FAIR vs open data/science

Topic, definition and scope

Open Science (OS) is the movement to make scientific research, data and their dissemination available to any member of an inquiring society, from professionals to citizens. It impinges on principles of scientific growth and public access including practices such as publishing open research and campaigning for open access, with the ultimate aim of making it easier to publish and communicate scientific knowledge. From development to the dissemination of knowledge, several concepts belong under the umbrella term of Open Science.

Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable the reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.

Topics to be covered in the lesson plan:

• FAIR and open science definitions (beginner, intermediate, expert)
  • Open, restricted, embargo and closed access (beginner)
  • Open data and open research (methods, software, tools, codes) (beginner/intermediate)
  • Reproducibility problem (beginner)
  • Data availability statement (expert)
  • Berlin declaration (data stewards)
• Benefits open data (intermediate)
  • Comparison with FAIR data
• Reasons for not making the data open (intermediate)
  • Sensitive/patient data, anonymisation
• How can I adopt the principles and tooling of open science? (expert)
  • Practical examples - link to unit on choosing a repository
• European (/national) open science policies (data steward)

Initiatives, external resources (some beginner resources, but mostly extra material for data stewards)

• Software Carpentries
• Budapest Open Access Initiative
• EC declarations
• UNESCO

FAIR element(s)

Findable - for you to participate in open science, you need to put your research somewhere. \

• F4. (Meta)data are registered or indexed in a searchable resource

Accessible - in open science, the data should be fully available to everybody. However, that is not always possible. For this reason, authentication and authorisation procedures need to be in place, as specified in the FAIR Principles.

• A1.1 The protocol is open, free, and universally implementable
• A1.2 The protocol allows for an authentication and authorisation procedure, where necessary

Reusable - in Europe, to have full legal rights to use any source, a license has to be added to it.

• R1.1: (Meta)data are released with a clear and accessible data usage license

Additional resources