Open science is a broad concept encompassing diverse movements and practices that advocate for transparent operational models in scientific research. It has gained global importance as a means to enhance the visibility and influence of scientific endeavors.
The overarching goal of open science is to ensure that scientific knowledge in multiple languages is openly accessible and reusable by a wide audience. This initiative seeks to foster greater collaboration in the scientific community, promote the sharing of information for the betterment of both science and society, and extend involvement in the creation, evaluation, and communication of scientific knowledge to individuals beyond the traditional scientific community.
In relation to science and research, open science serves to democratize science by:
The principles of openness and transparency have long been integral to responsible science and research, constituting the core values of the field. However, some current scientific practices are in conflict with the principles of open science and research. The practice of primarily publishing research outcomes in peer-reviewed scientific journals is a process that can enhance researchers' careers but limits the accessibility of the information to a wider audience. Moreover, the results of publicly funded research should be publicly available. From the researcher's viewpoint, it is important to develop an alternative metric system for the scientific impact of their published work.
The objective of open science is to ensure research data produced via public financing is broadly utilizable for the scientific community and the society. This involves making the methods, results, data, source code, and publications of research studies openly available. Responsible open science practices consider factors such as transparency, discoverability, and usability of the outputs. According to publishing policies, research publications should be made openly accessible by parallel publishing them within the framework of permit conditions defined by the publishers. It is also advisable to publish research findings in reputable scientific open access journals.
A primary goal of open science is to maximize the accessibility of research outcomes. Open access is facilitated through the implementation of licenses that endorse openness. Beyond this, the concept of openness in science and research extends to various aspects, such as fostering a more transparent and openly evaluated research process or engaging the broader society in research activities through avenues like citizen science or collaborations with companies. The discourse surrounding the definition of open science and research remains dynamic and continuously evolving.
The principles of open science have become more and more important in the various areas of today's research. Therefore, there are a number of national and international guidelines according to which the openness of science should be promoted. The international community has also made several agreements concerning the openness of science.
LUT University and the LAB University of Applied Sciences have signed the national Declaration for open science and research.
In the promotion of openness, we apply national and international strategic principles, goals, action plans and guidelines.
Sources:
Open Science (2023) What is open science? Available at https://avointiede.fi/en/what-open-science (Accessed 25 Sept 2024)
University of Eastern Finland (no date) Open science and research. Available at https://www.uef.fi/en/open-science-and-research (Accessed: 25 Sept 2024)
As defined above, open science aims to make publicly funded research results – particularly publications and research data – publicly accessible in a digital format with no or minimal restriction. In addition to this goal, open science is about extending the principles of openness to the whole research cycle, fostering sharing and collaboration as early as possible, thus resulting in a change to the way in which science and research is done.
The following picture illustrates what a research cycle typically looks like, i.e. the different stages usually involved in a research process.
This picture demonstrates how aspects of open science can be included in the different stages of research, going beyond the open sharing of just the research results.
Source:
University of Eastern Finland (2024) What is open and responsible science? Available at https://blogs.uef.fi/ueflibrary-bors/what-is-open-and-responsible-science/ (Accessed: 25 Sept 2024)