Open research is key to our practice. Ensuring our research is accessible to, visible by and transparent for the broadest range of people is paramount for us.
Both Ben and Jordan have won awards for open research and are Newcastle University Open Research Champions, which involves advocating for open research locally and more broadly. We have published an article advocating for wider adoption of open research by entomological researchers and publishers, which has influenced ongoing open research initiatives by the Royal Entomological Society and more broadly. See some examples of our open research outputs on our publications page. Our open research practice is holistic and constantly evolving. This currently includes, but is not limited to:
- Open protocols: We believe that the methods we develop belong not to us, but to the whole scientific community. To realise this vision, we share our protocols widely through platforms like protocols.io at the earliest stage that we can.
- Reproducible data analysis: Using R and tidyverse in particular, we strive for our analyses to be entirely reproducible and transparent. This helps others use our code, interpret our data and check our work.
- Open data and code: We view data and code as fundamental components of any research we publish, so we provide all of the components required to recreate our analyses, figures and findings.
- Preprinting: We’re always eager to share our findings as soon as possible, both to benefit the scientific community and because we can’t contain our excitement! We therefore preprint whenever possibly.
- Open access publication: We always opt to publish open access when possible. Even in the few instances where it isn’t possible, we share our research openly and widely to anyone who wants to read it.
- Open review: Where possible, we prefer to use open peer review processes (both as authors and reviewers) that give the peer review process transparency, fairness and recognition.
Foraging Ecology Research Group 