Research Guides: Open Research at Sac State: Resources

What is Open Research?

Open research puts openness into practice across the entire research cycle, from sharing data and methods to making publications freely available. It’s about transparency, accessibility, and collaboration at every stage of the process. The term is often used interchangeably with open scholarship or open science, depending on the context.

See the sections below for tools, resources, and practical steps to help you apply open research principles in ways that work for your discipline, goals, values, and funder requirements.

Tools & Platforms

Share & Store Research

There are many places to store and share research online, but not all platforms are open, stable, or built with long-term access in mind. Below are a few recommended starting points that align with open research principles and provide useful features like DOIs, metadata, and preservation support. These tools are free to use and support sharing data, publications, teaching materials, and more.

OSF (Open Science Framework)
A free platform for managing and sharing research materials across the project lifecycle. OSF supports collaboration, version control, preregistration, and data sharing. You can make your materials public, assign DOIs, and keep everything organized in one place.
Sac State Scholars
Our institutional repository for sharing and preserving the scholarly and creative work of Sac State faculty, students, and staff. It supports long-term access, assigns permanent links (handles), and increases discoverability through indexing and search engines. You can use it to share publications, presentations, posters, and datasets, as well as teaching materials, community-engaged work, and campus service that reflects your academic contributions. It’s also a valuable tool for highlighting your expertise and connecting with potential collaborators.
Zenodo
A free, open-access repository built by CERN and OpenAIRE. Zenodo lets you share research data, publications, software, posters, and other materials. Each upload gets a DOI, making your work citable and discoverable. It also integrates with GitHub for publishing code.

Track & Identify Your Work

Google Scholar Profile
A free tool for tracking your publications, citations, and h-index. Once set up, your profile updates automatically as new work is indexed, and it’s highly visible to search engines. It’s a great way to monitor research impact and make your scholarship easier to discover.
ORCID
A free, unique digital identifier that connects you to your research across platforms, publishers, and institutions. Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) helps ensure your work is correctly attributed to you even if your name changes or you publish in different places. Many funders and journals now request or require an ORCID iD during submission.

Tip: Use your ORCID on your CV, grant applications, and Scholar profile to make your work easier to find.

Plan Your Research (and Comply with Funders)

Have questions about data management? Visit our Data Management & Sharing guide.

DMPTool
A free platform for creating data management plans (DMPs) that meet the specific requirements of funders like NIH, NSF, and the DOE. Sac State has an institutional account, so you can log in with your campus credentials and access tailored guidance. DMPTool walks you through the process of planning how to manage, store, and share your data and helps ensure your proposal meets funder expectations.

Need a biosketch? DMPTool now includes a feature for building biosketches for NIH, NSF, and DOE grants. You can find it under the “Other Support/Biosketch” tab after logging in with your Sac State account.
FAIR-Aware
FAIR-Aware is a quick self-assessment tool that helps researchers evaluate their understanding of the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). It offers brief guidance with each question and is ideal for planning data sharing or preparing a Data Management Plan. No login required.
SciENcv
A tool for creating biosketches and current & pending support documents required by major U.S. funders like NIH and NSF. SciENcv pulls information from your ORCID, MyNCBI, or manually entered records and generates biosketches in the correct format. It’s the preferred method for federal grant submissions and keeps your information reusable across applications.

Tip: Connect your ORCID to SciENcv to save time and reduce duplication.

Collaborate & Publish Openly

New to publishing openly? Visit our OA Publishing guide.

Creative Commons License Chooser
A free tool that helps you select the right license for your work whether it's a dataset, article, syllabus, or teaching material. It walks you through options based on how you want your work to be reused, shared, or adapted.
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
A free, searchable index of high-quality, peer-reviewed journals that make all of their content freely available online. Journals listed in DOAJ are fully open access, meaning readers never hit a paywall and authors don’t have to navigate hybrid publishing models where only some articles are open. DOAJ is a trusted resource for finding reputable open access journals across disciplines.
Open Policy Finder
A free tool that helps you check open access and open data policies from funders and publishers. Formerly known as Sherpa/Romeo and Sherpa/Juliet, it now brings everything into one searchable interface. Use it to find out whether, where, and under what conditions you can share your article, or to understand what a funder requires for open access or data management.
OSF Preprints
A multidisciplinary platform hosted by the nonprofit Center for Open Science. Supports preprint sharing across disciplines, with integration into domain-specific servers like SocArXiv, PsyArXiv, and EdArXiv. Free to use, with DOI assignment and long-term preservation.

Policy & Ethics

Open research is grounded in transparency, accessibility, and responsibility. Sharing your work openly doesn’t mean sharing everything without limits. It means making thoughtful decisions about how your research is created, credited, and reused.

Openness works best when:

Rights and authorship are protected through clear licensing
Sensitive or restricted data is shared with context or care
Research practices consider equity, accessibility, and inclusion

Use open tools not just to meet requirements but to reflect your values and strengthen the integrity of your work.

Explore Ethical Guidance from These Organizations:

Center for Open Science (COS)
US-based nonprofit that develops infrastructure (like OSF), but also promotes transparency and reproducibility through initiatives like the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines.
COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics
International organization offering guidance on ethical publishing practices, including authorship, peer review, and misconduct. Widely respected and applicable across disciplines.
Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA)
Offers guidance on Indigenous data sovereignty and ethical data practices rooted in community rights and responsibilities. Co-creators of the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics), a complement to FAIR.
Knowledge Equity Lab
Explores scholarly communication through lenses of decolonization, inclusion, and access. For open researchers, it offers critical insight into how openness can be a force for inclusion but also how open systems can unintentionally reproduce existing inequities if equity and justice aren't intentionally built in. Their work supports more thoughtful approaches to citation, authorship, knowledge sharing, and infrastructure design.
Open Research Funders Group (ORFG)
Coalition of funders (including US-based ones like the Gates Foundation) committed to supporting open research practices and policies. Good for showing funder perspectives.
Research Data Alliance (RDA)
Global, community-driven organization focused on data sharing standards, ethics, and best practices across disciplines. Strong cross-sector participation.
SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)
US-based nonprofit advocating for open access, open data, and open education. Offers toolkits, policy updates, and thought leadership on open infrastructure and equity.

FAQs

❓ What is open research?

Open research refers to making the process and results of research more transparent, shareable, and accessible. This can include open access publishing, sharing data and methods, and using tools that support collaboration and reproducibility.

❓ Who is open research for?

Open research benefits everyone - from faculty and graduate students to undergraduates and community partners. Whether you're publishing a paper, sharing data, or working on a group project, open practices can increase your impact and visibility.

❓ Do I have to share all my data?

No. While open data is encouraged when appropriate, some data (e.g., sensitive, proprietary, or involving human subjects) may require restrictions. The goal is transparency and accessibility when it’s ethical and feasible.

❓ How can I get started with open research?

You can start by:

Creating an ORCID iD to uniquely identify your research
Publishing in an open access journal when possible
Sharing data, lesson plans, slides, or other materials through platforms like OSF, Zenodo, or our campus repository, Sac State Scholars

❓ Is open research only for STEM fields?

No. While open research practices are often emphasized in STEM, they are valuable across all disciplines; including the humanities, social sciences, and arts. Any research that can be shared, reused, or built upon can benefit from being more open.

❓ Does open research mean I can’t publish in traditional journals?

Not at all. Many traditional journals support open access options, and some allow authors to share preprints or postprints. You can also use platforms like Sac State Scholars to share working papers, datasets, or teaching materials.

❓ Will I lose control of my work if I share it openly?

You retain your rights. When you share your work through open platforms, you can choose licenses (like Creative Commons) that let you control how others use it. It’s about visibility, not giving up ownership.

❓ What are the benefits of open research?

Increased visibility and citations
Greater public access to scholarship
Opportunities for collaboration
Support for equity in knowledge production and access
Fuels innovation and opportunity

❓How does open research relate to student work or teaching?

You can apply open research principles to teaching too by sharing lecture slides, lesson plans, lab manuals, or student-led projects. Platforms like Sac State Scholars can help make those materials accessible while giving students a public-facing academic presence.

❓ How does open research support equity and inclusion?

Open research reduces barriers to knowledge by removing paywalls, encouraging transparency, and valuing contributions beyond traditional publishing. But equity doesn’t happen automatically, it requires attention to whose voices are included, who benefits from openness, and how research is shared or reused. Inclusive open research practices recognize the value of diverse forms of knowledge, engage with communities ethically, and aim to make scholarship accessible to those inside and outside of academia.

Last Updated: Oct 22, 2025 9:56 AM

Open Research at Sac State

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