"As Open As Possible, As Closed As Necessary"
TU Dublin is an 'open first' institution, which means that our researchers are expected to conduct their research as openly as possible, by default. TU Dublin has a range of policies and procedures, in addition to strategic commitments, relating to the advancement of open practice. The Open Research Support Unit has been established to support researchers in these practices.
Open Research, in particular open access to publications and data, is now mainstream and is a condition increasingly imposed by research funding organisations. It is important to familiarise yourself with the relevant policies of TU Dublin and your proposed funding organisation as non-compliance with these policies may impact your ability to access funds and conduct research.
Additionally, there are national and international agreements and strategies, of which TU Dublin and many research funding organisations are signatories, e.g. PlanS, CoARA, DORA.
Publishing ‘Open Access’ is a requirement of TU Dublin, both publications and datasets. While there can be many legitimate reasons why data cannot be made ‘open’, it should always be FAIR compliant, and your mantra should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”. In other words, open should be the default position and you must provide sufficient justification for your decision to make it closed. Below is a list of the key policies you should be familiar with:
Although each funder, and often each individual funding call, has distinct requirements regarding Open Research, the following criteria are typically mandated:
Authors Requirements
- ORCID
An ORCID author ID (Open Research Contributor Identification) is a unique identifier for researchers that helps distinguish individuals and connect them with their scholarly contributions - from research outputs to educational achievements, to successful research funding. It is considered a minimum requirement for researchers, and you will generally be required to link your ORCID account to the grant application portal, so it is important to maintain your profile.
To apply, please see ORCID Registration. Information on how to complete your ORCID profile can be found here.
- Narrative CV
Funders are moving away from more traditional methods of measuring academic and research outputs and contributions. Funding applicants must submit a more complete and reflective account of their academic and professional background in the form of a narrative CV. This allows researchers to highlight contributions that may be difficult to quantify using traditional quantitative metrics. Such non-quantitative methods can include peer review, mentoring and public engagement. Many funding organisations, including SFI, provide templates for a narrative CV.
A guide to write a compelling Narrative CV can be found here.
Licensing & Rights Retention
Most funding organisations stipulate that any publications (including data) must be made available open access, as a condition of funding.
To enable compliance with open access mandates, authors must retain their right to share the authors accepted manuscript (AAM) under a Creative Commons licence, and some funders will require a specific CC Licence. For example, the SFI policy requests that grant holders use CC-BY licences only, and include a 'Rights Retention Statemen't, on all manuscript submissions to publishers.
Remember that depositing the material in an open access repository, like Arrow@TUDublin, may fulfil this requirement.
- To check specific funder and publisher policies on open access, please visit the Sherpa Services website.
Data Management Plan
All funders now require a detailed data management plan.
The Data Management Plan (DMP) should include details of how researchers will create, collect, store, preserve data in a legal and ethical manner. It details how data collected during research will be FAIR, open available to other researchers and wider society. A detailed guide on writing a Data Management Plan can be found here.
Finally, it is important to remember that publishers may also have open access and licencing policies and restrictions, which you will need to consider. The Open Research Support Unit can help you navigate the various policy requirements.