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Mapping Openness and Integrity: A Multi-Scale Analysis of Research Practices and Platform Dynamics in ROR²
Contribution by:
Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Professor in Information and Communication Sciences at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France.
Frédérique Bordignon, researcher at LISIS lab, bibliometrician & research integrity officer at Ecole nationale des ponts et chaussées, France.
In a rapidly changing scientific landscape where the demand for transparency, rigour and openness is increasing, the ROR² project (Open and Responsible Research × Research on Research) aims to observe, understand and analyse changes in research practices and scientific publishing.
Funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) for three years from 2024, ROR² is led by a multidisciplinary consortium and is fully in line with the international research dynamic aimed at observing and analysing the new forms of regulation that structure researchers‘ practices on platforms, in order to better conceive ways of restoring trust, integrity, and reliability in the scientific ecosystem.
ROR² has two distinct and complementary scientific objectives:
The first is to produce a detailed and in-depth analysis of researchers‘ openness practices in all their complexity (values, policies, and standards), considering them alongside integrity practices (values, principles, and codes/charters), while taking into account any abuses. The aim is to understand how these practices are determined within a continuum or context of disruption between responsible and irresponsible practices, or even fraud.
The second objective is to renew the frameworks for analysing and researching open science by adopting a multi-methodological, multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach. This approach falls under research on research and is necessary to address the complexity of the mechanisms by which practices are defined and evolve.
ROR² is organised around three work packages (WPs): WP1 is devoted to a topographical analysis of practices, taking into account the configurations and constraints in which they are deployed. WP2 is devoted to the unprecedented production of a taxonomy of the variety of platforms involved in the production and dissemination of research results and data, and their strategies, since the advent of the internet. This will shed new light on the structuring logics and recompositions of the research ecosystem and its funding. WP3 links to the previous WPs to identify the mechanisms that promote the adoption of open and ethical practices, as well as their potential misuse or predation.
ROR²’s originality lies in its dual focus on analysing researchers‘ practices and the platforms on which these practices are deployed because, today, platforms shape scientific communication. Examples include open archives, data warehouses, preprint servers, academic social networks and commercial publishers.
By comparing these practices and platforms, ROR² will highlight the mechanisms of anchoring and their effects in situations of alignment (between openness, integrity and scientific communication platforms), situations of ‚washing‘, and contexts of predation. This detailed analysis will identify the ‚areas of negotiation‘ in which researchers make concrete decisions about how to publish, share or evaluate (correct) their work.
ROR² provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms at work in the current transformation of research practices, codes, values, culture and purpose. Its results will inform public and institutional policies that promote open and honest research practices. The project also includes representation from the German information science community through a partner from Saarland University.
Project website: https://anr.fr/Projet-ANR-24-RESO-0005
Project partner at Saarland University: Ulrich Herb




