This blog post is authored by Elly Dijk and Marjan Grootveld (DANS),  Najla Rettberg (UGOE), Sara Pittonet (Trust-IT) Introduction In the old days, all roads led to Rome. Nowadays, they all seem to lead to FAIR data, at least in the world of research. Regardless of one's research domain, the observations, interviews, responses, measurements, statistics, software code, should be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR). The aim is to make and keep data FAIR for humans and...

The overarching goal of science is to deepen our understanding about the world we live in, and then to use this understanding, for example, to address social or medical problems. However, in order to pursue those goals effectively and efficiently, the scientific findings we base our actions on have to be credible. But how can we assess the credibility of research? Is a going through peer review enough, or being published? What if the study made it into in a “high-ranking” journal? Is that enough...

*** Thank you to Mikael Laakso for the excellent feedback ** A couple weeks ago, the European Commission (EC) announced that starting with their new funding programme, Horizon Europe, they will no longer reimburse publication fees for hybrid Open Access . Previously, the EC had excluded hybrid APCs when they first introduced Open Access funds during the FP7 (Post-Grant) Open Access Pilot, but later covered hybrid Open Access in the following funding programme, Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). Hybr...

The EOSC-hub and OpenAIRE-Advance projects offer a wide portfolio of research and collaboration tools, available to scientists across the world. These include services for data storage and management, cloud and HTC compute resources and tools to facilitate and support the transition to Open Science publishing workflows, in respect of reproducibility and transparent evaluation of science. Over the next three years, the two projects will be working closely to integrate their services to provide co...

On 25 May, 2018 the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU regulation 2016/679, took effect and now governs the processing of personal data. The purpose of the GDPR is to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy and to encourage the lawful free flow of data across Europe . In the same vein, the GDPR also impacts scientific research activities. The GDPR lays down general principles as well as provisions relating to specific da...

Ensuring a summer full of open science fun, the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) announced two exceptional opportunities: the  Transparent and Open Social Science Research MOOC  goes into the next round, and applications for the  Research Transparency and Reproducibility Training  (RT2) are now open! For more information, see below. Transparent and Open Social Science Research MOOC When:  July 9, 2018  –  August 10, 2018. Wher...

*Terima kasih to Afrilya, Surya Dalimunthe, Sami Kandha Dipura, and Dasapta Erwin Irawan from the Open Science Team Indonesia for their valuble input for this post. Last month, the Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education   (IGDORE) hosted their first Open Science Meetup in Ubud, Indonesia. Despite being a small group of participants, many different nationalities, disciplines, and professions were represented. During the 5-day event, open science projects like Conscience,  ...

As of 2018, the National Library of Sweden (NLS) has received two new assignments from the Swedish Government regarding open access to publicly funded scientific publications. These will serve to monitor and assess national developments towards Open Access. First, the NLS shall report the total cost of publication in Sweden , comprising subscription fees, publication charges (APCs), and additional administrative expenses. Secondly, the NLS will develop assessment criteria based on the FAIR data ...

November was packed with events around Open Science and scholarly communication. From November 11-13th, Berlin was flooded with students and early career researchers from all over the world, all enthusiastic about spending these three days at OpenCon . During the conference, attendees learnt about Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data through presentations, regional workshops, and hands-on experience to advance "Open" in their communities. Following OpenCon, SpotOn London (November 17th), a...