Open data about research management: a landscape review

Jisc commissioned Research Consulting, in collaboration with SIRIS Academic, to conduct a landscape review of open (or potentially open) data produced in the process of research management and administration in the UK, and of the platforms that aggregate and give access to these data.

The aim was to develop a high-level understanding of the scope, extent, and potential of open data about research management and administration, and to identify ways to improve the landscape and explore the potential for open data as a sector asset to support efficiency and insight.

The review focused on open data, or data that could potentially be open, related to research management across the entire research lifecycle, excluding data collected or produced during research projects. The data in scope were not personally, commercially, or otherwise sensitive or disclosive, and included aggregated, anonymised, or linked data from various sources.

The project involved focus groups and interviews, as well as desk research to categorise a selected list of relevant datasets using a typology to describe the relative openness of each dataset.

The project illustrated the complex and fragmented characteristics of the landscape of open data about research administration and management. Findings showed that a greater focus on open data about research management and administration could reduce inefficiencies and burdens for researchers, research managers, and project leads.

Opportunities to improve the landscape were also identified. These include encouraging wider sharing, making publicly-available or report-locked data open, facilitating access to disaggregated datasets, and optimising API provision.