Hi Margot, can you summarise your PhD research for someone unfamiliar with the field, and what first drew you to this area of study?

My PhD focuses on understanding the behaviour of serial rapists and serial sexual murderers, specifically within the prism of crime linkage. Crime linkage is a practice that is used by Law Enforcement Agencies (such as the National Crime Agency here in the UK), which uses algorithms to see whether two crimes were committed by the same person.

I apply this logic to several samples, amongst which there is a sample of serial rapists from France, who have had a minimum of six victims per series. My work is to see if crime linkage is effective on samples with crossover series, when there are a rape and another type of sexual assault in the series (such as non-contact sex assault, or sexual murder).

When did you first begin engaging with ideas around open research and open science, and how has this influenced the way you think about research practice?

I first began engaging with ideas around open research when we decided to write a systematic review for my PhD. A systematic review aims to find as much evidence as possible in order to answer a research question. My director of studies, Dr Katie Dhingra, is well acquainted with open research practices, and she explained it to me. I saw the value and importance of it straight away. We wrote the protocol for my systematic review, and I pre-registered it on Prospero. Prospero is an international platform where you can register your systematic review protocol. It strives to promote transparency and open science.

For my first systematic review, I made a choice that was maybe not the best when I wrote the protocol, and I could not change it. It started as a mistake; I had an assumption about something that I should not have had, but it also sparked conversations with experts from the field which made me understand that that specific misconception was not only mine.

Overall, I think it is interesting to communicate about mistakes we make in general, as I personally learn more after making a mistake than if everything went well straight away. So, it helped a lot in a way. The lesson I guess is that sometimes, errors occur, or there are changes from what was initially planned, and it’s ok, as long as it’s reported transparently in the related publications/thesis.

Overall, a lot of positive came out of it. It also gave me lots of ideas for future work.

How are you currently applying open research practices within your own work, and are there approaches you would like to explore further as your research develops?

The data I access are of a sensitive nature, and I am not allowed to share them (it is a prerequisite to access them). So, it was also very important to me to do it, to kind of find a balance between what should remain private and what can be openly shared. And it’s not about just stopping at ‘the data cannot be shared’, it’s explaining why they cannot be shared, why I am not allowed to share them.

At the moment, I have only pre-registered two systematic review protocols on the Prospero platform.

In the future, I would love to share more of my work openly, but it won’t be possible if I keep working on data shared by Law Enforcement Agencies. Sharing more openly is also a way to receive more constructive feedback, and I always welcome that. I would like to find a way to keep working on sensitive data and be able to share some of it, with everyone’s consent of course, with data coming from victims and anonymised as opposed to only using data from Law Enforcement Agencies. I will also pre-register more of my work (aims, methods, hypotheses, planned analyses etc.) on the OSF platform (Open Science Framework).

As an early career researcher, what benefits have you found from engaging with open research, particularly in terms of collaboration, visibility, or building research communities?

I would say all of the above! As part of writing a systematic review, there is a stage where you have to contact authors of included papers and experts in the field. It’s a great opportunity to reach out while having something to talk about. This helps to foster future collaborations.

Regarding visibility, my protocol is currently pre-registered on Prospero, and I will try to publish in Open Access. I am also involved in a research project for which we are writing a systematic review, and we have pre-registered the protocol on Prospero too. None of it is published yet, but hopefully it will be soon.

There are also research networks with a specific focus on open research, such as ReproductibiliTea. I have not been to one of their meetings yet, but it’s on my to-do list. I am looking forward to it, to be a part of a community with similar open research values.

What advice would you give to other PGRs or early career researchers who are interested in open research but are unsure where to begin?

LBU Research Voices is a blog series that celebrates the experiences, journeys, and expertise of our LBU research community. Through this series, we explore the knowledge our researchers have gained, not just from their work, but from their lived experiences, career paths, and the communities they engage with. By sharing their stories, we hope to inspire learning, reflection, and connection across our LBU research culture.

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