The importance of open science for scientific research

What is open science and what is its relevance for scientific research?

Juan Carlos Castillo, coordinator of the LISA Open Social Science Laboratory (https://lisa-coes.com/), principal investigator of the Millennium Nucleus on Inequalities and Digital Opportunities (NUDOS), of the Center for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion (COES), and associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chile, defines open science as a set of initiatives and policies aimed at making research more transparent and accessible.

“Although it is mainly associated with access to publications, scientific openness can be linked to different parts of the research process, such as design, data collection, analysis and the final publication of products”, says the academic.

Regarding this scientific openness, in the last column published in Ciper for the International Day of Universal Access to Information, NUDOS researchers point out that “access to data for scientific research purposes is also unequal and concentrated in the United States and the European Union”. A problematic fact, they add, considering that scientific development and open science policies are promoted on a global scale.

“There is currently a large development of centers focused on dissemination and training in open science issues, which are increasing. A number of research funding agencies have begun to demand different standards of openness,” says Juan Carlos Castillo.

In 2021, UNESCO published a recommendation on Open Science for its member states in which it defined seven areas of action:

1. Promote a common definition of open science, the benefits and challenges involved, and the various means of accessing it;
2. create an enabling policy environment for open science;
3. invest in open science infrastructure and services;
4. invest in human resources, training, education, digital literacy and capacity building for open science;
5. foster a culture of open science and align incentives in favor of open science;
6. promote innovative approaches to open science at different stages of the scientific process;
7. promote international and multi-stakeholder cooperation in the context of open science and with a view to bridging the digital, technological and knowledge divides.

In the case of Chile, says Castillo, ANID’s open access policy has begun to incorporate openness processes in part of its calls for proposals, such as including an open data management plan in project applications.

On the relevance of open science, the alternate director of NUDOS, Teresa Correa, states that “open science is increasingly important to achieve research of the highest standards. Because it promotes transparency and accessibility of data, it encourages studies to be verifiable and reproducible. This increases reliability in science and collaboration to solve complex problems”.

On Friday, November 3, Juan Carlos Castillo will give a workshop on tools for open science. Registration here: https://forms.gle/sa1X4s3Z43CgoZJTA