Applying Open Science: tools for researchers and research teams

This presentation was given at the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's 2023 Science Symposium, accessible through the web https://www.tern.org.au/science-symposium-2023/ on Day 2, session 5. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) states that increased openness leads to increased transparency and trust in scientific information. The key pillars of their argument are that open science knowledge can be achieved through open scientific publications, open research data, open-source software and source code, and open science infrastructures. From the very beginning of the research process, the researcher takes advantage of the open science practices of the research community by sourcing literature, and possibly even examining previous work openly accessible. Their own contribution to the open information world is fairly well established in the journal publication process (the importance of the citation of others’ work, for example, is well understood) but is less well established for data and software outputs. This paper describes an initiative of a multinational project funded by the Belmont Forum in which data scientists worked alongside researchers in a multi-disciplinary project to develop ways to enhance open science practices. We have done this in two ways, first by applying an interactive Data and Digital Object Management Plan, and second by devising a series of intuitive checklists to make open science practices easy. Diagnosing the pressures of ‘classical’ research work and the research environment, this series of checklists (translated in five languages) is aimed to assist the researcher and the research team to be pro-active in open science. They enable (a) the researcher to ensure the entirety of their work is discovered, and they gain credit for it, and (b) the team to work openly and collaboratively. We have harnessed existing infrastructure such as ORCID, collaborated with the World Data System, and have worked with DataCite to develop a tool that captures researchers’ data and code outputs. Effective application of open science practices enhances the researcher’s career, and smooths the management of a research project.This research is product of the PARSEC group funded by the Belmont Forum as part of its Collaborative Research Action (CRA) on Science-Driven e-Infrastructures Innovation (SEI) with funding from the Agence Nationale de Research (ANR), France, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) grant number 1929464, with support from the synthesis centre CESAB of the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity