OpenUP addressed key aspects and challenges of the currently transforming science landscape in terms of quality assurance of scientific publications, communication of scientific outputs, and impact assessment with a focus on Open Science. It mapped out and promoted new solutions that better suit the needs of researchers, innovators, the public and funding bodies. Through analysis, consultation, hands-on stakeholder engagement, OpenUP:
- developed frameworks that define methods, roles and processes, benefits and opportunities for uptake of open peer review, innovative research dissemination and impact measurement methods
- built an interactive knowledge-base, the OpenUP Hub that hosts information, toolkits, guidelines and other resources on peer review, research dissemination and alternative metrics
- validated the proposed mechanisms through pilots involving researchers from four scientific communities - Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities and Energy
- derived practical policy recommendations to be used by EU, national and institutional policymakers, publishers, libraries, research funders, community-based initiatives and alternative metrics providers.
OpenUP methodology involved several stages. The first project year was dedicated to primary research such as landscaping and surveying. Project partners conducted structured analyses of the three key project topics - peer review, research dissemination and alternative metrics. These efforts resulted in broad and indepth overviews of the topics addressing the latest developments in the areas. In addition, OpenUP research team surveyed researchers across Europe on peer review, innovative dissemination and altmetrics. The anonymised data of the survey are openly available.
The second project stage OpenUP piloted and validated initial findings. Seven pilots were implemented testing aspects of the review-disseminate-assess cycle in different scientific communities. OpenUP also organised a high-level expert workshop in Brussels and several validation workshops to bring all the relevant stakeholders together to discuss and provide feedback for OpenUP’s interim results. All the project's activities fed into the formation of the OpenUP policy recommendations. In parallel, all research outputs were captured and made publicly available via the OpenUP Hub. The OpenUP consortium implemented various dissemination activities and events, including presence on social media, blogging, participation in and organisation of conferences, poster presentations, as well as training and workshop organisation.
