01
Access
Reduce unnecessary barriers between credible knowledge and the people who can use it.
Open Knowledge
Open by design. Responsible by practice.
Our approach to openness connects access with integrity, transparency, reuse, equity and accountability.
Knowledge creates more value when it can be examined, shared and reused responsibly.
For BMU, Open Knowledge is the umbrella idea connecting open access publishing, transparent research practice, data and methods sharing, accessible learning resources, reusable digital tools and public engagement.
Core principles
02
Transparency
Make methods, roles, policies, funding, conflicts and material changes understandable.
03
Reuse
Support lawful reuse through clear rights, licensing and machine-readable information.
04
Reproducibility
Encourage enough methodological and evidential transparency for research to be critically examined.
05
Equity
Recognise that access barriers may be financial, linguistic, technological, geographic or institutional.
06
Accountability
Openness does not remove responsibility for privacy, ethics, confidentiality, intellectual property or quality.
Open publishing
What it includes
- Open-access publication models
- Clear copyright and licensing
- Transparent peer-review descriptions
- Data and supporting-information statements
- Preprint and prior-dissemination guidance
- Visible post-publication notices
What it does not mean
- Lower editorial standards
- Automatic acceptance after payment
- Unrestricted disclosure of confidential data
- Unverified claims of indexing or accreditation
- Replacing expert judgement with automation
Open research practice
01
Protocols & registration
Make prospective plans discoverable when appropriate and document material changes transparently.
02
Data & code
Share supporting evidence where ethical, lawful and technically feasible, with restrictions explained when needed.
03
Reporting
Use discipline-appropriate reporting standards so readers can understand how work was performed.
04
Preprints
Treat preprints as part of the research communication landscape while clearly distinguishing them from peer-reviewed versions.
05
Responsible metrics
Use quantitative indicators in context and avoid turning a single metric into a proxy for research quality.
06
AI transparency
Disclose material use where relevant and preserve human responsibility for scholarly decisions.
Open Knowledge resources
As BMU grows, this area will host guides, explainers, templates and topic collections across open publishing, research transparency, responsible AI, data practice and scholarly communication.