September 2, 2025 – September 5, 2025
Co-delivered by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, OpenFest is our flagship celebration and exploration of open research.
This year’s OpenFest will take place online during 2nd-5th September 2025. The theme for 2025’s event is Open Research and Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (OR+EEDI).
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, 10-minute lightning talks, panel discussions, online workshops, and creative proposals outside the usual paper/panel formats (e.g. videos, animations, zines and accompanying talks/discussions, creative outputs).
We welcome proposals from PGR and MRes students as well as more experienced researchers, research-related professionals, and those based outside academia.
Contributions may address, but are not restricted to, the following sub-themes:
Openness for who, and how?
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How can we ensure that everyone benefits from, and can participate in, open research?
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Openness, engagement and impact - opening research to non-academic publics; perspectives on open research from outside academia
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Ways to embed and optimise initiatives to acknowledge all contributors to research - for example, through work with the CREDIT contributor roles.
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EEDI implications, either positive or negative, of innovation in open peer review.
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AI- and ML-informed practices and their implications for EEDI in (open) research.
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Towards more inclusive discourses around open research (for example, versus ‘bropen science’).
Openness and diversity
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How can we best foster plural visions of openness that accommodate diverse research methods, approaches and output types, including in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences?
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How open publishing initiatives and infrastructure can work to support bibliodiversity; open publishing practices across the disciplines.
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Applying the CARE principles to ensure data from minoritised communities is treated with appropriate respect and recognition.
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Open research and the global south.
Openness, culture and positive change
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(Open) research and culture change in times of financial or political crisis.
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Open research in the context of attacks on science, academia, truth, and research addressing experiences of minoritised communities.
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Open research and the purpose of the university.
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Debates about the value of the new (UK) REF People, Culture and Environment indicators in driving open research ambitions.
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Evaluating the success of ‘Research culture’ interventions; embedding and recognising culture change.
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The role of networks and communities in catalysing the movement towards open research.
Please submit your proposal using this form by midnight on 30th May 2025.