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Why should the CEITEC MUNI science community care about open science?
Open science has the potential to revolutionise the way science is conducted and communicated in the future. By making research data, publications, and methods accessible to everyone, it can enhance collaboration, reproducibility, and transparency in the scientific process.
One of the most significant impacts of open science is its potential to accelerate scientific discovery. By sharing data and methods, researchers can build on each other's work more efficiently, avoiding the duplication of effort and speeding up the pace of scientific progress. It can also foster interdisciplinary collaborations, allowing researchers from different fields to work together more easily and tackle complex scientific problems.
Open science can also increase the transparency and reproducibility of research, making it easier to verify the results and evaluate their reliability. By making research data and methods available, other researchers can check the findings and identify potential errors or biases. This can improve the quality of research and increase public trust in scientific discoveries.
Furthermore, open science can improve the accessibility and impact of scientific research. By making research data and publications freely available, it can help to overcome financial and institutional barriers that limit access to scientific knowledge. This can facilitate the dissemination of scientific knowledge to a broader audience, including policymakers, journalists, and the general public, leading to more informed decision-making. Open science has the potential to revolutionise science and we all can now play our part in this positive transformation.
Open Science is mandatory in Horizon Europe
Since 2021, open science has been mandatory in Horizon Europe. The program emphasises the importance of open science principles, including open access to scientific publications and research data, as a means of promoting transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration in research.
Under Horizon Europe, all research articles resulting from EU-funded research must be published in open-access journals or made available through open-access repositories. In addition, research data should be made available in a findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) format to promote its use and reuse by others.
Open science is also a requirement for Horizon Europe funding eligibility. Applicants are required to develop a data management plan outlining how research data will be collected, stored, and shared, as well as how privacy and data protection will be ensured. The open science practices in submitted proposals are evaluated based on their excellence, and the quality and efficiency of the implementation.
European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): A key European infrastructure for open science
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is a virtual, federated infrastructure that aims to support and promote open science practices across Europe. The EOSC allows researchers, institutions, and funding agencies to share data, tools, and services, making it easier to collaborate and share resources across borders and disciplines. ESOC helps to Increase collaboration and sharing of resources and provides efficient data management.
The EOSC enables researchers from different fields to work together more easily, promoting interdisciplinary research and collaboration. This can help to address complex scientific challenges that require expertise from multiple domains. The EOSC provides a platform for researchers to share their work with a wider audience, increasing its visibility and impact. This can lead to greater recognition, citations, and funding opportunities, as well as to better-informed policy and decision-making.
The cloud facilitates open science practices, such as open access to publications and data, as well as transparency and reproducibility in research. This can foster a culture of openness and collaboration in the scientific community, leading to greater trust and confidence in scientific research and its outcomes.
Diamond open-access: Utopia or the near future of European science?
Diamond open access is a sustainable, community-driven scholarly communication ecosystem. It is a special type of open-access publishing model that does not charge authors any fees for publishing their research articles. In contrast to traditional open-access models, which typically require authors to pay article processing charges (APCs) or other fees to cover publication costs, diamond open-access journals are typically funded by other means, such as through institutional subsidies, grants, or donations.
Diamond open-access journals also typically do not charge readers or institutions for access to their articles, making them freely available to anyone with an internet connection. This means that they can help to promote equitable access to scientific knowledge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries or for researchers with limited funding.
Diamond open access is sometimes referred to as "platinum" open access to distinguish it from other open access models that do involve article processing charges or additional fees. The term "diamond" in diamond open access comes from the fact that the open access publication costs are not covered by APCs or author fees, but rather through other means, such as institutional subsidies or donations, much like a diamond, which is valuable without necessarily having a market price.
While open science has many potential advantages, there are also some potential disadvantages to consider. Scientists are concerned with intellectual property issues and may be therefore reluctant to share their work if they feel that it will be used by others without proper attribution or compensation. Other opponents of open science point out privacy concerns, the absence of proper quality control mechanisms, funding challenges or potential loss of competitive advantage. It's important to note that many of these potential disadvantages can be addressed through careful planning and implementation. For example, open science initiatives can include measures to protect intellectual property and maintain privacy while still making research more accessible and transparent.
Achieving diamond open access in Europe is a complex and challenging goal, but it is certainly possible with the right policies, funding, and support from stakeholders, including the scientific community. This includes developing funding models that can support sustainable diamond open-access publishing, promoting and incentivising open-access publishing, and educating researchers and institutions on the benefits of open-access and the various publishing options available. By promoting open-access publishing and developing sustainable funding models, Europe can move towards a more equitable and transparent scientific publishing landscape that benefits researchers, institutions, and the wider public.
Open Science in the Czech Republic: Where are we standing?
The Czech Republic, which holds a dense scientific community working on different aspects of the landscape, is advancing towards the implementation of a full strategy for Open Science. Czech universities and further research institutions have created various fora to develop and adopt Open Science in all disciplines. The working groups that have been set up to study specific aspects of EOSC’s implementation in the Czech Republic resemble the Task Forces organised by the EOSC Association. CESNET, the country’s mandated organisation in the EOSC Association, is involved in several EOSC-related projects: PaNOSC, EOSC-Synergy, CS3MESH4EOSC, EGI-ACE, DICE, C-SCALE, and EOSC-FUTURE. This shows a good degree of integration in the EOSC community.
On the policy front, the Czech National Strategy for Open Access to Research Information for 2017-2020 was approved by the Government in 2017, followed by the corresponding Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Strategy of the Czech Republic’s Open Access to Scientific Information for 2017-2020 in 2019. While a full national policy is still in the works, the existence of all these initiatives, some of them with explicit support or initiated by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport indicate that this could be achieved in the near future.
The Open Science policies include the Action Plan for the Implementation of the National Strategy of the Czech Republic’s Open Access to Scientific Information for 2017–2020 approved in 2019. The Operational Programme Johannes Amos Comenius, as an instrument to raise the EU Cohesion Policy Fund for the public research sector in 2021-2027, contains a series of calls for the EOSC implementation in Czechia.
The first call was already launched in 2022, the second call is to be released in 2023, to be followed by calls in 2024 and 2025 with a total budget allocation of around EUR 120 million. It aims to support the launch of the EOSC-CZ Secretariat, the development and capacity building of the National Metadata Directory, the coordination and providing of education and training activities for the FAIR data management, development and capacity building of the National Repository Platform, capacity building of the thematic cluster data repositories, and activities directed at uptake and upskilling.
There are numerous working groups operated as inclusive platforms with fluid membership open to any interested stakeholder. Working groups deal with cross-cutting areas such as Architecture, Metadata, Core services, and Education and Training. There are also specific working groups addressing needs of individual R&D disciplinary domains, such as Physical sciences, Material sciences and technology, Data management for artificial intelligence and machine learning, Environmental sciences, Biological and medical sciences and food, Social sciences, Arts and humanities, and Sensitive data.
Several members of the CEITEC MUNI scientific community are involved in the EOSC working groups (WG) on the national level. Jiri Novacek and Radka Svobodova are involved in the WG Architecture, Vojtech Bystry, Vladimir Horsky, Michal Mikl, Radka Svobodova and Robert Vacha are involved in WG metadata. Vojtech Bystry, Milan Esner, Michal Mikl and Radka Svobodova are also involved in the WG Core Services. CEITEC MUNI has its representatives also in the thematic working groups. Jiri Novacek, Michal Mikl and Milan Esner are actively involved in the Bio/Health/Food WG and Tomas Racek, Hana Svozilova and Michal Mikl are in the WG sensitive data. Beyond the working groups on open-access established by the R&D council, there are other formal and informal initiatives active in open science-related issues where CEITEC MUNI is represented by Pavla Foltynova and Daniela Trsova.
Open Science at MUNI
The open-access related activities at Masaryk University started as part of the HR4MUII project in 2020. After this, a new Open Science Strategy of Masaryk University was adopted in November 2022. An integral part of this strategy is an action plan containing the necessary steps that need to be taken to implement the whole strategy effectively. The ultimate vision of this strategy is that the principles of open science are an integral part of the research process at MUNI, and the available service infrastructure reaches a level comparable to the world's leading research organisations. This will enable Masaryk University to enhance the quality of scientific research and promote systemic change.
Open Science at CEITEC MUNI
Open Science is, without a doubt, becoming an increasingly important aspect of scientific research, both nationally and internationally. As demonstrated in this article, in the Czech Republic, there has been a notable development in research data management within the EOSC implementation.
CEITEC MUNI has also been highly active in this area, fulfilling all activities within the ORION project, which concluded in September 2021. The resulting Open Science Action Plan is now being implemented, with a focus on ensuring HR excellence in research through the HR Action Plan 2018-2023. Regular updates on Open Access are provided through the CEITEC Open Science website and internal newsletter.
CEITEC MUNI has also made significant efforts to increase the percentage of open-access publications, from 25% in 2011 to an impressive 72% in 2021. This places CEITEC MUNI in a strong position relative to other institutions and exceeds the Czech and EU-15 average in terms of open-access publications. In fact, CEITEC MU has produced more open-access publications than MUNI, or UOCHB, and many other institutions in the region.
Overall, the dynamic approach to Open Science initiatives in the Czech Republic, and specifically at CEITEC MUNI, is a positive sign for the future of scientific research. By promoting transparency, accessibility, and collaboration, open science has the potential to drive progress in a wide range of fields. Read the latest CEITEC MUNI Open Science Report HERE.