A snapshot of the academic research culture in 2023 and how it might be improved

Octopus (octopus.ac) is a new research publishing platform with the goal of reforming how research is conducted, shared, and reviewed. It is different from other open research platforms by breaking down the reporting of research into eight distinct elements: Research problem Rationale/Hypothesis Methods Results Analysis Interpretation Real world application Peer review of any of the above This platform encourages the publication of research in smaller increments, with a lower barrier to entry compared to the traditional journal article format. In addition to being free-of-charge for authors, Octopus is distinct from other platforms because it requires published items to be linked to one another. For example, a method proposed by one researcher could be linked to a hypothesis (or multiple hypotheses) published by another. Ultimately, Octopus aims to reform research culture in five ways: Reducing barriers and hierarchies that restrict research sharing, leading to more meritocratic recognition (especially for early career researchers and specialists) Reducing pressures that can lead to questionable research practices (QRPs) Addressing factors that lead to certain topics and types of research being favoured Reducing bias in the assessment of publications and their quality Encouraging more openly collaborative ways of thinking and working – division of labour and open critique of all parts of the research process To understand whether Octopus is achieving these aims, and if its offering could be improved, we conducted a baseline evaluation of the academic research and publishing ecosystem. To do so, we employed three methods in order to achieve a broad understanding of research culture across different fields. Implementation details for the three approaches are described in the appendix, and summarised here: Literature review - To avoid duplicating past work, and incorporate previous findings into our conclusions, we conducted a literature review on published studies on research culture relevant to the five aims of Octopus. This included informal searches, and keyword-based systematic searches on major publication databases. Semi-structured interviews - We invited researchers across the social, natural, and applied sciences to 1-hour interviews. These comprised open-ended questions regarding how they perceive the culture in which they work, specifically with regards to division of labour, sharing practices, giving and receiving critique and credit, and views...