What is Open Science?

Open Science (OS) is an umbrella term for various movements aiming to make scientific results open to the wider society.

Open Science is a new approach to the scientific process based on cooperative work and new ways of diffusing knowledge by using digital and collaborative tools. It includes

a set of practices, including open education, open research funding, open access publications, open data and materials, open software tools, open infrastructures (such as digital laboratories), preregistration, and the avoidance of restrictive intellectual property.

OS comes as a direct response to growing considerations about the way research is organised globally. In recent decades, the quality of research productivity dropped significantly due to the 'publish or perish' pressure and limited abilities to compete against the background of skyrocketing costs. In fact, entire innovation ecosystems have become rather inefficient lately.

As a result, the OS movement contributes to creating a culture where research is expected to be published in open access format with freely shared research data. The European Union supported the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Declaration as a 'coalition of doers' to ensure that OS permeates the entire continent.

Why does Open Science matter?

Our deeply interconnected world is facing numerous challenges. These require innovative thinking and solutions, most of which come from scientists.

However, science often benefits from citizen engagement. It is, therefore, essentially important to involve the entire society in the scientific process. OS aims to make science more open, accessible, efficient,
democratic, and transparent.

Open Science is about connecting the scientific community with the rest of society for the benefit of all citizens. This includes innovators, policy-makers and citizens. When open, science becomes a powerful driver of progress in our digital world. This is extremely salient for closing innovation and technology gaps between and within countries.

OS is fundamentally about three dimensions.

Open Access is about allowing scientific information, data and outputs to be more widely accessible. Open Data is a strategy for making research data freely available on the Internet. Under an Open Access license principle anyone can download, modify, and distribute data without any restrictions. Finally, Open to Society means the active engagement of all relevant stakeholders in the process.

Various actors perceive OS differently in many parts of the world. A global understanding of the meaning, opportunities and challenges of Open Science has been reached in 2021, under the guidance of UNESCO.