Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences (MORPHSS)

Open research practices in the humanities and social sciences—such as sharing historical datasets, publishing peer-reviewed code for qualitative analysis, or making ethnographic field notes publicly available—remain marginal in many university departments. The problem is twofold: institutional reward systems still prioritise traditional journal articles and monographs, and the dominant model of “open science” was designed for laboratory experiments, not for disciplines that work with archives, interviews, or cultural artefacts. MORPHSS will catalogue existing experimental open practices across the humanities and social sciences, pilot new ones, and develop a tailored conception of openness that fits how these fields actually produce knowledge. Over 36 months, the project will also devise concrete strategies—changes to departmental policies, funding requirements, or researcher training—to embed these practices permanently rather than leaving them as optional extras. If successful, the research could reshape how universities evaluate scholarly work in these disciplines, making open methods a routine part of research infrastructure rather than a niche activity. This is primarily a project about changing institutional culture and research assessment, not about immediate public-facing applications.