Adopting open science practices: A primer
Back in its 2008–2013 strategic plan, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed generation of the drug praziquantel to treat schistosomiasis as a priority. The WHO asked for a specific drug formulation to ensure fewer side effects and a more palatable taste so patients would consume itproducing this precise formulation while keeping the costs low would be challenging.
So, they set up a website listing their problems and inviting experts to contribute to the project. The resultant collaboration between industrial and academic researchers all over the world produced accelerated research results. The core team accepted that the openness of the research ensured that it proceeded faster than it would have had they attempted contacting people in their limited professional circle.1
This is just one example of how open science can result in academic and industrial researchers joining forces to make new scientific discoveries that could have a huge societal impact.
An overview of open science
Open science is a movement emerging worldwide to make collaborative scientific research and its circulation accessible to the society.2
Open science practices encompass publishing open access articles, having an open source such as openly available source codes for a software, campaigning for open access, and openly sharing data and findings through an open-notebook medium. The main motivation behind this movement is to ensure a broader dissemination of scientific knowledge and to make publishing, accessing, and communicating scientific information easier.3,4
To acknowledge the importance of open science, federal agencies in the US are celebrating 2023 as a Year of Open Science. This initiative aims to inspire open science engagement and will consist of events and activities that will encourage researchers to adopt open and equitable science practices.5
Organizations across the world have recognized the importance of open science to address big societal changes that humanity faces, such as climate change, public health emergencies, sustainable food production, and efficient energy consumption. Important organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations have framed guidelines to adopt open science practices.2,6
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendation on open science updated in February 2023 is the first international standard manifesto . It provides an internationally accepted definition and set of values and guiding principles for open science. It also identifies a set of actions for open science practices at the individual, institutional, national, and international levels.7
Benefits of open science
Open science can accelerate scientific discoveries, and bridge the science, technology, and innovation gaps to fulfil societal needs. Open science not only ensures that scientific knowledge is accessible, but also that the production of that knowledge is inclusive, equitable, and sustainable.
These practices increase scientific collaborations and knowledge sharing. They also make multilingual scientific information openly accessible and encourage the spread of scientific knowledge beyond the traditional scientific communities.
Promoting more accessible, inclusive and transparent science can further everyone’s right to share in scientific advancement and its benefit.7
In addition to the larger benefits to society, open-access research can be subjected to a more rigorous and transparent peer-review process. Proponents of open science also argue that this will enable publicly funded science to be publicly available.8
The practices of open science fall under a set of shared values and guiding principles and adopting open science practices can make the scientific process more transparent and democratic.9
Challenges of adopting open science practices
Open science practices can threaten the well-established academic and editorial structures – global scientific publishers, may resist the adoption of open science practices. The resistance may be particularly high by publishers that charge a high publication fee from authors to make their articles openly accessible10
Additionally, access to some knowledge may have to be restricted in some scenarios, such as research results or methodology that could be used for harm. This argument has a particular currency in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.11
Other scenarios may require the restriction of scientific information to protect human rights, confidentiality, intellectual property rights, endangered and threatened species.7
Researchers believe that coming up with a balanced system that ensures easy accessibility of scientific knowledge while restricting scientific information in some cases will take a long time.10
Open science initiatives
Pre-print servers such as arXiv, medRxiv, and bioRxiv allow scientists to upload their research manuscripts and make them publicly accessible. These manuscripts are not subjected to peer review, and while they are not a replacement for research that has undergone peer-review, their public release primarily serves to accelerate the sharing of research findings before they are scrutinized.12 Seeing the benefits of such open-access pre-prints, publishers such as MDPI and Elsevier have launched their own or acquired existing pre-print servers.13
Other open science initiatives such as Open Science Framework and ClinicalTrials.gov enable researchers to publicly register a study design and analysis plan before conducting their study. This way, experts can provide feedback on the quality of the proposed research design before data collection. Thus, researchers can revise their methods if required.
Data repositories such as Open Science Framework and Dryad allow scientists to upload and share their data, metadata, and documentation. Other researchers can understand and use this data for their own research.
An increasing number of publishers are joining the open science initiative, with several journals such as PLoS One, BMC, and Frontiers offering open-access publication options.14 Publications like eLife review manuscripts only if they are made publicly available as pre-prints.15
Adopting open science practices
Because of a lack of set definitions ofopen science, the research community faces some confusion, disagreement and misinformation about adopting the best open science practices, their necessity, and their implementation.16
Incentivizing open science policies and providing infrastructure that will encourage open science practices are important steps in promoting values of transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility.17
According to UNESCO’s recommendations on adopting open science practices, shared research infrastructure, including equipment, journals, open access repositories, data manipulation service infrastructures can enable collaborative and multidisciplinary research.
UNESCO recommends a two-way communication with other stakeholders , such as communities that will benefit from the results.
They further encourage researchers to carry out publicly funded research guided by the principles of open science.18
A few tips for the scientist
- Be transparent about study material, data, and codes;
- Data should be well-organized;
- Be willing to share raw data;
- Share methodology with others;
- Be ready to adopt open science practices such as uploading pre-prints and pre-registering research;
- Teach others about open science.16
Some ethical considerations while practicing open science
It is important to maintain privacy in some scenarios, such as protecting patient data, while sharing raw data with collaborators or editors. Scientists must also ensure they are not violating intellectual property rights, or disseminating information that could be harmful to society.
Open science: where we stand
Open science practices such as publicly available data, open access manuscripts and an open dialogue between multiple stakeholders in scientific research can promote transparency, accessibility, and inclusivity. However, at the same time, there are some important aspects to consider including data protection when results could be misused. Finding a balanced system to enjoy the benefits while overcoming the challenges of open science policies will take some more time.
REFERENCES
1. Woelfle, M., Olliaro, P. & Todd, M. H. Open science is a research accelerator. Nat. Chem. 3, 745–748 (2011).
2. Vicente-Saez, R. & Martinez-Fuentes, C. Open Science now: A systematic literature review for an integrated definition. J. Bus. Res. 88, 428–436 (2018).
3. Gomes, D. G. E. et al. Why don’t we share data and code? Perceived barriers and benefits to public archiving practices. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 289, 20221113.
4. Hou, J., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y. & Wang, D. How do scholars and non-scholars participate in dataset dissemination on Twitter. J. Informetr. 16, 101223 (2022).
5. Science.gov - Open Science Announcements from Federal Agencies. https://open.science.gov/.
6. Nations, U. Open Science. United Nations https://www.un.org/en/library/OS.
7. UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science | UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science/about.
8. Albert, K. M. Open access: implications for scholarly publishing and medical libraries. J. Med. Libr. Assoc. 94, 253–262 (2006).
9. Open science | UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/open-science.
10. Pitrelli, N. & Arabito, S. Open Science training and education: challenges and difficulties on the researchers’ side and in public engagement. J. Sci. Commun. 14, C01 (2015).
11. Musunuri, S., Sandbrink, J. B., Monrad, J. T., Palmer, M. J. & Koblentz, G. D. Rapid Proliferation of Pandemic Research: Implications for Dual-Use Risks. mBio 12, e01864-21.
12. Open Access Preprints. https://open-access.network/en/information/publishing/preprints (2022).
13. Irawan, D. E., Zahroh, H. & Puebla, I. Preprints as a driver of open science: Opportunities for Southeast Asia. Front. Res. Metr. Anal. 7, (2022).
14. Open Science Practices and Methods: What They Are, Why They Are Important, and Examples. Orvium https://blog.orvium.io/open-science-practices/ (2023).
15. FAIRsharing Team. FAIRsharing record for: eLife Recommended Repositories and Standards. (2018) doi:10.25504/FAIRSHARING.F0QMCP.
16. Crüwell, S. et al. 7 Easy Steps to Open Science: An Annotated Reading List. https://osf.io/cfzyx (2018) doi:10.31234/osf.io/cfzyx.
17. Armeni, K. et al. Towards wide-scale adoption of open science practices: The role of open science communities. Sci. Public Policy 48, 605–611 (2021).
18. UNESCO. UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949 (2021) doi:10.54677/MNMH8546.
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