RESEARCH INNOVATION

Conservation of Demotic 9

The Collection Care Team completed a complex conservation project that spanned over four years, on one of the most significant Demotic texts in the world, the Rylands Papyrus Demotic 9.

The Team undertook extensive research, carried out scientific analysis, and applied multispectral imaging courtesy of the Library Imaging Team, to devise the most effective approach for treating this very complex 5^th century BCE document.

The Papyrus had been virtually destroyed by a researcher’s application of sunflower oil in the 1960s, requiring the development of a new treatment utilising enzymes to break down the fatty acids, which actively oxidised the Papyrus.   

This project was part-funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, with essential collaboration from a Demotic expert Papyrologist, and an external Frame Conservator, to recombine and rehouse the four-metre-long scroll.   

Enhancing our Open Research support

In partnership with the Library’s Digital Development Team, the Office for Open Research (OOR) has developed the Open Research Tracker platform to enable access to the real-time business data collected by the OOR, researchers and decision-makers across the University. Currently the tracker focuses on the Open Access information required for Research Excellence Framework (REF) reporting, and we will expand this coverage over the coming year to include bibliometric and Data Management Plan (DMP) compliance data.

Following the cybersecurity incident of 2023, and as part of ongoing improvements to reporting and business information, DMPs have been recognised as a unique point of information for how research data is managed.

The University and many funders mandate that each project must have a DMP, but previously this relied on an annual, time- and resource-intensive, manual process. To address this, a Data Management Planning Compliance Platform (DMPCP) is under development by the Library with support from Research IT. This will be integrated into the Open Research Tracker infrastructure to provide real-time access to DMP compliance data.

Open Access (OA) monograph schemes  

We published our Strategic Framework for the Acquisition of Open Access Monographs on the Office for Open Research website in 2024, outlining our primary acquisition principles: sustainability, social responsibility, equity and transparency. 

Implementing these principles and the acquisition practices that we previously established, we signed up to a further five innovative OA monograph schemes in 2023-24 (paying for some schemes from conventional content budget funds rather than OA funds).

We shared our framework and evaluation criteria with the OA Monographs Subgroup of RLUK’s Collection Strategy Network earlier this year, and our framework is referenced in a key community resource on assessment criteria for OA book publishing models by Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM).   

The Office for Open Research also delivers the annual Open Access Monograph competition, in partnership with the Faculty of Humanities. This year, a record 47 entries to the competition were received, with five titles selected for conversion to Open Access. Thanks to additional funding from the Faculty of Humanities, a further ten titles were made openly available, maximising the opportunity for these important research outputs to be discovered and used by as many interested readers as possible, both within and beyond academia.

Collaborating with our academic partners at the first Open Research Conference

In 2024, The University of Manchester hosted its first Open Research Conference, planned by the Office for Open Research in collaboration with our academic partners. Keynote presentations were delivered by leading voices in the field of Open Research: Professor Sarah de Rijcke (CWTS Leiden) who highlighted the promise of Open Research to transform research assessment, and Dr Malvika Sharan (Alan Turing Institute) showcasing The Turing Way as a global digital common.

The conference was followed by the first University of Manchester Open Research Award, presented to Dr Stuart Wright, a Research Fellow in Health Economics in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. Stuart was recognised for his contribution to the research project, MANC-RISK-SCREEN. The project focused on open and transparent validation of a breast cancer screening model evaluating the clinical and economic outcomes of different risk-based screening strategies in the UK, and proved an exemplar for transparency in research methodology and publicly sharing research data and analysis code.

Open Research advocacy and the Open Research Fellows

In October 2023, the first ever cohort of Open Research Fellows was appointed, working on projects that further the cause of open and reproducible research, while providing invaluable advocacy across the University. These projects are reaching their conclusion, and an initial presentation of their results was made by the Fellows at the 2024 Opening Up Research kick-off event.

In March 2024, the recruitment process for the next cohort of 2024-25 Open Research Fellows was initiated. A marked increase in interest, applications, and quality of the projects proposed was noted by the Office for Open Research and academic partners leading on the selection process. Following a challenging deliberation exercise, five new Fellows were appointed, representing all three Faculties of the University, and committed to work enhancing and enabling a diverse range of open research practices.

Developments in Open Research skills and the Open Research Skills Framework

2023-24 saw several exciting developments in the support of open research skills at the University. The Office for Open Research appointed a dedicated Coordinator for open research skills and training, responsible for driving forward this important enabler of open and reproducible research.

The Office for Open Research and Library Research Services took responsibility for the governance of the Library’s flagship researcher training programme, My Research Essentials, and introduced a programme principle to build support that promotes open, reproducible and responsible practices amongst researchers. This moves the programme towards a peer-development and delivery model, aligned with that of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN). The first session developed with this approach, Introduction to FAIR Data Principles, ran successfully in May. Other workshops are in development with researcher collaborators, supporting skills identified in a gap analysis.

In April 2024, the Open Research Skills Framework, co-developed with our Open Research Fellows, was endorsed by the Open Research Strategy Group as a way of organising our support of open research practices, and allowing researchers and research decision makers to explore the ways in which they and their departments engage with these practices.

This year we will add a 'REF' (Research Excellence Framework) tag to our resources, to highlight our support to researchers involved in this high-priority work, and we’ll continue efforts to further align our offer and approach with that of the UKRN.

Contributing to the University's social responsibility goals

The Library provided bespoke consultancy support to the University’s Office for Social Responsibility, providing both data and guidance around the University's contributions to research relevant to UN Sustainable Development Goals, and collaborations with international research partners. This was in support of the University's submission for the Times Higher Education Impact Survey in which The University of Manchester placed joint second. We also mapped areas of research strength across the University, to support a new regional innovation review project headed by the Associate Vice-President for Major Special Projects.

New datasets for researchers

Our Research Metrics Team led on the procurement and implementation of two new datasets for the University. We became one of the first universities in the UK to take out a subscription to Scite, a platform which provides valuable additional context around how publications cite each other, and acquired a subscription to the Dimensions Research Integrity platform, a tool which allows us to quickly identify hallmarks of responsible science in published papers.

Research Excellence Framework support

The Office for Open Research continues to contribute to and shape University-level developments in several priority areas. As preparations begin for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2029, Office for Open Research colleagues have been heavily involved in developing a plan for the remainder of the REF cycle, to ensure compliance with the REF Open Access policy, and to enhance the University’s wider research environment. Colleagues also co-ordinated the University's response to the REF consultation on its updated Open Access policy, liaising with senior stakeholders from across the University to develop an institution-level response on the proposal to introduce an Open Access requirement for long-form outputs.

Technical developments have also been prioritised. The Office for Open Research has worked closely with colleagues in Research and Business Engagement to make improvements to Pure, which will make it easier for researchers and research managers to build REF submissions.