The five Research Culture priorities

We value not only our research successes, but how those successes are achieved.

There are many possible ways to understand or define what is and what is not part of the research culture. Our five research culture priorities were chosen following extensive consultation with the University of Glasgow research community between 2015 and 2021 and focused purposefully on issues that are specific to the way we do research, and the way we support research careers. Our culture work acts in service of the University's Research Strategy.

At the University of Glasgow, we understand that research thrives when researchers feel that they are part of an engaging fair, and collegial environment in which people help each other to succeed. We value not only our research successes, but how those successes are achieved.

We have set out the five Research Culture priorities as statements of intention for the way all research is done at the University of Glasgow: 

  • All colleagues are valued for their varied contributions to a diverse range of research activities and outputs (Research Recognition).
  • People actively work together to support each other to succeed (Collegiality).
  • We engage with and produce research that meets the highest standards of integrity (Research Integrity).
  • We are committed to openness, transparency, rigour, and reproducibility (Open Research).
  • Through the concepts above, and through a comprehensive framework of bespoke initiatives, we support all members of our research ecology to advance in their chosen career path (Career Development).

Research Culture work is not an add on, or a nice to have. It's what helps us to do our best research, reduce waste, and develop all of our talented people. 

You may be wondering why there are ideas missing from the five priorities that you might expect to see, for example, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, or anti-bullying. Please read about our productive partnerships approach to find out why.

Current Research Culture Projects

Evaluating Research Culture

A productive partnerships approach

Download: Timeline graphic research culture progress 2011-

Download: UofG 5 Research Culture Priorities graphic

We are currently refreshing our Action Plan! We are choosing to review the Research Culture Action Plan ahead of its expiry in October 2025. This is because it set out our priority activities based on our early 2020 understanding of the research landscape. Since then, we have seen world-changing events as well as the publication of several new national policy frameworks, agreements and concordats which guide how we understand research culture, our role in developing it, and its measurement as part of demonstrating research excellence. Once it's published, we'll link it here.

Translating the five research culture priorities into impact

Collegiality

At Glasgow:

  • We are creating an environment in which colleagues actively work together to enable each other to succeed and feel safe and supported is the foundation of our research culture ambitions.
  • We value those who demonstrate their respect for their colleagues, and have conscious care for how they lead, interact, communicate and collaborate.
 What we have done: 
Revised UofG professorial promotion criteria to include a requirement to demonstrate collegiality in each of our seven qualifying performance dimensions. Celebrated a range of people who contribute to a positive research culture, and lead culture change change through Culture Awards (2019-2021), and People Make Research (2022-). Invested in a Collegiality Specialist role to support two successful mentoring programmes (Catalyst and Thesis Mentoring) which place collegial conversations at the heart of PhD completion and career development. Developed over 300 UofG Mentors.
Embedded a requirement to demonstrate collegiality in the application for each of our Talent Lab (leadership development) initiatives leadership development.  Launched new communities: The Research Staff Assembly, the Research Culture Commons, the Late Career Early Career Network, the Supervisor Community of Practice, the Fellows Network, and the Research Professional Staff Network. Launched an innovative, accessible Research Leaders Workshop Series, focusing on relationship building, inclusion, and engagement for all PIs and Supervisors. 

Career Development

At Glasgow:

  • By creating a culture in which people thrive, we support all colleagues to advance in their chosen career path.
  • We work with career destination data, careers experts, reward and recognition specialists, and the employers of researchers to develop a compressive framework of career support.
  What we have done:  
Signed the Concordat for the Career
Development of Researchers and invested in a Researcher Development Specialist for Research Staff to lead on the Concordat Action Plan.		 Launched Pathfinder, a comprehensive suite of career development initiatives, activities and events and invested in a Research Careers Specialist to bring in new expertise. Launched the Glasgow Talent Lab: 12 in-depth research leadership and career development programmes, covering cohort learning and 1:1 coaching, PGR to Prof.
Embedded career coaching capability within our framework for developing the 'Managers of Researchers' (PIs and Supervisors) to ensure career development is a normal part of research life. Trained 300+ staff.

Introduced the Research Scientist
career and promotion pathway to enable the expertise held in specialist research careers to be recognised and rewarded.

 Launched the Research Professional Staff Network to facilitate career conversations and support and development for research support and management professionals.

Research Recognition

At Glasgow:

  • We seek to develop and embed clear and fair approaches to evaluating research quality, and we share our views in sector conversations on the measurement of research excellence.
  • We subscribe to established sector frameworks that recognise and value different contributions and contributors to our research endeavours.
  What we have done:  
We offer 'Associate Supervisors' (Research Staff, Technicians etc) parity of access to development, communities and professional recognition for Supervisors. Associate Supervisors can be formally recognised as part of the supervisor team. We give parity of credit for outputs and impact. Professorial promotion criteria explicitly require that one of the four selected criteria should be either outputs or impact, thus acknowledging the equivalent value institution of societal impact. A key focus of the Research Professional Staff Network is developing parity of esteem, visibility, and recognition of expertise for all colleagues involved in our research successes.

Developed a university policy on the use of quantitative indicators that is compliant with DORA, and aligned to the Leiden Manifesto. Academic promotions and strategic recruitment schemes align to this policy.

Embedded the CASRAI CRediT taxonomy into the institutional outputs repository (Enlighten) allowing authors to publicly record their contribution to a publication.

 We are working with our Technician community to consolidate progress using CRediT, by creating a Fair Attribution Statement for the inclusion of Technicians and technical work on research publications.

Open Research

At Glasgow:

  • We are supporting transparency, openness, verification, and reproducibility by facilitating early and open sharing of research data, software, code, methods, preprints, open educational resources and materials with a wide range of audiences.
  • We place value on a wide range of different research output types across the whole lifecycle of research – improving value to the public as well as to other researchers.
 What we have done: 
Provided one-step support for making journal  publications Open Access. For books, invested in the Scottish Universities Press a fully Open Access and not-for-profit press, owned and managed by Scotland’s University Libraries.  Launched a new Research Publications & Copyright Policy to support a 'rights retention' approach to Open Access articles.  Joined the UK Reproducibility Network as active project partners working towards devising better indicators of open research, and associated staff training packages.
Signed the Concordat on Open
Research Data and invested in a Research Information Team to lead on the Institutional Open Research Action Plan. Launched mandatory Data Management Training for postgraduate researchers.		 Launched an Open Access Journals service to support staff and students who edit journals affiliated to the University, and Research Computing as a Service including support for high performance computing and website hosting. Embedded the CASRAI CRediT taxonomy into the institutional outputs repository (Enlighten) allowing authors to publicly record their contribution to a publication.

Research Integrity

At Glasgow:

  • We are committed to ensuring that research is conducted to the highest standards of academic rigour to increase the quality of, and trust in, the research record.
  • We maintain comprehensive framework of policies, procedures, and resources to support the training, practice, reporting and resolution of issues in research integrity.
 What we have done: 
Signed the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, and expanded our delivery of the associated Action Plan with the creation of a new Governance, Policy and
Integrity portfolio (3 posts) and consolidated online guidance and resources.		 Iteratively developed effective mandatory PGR and Staff Research Integrity training, with special additional training for supervisors, and on emerging topics such as Trusted Research. Launched a Network of Integrity Champions & Advisors. Each School has a Research Integrity Adviser and each College also has a Research Integrity Champion to connect and support the Research Integrity Advisers.
Launched a new Research Misconduct Policy aligned to the UK Research Integrity Office. We also revised our Code of Good Practice in Research, to include extensive guidance on authorship, and new governance on Trusted Research. Launched a project on Research Misconduct and Bullying and Harassment policies and processes highlighting awareness of the interdependence of the two areas of concern. Appointed new senior leaders: an Academic Lead for Inclusive Research and and Academic Lead for Good Research Practice.