FOSTER e-learning materials, www.fosteropenscience.eu 
Title: Open Science to Scientific Research
Script Authors:  Nancy Pontika (Open Un.) & Ivo Grigorov (DTU)
Video Duration: approx. 10 min
Introduction (Nancy Pontika)
Recently, we are experiencing a new trend, where research stakeholders ask researchers to 
open up not only their scientific outputs, such as journal articles, but also all the procedures with
regards to research, like data and lab notes. Among the research stakeholders, funders are 
primarily the driving forces behind this new and evolved type of scholarly communication, called 
open science, which promotes the open dissemination and accessibility of the research outputs.
Another recent trend is that funders would like to see more and more the level of influence that 
the research they fund brings to the society and researchers need to make efforts to provide 
evidence of that influence. Open science is the movement where those mechanisms and 
strategies can be developed to assist researchers in accomplishing this goal. The benefits of 
applying open science can be tremendous not only for researchers and their affiliated 
institutions, but also for the society. 
(Slide 2: course structure)
In this course we will explain what is open science, which elements of the research lifecycle it 
affects, how it can be achieved and what researchers need to do to apply open science 
successfully.
What is Open Science (Ivo Grigorov)
(Slide 3: Open Science is an umbrella term) 
There are many definitions for Open Science, some are simple, others more elaborate. 
Whatever the case, there are two commonalities to remember: 
(Slide 4: Research Life Cycle) 
First, the Open Science consists of ideas relate to openness of each step of the Research 
Lifecycle: 
(a) Open Notebook is an emerging practice about documenting and sharing the experimental 
process of trial and error; 
(b) Open Data refers to managing research data in a way that optimises access, discoverability 
and sharing for use and re-use;
Video & script archived at DOI:10.5281/zenodo.19878
FOSTER e-learning materials, www.fosteropenscience.eu 
(c) Open Research Software is about documenting your research code and routines, again 
freely accessible and available for collaboration;
(d) Open Access, is about making all your published output freely accessible for maximum use 
and impact. 
The second point to keep in mind, is that in order to accomplish open science there are some 
basic rules. 
(Slide 5: Rules) 
(a) publicly available:  it is difficult to benefit and use knowledge hidden behind username and 
password barriers, or if it does not contain the right metadata to make it discoverable. 
(b) reusable: meaning that the research outputs files must be licensed accordingly so that 
prospective users know clearly the limit to re-use. 
(c) sharing should induce collaboration between researchers through better access and better 
online tools; 
(d) last, transparency and the right metadata will provide clear instructions on how your 
research output was produced, and can be re-used.
Open Science benefits researchers, institutions, funders and the public (Nancy Pontika)
Open Science benefits equally all research stakeholders: 
First of all, with regards to Researchers: 
(Slide 6: FULL SCREEN)
Open science increases the visibility of the researcher’s profile. Studies have concluded that 
open access content attracts higher citations than content behind access barriers. In addition, 
the open provision of research data and lab notebooks increases the active participation of the 
research community and speeds up the dissemination and conduction of new research. Now, by
combining and linking all the research outputs together, researchers can create a complete 
profile of their work, which is not limited to peer-reviewed research publications only, but 
extends to the rest of the research related components. That way researchers can create a 
strong case not only about the research impact of their work but also the societal impact. 
Institution: 
(Slide 7) 
Video & script archived at DOI:10.5281/zenodo.19878
FOSTER e-learning materials, www.fosteropenscience.eu 
The benefits for the research institutions relate to prestige and the cost savings for conducting 
research. With regards to the first, institutions that promote a strong open access agenda not 
only gain the funders’ attention, but they can also act as good examples and lead among other 
institutions that haven’t adopted the implementation of an open science strategy. There is also 
evidence that open science leads to economic benefits. For example the cost for retrieving 
existing knowledge is much cheaper than recreating it, while there are reduced costs that relate 
to staff salaries in terms of data duplication and improvement of collaboration.
Funders: (Slide 8)
When open science to research procedures and results is applied, funders can demonstrate 
adequately the return on investment and are also in position to demonstrate the societal impact 
of the research. 
Public: (Slide 9) 
The public gains access to important and useful publicly funded research that can be applied to 
improve their quality of life. They also enjoy the benefit of being aware on how taxes have been 
spent and they have a greater awareness of societal challenges.
How to integrate Open Science in the research workflow? (Ivo Grigorov)
While Conducting Research, there a number of ready, off-the-shelf tools to assist researchers 
to share your notebooks, when and IF you choose, manage and archive your data, and 
document versions of your research software, all in the interest of multiplying your 
collaborations. 
Regardless of which tool you choose, here are the basic features you are looking for. 
(Slide 10)  
A digital object identifier (DOI) is key for the discoverability of your electronic documents. In 
addition, the metadata that accompanies your document, should be as as rich as possible. Last 
but not least, the e-infrastructure should be offer long-term archiving. 
Once you are ready Publish your Research: 
(Slide 11: full screen) 
Dissemination can be optimised through one of the two open access routes: open access 
journals, or if none exist in your discipline, through open access repositories. Currently, most 
academic institutions have open repositories, while there are subject repositories in pretty much 
every subject field. 
Video & script archived at DOI:10.5281/zenodo.19878
FOSTER e-learning materials, www.fosteropenscience.eu 
In addition, new peer-reviewed journals specifically focus on data and research software 
publications, thus potentially tripling your publication output for the same research effort. 
To optimise impact, researchers aim for quality research that is independently verifiable and 
reproducible. Young researchers can really capitalise on Open Science practices to expose the 
full value of their work. An open research workflow is also more compatible with more 
sophisticated communication and outreach strategies, and social networking and media tools, 
that raise public awareness. 
Conclusion (Nancy Pontika) 
(Slide 12) 
Open Science is about opening up the research process to multiply collaborations, as well as 
empowering knowledge transfer between academia and society. 
This new era in the scholarly communication calls for researchers to capitalise on OPEN and 
Virtual Research Environments. The benefits span from optimising your research impact, to 
setting you up for the evolution of the current research assessment criteria away from just the 
Impact Factor towards Societal Impact.
(Slide 13: FULL SCREEN) 
Ultimately, your Open Science can help you place your efforts in societal context, it empowers 
co-creation between academia and society, and speeds up innovation.
CREDITS:
Image Credit: Open Science Umbrella, Flikr user 지지 지 CC BY 2.0
Image Credit: “Research Cycle” adapted from Tenopir et al., (2011)
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021101
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.  0021101  
Recording produced by New Media Center, TU Delft Library
This effort is funded by European Union 
Framework Programme 7 project FOSTER, Grant Agreement 612 425
Video & script archived at DOI:10.5281/zenodo.19878