From grassroots to global: A blueprint for building a reproducibility network

Researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers are considering how to improve research culture and quality, but no single part of the research ecosystem can effect change on its own.The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) was established to facilitate the necessary coordination.Its experience can inform the establishment of likeminded networks around the world to drive positive change.Change is in the air.In the United Kingdom, we have seen the publication of a major report on research incentives, commissioned by UK Research and Innovation [1], while Wellcome has initiated a programme of activity around research culture, and the UK Government has launched its R&D People and Culture Strategy [2].This is motivated, in part, by the realisation that many of the working practices of academic research remain rooted in the 19th century model of the independent researcher.But research has changed-there is a far greater need to work in multidisciplinary teams, and the tools available to us are unrecognisable from those available even 10 years ago.The scope to make, not only our research outputs, but our entire research workflows, openly available for scrutiny and reuse is far greater now, and we can use this to recognise the many and granular contributions of individual researchers to a project.This change is happening in many places.Individual researchers are adopting open research practices (and using the growing number of tools and platforms that support this).Funders are mandating data sharing and open access publishing, recognising preprints, and developing new CV formats.Publishers are similarly encouraging transparency, for example, through the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines [3].Moreover, we are seeing innovative partnerships, such as Registered Reports Funding Partnerships between funders and journals, which aim to streamline the process of applying for funding and submitting a Registered Report, in the hope that this will improve both efficiency and quality [4].But this activity risks being inefficient.Multiple solutions to the same underlying problem may be generated, and gaps may remain, if this change is allowed to develop entirely organically.There is certainly space for multiple potential solutions, so that innovation can flourish (adaptive radiation!).But there is also a need for some degree of coordination and harmonisation.For example, if an institution begins to incentivise open research practices, by including these in promotion criteria, researchers at that institution may be at a disadvantage if they subsequently move to a different institution where these practices are not