University of Helsinki
Open science is rapidly developing all over the world. For some time now Open Access (OA) publications, self-archiving systems and the new innovations and scientific discoveries enabled by open data have motivated many key Finnish institutions – along with their international counterparts – to promote openness extensively. Now Finland has risen to the challenge in earnest and set itself an ambitious goal to become the leading country in the openness of science and research by 2017.
By Riitta Maijala, Head of the Science Policy Division at Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture
Open publishing and open data
After the 2002 Budapest Open Access initiative and the 2003 Berlin Open Access to Knowledge manifesto, we have arrived at a situation in which more than 10,000 Open Access publications exist in the world. Even though their level and policies vary, it has been proven that an Open Access publication will often be cited more than a traditional publication, and the difference may even grow over time. So it is no wonder that many traditional journals are adopting Open Access policies, and that the citation indices of certain OA journals are already on a par with traditional ones.
The impact of open publications and electronic books is boosted by the fact that they can be easily shared in both mainstream media with its extensive reach and social media, which increases their potential readership and speeds up the spread of information.
At the same time, increases in author and subscription fees can significantly increase the cost of sharing research results. Consequently, greater attention is being paid to the respective, sometimes conflicting goals of publicly funded research and independent science, the former focusing on social impact and the latter on freedom. As science is always built on previous research results, it is only natural that placing scientific works behind a paywall is being increasingly criticised from the perspective of both repeatability of the research and long-term access.
It is only natural that placing scientific works behind a paywall is being increasingly criticised from the perspective of both the repeatability of the research results and long-term access.
Open data also provides opportunities to make research work more effective, to support the quality development of research and to increase innovations – all these aspects have generated new perspectives. Issues relating to licensing, usability, fees, data protection, repeatability of research results and copyright are becoming ever more common in the academic community.
Open science as part of research work
Launched in 2014, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture’s Open Science and Research Initiative (ATT) looks at research work as a whole. This means that the initiative does not restrict open science and research to open research data and articles, but includes the application of new methods, such as open-source programs or “open notebook” science.
Another key policy of the Open Science and Research Initiative is the definition of openness. The basis is “intelligent open research”, where everyone involved recognises the ethical and legal parameters for how and when content can be made open. This means the idea is not to make all results immediately open to all. A variety of solutions are also available for articles, such as Open Access journals (i.e., “Golden OA”) or self-archiving (i.e., “Green OA”).
Open science, open society
Many EU, OECD and UNESCO statements endorse open science as a way to improve the quality of research, accelerate innovations, develop societies and engage citizens more extensively. On the other hand, Finland’s science policy seeks to increase the quality and impact of research, something that would be facilitated by a more effective, more international research system.
The ambitious goal is for Finland to become a leading country in the openness of science and research by 2017.
The ATT-initiative supports Finland’s science policy objectives by providing a shared forum for discussion and action, where recognised goals are furthered in national, or, if necessary, international cooperation. Broad-based cooperation between Finland’s ministries, institutions of higher education, research institutes, research funders, the IT Centre for Science, the National Library, university libraries and other institutions provides a solid basis for this work.
The ambitious goal is for Finland to become a leading country in the openness of science and research by 2017, and that the opportunities of open science be widely exploited in our society. The initiative has four sub-goals: 1) increasing the quality and repeatability of research, 2) strengthening openness-related expertise, 3) ensuring a stable foundation for the research process, and 4) increasing the social impact of research.
Increasing the quality and repeatability of research
The first sub-goal on the ATT-roadmap seeks to increase the quality and repeatability of research through openness. The national objectives for open publishing and data for the year 2017 will be set this year after extensive discussion. At the same time, incentives for openness will be identified with respect to the peer review system, the career development of researchers and funding instruments. The development of self-archiving systems for articles is being conducted by both the Finnish National Library and a collaborative project of the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland.
Competing for international funding and working in international research groups increasingly require solutions and services that support openness. It is important for the quality and impact of Finnish research that all research organisations create the best possible support for their own staff in order to adopt open science methods. Without the research organisations’ strong strategic commitment, the development enabled by open science can easily benefit internationally active individuals or groups only. Solutions can take many forms, but research organisations cannot afford the delay.
The report on the openness of the operating cultures in institutions of higher education, published this May to determine the current situation, was the first of its kind. The intention is to repeat the survey in 2016 and 2017. A similar report will be drafted in autumn 2015 for research institutes. According to its findings, research universities are much more open than universities of applied sciences. On a scale of one to five, the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä received a grade of four, the highest for any Finnish institution of higher education.
In terms of researchers’ working environments, the nine institutions of higher education that are yet to take any public steps to develop an open culture are of particular concern. Such organisations have no policies or guidelines to instruct staff in open methods. It is hoped that the situation will have improved in the upcoming reports. Research organisations are responsible for maintaining functional research environments and supporting the development of the working culture, and, as such, have a key role in promoting openness.
Strengthening openness-related expertise
It is important that institutions in the research system can take advantage of the opportunities afforded by openness in a way that supports the competitiveness of science and research. The ATT-initiative promotes education in open science and research and the coordinator for this cooperation is the Finnish National Library. The training seeks to make science more open by engaging institutions, building networks and focusing on the matter at hand. At the same time, opportunities for sharing competence and best practices are generated.
The ATT-initiative promotes education in open science and research and the coordinator for this cooperation is the Finnish National Library.
In addition, the initiative will create a description of openness-related skill areas for the researcher as well as a related self-evaluation tool, and develop certification for open research. The NopSA project at the Hanken School of Economics is determining how focusing on individual support for key researchers in an institution of higher education can strengthen competence.
The ATT-initiative has also seen the publication of the Open Science and Research Handbook, which aims to provide practical advice for researchers, among others, on how to work more openly. The second part was released online this spring, and anyone can now be involved in editing its content. Based on feedback, the Handbook will be edited to better correspond to the needs of researchers and research organisations.
Ensuring a stable foundation for the research process
The third sub-goal of the ATT-roadmap aims to strengthen the foundation of the research process so that with the help of good, clear basic structures and services, institutions can take advantage of the benefits of openness at the right time and ensure a sustainable basis for research.
The goal of the Service working group is to clarify the role of the services in the research process and promote the interoperability of the services. Finland already has a range of significant open science services, for instance the IDA storage service, the AVAA open data publishing platform, the Etsin search service for research datasets, the Aila Data Service, the Language Bank of Finland, the Doria and Theseus repositories, the Finto ontology service as well as several organisation- and discipline-specific national and international self-archiving systems. The Tuuli project, coordinated by the Helsinki University Library, is developing a tool for all Finnish research organisations to help them draft data management plans.
Long-term preservation, or rather, long-term availability, is being prepared by the Long-term Preservation Solution for Research Data working group. Long-term preservation ensures that key research results can be reused, that the chain of evidence is coherent, that new research can be built upon existing research, that results can be easily assessed and that existing research materials can be used to save time when collecting data. The goal is for long-term preservation to be nationally available in 2017, with related guidelines set in place.
Increasing the social impact of research
The fourth sub-goal focuses on increasing the social impact of research. At their best, open science and research generate new opportunities not just for researchers, but also for decision-makers, businesses, organisations and individuals. The financial and social impact of research can increase when research results and methods can be quickly made available to businesses and decision-makers.
At their best, open science and research generate new opportunities not just for researchers, but also for decision-makers, businesses, organisations and individuals.
The ATT-initiative seeks to clarify the roles of service production, activate cooperation between companies and research organisations, and recognise indicators that measure openness and open accessibility. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture has also granted funding for improving the usability and accessibility of science and research as well as for including the impact of open information in innovation activities. The results from the projects being funded will eventually serve the interests of other institutions as well. For example, the Ministry is investing in a project run by the University of Turku’s Research Unit for the Sociology of Education, which seeks to determine metrics for measuring the social impact of open science. In addition, the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences is heading a joint-project promoting openness in the user-based innovation ecosystems of institutions of higher education.
Openness to become commonplace for research
In just a few years, we hope to be in a situation where open science is a commonplace aspect of research work. This means that at the start of every research project, a data management plan will be drafted with an indication of the local, national and international services and infrastructures into which the accruing data and its metadata will be stored, to be opened later. At the same time, the requirements for using research results opened elsewhere in new research will be considered. As the research progresses, open source code will be created and used, and the work recorded in an open notebook, while the research organisation supports the development of both related skills and services.
In future, the forms of open publishing will have become fully established.
In future, the forms of open publishing will have become fully established, and it will be increasingly common for researchers to share their work while the research is ongoing through a variety of digital conversation and publication platforms. The results can be easily made open through infrastructures that are user-friendly, interoperable and economical. The open interfaces, through which the results can be easily used in a machine-readable format, create new opportunities for developing new applications and new understanding through, for instance, text and data mining.
This way, research results pass easily throughout society: from one researcher and research group to another, between disciplines, to innovation enterprises and to decision-makers and citizens. This increases the quality and effectiveness of research, and offers the research community broader opportunities to become more visible and influential in the international academic world. Open science supports the generation of new innovations and the development of society. It makes it possible for citizens to participate in academic research more extensively, and offers decision-makers an easy path to the source of confirmed research results amid the ever-increasing stream of information.
With the ATT-initiative, we can build the future of open science together. It is wonderful to see how much national and international activity Finland is already engaged in with respect to this field. Through cooperation, we can develop our own practices, but also influence what open science will become in international forums. As an open democracy and innovative country, Finland can use the opportunities afforded by open science in a comprehensive way.