I've been told to make my research open
Understand preregistration, sharing data and code, and open access, and decide what makes sense for your project.
In short
Start here, today. Write down three things: the data and code your project will produce, any limits on sharing them from consent forms, agreements or copyright, and what your target journal or funder asks for. This takes about 25 minutes.
After that, work through these steps. Choose one to jump to it.
Step by step
Tick each step as you finish it. Open a step for the how.
0 of 6 steps done
Consider preregistration
A preregistration is a time-stamped record of your questions, hypotheses, design and planned analysis, made before you see the results. It's most common in confirmatory quantitative work, though researchers using other methods register plans too. It protects you from later doubts about whether analyses were chosen after the fact. Some journals also offer Registered Reports, where the plan is peer reviewed before the research is done.
Check what your ethics approval allows
If your study involves people, any sharing has to match what participants agreed to. For future studies, ask your ethics office about consent wording that allows de-identified data to be shared. For current ones, you may still be able to share code, materials or summary data even if the raw data must stay private.
Make your data FAIR
FAIR stands for findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. In practice it means logical folders and file names, open file formats where possible, clear documentation and metadata, a licence that says how others may reuse the data, and a repository that gives your dataset a persistent identifier.
Tidy and share your code
Code doesn't have to be elegant to be useful. Remove passwords and personal file paths, add comments explaining what each script does and the order to run them in, and include a README. Depositing code in a repository that issues a DOI, such as Zenodo, makes it citable.
Write an honest availability statement
Say exactly where the data and code are, or explain why they can't be shared and how someone could request access. A clear description of restrictions is far better than a vague promise that data are available on request.
Make your papers open where you can
Your library can tell you about your university's repository and any agreements that reduce article fees. Many journals let you post the accepted version of your manuscript in a repository, sometimes after an embargo. Check the journal's policy before you sign the publishing agreement.
Is this you? Signs to look for
- A journal wants a data availability statement and you've never written one.
- Someone in your lab mentioned preregistration and you nodded along.
- You'd like to share your code but you're embarrassed by how messy it is.
- You're not sure your consent forms allow you to share anything at all.
Why this happens
Open science is a set of practices that make research easier to check, reuse and build on. The main ones are registering your plans before you collect or analyze data, sharing data and code where you can, and making your papers freely available. Funders and journals increasingly expect some of these, and many journals now ask for a statement explaining where the data behind a paper can be found.
Openness has limits, and they're legitimate. Data about people may need to stay confidential, Indigenous communities may hold rights over data about them, and some material is restricted by agreements or copyright. Open science doesn't mean sharing everything. It means being clear about what you did and sharing what you responsibly can.
The tools change, too. In 2026 Nature reported that the Open Science Framework, a popular platform for preregistrations and project files, planned to stop hosting data and code because of funding pressures. Whatever you use, check its current terms, and ask your library which repositories it supports for the long term.
Worth a look (6)
- Reporting standards and availability of data, materials, code and protocols, NatureA clear example of what journals now ask for, including data and code availability statements and preregistration.
- FAIR principles, University of Calgary LibraryFive practical steps for making your data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
- Open scholarship, University of Calgary LibraryOpen access, repositories for papers and data, and when openness isn't appropriate.
- Popular open-science platform to stop hosting data and code amid funding concerns, NatureNews from 2026 on changes at the Open Science Framework. A reminder to check any platform's current terms.
- Sage Research MethodsBooks, case studies, videos and practice data sets on research methods, from interviews to regression. Your library usually provides access.
- PRISMAThe reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses, with the checklist, flow diagram templates and extensions for scoping and other reviews. Many journals expect you to follow it.
When to bring someone in
Your library's research data and scholarly communication teams can help with repositories, licences and open access. Your research ethics office is the place for questions about consent and sharing data about people. If your research involves Indigenous communities, talk with them and with your ethics office early about who controls the data. Agree on any preregistration with your supervisor before you post it, since it commits the whole project.
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