Awareness and use of open research practices: an international survey of researchers across disciplines

Abstract This mixed methods study investigates international researchers' awareness and use of open research practices and explores variations across regions, disciplines, methodologies and career stages. A total of 3017 researchers across 45 countries and 24 disciplines completed the Brief Open Research Survey, reporting their awareness and use of 11 common open research practices and factors that would support their adoption. Across the sample, respondents reported high awareness of open access publications, preprints and open data, and awareness only fell below 50% for research co-production and registered reports. Use was high for open access publications, but fell below 50% for preprints, open data, open research, open materials, open peer review, open code, preregistration, research co-production, replication and registered reports. Awareness and use varied across the sampled regions (e.g. Europe versus Asia), disciplines (e.g. psychology versus physical sciences), methodologies (e.g. quantitative versus qualitative) and career stages (e.g. PhD students versus professors). Respondents reported that the top five supportive strategies were incentives from funders, institutions and regulators; dedicated funding; recognition in promotion and recruitment criteria; more training; and more information. Qualitative responses provide insight into challenges and opportunities. Estimates of awareness can guide training initiatives, while estimates of use can inform policy development and longitudinal evaluations of behaviour change. Variations between regions, disciplines, methodologies and career stages should be acknowledged.

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Publication Details

Journal
Royal Society Open Science
Published
2026-08-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260462
Primary Topic
Academic Publishing and Open Access
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Awareness and use of open research practices: an international survey of researchers across disciplines

Jakub Rajčáni, Simon Christ, Margherita Lanz, Luka Ursić et al.
Royal Society Open Science
Academic Publishing and Open Access
article

Awareness and use of open research practices: an international survey of researchers across disciplines

Jakub Rajčáni, Simon Christ, Margherita Lanz, Luka Ursić, Nicholas C. Wu, Federica Conte, Felix D. Schönbrodt, Arca Adıgüzel, Agata Bochyńska, Sofia Persson, Cemre Yilmaz, Elena Serena Piccardi, Krzysztof Cipora, Marija Franka Žuljević, Maria Montefinese, Luiza Marques Prates Behrens, D.P. Morgan, Félix P. Leiva, Tamara Kalandadze, Alden Conner, Sara Graça Jorge, Kait Clark, Naoto Yoshimura, Simon E. Blackwell, Vicky Hellon, Paulina Gebauer, Ingvild E. Bjerke, Suzanne Stewart, Mircea Zloteanu, Marco Tullio Liuzza, Marcel Martončik, William P. Cawthorn, David Alexander Ellis, Vladimira Cavojova, Cristian B. Canales-Aguirre, Ben Ridley, Eli S.J. Thoré, Sarah Gunn, Hiroshi Matsui, Yalige Ba, Harry Carey, Marcus Robert Munafo, Raquel Meister Ko. Freitag, Michiel de Boer, Carmen Penido, Yusuph A. Kafula, Michael Bertram, Jessie Baldwin, Ryssa Moffat, Gordon Feld, Davide Crepaldi, Helen Niemeyer, Ivan Buljan, Helena Hartmann, Emma Norris, Matus Adamkovic, Halil Emre Kocalar, Mojtaba Soltanlou, Andrew Jones, Olavo Bohrer Amaral, Sandy Schumann, Timothy M. Errington, Nick Ballou, Gabriela Hofer, Charlotte Rebecca Pennington, David Moreau, Magda Skubera, Emily Kate Farran, Shinichi Nakagawa, Yuki Yamada, Veli-Matti Karhulahti, Gustav Nilsonne, Rafaela A. Almeida, James Steele, Ayumi Ikeda, Michele Scandola, Rima-Maria Rahal, Michelangelo Vianello, Malika Ihle, Malgorzata Lagisz, Vootele Voikar
article en

Abstract

Abstract This mixed methods study investigates international researchers' awareness and use of open research practices and explores variations across regions, disciplines, methodologies and career stages. A total of 3017 researchers across 45 countries and 24 disciplines completed the Brief Open Research Survey, reporting their awareness and use of 11 common open research practices and factors that would support their adoption. Across the sample, respondents reported high awareness of open access publications, preprints and open data, and awareness only fell below 50% for research co-production and registered reports. Use was high for open access publications, but fell below 50% for preprints, open data, open research, open materials, open peer review, open code, preregistration, research co-production, replication and registered reports. Awareness and use varied across the sampled regions (e.g. Europe versus Asia), disciplines (e.g. psychology versus physical sciences), methodologies (e.g. quantitative versus qualitative) and career stages (e.g. PhD students versus professors). Respondents reported that the top five supportive strategies were incentives from funders, institutions and regulators; dedicated funding; recognition in promotion and recruitment criteria; more training; and more information. Qualitative responses provide insight into challenges and opportunities. Estimates of awareness can guide training initiatives, while estimates of use can inform policy development and longitudinal evaluations of behaviour change. Variations between regions, disciplines, methodologies and career stages should be acknowledged.

Royal Society Open ScienceVol. 13(8)
Vienna University of Economics and Business (AT), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT), Leibniz University Hannover (DE), University of Verona (IT), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR), Jagiellonian University (PL), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (BR), Department of Health and Social Care (GB), University Medical Center Groningen (NL), University of Helsinki (FI), Kyushu University (JP), Ritsumeikan University (JP), University of Chester (GB), University of Padua (IT), Loughborough University (GB), Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), University of Namur (BE), University of Leicester (GB), University of Alberta (CA), University of East London (GB), Stockholm University (SE), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (Israel) (IL), Aston University (GB), Murdoch University (AU), University of Mannheim (DE), University of the West of England (GB), National University of Misiones (AR), King's College London (GB), OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (NO), University of Oslo (NO), JAMK University of Applied Sciences (FI), Universidade Federal de Sergipe (BR), The Open University of Japan (JP), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP), Charles University (CZ), University of Pavia (IT), Instituto Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BR), Center for Open Science (US), Croatian Academic and Research Network (HR), Helsinki Institute of Physics (FI), Radboud University Medical Center (NL), Karolinska Institutet (SE), University of Surrey (GB), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), ETH Zurich (CH), Osaka University of Human Sciences (JP), Graz University of Technology (AT), Faculdades Oswaldo Cruz (BR), Central Institute of Mental Health (DE), NeuroDevelopment Center (US), Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (NL), Essen University Hospital (DE), King's College School (GB), Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna (IT), The Alan Turing Institute (GB), Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (BG), Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (DE), Institute for Learning and Development (US), Central Finland Health Care District (FI), Crimean Agrotechnological University (UA), Brain Research New Zealand (NZ), Universidad de Los Lagos (CL), University College London (GB), Imperial College London (GB), University of Bath (GB), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (BR), Keele University (GB), Monash University (AU), Brunel University of London (GB), Liverpool John Moores University (GB), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Göttingen (DE), Comenius University Bratislava (SK), Freie Universität Berlin (DE), Muğla University (TR), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), Leeds Beckett University (GB), University of Split (HR), University of Jyväskylä (FI), University of Edinburgh (GB), KU Leuven (BE)
Aston University
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Academic Publishing and Open Access
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