Beyond Compliance: Navigating the Tension between Open Science Practices and Conventional Research Assessment among Early-Career Researchers in Nigeria

International audience Beyond Compliance: Navigating the Tension between Open Science Practices and Conventional Research Assessment among Early-Career Researchers in NigeriaAbstractThe global shift towards Open Science encourages researchers to embrace transparency, collaboration, data sharing, and wider dissemination of research outputs. Simultaneously, academic reward systems in many Nigerian institutions continue to focus on conventional indicators such as publishing in Article Publishing Charges (APC) heavy Impact Factor journals under-recognition of non-traditional research outputs such as datasets, policy briefs, and open educational resources, and the often real career risk of prioritising open practices over publication strategies optimised for conventional visibility. This creates a tension for Early-Career Researchers (ECRs) who are expected to engage in Open Science practices while remaining competitive within traditional evaluation frameworks.On one hand, they are among the most enthusiastic adopters of open science practices, sharing their research outputs, often driven by visibility. While on the other hand, they remain the most vulnerable to the consequences of conventional research assessment systems that continue to reward publications in high-impact journals, prioritise quantity of outputs, and largely ignore open research practices when it comes to research assessment for promotion and grant allocation. This tension is rarely examined as a challenge within open science cycles beyond discussions. However, this study argues that it is precisely that; a ‘challenge’, and resolving it requires deliberate capacity building support, institutional reform, and a re-imagination of what research excellence looks like.Drawing on already collected document analysis data on research assessment practices which investigated current research assessment systems in ten (10) institutions in Nigeria, the study further explores how these practices incentivise or discourage open scholarly practices from the lenses of the ECRs through the following questions.1.What open science practices do ECRs currently adopt? 2. What research practices do ECRs want to be rewarded? 3. What institutional, and infrastructural factors mediate or amplify that tension?Furthermore, the study then examines how librarians as research support staff can intervene constructively in this tension. Through strategic effective support of ECRs in an open science community of practice, librarians can help ECRs navigate the present ecosystem while providing evidence in the literature for institutions and funders that want to genuinely reward responsible research behaviour.A reflection from this study is what "going beyond compliance" means in practice. It means shifting from a culture where open science practices are performed to satisfy regulators and funders or just to ‘follow the crowd’ towards one in which it is embedded in the daily research workflow as a matter of professional identity. The study proposes that this cultural shift cannot happen without first resolving the structural contradiction between open science practices and the reward systems that govern academic careers.