The survey results are published in a comma-separated value (CSV) file here:
https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10034579
We recruited participants mainly through our professional connections and professional organisations such as the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), via adverts sent by email to UKRN institutional leads to distribute within their institutions, and to representatives of funders or other stakeholders that are part of the UKRN stakeholder engagement group and cover the disciplines we seek to sample.
In addition, we sampled the first 2000 articles each from the Web of Science Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) during the six-month period between 23 July 2022 and 23 January 2023 (total 4000 articles). We then circulated this survey via email to the corresponding authors of those articles (approximately 3600 authors). The aim is to reach researchers outside of Europe across the natural and social sciences. This excludes, as we heard from respondents, many other research disciplines such as, but not limited to, the arts and humanities. Similar studies in the future should aim to achieve better representation across research fields.
By default, this survey did not collect any personally identifiable information. Participants could optionally provide their names and email addresses to be formally acknowledged in this report or a chance to win a prize worth GBP 25. This information was disassociated from the responses.
The survey was open from 17 January to 5 February 2023.
Respondents could choose from a list of 25 fields in the natural, social, and applied sciences that most closely match their research (Figure 1). While all were represented in the 406 responses we received, about a third came from researchers in “Medicine and health”, “Psychology”, or “Biology”. This skew is likely due the composition of people linked to the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and other open research communities to which we disseminated the survey, where these fields are highly represented. In addition, some respondents chose “Other” as their field which allows a free-form response, most of which are fields in the arts and humanities.
Just over half of responses came from those with 10+ years of experience in their field; and a quarter each for less than 5 years and 5-10 years (Figure 2).
Location-wise, more than 80% of responses came from those who work primarily in Europe, with North America a distant second at just under 8% (Figure 3). Again, this is likely because of the responses we received through UKRN contacts who disseminated the survey to their institutions. Responses from outside Europe could be, in part, from authors contacted through our Web of Science search.
We are grateful to all survey respondents for their valuable time and effort, including those who were willing to be acknowledged by name (in alphabetical order of first name):
Alba Torné-Ruiz, Alessandra Fenu, Alex Dye, Alexander Kozlov, Amelia Hollywood, Andrzej Cieslik, Anna Kende, Anna Triandafyllidou, Arthur Henrique Bossi, Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke, Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, Carlos G. Juan, Catherine Davies, Ceyhun Elgin, Chengfu Ma, Chenhui Wang, Chris Short, Chris Stone, Christina Laskaridis, Clare Taylor, Cristina Nuzzi, Derek Matravers, Dmitry Pelegov, Elumalai, Erika Rader, Florin Filip, Fred Motson, Gebrye Hayelom, Giles Hindle, Hanna Schreiber, Harvey E. Belkin, Helen Metcalfe, Iain Brenna, Jean-François Boujut, Josephat Paul Nkaizirwa, Juan Medina, Judith Eberhardt, Julio Vena Oya, Kushairi Mohd Salleh, Laura Palmer, Leonel Morgado, Linda Smail, Malcolm Macleod, Mark Callanan, Marshall J. Styczinski, Massimiliano Barbi, Melissa Radey, Michael H. Campbell, Monica Dinu, Muhammad Nadir Shabbir, Ole Brüggemann, Pasa, Patrick Carmichael, Peng Liu, Jonathan Hays, Richard Davies, Richard Davison, Richard Shaw, Sana Khaleel Alsayed, Sarah Callaghan, Sarah Morton, Savera Shahzad, Simon Kerridge, Simon Waldman, Sivasubramanian Murugappan, Sonia Longhi, Steven Parker, Sylwester Borowski, Terry Williams, Ursula Rothe, Vasco Ramos, Vaughan Ellis, Verónica Fernández Espinosa, Vesna Spasojevic Brkic, Victoria J. Burton, Vladimir Vukovic, Yueh-Hsun Lu, Yusuf Emuk, Zia Ush Shamszaman.
Figure 1. The 406 respondents to the survey represent a wide variety of disciplines in the natural, social, and applied sciences. Of those, about a third were “Medicine and health”, “Psychology”, and “Biology”. Those who selected “Other” were primarily those in the arts and humanities. “GLAM” is Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums.
Figure 2. Over half of respondents have worked in their field for more than 10 years.
Figure 3. Responses were overwhelmingly (over 80%) from researchers based in Europe.
