The deadline for the GW4 Open Research Prize and GW4 Early Career Publishing Prize has been extended to 23:59 on 14th November 2023 – don’t miss out on your chance to enter.

The University of Bristol Library Service, collaborating with GW4 Libraries, with the support of Marcus Munafo (Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research Culture) and the GW4 Alliance, are this year running a GW4 Open Research Prize, during the GW4 Open Research Week.

The University of Bristol has run an Open Research Prize since 2021.

The GW4 Open Research Prize 2023 is open to submissions from all researchers (including postgraduate research students), in all disciplines, across the GW4 Alliance universities of GW4 Alliance universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

Prize categories

A prize of £250 is available in each of the following four categories:

1. Widening Reach Prize - Demonstrates the listed open research practices with wider reach potential, including re-use, improving public value and/or innovation.
   
   
2. Improving Quality Prize - Demonstrates the listed open research practices that increase the quality of study design and/or research findings.
   
   
3. Poster session Prize - Provide an A2 digital poster, demonstrates one or more of the listed open research practices.
   
   
4. GW4 Early Career Publishing Prize - See How to enter Early Career Publishing Prize page here
   

Short-listed applicants for the Open Research Prize categories of Widening Reach and Improving Quality will be invited to an online event via Zoom to make a short (up to 10min) presentation of their case study, and take questions from the audience. Poster session entries will be displayed during the event.

Criteria

Open Research Prize applications for categories 1-3 are short-listed by a panel with representatives from all members of the GW4 Alliance network. Entries are judged by their ability to demonstrate open research practices, as listed below.

Open Practices

• using publication under an open license to disseminate research outputs (this may include a range of outputs – publications, data, software code, web resources, etc.);
• disseminating research findings as a preprint, either independently of formal submission to a journal, or as part of a journal’s open peer review procedure;
• providing an open peer review of a manuscripts submitted under a formal peer review process managed by a publisher;
• creating a public preregistration of a study design, or publishing a study as a Registered Report (https://www.cos.io/our-services/registered-reports);
• incorporating open and participatory methods in the design and conduct of research (e.g., using open notebook methods, running a ‘citizen science’ project, etc.);
• introducing open research concepts and practices into teaching and learning at an undergraduate or postgraduate level;
• creating new tools or technologies (e.g., code, apps) to facilitate open research (e.g., combining or repurposing datasets and other research outputs, or for mining content);
• undertaking activities to develop the environment for open research (e.g. engaging in high-profile advocacy, participating in community initiatives, etc.);
• publishing a data or software paper.

In addition, applicants must include:

• their ORCiD on all applications;
• evidence of FAIR data principles (where appropriate);
• inclusion of Data Availability Statements in publications (where appropriate).

Dates

The dates for this year's prize are as follows:

• Monday 2 October 2023 - applications open for all categories
  
  
• UPDATED: Tuesday 14 November 2023 23:59 - applications for Widening Reach, Improving Quality, Poster session Prizes (and Early Publishing Prize) close
  
  
• Friday 17 November 2023 - applicants for Widening Reach, Improving Quality and Poster session Prizes notified of shortlisting outcome and successful entries invited to present
  
  
• UPDATED: Thursday 23 November 2023 - Open Research Prize event online only. Apply for tickets via Eventbrite here.
  

How to submit

Categories 1-2 Widening Reach and Improving Quality: submissionsshould take the form of a case study of no more than two pages, using one of templates provided (see Annex 1: Case study template (Office document, 1,355kB)).

Category 3 Poster Prize: submissions should take the form of an abstract of 100 words, using the template provided (see ‌Annex 2: Poster abstract template (Office document, 1,355kB)).

Category 4 GW4 Early Career Publishing Prize: please see separate page - How to enter Early Career Publishing Prize.

All submissions should be sent to: open-research-prize@bristol.ac.uk. Any submissions in any category will be accepted up to 23:59 Tuesday 14 November 2023.

The process

Panels of judges from across GW4 will assess all applications for each of the three categories 1-3.

Short-listed applications for Widening Reach or Improving Quality will be notified by 20 November and invited to prepare their case studies for an online presentation, up to 10 minutes long.

Shortlisted Poster applications will need to provide a full-sized A2 digital poster by 20 November.

Digital versions are required for those participating online, and will be added to the University of Bristol's and GW4's webpages in due course.

Short-listed entries in Categories 1, 2 and 3 will be presented by their authors on Thursday 23 November 2023. After a short recess towards the end of the afternoon, votes will be counted and prizes awarded to the event's successful entries.

We are particularly keen to encourage submissions from postgraduate research students and early career researchers.

Examples of case studies submitted for last year's University of Bristol Open Research Prize are available online.