Open Research Tracker

The Open Research Tracker records open research activity at the University of Manchester. It is available for University of Manchester staff to log in.

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Visit the Open Research tracker

What is the Open Research Tracker

The Open Research Tracker is a platform designed to record open research activity at the University of Manchester. This will be an important indicator of our progress towards an open research environment, a priority set out in the University’s Research and Discovery plan.

The Tracker provides a portal for researchers to access information held by the Library around the openness of research outputs. At launch this consists of Open Access funding information, including that relating to our new Rights Retention Strategy. Through continued development we will expand the Tracker’s coverage, building a full picture of our research landscape. Our next goal is to implement integration with the University’s Figshare data repository, allowing us to include many Manchester produced datasets.

Using the Tracker

Depending on your role at the University the Tracker can provide a variety of information.

For a Researcher

Logging in to the Tracker you will have access to information about your own research papers. This will include Open Access publication status as well as access to Scholarcy plain text summaries.

For a departmental administrator / Head of Department

You will have access to information about research papers from your department. The Tracker is designed to give straightforward views of this data for REF and funder reporting purposes.

If you require access to the Tracker at this level please contact openresearch@manchester.ac.uk to request this.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can see the data in the tracker?

The Tracker and its data are only visible to University of Manchester staff. Individuals set up with Admin access such as Research Support Managers and Heads of Department can see data from their respective departments. Staff in the Library responsible for the tracker have access to the entire platform.

Why aren't more of my papers visible?

The Open Research Tracker currently captures papers which have been accepted for publication since January 2023 and submitted through the Open Access Gateway or Pure.

Is the Tracker open source?

We are currently in the process of preparing the Open Research Tracker platform to be released Open Source. This will be posted on the University of Manchester Library's GitHub account.

How do I log in?

You can log in to the Open Research Tracker using University of Manchester’s single sign on.You do not have to be connected to Global Protect.

Where does data in the Tracker come from?

Publication information in the Open Research Tracker is imported from Pure. Information about OA funding is providing by the University Library. Plain text summaries of articles are generated by Scholarcy (please note that this is an experimental feature and only visible to article authors).

I have a question, who should I contact?

The Open Research Tracker has been created by the University of Manchester Library. If you have any questions about using the platform, please contact openresearch@manchester.ac.uk