Open Science

The Open Science Working Group is working together with key stakeholders in the Open Science Movement and is actively promoting policy change towards Open Science.

We promote an inclusive approach towards Open Science, with a special focus on Open Access, Open Data, Open Software and a new initiative on Open Conferences.

In 2019, the GYA – led by its Open Science working group – joined forces with COAlition S to develop a Plan S Monitor Task Force.

We have an ongoing collaboration with CODATA (Committee on Data of the International Council for Science) and the Research Data Alliance towards developing international training and policy guidelines on Open Data.

One of our group members, GYA alumna Sabina Leonelli (UK), is representing the GYA within the Open Science Policy Platform of the European Commission, where she drives policy change towards Open Science.

While policy change towards Open Science is in full swing, we are also working to increase awareness of Open Science and its uptake by scientists.

Eva Alisic (Australia) launched the More Open Access Pledge in 2016, which was taken up by many members, and the group is currently working on new initiatives, including a plea for organising “Open Conferences”.

2020

• Former working group co-lead Koen Vermeir (France) participated in the UNESCO Virtual Ministerial Dialogue on COVID-19 and “Open Science” held on 30 March 2020.
• Former working group co-lead Koen Vermeir (France) delivered the opening keynote speech at the meeting on “Changing publication practices – From predatory to Plan S” organized by the Belgian Young Academy (Jonge Academie) and the Belgian Academy of Medicine in Brussels, Belgium, in February 2020.

2019

• Former working group co-lead Koen Vermeir (France) attended the ‘Open Science Coordination in Europe’ meeting in Helsinki, Finland, in October, where the new network of national open science coordinators was inaugurated. He also represented the GYA at the meeting of the Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) of the European Commission in Helsinki.
• In October 2019, group members contributed to the “Stakeholder Consultation on the Report by the Expert Group on the Future of Scholarly Publishing and Scholarly Communication (E03463), European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2019”; see here.
• In September, former working group co-lead Koen Vermeir (France) spoke about Plan S at the 2019 Open Science Fair.
• Group co-lead Abel Polese (Estonia) attended the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) Delivery Phase Planning Workshop in Alexandria, Egypt, in early September 2019. The purpose of this workshop was to deliberate on and design the implementation phase of the AOSP initiative with key regional stakeholders and international representatives. For more details, please see here for Abel’s meeting report.
• Working group member Koen Vermeir (France) represented the GYA at the European Commission’s Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) meeting in Bucharest, Romania, in April 2019, where the future of scholarly communication and new indicators for open science were discussed.
• Working group member Koen Vermeir (France) attended the Society for Scholarly Publishing Conference on ‘Bringing Value in Academic Publishing: Practical Solutions for Thriving in a Changing Environment‘ in Berlin, Germany, in January 2019.
• GYA alumna Sabina Leonelli was interviewed on the “Early-career researchers’ response to Plan S” for the International Science Council’s “Plan S” blog.

2018

• Members of this group coordinated the drafting and publication of the Joint Young Academies Statement on ‘Opportunities and Challenges for Implementing Plan S – The View of Young Academies’ in October 2018, which is the result of discussions among several European young academies and the GYA.

• GYA alumna Sabina Leonelli acted as one of the rapporteurs for the Open Science Policy Platform Recommendations published in May 2018. They can be accessed here.
• Several members of the Open Science group were involved in the publication of the 2018 report on “Global Access to Research Software: The Forgotten Pillar of Open Science Implementation” by the GYA working group on Global Access to Research Software (March 2018).

2017

• Koen Vermeir represented the GYA at the 2017 OpenCon, hosted at the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany. He was collaborating with open science activists and developed themes that are central to the current Open Science working group, such as Open Research Software and Open Conferences.
• Sabina Leonelli presented the OSPP Recommendations on Open Science publishing “OA2020 from the Perspective of the Open Science Policy Platform” at the Berlin 13 Open Access Conference: Building Capacity for the Transformation organised by the European Commission, Berlin, March 22, 2017. Leonelli also presented a key GYA Open Science initiative, Researchers’ Views of Open Data Policies and Their Implementation: The Positions of the Young Academies of Europe and the Global Young Academy, at the ”Researcher Involvement” session of the Open Science EU Presidency Conference organised by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Society in Amsterdam, April 4-5 2016.
• Sabina Leonelli presented on the state of Open Data at Open Data Infrastructures for Innovation – Big Data in the Life Sciences (European Commission, Brussels, 4 February 2017), at the LERU Conference on Open Data (University College London, 29 January 2017) and at the Digital Science Webinar The State of Open Data (14 December 2016).

2016

• Koen Vermeir gave the opening lecture on “Open Science: The Big Picture” at the conference Philosophy and History of Open Science in Helsinki, in December 2016, and participated in panel discussions on “Open Science: So What?” (#PHOS16)
• Laura Fierce represented the GYA at the OpenCon conference that took place in Washington in November 2016, and advocated Open Science to the US NIH during that meeting.
• Koen Vermeir participated in the “Open Access and Research Evaluation” conference, in November 2016 in Toulouse.
• Henri Tonnang represented Open Science group in Denver-Colorado-USA during the International data week in September 2016, in which he was a panelist of an event on advancing the Frontier of Data in Research.
• At the GYA 2016 Annual General Meeting in Eindhoven (May 2016), Sabina Leonelli gave a plenary talk on “Data, Openness and Diplomacy”, and Martin Dominik organised a workshop for GYA members on “Publishing models, assessment, and open science”.
• April 2016:  Position Statement on Open Data by the Young Academies of Europe and the Global Young Academy
• April 2016: Position Statement on Open Access by the Young Academies of Europe and the Global Young Academy

2015

• a CODATA representative participated in the GYA Annual Conference in May 2015
• Participation in ICSU CODATA International Training Workshop on Big Data and International Seminar on Data Science, Bangalore (March 2015)
• Participation in World Science Forum, Budapest (November 2015)

2012

• 2012: GYA Position Statement on Open Science
  

The Open Science Working Group at work during the 2017 GYA Annual General Meeting in Aviemore (© Shoji Komai 2017)