Category Archives: oa.nihr

NIHR tops international chart for clinical trial transparency | NIHR

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“The NIHR has been recognised as the world’s most transparent research funding body.

New analysis produced by TranspariMED shows the NIHR is the only research funder in the world to have adopted all 11 of the World Health Organisation’s recommendations for maximising clinical trial transparency and minimising waste.

These include:

making all clinical trial results public within 12 months
having specific policies to prevent waste in research and speed up the development of new treatments
requiring researchers to make key data available on public trial registries and publish their results in scientific journals
monitoring whether researchers are following best practices, and sanctioning those that do not…”

NIHR Open Access policy – articles submitted before 1 June 2022

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“DHSC and NIHR require that NIHR-funded researchers publish their main study findings in a peer-reviewed, open access journal.

Research should be published in a journal that makes the findings available using the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence, and allows immediate deposit of the final published version in other repositories without restriction on re-use. If this is not possible, then the authors must reconsider the appropriateness of the original publication and how to comply with the point above.
A copy of the final manuscript of any research papers supported in whole or in part by the NIHR should be deposited with Europe PMC upon acceptance for publication, to be made freely available as soon as possible and in any event within six months of the journal publisher’s official date of final publication.
It is expected that award holders will make provision from their funding award to cover the costs of publishing in an open access journal (previous transition arrangements have been withdrawn). If necessary, researchers may need to contact the awarding NIHR coordinating centre to discuss covering open access costs. This requirement does not apply to any recipient of NIHR funding prior to 1 April 2014, who remain under the requirements of their original contract. However, it is recommended that these award holders contact the appropriate NIHR managing centre to discuss publication.
The above should not prevent researchers from also depositing a copy in their own institutional or another subject-based repository should they choose to do so, or be required to do so by their employing institution subject to any restrictions from the publishers….”

NIHR Open Access policy – for publications submitted on or after 1 June 2022

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“Open access makes published academic research freely, immediately and permanently available online for anyone to read, share and reuse. This maximises the societal, academic, and economic impact of publicly funded research, and enhances the integrity and rigour of research through greater openness and transparency. This policy supports the Government R&D Roadmap and our commitment to adding value in research, one aspect of which is ensuring that research results are published in full in an accessible and unbiased report. Through the NIHR Journals Library and NIHR Open Research, we enable findings, including negative findings, from all NIHR funded research to be made open access.

The NIHR Open Access Policy is focused on our expectations in relation to publishing academic, peer-reviewed journal articles – but this is just one way in which our researchers may choose to disseminate their research findings. We recognise and encourage a diversity of approaches to disseminating research findings so that people can make use of them. We are also committed to making sure that when we assess research outputs during funding decisions, we consider the intrinsic merit of the work and not the journal in which it is published (see our position on responsible use of metrics).

This policy applies to peer-reviewed articles describing NIHR funded research findings submitted on or after 1 June 2022, when it will supersede the NIHR open access policy introduced in 2014. The revised open access policy follows extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including the academic, publishing and health and care sectors and patients and the public. This included an open survey in autumn 2020 to inform the future of NIHR open access policy, public contributor workshops to capture the views of patients, carers, service users and the public on this agenda, a roundtable for health and social care organisations in collaboration with Health Education England, and an independent report on the challenges and opportunities of open access in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Find out more about the Review and its supporting evidence. Key terms are explained in the glossary….

All in-scope articles must be published under the Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), or Open Government Licence (OGL) when subject to Crown Copyright, to ensure maximum impact. This will permit all users of NIHR-funded articles to disseminate and build upon the material for any purpose without further permission or fees being required….”

News: New Open Access policy for NIHR funded researchers | NIHR

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“The NIHR has today announced its new Open Access policy, requiring all peer-reviewed research articles arising from NIHR-funded research studies to be made immediately open access under an open licence. 

In line with the Government’s commitment to Open Access, which “requires that research outputs funded by the UK government are freely available to the taxpayer who funds research” (R&D Roadmap), this new policy will allow evidence from NIHR funded research to be freely accessed and used across the health and social care system, empower patients and the public, and drive further innovation globally.

Based on extensive engagement with stakeholders, including members of the public, and review of evidence, NIHR has developed a new policy that will ensure that NIHR funded research findings are freely accessible, discoverable and reusable to all, including through Europe PMC. This change will apply to all peer-reviewed articles submitted for publication on or after 1 June 2022….”

Job: Wikimedian in Residence @ National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

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Are you passionate about helping people and organisations share knowledge? Do you have experience of team working, developing partnerships and managing projects?

At the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) we’re recruiting our first Wikimedian in Residence and are looking for a proactive and enthusiastic individual with excellent communication skills to join us.

This six month post is part of a pilot to help NIHR evaluate the opportunities to use Wikimedia to support dissemination of NIHR funded research. We’re looking for someone who can help us to actively engage with the Wikimedia platforms and communities, provide training and write and edit Wikimedia content. While knowledge of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia initiatives is valued it is not essential.

 

Duties and responsibilities:

 

Scoping and development work

Support the establishment of a “pilot steering committee” with key representatives from across NIHR including Central Communications, Research Design Service and NIHR Academy.
Work with NIHR CED and the pilot steering committee to identify priority areas of NIHR’s research that could enrich Wikipedia and sister projects – thereby supporting the dissemination of NIHR funded research. 
Identify and propose solutions to any barriers to promoting NIHR funded research including copyright or compliance with Wikipedia guidelines. 
Advocacy: be an advocate for open knowledge within NIHR.
Reporting: produce ongoing updates and a summary report on the outcomes of the residency.

 

Writing/Editing Wikipedia articles

Create/improve Wikimedia projects content for identified NIHR outputs and research
Encourage and increase the direct participation of NIHR researchers in the provision of content for Wikimedia projects, and encourage creation (and improvement) of Wikimedia projects relating to NIHR’s content.

 

Training

Provide training on Wikimedia editing, best practice and Wikimedia volunteer community engagement. 
Develop guidance on the use of Wikipedia for NIHR staff addressing key issues related to copyright and Wikipedia best practice.
Organise and host workshops for NIHR staff, researchers and PPI representatives to enable them to directly contribute their knowledge and expertise to develop Wikipedia articles. 

 

Collaborating with Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia volunteer community

Support collaboration between NIHR, Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia community – potentially leading to a sustainable relationship and joint projects in the future. Do this in collaboration with NIHR CED and other NIHR staff, relevant partner organisations and volunteers from Wikimedia movement. 
Establish links between NIHR staff, Wikimedia volunteers and others, helping NIHR with Wikimedia volunteer engagement.
Share Wikimedia’s values and act as an advocate for its mission and ethos.

NIHR gives support to international Open Access initiative

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“The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is supportive of the aims and goals of Plan S, to make all publicly funded, peer-reviewed research publications immediately and freely Open Access to the reader.

Spreading new knowledge and allowing that knowledge to be built upon benefits all. We, therefore, believe that the universal availability of the publications arising from the research we fund is important to achieving our vision of ‘improving the health and wealth of the nation through research’.For this reason, we have a long-standing commitment to increasing research openness and transparency. We were one of the original funders of Europe PMC and we were the world’s first health research funder to publish comprehensive accounts of its commissioned research within its own Open Access journals.

We look forward to working closely with other research funders and the wider research community to achieve the aims of Plan S. As part of this work, we will be reviewing our current Open Access policy. …”

UK public research funders show mixed performance on clinical trial transparency | transparimed

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“One year after three UK public research funders agreed to adopt the WHO’s strong standards on clinical trial transparency, it appears that none of them has fully implemented their commitments.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests filed by TranspariMED indicate that two funders, MRC and NIHR, have taken significant steps towards greater transparency, but still fall short of fully delivering on the promises they made. The third funder, DFID, has taken no action to meet its commitments….”