Creative Dilemmas

Balancing open access and integrity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v12i3.1817

Keywords:

creative outputs, practice-research, small specialist, open access, research ethics and integrity

Abstract

This article reflects on two research enabling practitioners’ (REPs) experiences related to making creative research outputs open. The REPs operate within a small specialist institution that is a research organisation (RO) focusing on the creative arts where open research is an embedded part of the RO’s research culture. Many of the RO’s academics are practice-based researchers whose research is disseminated through non-traditional output types such as artefacts, exhibitions, designs and videos.

However, there are tensions when making creative outputs open that can lead to ethical dilemmas faced by REPs and researchers, including issues related to informed consent, intellectual property and reuse of the research. These tensions are illustrated by examining three examples of creative outputs where issues have arisen where the inter-relationships of open research, ethics and integrity are explored through vignettes.

The findings of this article recommend continued training for researchers about the use of licences for creative works. Another recommendation calls for inclusive and transparent processes that support researchers in gaining justice when the intellectual property from their open access research outputs has been reused in a manner which contradicts the principles of research integrity. 

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Author Biographies

  • Samantha Broadhead, Research Department, Leeds Arts University, Leeds, UK

    Samantha Broadhead is Head of Research at Leeds Arts University. Her research interests include access and widening participation in art and design education and the educational sociology of Basil Bernstein (1924–2000). She serves on the Journal of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning’s editorial board. Broadhead publishes work on access and widening participation. Broadhead has co-authored with Professor Maggie Gregson (2018) Practical Wisdom and Democratic Education - Phronesis, Art and Non-traditional Students, Palgrave Macmillan. She also has co-authored with Rosemarie Davies and Anthony Hudson (2019) Perspectives on Access: Practice and Research, Emerald Publishing. She has also produced an edited book, Access and Widening Participation in Arts Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan (2022). Broadhead is working on Learning Returns, a practice-based project that aims to capture the experiences of mature students studying art and design on YouTube. 

  • Henry Gonnet, Research Department, Leeds Arts University, Leeds, UK

    Henry Gonnet is the Research Coordinator at Leeds Arts University. His role is to enable and support research across the university. He is responsible for the Institutional Repository and providing open access guidance, support, and training for research-active members of staff.

    Henry is a member of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA), the UK Council of Research Repositories (UKCORR), and the Northern Impact Network (NIN). He is also a Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN). 
    He represents the open access concerns of small specialist HEIs in various national forums, and has collaborated on projects with the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN).

A well balanced stone cairn

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Published

2025-08-27

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 3 (2025): Special Issue: Research Culture '25

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Samantha Broadhead, Henry Gonnet

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