Open research or open science is a term, which describes an ambition that the whole society should have free access to scientific research. Open research is about different aspects and elements in the research process, among others saving, handling, archiving, making available and sharing of research data and results. It is also about software, source codes, methodology, peer review and teaching resources.
One overarching goal at Ostfold University College is that research and research activities take place in accordance to the FAIR-principles, which means that research shall be done as openly as possible, but as closed as necessary.
At Ostfold University College there is an open research team at the library that assists the University College's students and academic staff with everything that has to do with open research. The team can be contacted by email at: openscience@hiof.no.
Advantages with Open Publishing
There are many advantages with open publishing of scientfic articles and datasets:
- Efficiency: Open access allows for scientific works to be made available in electronic formats, and these are usually published faster than research that is published in other formats.
- Reuse: Open access to datasets makes it easier to reuse existing research, perhaps within completely other research areas.
- Impact: Research on open access indicates that Open Access publications are downloaded, read and cited to a greater extent than other publications (Swan, 2010). Studies that have looked at articles, which link to open access datasets, indicate that these are also cited at a higher rate than other articles (Piwowar & Vision, 2013; Colavazzia et al., 2020).
- Quality: Open access makes it easier to verify and reproduce research, which can increase the quality and credibility of the research. In some disciplines, sharing data can help. One can also avoid data collection and testing of interventions that have previously been shown to have little or no effect.
- Rights: Open access means that authors retain the rights to their own work.
- Dissemination: Removing paywalls and barriers to rights means that new knowledge can be picked up, used and built upon more quickly by more people.
- Access: When you don't have to pay for access, many more people have the opportunity to use the research. When articles and datasets are made available through institutional or national archives, access is also ensured in the future.
- Evaluation of research: Making research FAIR, or as open as possible but as closed as necessary, is becoming more and more crucial when it comes to evaluating research and research activities.
National goals and guidelines for open access
The Norwegian government aims to make all Norwegian scientific articles financed by public funds openly available by 2024, and has established guidelines and measures for open access to scientific articles. Read more about the goals and guidelines at the government's website.
Østfold University College's policy
At Østfold University College is working at the moment on a comprehensive policy for open research. This will hopefully be available in 2023. For the time being, there exists an action plan for open research, which serves as an important working document for the team in the library who are working with open research. The action plan has been developed on the basis the Østfold University College's strategic plan for 2019-2022, which states that Østfold University College will "develop an institutional practice for open science". Although the university college does not yet operate with its own policy for open science, it is assumed that everyone associated with the university college acts in line with the government's overall goals and guidelines, as well as guidelines from external actors who fund research projects.
However, at the university college, the action plan lists a number of meausres that to be implemented in 2022-2023 in order to anchor knowledge about open research among the university college's academic staff and thus contribute to all research activities done at the university college are as open as possible, but as closed as necessary.
External funders' policies
Various external research funding bodies have their own policies on open research, which often includes provisions regarding open publication of scientific articles and datasets. The policies of the Research Council of Norway and the EU (Horizon Europe) are described below.
It is important that academic staff at Østfold University College familiarize themselves with the policies of funders to which they wish to apply for research funding. The open research team in the library can assist with this.
The Research Council of Norway's policy and Plan S
In Norway, the Research Council of Norway has joined cOAlitionS, which is a community of various national research funding bodies from a number of European countries. Through Plan S , the cOAlition S aims to make all scientific publications fully and immediately openly accessible online. As of 2021, this has meant that all scientific publications generated from research projects funded by the Research Council must be published with open access. There are several ways to make research articles open access.
The Research Council of Norway's policy for open research from 2020 states that the Research Council shall "require that the datasets are made available with associated protocols, methods, models, algorithms, software and source codes". The international FAIR-principles form the basis of the Research Council's policy, and this means that the Research Council wants data to be made as accessible as possible, but as closed as necessary. Sometimes the openness must be limited for reasons such as privacy or commercial interests. Read more about archiving and open publication of research data.
Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe is the EU's central funding program for research and innovation. Horizon Europe's policies for open research requires that all publications based on research funded through this program is made openly available.
Applications to Horizon Europe require researchers to have a plan for how the research project they are seeking funding for will be conducted in line with the principles of open science. When it comes to research data, Horizon Europe requires that these are made as open as possible, but as closed as necessary in line with the FAIR-principles.
FAQs
This is a resource page where we have collected some frequently asked questions and answers about open science and related topics.