News

Published

Apr 13, 2025

Author

Tereza Simova

# Topics

news, OpenAIRE project

Exploring Open Science Impact: Highlights from the First PathOS Training Sessions

Apr 13, 2025

Measuring the Societal Impact of Open Science

PathOS first webinar, “Measuring the Societal Impact of Open Science”, delved into the significant role that Open Science plays in benefiting society; we were joined by Dr. Nicki Lisa Cole (Know Center Research) and Simon Apartis (CNRS), who shared their expertise and insights on measuring societal impact.

Nicki's presentation was titled “Societal Impact of Open Science: A Scoping Review” and shed light on the findings of a comprehensive review of 196 publications. The review highlighted Citizen Science as the most studied area, which has been proven to foster a very wide range of impact, from awareness of issues to policymaking, to climate and the environment. However, this review also revealed that there is limited evidence of impact for other aspects of Open Science, like for example Open Access publishing and Open-Source Code, and Open Data. Simon’s presentation shared insights from one of the PathOS six case studies. Simon introduce the case study focusing on French Open Science infrastructure, particularly the HAL and OpenEdition platforms. By analyzing connection logs, the case study moves beyond citation metrics, to explore the broader societal impact of Open Science, focusing on who accesses these platforms, when they are used, and how societal actors engage with the content. This method enriches connection log data with IP addresses, referrer-based information, and other open scientific knowledge graphs data, offers a more comprehensive way to track and assess the societal impact of Open Science outputs. This approach aims to strengthen the relationship between scientific research and societal demand, demonstrating how Open Science platforms like HAL and OpenEdition contribute to shaping the societal impact of Open Science policies. Learn more about French Case study.

The presentation from the session is available here.

Key Impact Pathways of Open Science

In the next session, “Key Impact Pathways of Open Science”, participants explored the selected pathways through which Open Science practices create academic, economic, and societal impacts. Lennart Stoy (Technopolis Group Belgium) explained the Key Impact Pathways framework developed within PathOS to analyze impacts. Lennart also presented an analysis of the more-than 450 studies included in the PathOS scoping reviews, highlighting impact pathways for Open/FAIR data and Open Access publishing.

The session also featured an overview of the case study on the Portuguese Open Access publication infrastructure (RCAAP) presented by Pedro Principe and Antónia Correia from the University of Minho. They shared the impact pathways identified for RCAAP and some academic and economic impacts, highlighting how Open Access publications increase visibility and usage, particularly in knowledge-intensive industries, and the role of national infrastructure and funding in supporting these efforts.

Watch the recording from the session here and explore the presentation here.

Train-the-Trainer Session with UKRN

On March 12, 2025, we held a train-the-trainer session in collaboration with the UK Research Network (UKRN). This session was designed to provide participants from UKRN institutions with the knowledge and skills to assess the impact of Open Science using the PathOS Open Science Indicator Handbook.

During this session, led by Vincent Traag (CWTS), participants were introduced to the tools and methods outlined in the handbook for measuring the impact of Open Science, while also exploring the complexities of causal inference in Open Science research.

The inclusion of a pedagogical unit, delivered by Louise Saul (UKRN), was crucial in empowering attendees to effectively disseminate and teach this content within their own institutions. By training the participants to train others in future, we ensure that the PathOS methodology, which covers academic, societal, and economic impacts, becomes more widely accessible and can be adopted across various research settings. This approach to “training the trainers” plays a pivotal role in creating a ripple effect, enabling sustainable knowledge transfer, build capacity and fostering a community of practice around the use of the PathOS Open Science Indicator Handbook.

Find out More and Join Our Upcoming Sessions!

As we move forward with the PathOS training series, we invite you to join us for our upcoming sessions; whether you're a researcher, policymaker, or Open Science advocate, our training program is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools to better understand and assess the academic, societal, and economic impacts of Open Science.

Find out more about PathOS training and explore upcoming sessions in the PathOS Training Corner. Here, you'll find expert-led webinars and resources that will help you explore the diverse impacts of Open Science and improve your ability to measure and assess these impacts in your work. Don't miss out — register for the next session and find out more about the Open Science impact movement!