Open Science
Open Science is the movement to make scientific research and its outputs more accessible and transparently available, allowing a wider range of contributions that will increase research quality.
Open Science is defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as “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.”
Several concepts belong under the umbrella term of ‘Open Science’ and these include equity and inclusion, Open Data, Open Software, Open Methods, Open Hardware, Open Review, Open Access, FAIR, Open Education, Community building, Citizen Science.
Benefits of Open Science
Increased impact and visibility: Research will be accessible to anyone, which accelerates scientific discovery and can increase citizen engagement with and participation in research.
Maximise research effort by making research and educational outputs reusable, making it easier to build on previous work and providing opportunities for collaboration. Economic benefits include:
Improving the quality of research through more transparency (facilitating reproducibility) which will increase trust in research
Recognition for all contributions to research
Maintaining rights and control of research outputs
The Dutch position paper ‘Room for everyone’s talent’ aims to recognise a wider range of academic contributions, which is very much in line with Open Science practices.
TU Delft
TU Delft has a long history of engagement with Open Science and it is TU Delft’s ambition to be a frontrunner, as reflected in its Open Science Programme 2020-2024, Research and Education in the Open Era and the TU Delft Strategic Framework 2018-2024, with “openness” as one of its major principles. TU Delft also strives to be a great place to work, as outlined in the core values: Diversity, Integrity, Respect, Engagement, Courage and Trust (DIRECT) and the Code of Conduct. TU Delft established several policies and framework that fall under the Open Science umbrella:
• TU Delft Policy on Open Access Publishing (2023)
• TU Delft Research Data Policy Framework (2019, 2021)
• TU Delft Research Software Policy (2021)
• TU Delft Diversity & Inclusion Office (2021)
• TU Delft Vision on Integrity 2018-2024
• TU Delft Recognition & Rewards Perspective 2021 – 2024
• TU Delft Policy on Open Educational Resources (2021)
You can find more information on Open Science at TU Delft.
the Netherlands
In the Netherlands Open Science is an important component of the Recognition & Rewards movement.
- See for example the description and evaluation criteria of the six UMC Utrecht academic career profiles (2023).
Dutch research funder NWO supports new forms of evaluation, requires 100% Open Access and sharing of data/code underlying research articles.
The ‘Strategic Evaluation Protocol’ that universities use to periodically evaluate their research has a strong focus Open Science practices and outputs.
Internationally
The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (to which all Dutch universities adhere to).
The ‘Reforming research assessment’ agreement by the European Union. Open Science has for years been promoted by the European Commission.
UNESCO adopted a recommendation on Open Science.
The White House also committed the United States to Open Science, which pushes for Open Access, and FAIR data and code sharing.
The European Council calls for transparent, equitable, and open access to scholarly publications.
See also individual countries progressions and roadmaps, such as: Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Sweden (see the overview maintained by NASA).
Open Science Monitors/Dashboards
More information
What senior academics can do to support reproducible and open research: a short, three-step guide
Becoming a better scientist with open and reproducible research
Set up a publication strategy by making a copy of a google sheet set up by Bianca Kramer & Jeroen Bosman (Utrecht University)
Promotion & Tenure: Aligning incentives with institutional values and open science