Open Science (at a glance)
Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods (fosteropenscience, 2017)
As the quote above states, open science covers a range of practices and ways of organizing research in order to secure transparency, reproducibility and confidence in research. These practices mainly center around the publishing landscape and securing open access to research articles, but also cover open research data, open coding and software, as well as open learning resources and ways to make connections between research and civil society more broadly.
Open science policies and guidelines have been adopted by most major research institutions, universities and colleges in addition to funders such as the Norwegian Research Council and the EU through its Horizon Europe framework running through 2027. Academic publishers are also going beyond their open access policies and options, increasingly focusing on incorporating openness and transparency practices more broadly, such as for underlying research data. Policies and requirements come alongside national governments, including Norway, placing demands for, and course adjustments towards, open science practices.
Selected Norwegian institutions’ open science policies:
- University of Bergen - The University of Bergen Policy for Open Science | Employee Pages | UiB
- University of Oslo - Strategi, politikk og retningslinjer for åpen forskning - For ansatte - Universitetet i Oslo (institutional login for English version)
- NTNU – Norges teknisk-vitenskapelige universitet - Policy for Open Science
- UiT Norges arktiske universitet - Portal for publishing and Open Access | UiT
- OsloMet - Open Access Policy | Formidling og publisering - Ansatt - minside
- University of Stavanger - Open research | University of Stavanger
- University of Inland Norway - Open Science Policy - University of Inland Norway
Open Science in Norway
The national website openscience.no run by Sikt is a good place to start in gaining an overview of how to align your research with open science policies, and what resources exist to aid you in this. This website introduces open science generally, lists archives and sites for finding reusable research data, and maps out options for open access publishing when doing research in Norway. It also keeps an open science calendar for events across Norway.
Open Science content on Phd On Track
Open science is most commonly linked to practices focusing on open access to publications and aligning research with the FAIR principles – meaning striving towards sharing and reusing research data. The presentation above is meant as a brief overview of open science as a general movement and policy area. Across our website, you can read about applied open science practices, such as self-archiving and open access publishing, open research data, data repositories and finding open data.
