Introducing ICOR: Incentivizing Collaborative and Open Research

Early in 2020, several of us started ICOR, calling it a Strategic Circle, a gathering of open science advocates, funders, practitioners, and institutional leaders interested in taking constructive action to move the needle in increasing research transparency and accelerating breakthroughs. This group believes that open science practices are a crucial first step towards collaboration, which in turn leads to earlier and better research outcomes. These ideas were borne out through the pandemic and stages of vaccine research when researchers from around the globe shared data and worked together in real time. 

The Strategic Circle agreed that the use of publications and associated metrics was incentivizing the wrong behavior, leading to competition over collaboration and a slowing of research sharing in pursuit of acceptance by high impact journals. To shift incentives, the group mapped out changes needed throughout the research lifecycle, from early proposal, setup, and orientation to a project through to assessment of its findings and outcomes. 

Now, 18 months later, ICOR is taking shape as a series of projects that address different stages of research and propose concrete steps to improve speed, transparency, collaboration, and reuse of research. 

These projects are at different stages in their development and there are many opportunities to contribute, support, or follow along. We invite you to contact us to learn more and get involved! 

– The ICOR circle of strategists