Open Research Conversation - Early career researchers and open research

Recording of the following session, part of the 'Open Research Conversations' seminar series at the University of Sheffield (organised by the University Library, Scholarly Communications Team), held on 23 April 2025:

Early career researchers and open research

Open research practices are increasingly becoming the norm among an emerging generation of researchers, who have the potential to act as agents of change in embedding open practices into the workflows of a research group, subject area or lab. This said, to what extent is it fair or reasonable to expect early career colleagues to carry the burden of transforming the way we conduct research? Early career researchers experience time and career pressures that more established researchers may not, and are arguably less empowered to take ‘risks’ (such as publishing in sustainable and ethical yet ‘low impact factor’ venues) than more established colleagues.

In this Open Research Conversation, we explore the experiences and perspectives of early career colleagues with open research. Speakers include Eleanor Hyde (University of Sheffield), an ECR in the field of Cognitive Psychology; Elaine Toomey (University of Galway), who will discuss her work on the barriers and enablers to practising open research for early career colleagues, and Zuzanna Zagrodzka (University of Sheffield), a current PGR student and open research practitioner in Biosciences.