Étiquette : open science

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The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review

Authors : Thomas Klebel, Vincent Traag, Ioanna Grypari, Lennart Stoy, Tony Ross-Hellauer

Open Science seeks to make research processes and outputs more accessible, transparent and inclusive, ensuring that scientific findings can be freely shared, scrutinized and built upon by researchers and others. To date, there has been no systematic synthesis of the extent to which Open Science (OS) reaches these aims.

We use the PRISMA scoping review methodology to partially address this gap, scoping evidence on the academic (but not societal or economic) impacts of OS. We identify 485 studies related to all aspects of OS, including Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Code/Software, Open Evaluation and Citizen Science (CS).

Analysing and synthesizing findings, we show that the majority of studies investigated effects of OA, CS and OFD. Key areas of impact studied are citations, quality, efficiency, equity, reuse, ethics and reproducibility, with most studies reporting positive or at least mixed impacts.

However, we also identified significant unintended negative impacts, especially those regarding equity, diversity and inclusion. Overall, the main barrier to academic impact of OS is lack of skills, resources and infrastructure to effectively re-use and build on existing research.

Building on this synthesis, we identify gaps within this literature and draw implications for future research and policy.

URL : The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241248

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The Economic Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review

Authors : Lena Tsipouri, Sofia Liarti, Silvia Vignetti, Izabella Martins-Grapengiesser

This paper summarised a comprehensive scoping review of the economic impact of Open Science (OS), examining empirical evidence from 2000 to 2023. It focuses on Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Source Software (OSS), and Open Methods, assessing their contributions to efficiency gains in research production, innovation enhancement, and economic growth.

Evidence, although limited, indicates that OS accelerates research processes, reduces the related costs, fosters innovation by improving access to data and resources and this ultimately generates economic growth. Specific sectors, such as life sciences, are researched more and the literature exhibits substantial gains, mainly thanks to OFD and OA.

OSS supports productivity, while the very limited studies on Open Methods indicate benefits in terms of productivity gains and innovation enhancement. However, gaps persist in the literature, particularly in fields like Citizen Science and Open Evaluation, for which no empirical findings on economic impact could be detected.

Despite limitations, empirical evidence on specific cases highlight economic benefits. This review underscores the need for further metrics and studies across diverse sectors and regions to fully capture OS’s economic potential.

URL : The Economic Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/kqse5_v1

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Open Science Infrastructure in Croatia: Examples and Trends

Authors : Jelena Bolkovac, Andrea Zabjan Bogut, Tamara Kraina

This paper will present examples of open science infrastructure and trends in Croatia as well as a view of librarians’ role in development and support of open science infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to showcase several parts of the Croatian open science infrastructure which were formed with the idea of Open Access in mind and with heavy involvement of librarians. Croatian national e-infrastructure for academic and scientific community has been in development since the founding of the University Computing Centre (SRCE) within the University of Zagreb in 1971.

SRCE has become a major national infrastructural ICT institution and is involved in most of the open science infrastructure projects in Croatia. Open Access has been a key point of Croatian e-infrastructure since the 90’s when the Open Access movement started in 1997 with the launch of the first version of the Croatian scientific bibliography – CROSBI developed by the Ruđer Bošković Institute Library.

From the beginning, it offered an option of storing a full text file alongside the bibliographic record which was an advanced concept at that time. HRČAK is a central Open Access portal launched in 2006. It offers Open Access to papers from Croatian scientific and professional journals as well as journals for the popularization of science and culture. DABAR (Digital Academic Archives and Repositories) was launched in 2015 as a digital object repository for higher education and research institutions in Croatia.

It was the result of cooperation between SRCE and National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) who recognised the need for this key component in the Croatian e-infrastructure. Repositories in DABAR are encouraged to register with Open DOAR and OpenAIRE. Croatia is moving forward with Open Access and Open Science Infrastructure with the launch of the Croatian Research Information System CroRIS in 2023.

URL : Open Science Infrastructure in Croatia: Examples and Trends

DOI : https://doi.org/10.21428/1bfadeb6.b6c29488

 

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Open minds, tied hands: Awareness, behavior, and reasoning on open science and irresponsible research behavior

Authors : Wisnu Wiradhany, Farah M. Djalal, Anique B. H. de Bruin

Background

Knowledge on Open Science Practices (OSP) has been promoted through responsible conduct of research training and the development of open science infrastructure to combat Irresponsible Research Behavior (IRB). Yet, there is limited evidence for the efficacy of OSP in minimizing IRB.

Methods

We asked N=778 participants to fill in questionnaires that contain OSP and ethical reasoning vignettes, and report self-admission rates of IRB and personality traits.

Results

We found that against our initial prediction, even though OSP was negatively correlated with IRB, this correlation was very weak, and upon controlling for individual differences factors, OSP neither predicted IRB nor was this relationship moderated by ethical reasoning. On the other hand, individual differences factors, namely dark personality triad, and conscientiousness and openness, contributed more to IRB than OSP knowledge.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that OSP knowledge needs to be complemented by the development of ethical virtues to encounter IRBs more effectively.

URL : Open minds, tied hands: Awareness, behavior, and reasoning on open science and irresponsible research behavior

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2025.2457100

 

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The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS): Bringing Open-Source Software Practices to the Scholarly Publishing Community for Authors, Reviewers, Editors, and Publishers

Authors : Patrick Diehl, Charlotte Soneson, Rachel C. Kurchin, Ross Mounce, Daniel S. Katz

Introduction

Open-source software (OSS) is a critical component of open science, but contributions to the OSS ecosystem are systematically undervalued in the current academic system. The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS) contributes to addressing this by providing a venue (that is itself free, diamond open access, and all open-source, built in a layered structure using widely available elements/services of the scholarly publishing ecosystem) for publishing OSS, run in the style of OSS itself.

A particularly distinctive element of JOSS is that it uses open peer review in a collaborative, iterative format, unlike most publishers. Additionally, all the components of the process—from the reviews to the papers to the software that is the subject of the papers to the software that the journal runs—are open.

Background

We describe JOSS’s history and its peer review process using an editorial bot, and we present statistics gathered from JOSS’s public review history on GitHub showing an increasing number of peer reviewed papers each year. We discuss the new JOSSCast and use it as a data source to understand reasons why interviewed authors decided to publish in JOSS.

Discussion and Outlook

JOSS’s process differs significantly from traditional journals, which has impeded JOSS’s inclusion in indexing services such as Web of Science. In turn, this discourages researchers within certain academic systems, such as Italy’s, which emphasize the importance of Web of Science and/or Scopus indexing for grant applications and promotions. JOSS is a fully diamond open-access journal with a cost of around US$5 per paper for the 401 papers published in 2023. The scalability of running JOSS with volunteers and financing JOSS with grants and donations is discussed.

URL : The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS): Bringing Open-Source Software Practices to the Scholarly Publishing Community for Authors, Reviewers, Editors, and Publishers

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.18285

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Open Science at the University of Toronto. Exploration of Researcher, Staff and Librarian Perspectives

Authors : Madelin Burt-D’Agnillo, Mindy Thuna

Objective: The impetus for this project is to begin to understand open science practices and obstacles at the University of Toronto. This project uses open-ended questions to understand the ways in which university-affiliated individuals learn about, think about, and interact with open science. The goal of this study is to showcase the complexity and diversity of activity and challenges in this domain to help determine how best to move open science forward.

Methods: From March to October 2022, 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty, graduate students, librarians and administrative staff. Interviews were conducted and recorded using Zoom and the audio was transcribed using Otter.ai. As part of a commitment to open science practices, a data management plan was created and with participant consent, 26 transcripts were uploaded to Dataverse. Data analysis used structured coding and thematic development to investigate responses.

Results: The core finding of this study is that there is no singular status of open science at University of Toronto. The qualitative findings reflect a diversity of opinions, practices and relationships to open science.

Conclusion: For open science practices and scholarship to have longevity, there must be systemic changes to adopt more open activities. The University of Toronto is well positioned to guide the transition and harness open principles to move into the future.

URL : Open Science at the University of Toronto. Exploration of Researcher, Staff and Librarian Perspectives

DOI : https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v19i2.7847

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How to build an Open Science Monitor based on publications? A French perspective

Authors : Laetitia Bracco, Eric Jeangirard, Anne L’Hôte, Laurent Romary

Many countries and institutions are striving to develop tools to monitor their open science policies. Since 2018, with the launch of its National Plan for Open Science, France has been progressively implementing a monitoring framework for its public policy, relying exclusively on reliable, open, and controlled data. Currently, this monitoring focuses on research outputs, particularly publications, as well as theses and clinical trials.

Publications serve as a basis for analyzing other dimensions, including research data, code, and software. The metadata associated with publications is therefore particularly valuable, but the methodology for leveraging it raises several challenges. Here, we briefly outline how we have used this metadata to construct the French Open Science Monitor.

URL : How to build an Open Science Monitor based on publications? A French perspective

Arxiv : https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02856