the infographic to learn more about OA repositories
TechRxiv, a new preprint server for electrical engineering, computer science and related technologies, has been launched by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization advancing technology for humanity.
External and internal collaboration patterns are presented.
Keynote at PyData LondonJuly 14, 2019https://pydata.org/london2019/schedule/presentation/47/DescriptionTech has spent millions of dollars in efforts to diversify workplaces. Despite this, it seems after each spell of progress, a series of retrograde events ensue. Anti-diversity manifestos, backlash to assertive hiring, and sexual misconduct scandals crop up every few months, sucking the air from every board room. This will be a digest of research, recent events, and pointers on women in STEM.AbstractTwo years ago, a Google engineer attended a diversity program. He had such an adverse reaction to it, that he proceeded to write a 10-page anti-diversity manifesto that he circulated on internal channels. It later became public, furor ensued, and the engineer was fired. Far from being the end of the story, this engineer played the victim of political correctness and became a darling of conservative media outlets. What happened here? One tech company's attempts to educate its employees and improve the internal culture mightily backfired and as a result the cause for women in STEM was choked back. While a general sense that moving toward gender parity is desirable (though some still disagree with this premise), what actions to take remains unclear. Diversity trainings have been scarcely evaluated, and when they have, they seem to change awareness but not behavior. Sometimes, they create a backlash. More assertive action, like quotas, engender open resentment. Women in science and technology are underestimated by peers and teachers, pressed by stereotypes, disadvantaged in hiring and career progression, sexually harassed, disheartened as their expertise is ignored…and now they are resented for diversity initiatives. Science and technology needs its leaders to be fully committed to diversity and in frank understanding of the social-justice underpinnings. Two vehicles for change are: men leaders who are allies, and more women in leadership. The recent DataCamp debacle shows that a whole community's action was needed to right the wrongs of one harasser and one company's reticence to make him accountable. I aim to elicit your commitments to hire and promote women affirmatively, and to get educated and empower activism with evidence.
This dataset provides a granular, step-by-step calculation of the costs associated with publishing primary research articles, from submission, through peer-review, to publication, indexing and archiving. It is found that these costs range from less than US$200 per article in modern, large scale publishing platforms using post-publication peer-review, to about US$1,000 per article in prestigious journals with rejection rates exceeding 90%. The publication costs for a representative scholarly article today come to lie at around US$400. The additional non-publication cost items that make up the difference between publication costs and final price are discussed. The dataset refers to calculations about the scenarios described in a publication about that topic.
What is next for reproducibility? Research communities will need to develop standards of practice, institutions will adopt formal policies, and funding agencies may look to support more infrastructure and tools to enable reproducibility.
Invited talk by Jon Tennant delivered at the NFAIS 2019 Annual Conference.
The FAIR principles were published in 2016 in a Scientific Data article titled 'FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship'. These were developed to aid in the discovery and reuse of research data.FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Data that meet these principles are more optimal for reuse and discoverability and in turn increase your research's exposure.Here's how your data is more FAIR when it's on Figshare.Illustration by Jason McDermott of RedPenBlackPen.
Press release for launch of ORCID funders open letter. ORCID is pleased to announce the launch of an open letter in support of the use of ORCID identifiers (iDs) in the grant application and reporting process. Nine funding bodies around the world have signed the letter and invite others to join them.
Slides from a talk given to the general assembly of Science Europe in Brussels on 22 Nov 2018. Gives an overview of the problems of over-metricised research evaluation and how this might be tackled, in part through initiatives driven by DORA, and how they are linked with drives such as Plan S to promote open science. Shared under a CC-BY-SA opinion (though Figshare doesn't seem to allow me to select that option from their drop-down menu).
Presentation slides for Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies 2018. Alternative title: Selfish reasons for adopting open research practices in SSH research.
The State of Open Data 2018 looks at global attitudes towards open data. It includes survey results of researchers and a collection of articles from industry experts, as well as a foreword from Ross Wilkinson, Director, Global Strategy at Australian Research Data Commons.
In one of the largest surveys of researchers about research data (with over 7,700 respondents), Springer Nature finds widespread data sharing associated with published works and a desire from researchers that their data are discoverable.
Empirical study examining the similarities and distinguishing features of scientific attention as measured by citations and public attention in online fora.
For the year 2016, 28.9 % of all peer-reviewed articles produced within the Finnish universities were reported as being OA.
Figshare's annual report shows that open data has become more embedded in the research community: 82% of survey respondents are aware of open data sets and more researchers are curating their data for sharing.
This report explores the role of women in STEM and the challenges they face, looking at areas of gender inequality, exploring potential causes of this inequality and offering solutions.
The perceived and actual barriers experienced by researchers attempting to do reproducible research.
The infographic shows how to achieve 100% Open Access for free and legally.
A collection of thirteen papers that were intended to be unpublishable. All were submitted to predatory journals to expose non-existent peer review and exploitative practices.
A report based on the sessions at the SpotOn London conference held at Wellcome Collection Conference centre in November 2016.
A webinar on how to access and engage with content and the importance of open access to scholarly research communication.
Slides from my AAAS '17 talk, part of the panel: "Mind the Gaps: Wikipedia as a Tool to Connect Scientists and the Public"
Visual representation of selected ORCID integrations as listed on ORCID website.
Results of a survey of Wellcome researchers to find out what they think about open research, how they practice it, and some of the barriers they face.