As we embarked on the NTU Open Research Expedition with a series of talks, workshops, and conference planned for 2024, our first stop was an introductory workshop on Open Research, this past November.

The Library’s Open Science and Research Services Team has always placed great emphasis in promoting open research and its benefits. Two workshops on open research centered on different themes were conducted this year alone.  The April workshop held in LKCMedicine was focused on reproducibility and its impact on research. The workshop in November, on the other hand, was focused on open methods, open code, open data, and open access.

A total of 34 participants from both NTU and NIE attended the November workshop led by staff from both the Good Research Practice (LKCMedicine) and the Open Science and Research Services (OSR) team.

The workshop was structured to be engaging and interactive with a series of MCQs at the end of each segment, after a brief introduction to the various topics.  Group discussions were encouraged during the MCQs, and the teams with the top three scores were given a prize at the end of the workshop.

From the feedback garnered, most of the participants felt that the workshop was well organized and executed, and the duration was just about right. Below are examples of the feedback received:

  • “The workshop is very interactive and the MCQs breaks up the content/knowledge very well.”
  • “The workshop was very informative, and the facilitators were very energetic and friendly.”
  • “Good bite sized, engaging workshop.”
  • “We should have more informal discussions on open research in the future.”

On top of the mostly positive feedback, some participants shared that they wanted more content and in-depth discussions. Some felt that longer pauses between the questions and answers were desirable as that would allow time for the participants to digest the content.

At the end of the workshop, participants were invited to view the NTU Open Research Award 2022 posters which were displayed at a corner of the room. They were also asked to pledge which of the open research practices they most likely to embark on, by indicating their preferences with stickers on the four practices. A majority chose ‘Open access’ followed by ‘Open data’, ‘Open methods’, and ‘Open code’.

The Library has also prepared an Open Research Checklist for interested NTU researchers who wish to make practical changes to their scientific process and research outputs.

Check out some of the photo highlights taken during the workshop: