The University has become a formal institutional member of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), a network of UK universities set up by researchers, and supported by funders and publishers, to ensure that the UK maintains its reputation as a centre of world-leading research excellence.
Dr Alison Knight, Head of Research Integrity and Governance based in Research Innovation Services (RIS), has taken on the role of Institutional Lead and point of contact for UKRN. She will join forces with our Local Network Lead, Dr Christian Bokhove, Associate Professor in Mathematics Education, with Christian independently continuing with the network at a grassroots level to improve the quality and reproducibility of academic research output. They will work together to promote and support the delivery of UKRN activities within the University, such as training and workshops that disseminate open and reproducible research best practices.
Vice-President, Professor Mark Spearing, Chair of the University’s Research Integrity and Ethics Committees commented, “The University is excited to become a participating member in the UKRN consortium, and to play its part in promoting open research and reproducibility nation-wide. Southampton is committed to supporting the delivery of UKRN activities by embedding strategies for research improvement across all levels within the University. Joining the UKRN is one component of our commitment to support our researchers, by providing them with the tools they need to achieve the highest standards of research excellence.”
Dr Alison Knight said, ‘I am looking forward to representing Southampton at the UKRN. Joining the consortium is another forward step in the University’s on-going strategy to support our research community in helping them produce accessible, robust and high quality research, while also bolstering a good research culture at Southampton. The key to this initiative is better collaboration and the right incentives, not just across the sector, but also locally. We want to ensure that a range of voices can be heard; developing and embedding the right policies and processes should be an activity of co-creation and shared enthusiasm. We are also taking action to embed Research Integrity Champions within every Faculty, each of whom provide a visible point of contact for researchers with queries about research conduct”. Dr Christian Bokhove agreed, ‘It will be exciting to improve science, both from the grassroots and from the university level. I especially think these developments enable us to cut through different disciplines, from the social to the natural sciences, and different career stages. I hope the result will be an even more vibrant, rigorous and multidisciplinary research culture.’
For more information, please contact Alison and her team at [email protected], and look at our annual statement on research integrity.
For Early Career Researchers looking to participate, please also see the Southampton branch of ReproducibiliTea, a journal club initiative set up to discuss papers related to topics associated with the UKRN. These include topics such as methods, open science, data sharing, and practices across research disciplines. More information can be found here.
