What is Open Research?

Open Research (also known as Open Science or Open Scholarship) covers a diverse range of practices and processes all driven by a belief in the importance of research integrity, transparency, collaboration, and of science and scholarship for the greater good. 

The UNESCO defines Open Science in its Recommendation on Open Science (2021) as follows: 

an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community. It comprises all scientific disciplines and aspects of scholarly practices, including basic and applied sciences, natural and social sciences and the humanities, and it builds on the following key pillars: open scientific knowledge, open science infrastructures, science communication, open engagement of societal actors and open dialogue with other knowledge systems.

As a set of ethical practices, Open Research is fast becoming essential. 

• First, for its potential to be a crucial tool to counteract the growing mistrust in science: opening research to ‘societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community’ contributes to a better understanding by citizens of the nature of science and scholarship and familiarity with its actors and processes.
• Secondly, as a vector of fairness and equity: removing barriers to access research data and outputs is essential for the equitable dissemination and production of new knowledge, including in a Global North-South context – e.g. when access to publications and datasets is not restricted behind a paywall profiting large publishing corporations, but free to anyone independently of their means.

The European Commision’s Strategy of Research and Innovation 2020-2024 distinguishes between Open Science Practices and Enablers.

Open Science Practices

• Early and open sharing of research (Open Access, Pre-registration, pre-prints etc)
• Ensuring verifiability and reproducibility
• Open collaboration
• FAIR data management
• Public engagement, citizen science

Open Science Enablers

• Incentives and Rewards
• Legislative and regulatory environment
• Infrastructure, such as European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
• Skills and capacity building