Introducing the new Wellcome Open Research Advisory Board
| 28 November, 2022 | admin |
Researchers of all career stages play a crucial role in driving the uptake of open science, and only by ensuring that all voices are heard can we put this into action. To support this, Wellcome Open Research has recently merged its Senior Advisory Board and Early Career Researcher (ECR) Advisory Board into one single Board.
We spoke to members of the newly formed Wellcome Open Research Advisory Board to learn more about the decision, and where they hope to see the Platform go in the future.
Hannah Hope, Open Research Lead at Wellcome Trust
Why was the decision made to merge the two Advisory Boards?
The motivation for merging the boards came from a number of perspectives. While they’re called ‘Early Career’, researchers at this stage already have significant professional experiences and insights to contribute.
Our own ECR Board demonstrated this with the Wellcome Open Research open data campaign that they championed, and to which they contributed significant time and resources which needed to be recognized.
Having their expertise channelled via a single representative on the Advisory Board felt like a missed opportunity to ensure the Platform most effectively met the needs of all Wellcome’s research community.
What do you hope to achieve with the new Advisory Board?
By merging the boards, the Early Career Researchers will have an opportunity to learn from more senior researchers about having advisory roles. Importantly, it also provides an opportunity for our more senior researchers to learn from those earlier in their careers.
The ambition is that the merged board will be more representative of Wellcome’s research community, wherever researchers may be in their career. Simultaneously, this will lead to better decision-making in how the Platform evolves in the future.
Jackson Marakalala, Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow at the Africa Health Research Institute and Associate Professor at University College London
As an ECR yourself, how important is it to be involved with these sorts of Advisory Boards?
It’s important for me to be involved with the Advisory Board so that I can gain a broader understanding of the challenges facing early career scientists. This also enables me keep up to date with recent trends in the scholarly publishing sector to improve my own understanding of the value of open access and transparent publishing.
In turn, this helps me to improve the openness and accessibility of my own future research. By understanding how these open models work, the benefits of data sharing, and more, I can design my work to be more accessible, including to those who may struggle to afford traditional journal subscriptions. Any move we can make towards open research, even if it’s just one project at a time, is a valuable stepping stone.
What are your proudest achievements from the previous ECR Advisory Board?
The launch alone of a dedicated ECR Advisory Board was a great success, but there are lots of other proud moments.
The ECR Board-led open data campaign attracted a lot of interest and served as a great awareness tool for early career scientists throughout the academic community, with the resource still being used by ECRs today.
I also enjoyed working with a vibrant group of early career scientists on their upward trajectories, who are very inspiring to work with.
At a personal level, I was invited to join the Europe PubMed Central Advisory Board, which I believe came from my involvement with the Wellcome ECR advisory board. This was a proud moment for me.
Why is Wellcome Open Research important for ECRs?
Wellcome Open Research is an appealing and exciting publishing platform for Early Career scientists.
It’s especially important for those who have just completed their training and are looking for their next opportunities, and who need a faster publishing venue to showcase their research compared to the slow traditional publication process.
The rapid, transparent, open access model of Wellcome Open Research becomes a great opportunity for ECRs.
Philip Bejon, Executive Director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme
Are there any achievements of the previous Senior and ECR Advisory Boards that you’re particularly proud of?
Wellcome Open Research has become the most popular publishing venue among Wellcome-funded researchers, and the Advisory Boards have enjoyed seeing and supporting this progress.
I think that being able to highlight our own experiences of publishing and those reported to the Advisory Boards in our respective fields has helped inform some of the submission and review processes, hopefully for the better. This will improve the experience of all researchers publishing with Wellcome Open Research.
Why is the merging of the two Advisory Boards important, both for ECRs and the Wellcome research community more widely?
ECRs have unique challenges in dealing with barriers to publication and the perceptions of peer review panels and other funders, and we need to discuss these openly.
Solutions that might work for senior or late-career scientists might not work for ECRs, and we have a better chance of recommending positive ideas that cover a range of viewpoints the more we hear from different researchers.
How important are open access initiatives like Wellcome Open Research for researchers?
Initiatives to make peer review less biased, more constructive, and more open help all researchers, and help to change how we assess the success of research.
It’s important that those of us who are reviewing research for job applications and the like do more to push for this, and support initiatives like Wellcome Open Research, by ensuring we actively evaluate the published output and peer review feedback rather than relying on the traditional approach of journal names and Impact Factors.
Similarly, open access publishing is mandated by many funders, but the infrastructure is not always in place to support this. At many of the public engagements I’ve been to and among the wider scientific community in Kenya, Wellcome’s support of open access research and provision of the Platform to meet this requirement is very much appreciated.
I hope that Wellcome Open Research continues to grow and that the open peer review model is increasingly taken on by the academic community. That really depends on all Wellcome-funded researchers and reviewers as much as the Board, but we hope to play our part.
The Wellcome Open Research Advisory Board plays a vital role in driving the strategic direction of the Platform, from acting as an advocate of Wellcome Open Research in the wider academic community to providing input and advice on high-level policy decisions. You can learn more about each of the Advisory Board Members and their work here.
If you’d like to pose a topic for the Board to discuss or have any questions for the Board, leave us a comment below or get in touch at info@wellcomeopenresearch.org.