OS Policies, OS Evaluation and Assessment, Supporting OS Publishing

Inadequate reporting on scientific research results, inaccessibility of research data, inability to reproduce scientific research, and high subscription rates and high fees for processing open access articles are the primary sources of the scientific communication crisis. This crisis is exacerbated by research assessment systems, which are still based mainly on quantitative indicators such as a number of publications, citations, and prestige of the journal/publisher measured by journal impact factors (IFs), which cannot adequately assess individual research results. Nosek and Bar-Annan called for six changes in order improve the efficiency in scholarly communication: (a) full embrace of digital communication; (b) open access (OA) to all published research; (c) disentangling publication from evaluation; (d) breaking the “one article, one journal” model with a grading system for evaluation and diversified dissemination outlets; (e) publishing (peer) reviews; and (f) allowing open, continuous peer review.

The Open Science (OS) movement is a direct response to these challenges and an appeal to engage in science properly. The research process should be more transparent, and the research results available, accessible, interoperable and reproducible, following FAIR data principles, in standardised formats through an interoperable infrastructure. Following these principles, the European Commission (EC) Open Data Directive was adopted in July 2019, and EU member states must implement it in two years. EC also supported Plan S and committed to accelerating the transition of scientific publications to full OA. EC’s new Horizon Europe R&D framework has three main pillars: open science, global challenges and industrial competitiveness, and open innovation, which will only be possible with open access to all publications and all research data. Along with services, research data is a major block of the European Research Infrastructure and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The new publishing platform Open Research Europe, which will manage the entire publishing process and implement an open peer review system, will strengthen research integrity and transparency.

Changes in current reward systems in scientific communication that would fully recognise open science practices could provide sufficient visibility of individual research results, including research data. Therefore, incentive and reward systems for researchers, institutions and research projects also need to be improved.

The Panel 2 discussion will try to address the following questions:

What is the position of Croatia in the European OS landscape?

Will the Croatian Science Foundation join cOAlition S soon and require Open Science principles as modus operandi?

Is the existing e-infrastructure in Croatia supporting Open Science?

What are the benefits of openness of the whole research process?

Will the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) support changes in the career advancement criteria and research assessment?

According to the SPARC Europe from libraries, it is expected to explore collective funding approaches to subsidise Open Access to research, to supply a stable, quality-controlled standardised infrastructure to deposit, curate, verify and disseminate a range of OA research outputs through their repositories, to provide information on publishing needs within a range of disciplines, etc. What is the library role in the adoption of OS principles in Croatia?

Josip Faričić: The way towards the full OS adoption requires from an academic organisation a lot of efforts, investment and education to overcome all barriers. What are the benefits of OS for an organisation like the University of Zadar which recently adopt OS policy? How do you support OA journals at the university?