Attending the Open Science workshop has represented a very important experience to me, as it was the first time I learnt about it with a deep level of detail and from a valuable group of experts.

Open Science means that scientific information would be available online and free of charge, and it concerns to two kinds of works: peer-reviewed scientific publications and scientific research data[1]. This supposes, among others, a change of the funding model, where the writer pays instead of the reader, in order to achieve a greater impact of the research. Thus, Open Science is not “free”, as is usually misunderstood. In connection with this, Dr. Paul Aerys said that, in spite that exists a bit of “altruism” in making publicly available our works, it is also true that as researchers we take the benefit of accessing to other colleagues research, so in fine it is a win-win business for the community. Moreover, when talking about public funded research, I believe that is a matter of social justice, as sharing Science can be considered a way of recognizing the role that the whole society plays on the research process[2].

It is true that one of the barriers that I personally see is that, in Spain, the scientific evaluation criteria are not adapted yet to that system (at least regarding Law discipline). Also, we need that all the actors involved (researchers, public administrations, universities, research institutions, and any private or public institution providing funds), to be committed with Open Science in order to normalize it and make it work. However, another idea I took from the seminar (which was brilliantly highlighted by Silvia Gómez Recio) was that the change needed personal responsibility, so if convinced that Open Science is the future (and that it`s a good one), let`s start doing it oneself.

Another task addressed during the Open Science Workshop was Citizen Science in Open Science Context. Prof. Dr. Muki Hakly explained the way people may contribute to scientific research (for example, by collecting data), working in any area where are involved and interested (like ecology). This really opened my mind, as I was not aware of the formalization of such “movement” that can be very useful in many senses.

In conclusion, as a PHD student I feel that we need more formation in Open Science; if we want public measures to be adopted in our countries, the researchers community must be convinced that Open Science is what we want, in order to promote the implementation of policies at different levels (university, institutional, governmental) to make it happen.

One more time, thanks to the organization for a fruitful workshop.

#IamAnOpenScientistBecauseItMakesOurKnowledgeSupportiveAndEfficient.

[1] As defined in the UE official website: https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/index.cfm?pg=openaccess.

[2] That’s the case of the beneficiaries of Horizon 2020 grants, as article 29.2 of the Model Grant Agreement states that “All projects receiving Horizon 2020 funding are required to make sure that any peer-reviewed journal article they publish is openly accessible, free of charge”. The EU Commission is also running a pilot on Open Access to share data, the Open Research Data Pilot – http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/amga/h2020-amga_en.pdf .