Open science

Open science is a movement that aims to make scientific research, including publications, data, physical samples, software, and models, clear and available to everyone. This means that people from all walks of life can learn about and use scientific findings through teamwork and sharing. Open science includes practices like publishing open research, supporting open access to information, and encouraging scientists to openly share their data and tools. It also involves getting more people involved in science and making it easier to share scientific knowledge.

The idea of open science is used mostly in subjects like science, technology, engineering, and math, but it is also expanding to other areas such as the arts and humanities. Open science builds on traditions that started in the 1600s with the academic journal, which allowed scientists to share their work. The open science movement grew because there was a conflict between the need for scientists to work together openly and the pressure to focus only on publishing articles and keeping research private for profit.

Principles

The principles of open science help make research easier for everyone to understand and use. These principles include open methodology, open source, open data, open access, open peer review, open educational resources, and open hardware.

Background

The scientific research process involves collecting, analyzing, and sharing data. However, there are often barriers that make it hard for everyone to access this information. These barriers can include costs, strict rules on how data can be used, or even cultural fears about losing control over research.

Open science includes ideas like open access, open data, and the open-source movement. It also involves using software to help process data and ensure that scientific results can be checked by others.

The term 'open science' means different things to different people. Some see it as a way to use technology to support research, while others focus on making science more understandable to everyone. There are also those who emphasize the importance of sharing research data freely and making knowledge accessible to all, especially for research paid for by public funds. Others believe that working together and sharing results during the research process makes science more efficient. Overall, open science aims to make research easier to share, access, and understand for everyone.

History

The idea of open science began with the creation of scientific journals. Before journals, scientists often kept their discoveries secret. Some famous scientists, like Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, Christiaan Huygens, and Robert Hooke, hid their ideas in coded messages. They did this to keep their work safe until they could profit from it.

As science grew, journals became important. In 1660, England created the Royal Society, and in 1666, France started the French Academy of Sciences. These groups helped scientists share their work. The first science journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, began in 1665. By 1699, there were 30 science journals, and by 1790, there were over 1,000.

Later, popular science magazines like Popular Science began in 1872. These magazines made science interesting for everyone.

Today, many schools and research places encourage scientists to share their work. Sometimes, they keep some discoveries private if they might be valuable. But sharing helps all of science grow.

The term "Open Science" was first used by Steve Mann in 1998. It means making science easy for everyone to see and use, especially with the help of the Internet. This includes free access to science articles and data. In 2002, a group called the Budapest Open Access Initiative asked for free online access to science papers. They also supported using licenses like Creative Commons to let people share and change these papers.

Open science also helps solve problems in research by sharing data and methods freely. Some places, like the University of Liège and the NIH Public Access Policy, have rules to make sure research is shared openly. In France, a law from 2016 says scientists should share their work online after a short waiting period.

Politics

In many countries, governments help pay for science research. Scientists share their findings by writing articles and giving them to special journals to publish. Often, these journals are run by companies, and people like universities and libraries pay to read the articles. This means the same people who paid for the research have to pay again to see the results.

In 2011, some leaders in the United States suggested a rule called the Research Works Act. This rule would stop government agencies from asking that research paid for by taxes be shared for free online. Many scientists did not agree and spoke up about it.

In 2016, leaders in Europe talked about moving toward Open Science. They wanted to make research easier for everyone to access. In 2021, France also made plans to support Open Science. The United Nations helped create global rules to support sharing science worldwide.

Open Science and Research Assessment

A key part of the Open Science movement is changing how we judge research. Groups like the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) want to move away from old ways of measuring research, such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and the h-Index. These old ways can be unfair and miss important details. Instead, they suggest using new ways to measure research, like counting how many reports are open for everyone to read, how data is shared, and how reviews are done openly. These new ways help make science clearer and easier to use again.

However, using many new ways to measure openness can cause problems. These new measures often focus on numbers, which can go against the fair and complete ideas that groups like CoARA and DORA support. The problem is that these measures not only track openness but also try to change how researchers work. This might lead to focusing too much on numbers and not on the quality of the research. Also, these new measures are not always clear about what they are really checking, which could make judging research unfair or less effective.

Advantages and disadvantages

See also: Uses of open science

Advantages

Open science helps make research clearer and more open for everyone. When science is open, others can check the work to make sure it is right. This is important because sometimes scientists find mistakes or new ideas by looking at each other's work.

When people pay for research, they believe that information should be shared with everyone. Open science means that not just papers, but also data, plans, and tools used in research are available to all. This helps others repeat experiments and trust the results.

Open science can help solve big, complicated problems that need many people working together. By sharing ideas and tools, scientists can work better as a team.

Open science can also save money. When scientists share designs and tools, they don't have to buy expensive equipment. They can make their own using simple parts and tools, which costs much less.

Disadvantages

Some people worry that sharing data openly might lead to misuse. For example, information about certain animals or people could be used in ways that are not safe or fair.

Sometimes, sharing data can be risky. In the past, some scientists have shared details about dangerous viruses, which could be used for harmful purposes. This shows why some data might need to be shared carefully.

People who are not scientists might not understand scientific data correctly. This can lead to mistakes or confusion.

Open science can sometimes lead to too many papers that are not checked very well. This might spread incorrect information, just like how false news can spread online.

Open science is mostly led by scientists from wealthy countries, which can make it hard for scientists from other places to join. Efforts are being made to include more people from different backgrounds in open science.

Actions and initiatives

Different projects help support open science by creating tools, sharing information, and encouraging teamwork. For example, the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Center for Open Science lead many projects to make science open and easy to share. Teams like the Decision Analysis in R for Technologies in Health (DARTH) work together across universities to create clear and open solutions for health technology decisions.

Organizations vary in size and purpose. The Open Knowledge Foundation shares large datasets, holds meetings, and supports open software. Smaller groups, like Blue Obelisk, focus on chemistry and related projects. Some groups no longer exist, while new ones, like the Self-Journal of Science, are growing. These groups often form based on the subject they study or the services they provide.

Some famous projects include the Allen Brain Atlas, which maps genes in human and mouse brains, and the Encyclopedia of Life, which records all land species. Others, like the Galaxy Zoo, help classify galaxies, and the International HapMap Project studies human DNA patterns. All these projects gather information from many researchers.

Mathematician Timothy Gowers started the open science journal Discrete Analysis in 2016 to show that high-quality math journals could exist outside traditional publishing. The journal is run by a nonprofit team of scholars.

Projects also form around big tasks that need many people to work together. For instance, OpenWorm aims to create a computer model of a tiny worm, and the Polymath Project solves tough math problems through better communication. The Collaborative Replications and Education project helps students take part in real science by offering funding. Each project decides what it needs from its contributors.

One special example is the first "open" doctoral thesis started in 2012. The student shared everything about their research online as they worked, to see if it was possible to share science this way. By 2018, the experiment was complete and published as an open-access book.

Another example is CatalyzeX, which helps find and share research code used in papers. This code is also available on sites like arXiv and OpenReview.

Open science ideas have also influenced job listings, with jobRxiv offering a free international job board to help balance hiring costs across labs.

Preprint servers allow researchers to share their work quickly before it goes through the traditional publishing process. These servers do not have formal peer review but do have checks to maintain basic quality standards. They help speed up science by letting researchers share findings faster and get feedback from colleagues. However, there are concerns about plagiarism, and some servers have had to remove copied work. To address this, some places are creating central databases to detect copied material more easily.

Software tools also support open science. The Open Science Framework helps manage projects, data, and teams. Services like Ibercivis use unused computer time for big calculations, and Experiment.com offers funding through public support.

Some ideas suggest using blockchain technology to help organize science better. The Open Science Organization plans to use blockchain to track ideas, measure researcher impact, create unique researcher IDs, and build a research network. A paper from 2019 looked at how well blockchain could support open science.

Open Science Platforms (Open Repositories)

Some useful tools help scientists share their work easily.

• arXiv is a place online where scientists share early versions of their research papers.
• Zenodo is another open space for sharing research, started by a big science group called CERN.
• Figshare lets scientists share data and programs they use.
• HAL (open archive) is where authors can put their research papers for everyone to see.
• Dryad (repository) is for sharing information and tools connected to science studies.
• Open Science Framework helps scientists organize and share their projects.