Open science is more than just open access to publications!
Publishing in open access journals is great but open science is more than that. Open science actions can be promoted in several sectors and levels (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Open Science Taxonomy. Open science can be fostered in various sectors and levels. Please note that the image is already somewhat outdated (2015), e.g. open education is missing. It still gives you an idea of the multidimensionality of open science. CC BY FOSTER consortium.
As an example,watch Sally’s PhD journey as an open researcher (5:15, CC BY MoMoSci20 MOVING).
Consider what you, as a researcher, can do to make your research process more open. Here are some ideas.
As an open science practitioner, you could also…
The research data that underpins publications should be accessible whenever possible to support validation and facilitate data reuse. In cases where e.g. data sensitivities won’t allow open access, be sure to provide, at least, the descriptive metadata. The sharing of research data will be discussed in more detail in Module 4: Open research data.
Many researchers now develop bits of code to help them analyse and/or visualise the data they have collected. Having access to this code, in case your research involves codes, is essential for supporting the validation of your findings and to help others to build upon your work.
Without knowing what steps were taken to capture, process and analyse the data – and in what order – it may be impossible to validate published findings or to reuse data.
Sharing learning materials promotes equal access to education, allowing anyone to benefit regardless of background. It can encourage collaboration and knowledge exchange among educators, leading to improved teaching practices. Openly shared materials can be reused, adapted, and enhanced, saving time and resources. It also increases the teacher’s visibility and impact within the educational community.
Research collaboration is growing exponentially, and teams are becoming ever more interdisciplinary as researchers increasingly work in international and cross-disciplinary consortia to enable a multitude of perspectives on specific research questions. Fostering national and international collaborative research is also increasingly a funder priority.
Online collaborative platforms connect geographically-dispersed researchers to enable them to cooperate on their research, sharing research objects, ideas and experiences. Collaborative platforms are usually online services that provide a virtual environment to which multiple people can concurrently connect and work on the same task.
Citizen science is a product of successful science communication and public engagement. It means involving the non-academic public in the process of scientific research.
Citizen science promotes public understanding by providing access to research processes, open data, and journal articles. Today, researchers can reach broader audiences not only through traditional scientific publications but also via blogs, social media, videos, and other digital platforms. Could citizen science be something you or society could benefit from? You can explore citizen science in more detail in Module 2: Citizen science.
Here are some examples that you could consider when planning opening up your research project.
Do you already have an ORCID identifier? If you don’t have it, register now to have your own unique ORCID iD. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (ORCID iD) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can gather all your professional contributions – affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more – under one profile. You can use your ORCID to share your information with other systems, saving you time and hassle.
Have you checked data repositories (see Module 4: Open research data) to see if there is existing data that you can reuse or build upon during your research rather than starting from scratch?
Have you acquainted yourself with preregistration repositories where you can record your study plan before data collection? Please see below for further details.
Consider publishing your scientific work as Registered Reports. See below for more information.
Could you consider involving the citizens in collecting or analysing the data? This can dramatically increase the amount of data that you can realistically produce in a short space of time. Meaningful public engagements are generally viewed very favourably by grant application reviewers.
Would you like to share your methodologies and early findings via preprints (see Module 3: OA publishing for more details)? This is a great way to get peer feedback early on and it helps you to identify any errors or problems with your approach before you publish. However, check from the potential publisher that sharing preprints early on is ok.
Have you published in an open access journal and/or deposited your publications in a publication repository? This means that anyone can read – and cite – your findings in the short and longer term. That all adds up more citations for you!
Many journals nowadays require to also share the research data (see Module 4: Open research data) first for peer-review and after publication to everyone. You can do this easily by depositing your data with an embargo to a repository. This way you can first give a private link for peer-review and later open the dataset for everyone.
Link your papers, data and code to each other through digital persistent identifiers (PIDs), such as DOIs. Link all these back to you e.g. through your ORCID.
Could you consider writing a popular summary about your research approach and findings to make your research accessible to non-experts? Bear in mind, non-experts can be researchers in other fields as well as journalists and the general public. Also, remember to use social networking forums for academics (e.g. ResearchGate, Academia.edu) to update the progress and findings of your research process. Consider at which points of your research you will communicate with the public.
Preregistration repositories and Registered Reports explained
Preregistration repositories (Table 1) are platforms or databases where researchers can independently record their study plans before data collection begins. The researcher fills out a form describing the hypotheses, methods, and analysis plan. The registration is time-stamped and either published immediately or kept private until a specified date. The process does not include peer review. This method enhances research transparency and helps prevent post hoc modifications.
Registered Reports (Table 1) are a publication format in which the research plan is peer-reviewed and approved before the study is conducted or results are known. The process has two stages: in Stage 1, researchers submit their study plan (including hypotheses, methods, and analysis strategy) for review. If approved, the journal grants an in-principle acceptance. In Stage 2, the study is carried out according to the approved plan, and the final manuscript with results is submitted. The journal publishes the study regardless of whether the results are “positive” or “negative,” as long as the plan was followed. This approach reduces publication bias (by ensuring that non-significant or unexpected results are also published), improves research quality (through early peer review before data collection), and promotes transparency and reproducibility. See e.g. Registered Reports (Center for Open Science).
Table 1. Comparison of preregistered repositories and registered reports.
What do funding bodies expect?
As a general rule of thumb, many funders require researchers to ensure open access to publications resulting from their funded projects, along with the underlying data necessary to verify the published results.
This does not necessarily mean that this data needs to be made open. If there are good reasons to restrict access – e.g. to protect sensitive or personal data – these should be clearly stated in the data management plan (see Module 4: Open research data). Often in these cases, the descriptive metadata can be shared. Always check your funder guidelines and requirements.
Remember:
Practicing open science is more than just sharing your publications.
There are many ways to share your work openly throughout the research process.
Several funding bodies expect researchers to share, at least, publications and (meta)data.
It does take a bit more work but there are many rewards.
Everyone has a role. How can you contribute to making science and research more open (see Fig. 7 below for inspiration)?
Fig. 7. Rainbow of open science practices. There are numerous ways to make your workflows more open.
