As a representative of doctoral candidates and junior researchers at the European level, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), a grassroots federation of 25 national associations of early-career researchers (ECRs) from 23 countries across Europe, engages with all major stakeholders in research and innovation in Europe.
Eurodoc has for over two decades been advocating for a fair and sustainable research culture, actively engaging in the improvement of doctoral training and career development and fostering the implementation of Open Science principles. These principles have been and are an integral part of Eurodoc’s mission.
However, since Eurodoc launched its first Open Science statement in 2018, a lot has happened in the European and worldwide research ecosystems, which is why we are happy to announce that Eurodoc has launched a new Open Science statement “Eurodoc Statement on Open Science 2023” this year.
Open Science promotes knowledge-sharing and collaboration among researchers. By enabling open access to diverse outcomes of scientific studies – regardless of field of research and positivity/negativity – it provides invaluable opportunities for ECRs , particularly boosting reliability and visibility of their research outputs. Practising Open Science can be considered a moral imperative in the way it is outlined in many codes of conduct and other normative documents on research integrity (e.g. ALLEA CoC) and it is an implementation of the paradigms of the scientific method as described e.g. via the Mertonian norms more than six decades ago. Eurodoc advocates for the transition to Open Science by raising awareness about Open Science principles and initiatives, by making recommendations on the implementation of Open Science at different levels and institutions, and by advocating for research assessment reform that aligns with Open Science principles.
Today, FAIR and open research data has tremendous potential to advance knowledge production, especially regarding new challenges and crises, helping to tackle them in an effective and timely manner. Reusable and open by design research data, which is machine-readable, can boost impact, quality and integrity of the whole research and innovation process. Moreover, FAIR and open data is a crucial step forward in tackling the reproducibility crisis and significantly improves the systemic robustness of the scientific endeavour.
Hence, in line with all the previous actions undertaken by Eurodoc, as well as the core values which are professed by the organisation, Eurodoc fully supports the approach of FAIR and Open Data, described in the Lund Declaration on Maximising the Benefits of Research Data. Eurodoc stands in strong endorsement of the need to reinforce, accelerate, and maximise the benefits of FAIR and open research data in Europe and beyond, within scientific communities and through research infrastructures, to increase the overall research and innovation performance of the European Research Area and strengthen the outreach to and impact on industry and society.
List of authors
This piece was written by:
- Pil Maria Saugmann : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3548-0134
- Agnieszka Żyra: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6895-209X
- Oleksandr Berezko https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0664-4339
- Sebastian Dahle: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7568-0483
Editor:
This piece was edited by:
- Anna Pavelieva: orcid.org/0000-0002-2306-1928