Email-a-Librarian (To: Open Access)
Researcher Connect is a blog designed for the HKU research community, bringing community members the latest news and trends in research support services. It keeps you well informed of the updated news in areas such as:
— UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021)
Open Science is about increased rigour, accountability, and reproducibility for research. It is based on the principles of inclusion, fairness, equity, and sharing, and ultimately seeks to change the way research is done, who is involved and how it is valued (FOSTER, 2021).
Implementing open science principles in research activities can be beneficial to the stakeholders that constitute the community (NASA, 2024).
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For Researchers
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For Science
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For Society
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Research funders across the globe, e.g. UK Research and Innovation, Wellcome Trust, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the U.S., members of the cOAlition S, are committed to open access and mandating the research outputs (scholarly publications and/or data) arising from their funded research projects to be made openly available.
In the regional context, the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (UGC) has introduced the concepts of open access and open data as elements contributing to a “sustainable research culture” in its Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2026 framework, while the Research Grants Council (RGC) has already launched its Open Access Plan since 2021 with different scheduled initiatives supporting open access and open data.
The growing numbers of research funding organizations implementing open access mandates has also become a driving force for an open research culture internationally.
UNESCO Pillars of Open Science
Image source: Wikipedia ‘Pillars of the Open Science according to UNESCO's 2021 Open Science recommendation’
Open Science principles and practices can be applicable to a variety of areas and research outputs produced throughout the research lifecycle comprehensively, including but not limited to the followings:
Data Management Plans
Code of conduct, contributor guidelines
Data and metadata
Codes and computational notebooks
Conference abstracts and presentations
Peer-reviewed articles
Talks, seminars, and forum discussions
Blog posts, videos and podcasts, and social media posts
Image Source: NASA. (August 15, 2024). Open Science 101, Module 5: Open Results. https://github.com/nasa/Transform-to-Open-Science/tree/open-science-101/Module_5/Lesson_1
This guide will provide more details on the following aspects:
Preregistration and open protocols
Preprints
Open access to publications
Open data
Open-source software and codes
Responsible use of open materials
Open Science tools are any tools that enable and facilitate openness in research, and support responsible Open Science practices as well. It is important to note that Open Science tools are very often open source and/or free, but not necessarily (OpenSciency, 2023).
There are various open science tools available assisting researchers to make their research progress and output openly accessible across the research lifecycle. In this guide, we will cover tools specifically for protocols, data, code, and results.
More details on open science tools across the research lifecycle are available on OpenSciency.
FOSTER. (2021). The Open Science Training Handbook. https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_EN/
NASA. (2024). Open Science 101. https://nasa.github.io/Transform-to-Open-Science/os101-modules/
NASA Landsat Science. (2024). Open Science and Data. https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/open-science-data/
OpenSciency Contributors (2023, February 22). Opensciency - A core open science curriculum by and for the research community. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.7392118
UNESCO. (2021). UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. https://doi.org/10.54677/MNMH8546
