Open Science

Open Science refers to the practice of making scientific research, data, and findings openly available and accessible to everyone, promoting collaboration, transparency, and reproducibility. Open science goes beyond reading or sharing articles. It’s about providing the right context to understand it, the resources to replicate it, and the tools to collaborate, making science better.

It is characterized by 4 elements namely; Open Access (OA), Open Data, Open Collaboration and Open Review. Open science encompasses a broader spectrum of openness extending to data sharing, software, protocols, and even the research process itself.

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Open Science Training Handbook
The Open Science Training Handbook is an openly licensed, collaboratively developed resource that provides guidance and best practices for training individuals and organizations on the principles and implementation of open science. It covers a wide range of topics, from open access and open data to open peer review and citizen science, to help foster openness, transparency, and reproducibility in research and education.

Open Science | UNESCO
The Open Science initiative led by UNESCO promotes the development of open and collaborative approaches to scientific research and knowledge sharing. The Open Science database provides access to a collection of open access publications, policies, and resources that support the transition towards more inclusive, transparent, and reproducible scientific practices globally.

Why do Open Science? 

Implementing open science principles in research activities can be beneficial to the stakeholders that constitute the community (NASA, 2024). 

There are several compelling reasons that drives the need for open science. The increased access of research can accelerate innovation and enable wider collaboration.

Additionally, it facilitates transparent research practices, thereby enhancing reproducibility and public engagement.

Furthermore, areas addressing complex global challenges like climate change and pandemic require collaborative and open approaches to finding solutions; which can be accelerated by open science.

1. Open Science: Driving Innovation and Collaboration
   Open Science breaks down barriers, allowing researchers worldwide to share data, methods, and findings without restrictions. This approach fuels innovation, collaboration, and societal impact.
2. Open Access: Expanding the Reach of Research
   Open Access publishing ensures that research is freely available to anyone, anywhere, at any time, bridging knowledge gaps.
3. Open Science: Empowering Early Career Researchers
   For early career researchers, Open Science provides opportunities to collaborate, publish, and contribute without the financial barriers of traditional publishing.
4. Open Science: Enhancing Research Impact
   Open Science maximizes the impact of academic work by making it available to policymakers, educators, and communities who can put it to practical use.
5. Open Access: Reducing Knowledge Inequalities
   Open Access allows everyone the chance to engage with research that can improve lives and communities.
6. Open Science: Enhancing Transparency and Reproducibility
   Open Science promotes research transparency by encouraging data sharing, methods, and results.

Scholarship of all types is advanced by sharing information and ideas as widely as possible. The old model of publishing scholarly books and journals is no longer able to keep up.

The costs of scholarly resources have increased far more rapidly than the general inflation rate for a generation. This has resulted in a crisis in higher education where students can no longer afford their textbooks and researchers—even those at elite universities—are hobbled by not having direct immediate access to relevant papers.

This is reflected in citation counts. Multiple studies have shown that scholarly papers that are made freely available are more highly cited than those locked behind paywalls (Ale Ebrahim et al., 2013; Antelman, 2004; Hitchcock, 2004; Law, 2007; McCabe & Snyder, 2014).

All types. These could include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

Course materials: These could include syllabi, class notes, textbooks, lectures, etc.
Research: This could include research reports, journal articles, conference papers, etc.
Experimental data:
Computer software: