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Tools and resources to support open practice

There are a wide range of tools and resources available to support open practice. You will find some of the main ones on the respective pages for each stage of the research lifecycle.

This page provides a more comprehensive list for different disciplines, research methodologies and stages of the research lifecycle.

What is a repository?

Repositories are an important part of the research ecosystem that also comprises a wide range of scholarly communication tools from blogs and preprint servers to reference management tools and Wikipedia.

A repository is a digital platform for the storage, preservation and dissemination of research outputs. Different types of repositories are available for different types of research material.

There are a wide range of third-party repositories available associated with specific publishers and funding bodies, or that may have a specific disciplinary focus. A trusted repository should provide a persistent identifier like a DOI and provide information about long term preservation.

At the University of Leeds, the White Rose Research Online repository is for open access articles and textual outputs, Research Data Leeds is for datasets that can be shared openly while the Restricted Access Data Repository (RADAR) is for controlled access to qualitative data.

 

Explore a global directory of open access repositories

Tools and resources

With so many tools and resources available, we’ve compiled the following list as a starting point.

Repositories

The following open-access repositories allow researchers to share and preserve a wide range of research outputs, including datasets, figures, presentations, software, videos, and multimedia. They assigns DOIs to uploaded content, making it easily citable and accessible.

  • Re3Data (Registry of Research Data Repositories): A global registry and tool for the identification of suitable repositories for research data.
  • UK Data Archive: Large collection of social, economic and population data.
  • Zenodo: Open-access research data repository developed by CERN under the European OpenAIRE program.
  • Figshare: Open-access online repository for researchers to store, share, and publish research outputs.
  • Harvard Dataverse: Free data repository open to all researchers from any discipline.
  • OSF (Open Science Framework): Repository and research management tool.
  • White Rose Research Online: Open-access research repository jointly managed by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, and York (the White Rose Universities).
  • Research Data Leeds and RADAR (Restricted Access Data Repository): The institutional research data repository for the University of Leeds.

Preregistration

  • AsPredicted: Tool for preregistering hypotheses and research plans.
  • OSF (Open Science Framework): Research management tool, including feature for preregistration.
  • Octopus: Includes eight publication types, including a rationale/hypothesis.
  • ClinicalTrials.gov: A repository for clinical trials where researchers preregister their protocols.

Preprint servers by discipline

Preprint server directory: List of preprint servers, policies and practices across platforms.

  • arXiv : Physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
  • bioRxiv : Preprint server for biology.
  • ChemRxiv: Preprints in chemistry and related areas.
  • EarthArXiv: Articles from all subdomains of Earth Science and related domains of planetary science.
  • medRxiv: Preprints in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences.
  • PaleorXiv: Preprint archive for Paleontology.
  • PsyArXiv: Preprint service for the psychological sciences.
  • SocArXiv: Open archive of the social sciences.
  • CrimRxiv: Criminology’s global open access hub and repository.

Multidisciplinary preprint servers

  • F1000 Research: Open research publishing for researchers in all subject areas.
  • Open Research Europe: Open access publishing for European Commission-funded researchers across all disciplines (F1000 Platform).
  • Gates Open Research: Open access publication of research funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
  • OSF Preprints: Multidisciplinary preprint server built on the Open Science Framework.
  • Research Square: Multidisciplinary preprint and author services platform.
  • Wellcome Open Research: Rapid publication for Wellcome-funded researchers.
  • Zenodo: EU Open Research repository.

Open access journals and long form publications

Journals

Long form publications

  • UKRI guidance: For when applying to the UKRI’s open access fund for monographs, book chapters and edited collections.
  • White Rose University Press: A non-profit, open access publisher across a wide range of academic disciplines.

Managing software and code

  • GitHub: Web-based platform for version control and collaboration, primarily used for managing and sharing code, software projects, and research outputs.
  • Zenodo and GitHub: Use the Zenodo data archiving tool to archive a GitHub repository and assign a DOI to the archived version.
  • GitLab: A web-based platform for version control, collaborative software development, and DevOps.
  • OSF (Open Science Framework): Supports version control for code, datasets, and documentation.
  • JupyterHub: A collaborative platform that allows multiple users to manage, share, and execute data, code, and notebooks.

Open Educational Resources

Wikimedia and blogs

Wikimedia

Open blog platforms

 

University of Leeds infrastructure