Why open science?
Why open science?
As a matter of principle, it is important that society as a whole should benefit from publicly funded research. That is the entire concept of open science, after all An innovative open model needs to be developed to enable target audiences such as SMEs, municipalities and the ‘ordinary citizen’ to access research results.
Moreover, Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “Everyone has the right (...) to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (United Nations, 1948)
Practical benefits of open science:
For science, open science results in a more transparent, more verifiable, faster, more efficient, more reproducible and more sustainable research process and, therefore, to the accelerated development of knowledge.
For companies, open science increases innovative capacity because they can benefit more readily from public information and use it, combined with their own knowledge, to develop innovative products and processes.
Within society as a whole, social organisations, local and regional authorities, teachers, health care professionals, citizens, patients and other groups and individuals outside scientific circles benefit from open science because they can readily gain access to, and use, scientific information.
Users of open science
Through open science, users ‘outside of the scientific community’ can influence the world of research with questions and ideas, and help to gather research data. The group of users is as broad as society as a whole. In the education and health care sectors, for example, professionals need scientific information to pursue their occupations. Patient organisations also indicate that they need access to scientific information to be able to inform those they represent and to be interlocutors on an equal footing with health care insurers and pharmaceutical companies. They represent the interests of large groups at all levels of society in an area which many people consider to be important, namely health.
Reservations to open science
There can be some comments on the above-mentioned benefits. In some cases, full openness at an early stage of the process could result in a competitive advantage being given away and make it more difficult to apply for a patent. Where a researcher is operating at international level, national agreements could have a limiting effect. Attention is also drawn to the need for “professional ripening”. A further caveat is that it is not always easy for the average citizen or professional to be able to interpret the scientific process or understand its results properly. On the other hand, a proper understanding is made harder if the citizen has access only to a summary of the article, and the scientific community, or a scientist, could help to facilitate a better understanding of the scientific process within society. See also the AWTI report for details of the required ‘translation of science’ (AWTI, 2016).
Such caveats may result in differing speeds of development, for example, between scientific disciplines. However, the objective remains the same: to share knowledge as quickly, widely and effectively as possible.