Internal metascience is helping make scholarship fairer and more open, say Catherine Davies and colleagues
Whose responsibility is it to improve research environments? Researchers, principal investigators and institutions each hold levers to shape research culture. Beyond these, funders are widely recognised as having the power to drive systemic change through policy requirements, funding conditions and sector-wide influence.
As funders pursue these goals, they are increasingly using metaresearch to monitor and improve their own policies and processes. Funding professionals have privileged access to internal systems, data and institutional memory, as well as relationships with colleagues managing those systems. This access provides crucial context for designing and implementing metascientific projects, which a range of national funders are putting to use.