Key pillars and concepts of Open Science
Open Science is a multifaceted concept covering several interrelated areas.
Open Access means free, instant online access to research publications – scientific articles, books and other materials. In the past, most scientific publications were only available for a fee, limiting access. Only researchers who could afford to pay the access fee, or whose institution subscribed to the journal, could access scientific articles. Open access changes this situation.
There are two main types of open access:
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Gold Open Access: Publications are published in open access journals, which often cover costs by charging authors or their institutions (article processing charges or APCs), or are funded by other support schemes
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Green Open Access: Researchers self-publish versions of their peer-reviewed publications in open repositories, such as a university’s digital repository, alongside publication in a subscription journal
Publishing a scientific article in open access allows it to be disseminated more widely, increasing the number of citations, as well as helping to disseminate discoveries more quickly and ensuring public access to research, which is often funded by taxpayers’ money.
Open data means that research data is made publicly available by depositing datasets in trusted repositories, such as the DataverseLV platform.
Depending on the specifics of the study, open data can include both raw data and processed data that form the basis of the study’s conclusions. Data collected from research can be considered a valuable resource that can be re-used either for other research, for training purposes or to verify the results of the research.
However, it is not always possible to make research data openly available without restrictions. In certain cases, data may need to be restricted, for example if the dataset contains sensitive personal data, data related to national security or data protected by intellectual property rights. The Open Science movement is guided by “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.
Research data management and data management plans are crucial to ensure the quality of open data, helping researchers to plan how to collect, organise, store, protect, share and preserve research data.
This aspect of open science includes research methodologies, protocols and analytical tools (including software code) public availability. This allows other researchers to replicate exactly the steps of the research and analyseicontributing to the scientific results reproducibility and validation.
Craft or pilson science (English: citizen science) includes a widebroaderpublic involvement in scientific research. This can range from collecting data (e.g. bird observations or recording natural phenomena) to analysing data or even helping to formulate research questions. This approach not only increases the volume and variety of data, but also promotes public engagement in science and improves the scientific I pavailable at.
Traditional scientific papers and project proposals peer review is usually anonymous. However, anclusive peer reviewwhere the identity of the reviewers or the content of the review itself is publicly available, contributes to transparency, viaenhances reviewer accountability and improves the quality of the review process.