LibGuides: Open Science: Introduction

Open science is a collection of movements and initiatives that all seek to make science as accessible as possible for people outside of the scientific community. It is a broad movement that seeks to integrate not only scientific communities but also the public and other stakeholders into a unified effort through shared resources and honest communication.

Below are some definitions of open science across different organizations and institutions:

NASA's Open Science Definition
"NASA is making a long-term commitment to building an open science community over the next decade. Open science is a collaborative culture enabled by technology that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public to accelerate scientific research and understanding."

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NASA's scientists developed a definition of open science in 2021, and this definition is used in the agency's "Open Science 101" course.

"Open science is a collaborative culture enabled by technology that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public to accelerate scientific research and understanding. (Ramachandran et al., 2021)"
Public Library of Science (PLOS)
“Open science is about sharing research outputs and processes from across all stages of the research investigation; facilitating greater reproducibility, faster scientific progress, and broader access to knowledge.”
UNESCO
“Open science is a set of principles and practices that aim to make scientific research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefits of scientists and society as a whole.”

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In the "Certified Copy of the Recommendation on Open Science", its definition is
"an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community."

Background on Open Science:

The open science movement is diverse and varies across organizations, institutions, and nations.

The video below provides an overview of the "UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science", a framework published in 2021 to promote international and intranational cooperation in open science through a unified set of goals and principles.

This Open Universal Science (OPUS) article also provides a brief history of open science.