Open Science and Open Access
What is Open Science
Open Science is a movement aimed at disseminating scientific knowledge, especially that funded with public resources, in the broadest, free, online, and reusable way possible.
It aims to enable anyone, whether a researcher, enthusiast, or professional, to access scientific research as a whole, not only publications but also methods, data, instruments, or software used.
Open Science is understood as any scientific process based on open tools, cooperative work, and the dissemination of knowledge.
Definition taken from Horizon Europe Participant Guide. Ministry of Science and Innovation CDTI, E.P.E. and Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), 2022, p. 80. CC-BY-NC-ND.
Dimensions of Open Science
Six are the dimensions of Open Science:
- Open access to research outputs: All publicly funded research available to society, to increase its visibility and dissemination, and to improve knowledge transfer.
- Open data, protocols, and methodology: New sources of information available to the research community, enabling reproducibility of analyses, improving understanding and scope of results, and contributing to speeding up discoveries through the reuse of data.
- Open-source platforms: Improved management and access to scientific information content databases ensuring the sustainability of digital infrastructures on which public R&D systems are based.
- Open peer review: Provide greater scientific rigor to reviews and to ensure transparency and accountability of all involved parties.
- Citizen science: Promote the participation of society in all phases of research activity, bringing scientific results closer to the public, and involving society in research design, data collection, and knowledge generation.
- New ways of research performance assessment: Provide incentives and recognition mechanisms for scientific merit that encourage open science practices among researchers.
Benefits of Open Science
Open science contributes to increasing transparency and encourages participation, cooperation, accountability, the ability to reuse research work, impact, and reproducibility of results.
Likewise, it promotes the accessibility and sustainability of R&D systems and encourages the diversification of profiles in research groups and the incorporation of non-academic actors throughout the research process cycle, from project design to evaluation.
Definition taken from Estrategia Nacional de Ciencia Abierta (ENCA) 2023-2027. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Edita: Secretaría General Técnica del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, 2023. CC BY-NC-SA.
The Mondragon Unibertsitatea Library has created the following guides related to Open Science:
How to publish in Open Access: follow the principles of Open Science
Open research data and how to create your research data management plan