What is an Open Worklfow?

Defining a Research Workflow

A research workflow is the series of steps and decisions made to do the research, and documenting a research workflow allows the process to be repeated or understood by others. What is included in a research workflow can have rigid standards for reproducibility in some disciplines (e.g., STEM fields) and may be less reliant on reproducibility st

An open research workflow is when each of step of the workflow is openly shared – making all stages of the research project transparent and reproducible. Clear documentation of your workflow includes using best practices around file naming conventions, project metadata, file formats, etc. Openness in workflow does not mean all your data is “exposed” and available for anyone to take, but is about making sure that all documentation can be accessed regardless of tools and formats used in the process of the research.

Workflow Stages and Tools

A research workflow has many stages between ideation and output, and many tools might be used throughout this process. The 101 Innovations in Scholarly Communication Project surveyed tools used by researchers for different aspects of their work and has sorted workflows into six higher-level stages: discovery, analysis, writing, publication, outreach, and assessment.

Sometimes the decision on what tools to use is determined by best practices in your discipline. But beyond disciplinary requirements, you can go a long way by documenting your process using an open workflow. Small decisions, such as consistent file-naming conventions or making open backups of data stored in a proprietary tool (i.e., saving your files as .xlsx format which is a Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet, and can therefore be opened in other applications, unlike .xls files), make it possible to continue work years or even decades down the line. These are small but intentional decisions that make all the difference to future scholars.