About the Position Paper on Open Science in Hungary

On October 18^th 2021 an official position paper was released in Hungary on Open Science. The purpose of the document is to articulate the directions scientific communication is headed in the country considering the ongoing paradigm shift in science. The statement is the outcome of many consultations of several Hungarian institutions.

First, the position paper defines what is considered Open Science, then it enumerates the key pillars of the Open Science ecosystem.

• open access to research outputs
• FAIR and CARE research data management
• research integrity
• next generation metrics in research assessment
• new types of rewards and initiatives
• international cooperation networks
• Citizen Science
• education and skills

The document also contains an official specification of open access, and it states how Signatories support the promotion of this practice. Fortunately, open access might be realized in many forms, such as through transformative agreements with publishers, via gold open access journals, through the green route or self-archiving and so on. The document states that shifting to OA should result in reduction of subscription fees, and Hungarian researchers are highly encouraged making their articles open access whenever possible. The preferred license is CC-BY.

Also, the EISZ consortium (Electronic Information Services National Programme) that manages access to scientific journals and agreements with publishers, is fully supported by the Signatories. Lately, more and more institutions join the Position Paper with their signatures. 

The position paper pulls research data management, FAIR and CARE principles into focus. Many specific recommendations regarding data created and collected during the research process. Also, from the research funder's point of view it is specified that they are expected to draw up a modern and FAIR evaluation system on data management plans. The aspect of data repositories also connects to this chapter. For the data repository services to work properly, a highly trained guard of professionals are a key point in the equation, therefore more and more data stewardship trainings are to come in Hungary.

Access the position paper here.