Open Data seminar took place last Wednesday 16th of November 2016 from 15:00 to 19:00. The speakers explained the idea behind open data and some of the necessary tools to utilize in our future academic research. Open data is the idea that some data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control [S. R. Auer, 2007]. This concept is not new; but its formalized definition is relatively new.

The seminar can be briefly summarized as follows, at first the event started with the definition of the term Open Data in terms publishing researches and sharing codes in open access repositories. Then the speakers started pointing out the advantages of publishing in open access, focusing on the benefits for the investors and for the researchers. In addition to examples on how the open source codes can be improved by other parties and shared for greater benefit. Finally, few arguments are discussed regarding the steps to be followed in order to be an open scientist.

The concept of being transparent with your work along-with sharing your results and your algorithms with other researchers is upright, because this increases the speed of research advancements. However, the issue of the credibility for the published papers in open access is a matter of discussion, which can lead to low quality research. In addition to the copyrights violations and the possibility of having the research which is published in open source to be republished again elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I would like to thank the organizers and the speakers for an informative seminar and an interesting topic. Hope that the concept is accepted by the scientific community in the near future and improve all its current disadvantages.