Avoiding "open capture" — Lessons in epistemic diversity from open research for metaresearch

Lightning talk given as part of panel discussion during session "T5.5 The metascience mosaic: disciplines, professions and communities to reimagine research" at the Metascience 2025 conference at University College London at 11:30 (UTC+1) on 2 July 2025. This talk is derived from one given in February 2024, and has further reading/resources here: https://write.as/naclscrg/epistemic-and-disciplinary-diversity Abstract Open research practices are gaining prominence, with growing expectations for their adoption in assessment, publishing, or funding. However, some researchers are concerned that these norms and practices – such as preregistration, or sharing code, data, and protocols – may not adequately serve or represent diverse methodological and epistemological contexts across disciplines.In this talk, we reflect on how the unintended dominance of certain subject areas in open research discourse could lead to “open capture.” We demonstrate a lack of representation from some disciplines, based on qualitative interviews, literature, and experiences from the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN). These researchers sometimes find their research contexts and perspectives minoritised through evolving norms and requirements around open research. This could be a historian who does not “see anyone like me” in open research communities and feels excluded, or a theoretical mathematician forced to submit irrelevant but burdensome data management plans. We present insights from ongoing co-created projects by The Turing Way community and UKRN, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in diversifying disciplinary engagement with open research.We conclude by proposing steps for the open research and metaresearch communities to become more inclusive. Our aim is to shape future policies and practices that are representative and equitable for diverse disciplines. As expectations and requirements for open research grow, we must ensure that these norms not only bind, but also protect, diverse contexts and ways of knowing in academic research.