BSMS > Research > Building an Open Research Culture at BSMS

Building an Open Research Culture at BSMS

At BSMS, we are committed to open research, promoting transparency, collaboration and accessibility in medical and health sciences. By embracing open-access publishing, data sharing and reproducible research practices, we aim to accelerate innovation and improve global health outcomes. Our researchers work to make their findings freely available, ensuring that knowledge can be accessed and used by clinicians, policymakers, and the wider community. Explore our initiatives, policies and resources to see how BSMS is driving open and equitable research for the benefit of all.

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Open Access Publishing

Publishing open access ensures your research is freely available to everyone, increases its visibility and discoverability, and brings more impact to your work. Funders such as UKRI and Wellcome Trust require Open Access publication of their supported research, and papers eligible for REF must also be Open Access.

Open Access publishing is encouraged at BSMS, and staff can make use of the University of Sussex transformative agreements found here. For more information or support, please contact the library team at openaccess@sussex.ac.uk.

BSMS holds a modest open access fund to cover article process charges. We encourage staff to use this support, however there is a prescribed process to follow to avail these funds. In the first instance, please refer to the above agreements with the University of Sussex and follow the dedicated BSMS flowchart on our Sharepoint page found here. Please then contact Deeptima Massey (Senior Research Manager) to discuss your application to the fund.

The University of Sussex holds a Publications and Copyright Policy for accepted research articles and conference proceedings. This policy allows BSMS authors to retain their right to make a copy of their Author Accepted Manuscript immediately accessible through the University of Sussex’s Open Access institutional repository – Sussex Research Online. Further information of this policy can be found here.

A group of people listening to a talk at the BSMS Research Culture day 2024

Open and FAIR Data

Open data should meet FAIR principles to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable. BSMS researchers can make their research data open through the Sussex Research Online.

Data management plans (DMPs) are a key part of good research practice, can help make research open, and are increasingly required by funders (e.g. MRC).

DMP Online (dmponline.dcc.ac.uk) is a resource which can support you in creating your data management plan. It includes templates from most major funders and takes you through the steps for writing a data management plan to include in grant applications. You can write your DMP in DMPOnline and share it with collaborators for comment.

Library staff at the University of Sussex will be happy to review draft DMPs, and you can send these to the Research Data Management team directly from DMPOnline by clicking the 'request feedback' button. Library staff also offer regular workshops on getting started with DMPOnline, and BSMS have organised workshops to raise awareness of the support available. The library team are also available to deliver specific DMP sessions at a research group level.

Sign up to DMPOnline with your BSMS or Sussex email address in order to access the additional guidance that has been added for BSMS/Sussex researchers. To find out more, contact research-data@sussex.ac.uk.

A group of people putting sticky notes on a table with a pen pot and laptop in the foreground

Elements

We encourage all our staff to engage with Elements (the University of Sussex's Current Research Information System) and maintain their records of research and scholarly activities.

This can be a particularly useful exercise to support the creation of narrative CV’s. The library offers training and support on Elements, and you can get in touch with the team on elements@sussex.ac.uk or refer to the Elements LibGuide.

To be compliant with the REF Open Access policy, journal articles must be deposited to from Elements to Sussex Research Online within 3 months of the acceptance date, along with the Author Accepted Manuscript. For support with depositing your publications, please contact the library at sro@sussex.ac.uk.

We also encourage BSMS staff to link their ORCID iD to their Elements profile to maintain persistent unique identifiers. Guidance on how to do so can be found here.

4 Elements profiles on one slide for 4 bsms staff

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Events

Find out about our research events at BSMS, which include conferences, workshops, invited talks and seminars.

View our upcoming and past events here >

Past workshops and events

24 February 2025: How Copyright protects your work and those of others – Maggie Symes, Research & Open Scholarship Librarian

27 January 2025: Data Management and Open Access: Practical Tips and Solutions for Busy Academic Researchers – Dr. Karen Patterson, Eilish Purton and Maggie Symes.

10 July 2024: Transforming Research Culture at BSMS

2 May 2024: Elements Essentials: Publications

17 April 2024: Copyright: Re-using other people’s work and protecting your own work – Maggie Symes, Research & Open Scholarship Librarian

26 October 2023: ‘Sharing your research data – from planning to publishing’ – University of Sussex Library

25 May 2023: Open Science Debate

27 February 2023: Open and FAIR Data - Dr. Anneke Zuiderwijk, Delft University of Technology

24 January 2023: Open Science: What does this mean for you and your research? - Lauren Cadwallader, Open Research Manager at PLoS

20 September 2023: Elements & Open Access for BSMS Staff – Sam Nesbit, Open access Librarian, and Maggie Symes, Research & Open Scholarship Librarian

20 September 2023: Open Access Publishing – Steve Bowman, Medical School Librarian

15 September 2022: ‘Elements including Open Access’ - Steve Bowman, San Nesbit and Maggie Symes.

Contact

For more information about open research at BSMS, please contact Sarah Hollebon, Deputy Research Manager, via s.hollebon@bsms.ac.uk.