Open Science

What is Open Science?

At its core, Open Science is about improving the credibility and the quality of research in a digitally networked age.The most important instrument for this is openness, or transparency. On the one hand, research findings and methods are presented comprehensively and accessibly from the first conception of an idea to publication, so that other researchers can verify them or reuse them for their own work. On the other hand, researchers leave their “ivory towers” and research opens up towards social players from politics, business, culture and society. This opening up means that these players are actively involved in research processes, and research findings are communicated directly. Open Science thus follows established principles of good scienctific practice and transfers them into the present era of linked-up research by means of the potentials offered by digitisation. This requires corresponding infrastructures for scientific research, teaching, and learning, and also for the transfer.

What are the dimensions of Open Science?

Open Science is a general term for many different movements. The most important of these are:

• Open Access: Scholarly publications are freely accessible to all and are not hidden behind publishers’ pay walls.   
• Open Data: Research data are provided and published according to open principles.
• Open Educational Resources: Materials in education are provided in such ways that teachers and students can freely use, change and disseminate them.
• Open Methodology: Scientists document and publish the scientific methods they use.
• Open Peer Review: Processes within Peer Review, which is an essential instrument of scientific quality control, are transparent and verifiable.
• Open Source: Researchers use open source technologies (soft- and hardware) and offer their own developments as open source for others.

Leaflet  “What is Open Science?”: http://zbw.to/leaflet