Open Research Week 2026

Opening Keynote: What is the public value of openly accessible research?

2pm-3pm GMT/ 3pm-4pm CET

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Nearly 25 years after the Budapest Open Access Initiative laid the foundation for greater openness to the scholarly record, we still know little about how the public actually uses this research. Declarations and manifestos have long claimed that open literature empowers ‘curious minds’. ‘informed citizens’, and society at large. But do these ideals match reality? This keynote will challenge assumptions and present fresh empirical evidence on how the general public engages with openly accessible research. 

Dr Ameet Doshi, is Head of Stokes Library, Princeton University.

The opening address will be from Professor Keith George, Professor of Exercise and Cardiovascular Physiology and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange, Liverpool John Moores University).

Many researchers use code, how many share? TADA is a wizard way to enable you to improve code sharing

10.30am-11.30am GMT/ 11.30am-12.30pm CET

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In this session Dr Joel Pick will be talking about code sharing and the TADA simple guidelines to improve code sharing (with or without a wizard hat!).   

Dr Joel Pick (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Edward Ivimey-Cook (University of East Anglia) are two of the co-authors of TADA! Simple guidelines to improve code sharing. All the authors of this paper are members of SORTEE. Code sharing is an important element that supports computational reproducibility. Funders and journals are either mandating or encouraging sharing. How can you prepare your code to be functional, reproducible, and discoverable. TADA can help.

Bitesize Replication Games

2.30pm-4pm GMT/ 3.30pm-5pm CET

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Join us for Bitesize Replication Games, a hands-on online workshop where researchers test their skills by attempting to reproduce a key result from a published paper. In a supportive, interactive environment, participants will break down the original methods, run one key analysis, and compare outcomes in groups in breakout rooms, gaining practical insight into reproducibility, methodological transparency, and the challenges behind turning literature into code. Whether you are new to replication or already experienced, this session invites lively discussion, peer learning, and a deeper appreciation for the nuances of robust research. 

Please note this is an interactive session. Bookings are limited to 75 people. If all spaces are taken, we will open a waiting list. Please cancel your place if you can no longer attend to allow others to do so.

Dr Lenka Fiala, University of Ottawa, is an experimental economist with a special interest in pre-analysis plans and detection of p-hacking. She joined the Institute for Replication as a Research Scientist in 2025 

Dr Derek Mikola, University of Ottawa, has been advancing reproducibility and Open Science as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Replication since 2023. 

Together, Derek and Lenka have coordinated dozens of day-long Replication Games, and guided hundreds of researchers in navigating the intricacies of replication packages.  

Only good antibodies: different players coming together in an open initiative

2pm-3pm GMT/ 3pm-4pm CET

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Only Good Antibodies is an open science partnership between science stakeholders at institutions, commercial manufacturers, research funders, publishers and reagent databases.  

This diverse collaboration (led by the University of Leicester) aims to improve research integrity and reproducibility in research that uses antibodies. Improving patient outcomes by supporting trustworthy research and reliable diagnostics.  

The community works with all stakeholders to accelerate scientific and drug discovery research by increasing the availability and use of good antibodies and eliminating the use of poorly performing antibodies.   

Dr Michael Biddle, University of Leicester, co-leads the only good antibodies community. He will be talking about how this community came about and the bringing on board of such diverse stakeholders.  

Dr Michael Biddle is a research associate at the University of Leicester, Co-lead of both the only good antibody community and YCharOS UK site YCharOS – Antibody Characterization through Open Science. 

Making archives and special collections open

11am-12pm GMT/ 12pm-1pm CET

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Join us for a look into how digitisation is transforming access to unique and often hidden collections. This session will highlight two projects to explore the tools, challenges, and ethical questions around making archival materials open to all. Dr Ruth Nugent and Dr James Butler will present their work creating and ensuring the longer-term accessibility of the Human Remains Digital Library and Emily Parsons and Megan Ashworth, from LJMU Special Collections and Archives, will be discussing various projects digitising materials for a wider audience, including their work on the Unity Theatre Archive Project. From open metadata to digitisation workflows, we'll discuss what it really means to open up special collections, why it matters, when it’s appropriate, and how it can be done responsibly.

Dr Ruth Nugent, University of Liverpool, is a UKRI Future Leader's Fellow who led the research programme "The Human Remains: Digital Library of British Historic Mortuary Science and Investigation" based in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology.

Dr James Butler, University of Liverpool, is the Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Human Remains Project.

Emily Parsons is University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Liverpool John Moores University.

Megan Ashworth, is the Unity Theatre Project Archivist at Liverpool John Moores University.

It makes sense to be open

1pm-2pm GMT/ 2pm-3pm CET

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In this session, we'll hear the first-hand experiences of two researchers from very different disciplines. While Dr Sarah Fox is an Historian and Oenone Scott is a Life Scientist, both of these researcher's work would not be as effective if they did not embrace open practices in one form or another.

Dr Sarah Fox is a social and cultural historian of eighteenth-century Britain. Her first book, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England was published open access in 2022 by the University of London press and was shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize. Her second book, The King's Dinner: family, nation, and identity on the British table, 1760-1820 is soon to be published open access by UCL. 

Oenone Scott is a Postgraduate Research Student in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Essex.

Why ‘open’ matters – the importance of global knowledge

3pm-4pm GMT/ 4pm-5pm CET

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Two talks focusing on two different organisations that are helping to make global access to knowledge more open and equitable. Nick Sheppard and Professor Chrissi Nerantzi, from The Knowledge Equity Network, will talk about the aims of the network and the role of open access. Carol Hollier from Research4Life, will discuss the mission, aims, and goals of how Research4Life brings access and content to developing countries and the importance of academic and professional partnerships. 

The Knowledge Equity Network is a collaborative community of engaged institutions, organisations and individuals across the world, that acts intentionally to change the way we share knowledge. Their network works to tackle global challenges through opening access to ground-breaking research and education.  

Research4life provides institutions in low-income countries with online access to academic and professional peer reviewed content.  Its mission is to build an inclusive, diverse and equitable scholarly communications environment.  Access to a wide pool of trusted research information is essential for well-informed and up-to-date research and teaching materials.  

Nick Sheppard (Open Research Advisor) and Chrissi Nerantzi (Professor in Creative and Open Education) are both Senior Leads for the Knowledge Equity Network (KEN) and work for the University of Leeds. The University of Leeds is a Co-Founder of the Knowledge Equity Network.  

Carol Hollier (Sciences Reference and Outreach Librarian) at the University of Iowa, has been involved with Research4Life for many years.  

Closing Keynote: Doing open research is more than just knowing how. Changing research culture and sustaining open infrastructures are crucial too

10am-11am GMT/ 11am-12pm CET 

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Presenter: Dr Kathleen Gregory from University of Leiden.

As a social science researcher working in scholarly and science communication. Kathleen’s research focuses on scholarly communication practices and infrastructures, focusing on research data, open science, peer review, and research evaluation. Kathleen’s work has been used to generate practical applications for computer scientists, data stewards, and policymakers.  She is a member of the Research Data Alliance, the Association for Information Science and Technology, and the European Association from the Study of Science and Technology.  

Closing Open Research Week 2026: Professor Helen Newall.

As Professor of Theatre Praxis at Edge Hill University, Professor Newall teaches multimedia performance and practice as research methodologies. She deploys practice research to interrogate commemoration through miniature installations and has presented about using Figshare as an approach to the documentation and archiving of practice research, preserving the artwork as a research output for reuse by future artist-researcher (as well as for REF).

Friday Fika

2pm-3pm GMT/ 3pm-4pm CET

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Bring your favourite hot drink and join us for a relaxed session hosted by the ORW team. We look back on the week, pick out some interesting questions that our presenters didn’t get to, and discuss how to translate this week’s ideas into action. We may be joined by a few of the week’s presenters too. Audience participation is encouraged!