Reflecting on the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science
Heather Joseph
Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
When the 193 members states of UNESCO affirmed the recent Recommendation on Open Science earlier this year, they did more than just articulate an aspirational vision—they created a functional blueprint for the global community to reimagine how scientific knowledge should be shared in the 21st century. By ensuring that the agreed-upon definition and principles are firmly rooted in the idea that science is a public good, the Recommendation ushered in an unprecedented opportunity to reconfigure our system of conducting and sharing science to one that is both open by default and equitable by design—and inclusive of the voices of all who wish to participate.
While simply creating and issuing this Recommendation has enormous symbolic value, the real benefits will only be realized by sustained action at a global scale. It’s easy for this to feel like an overwhelming task, but there are several bold, yet simple and straightforward, steps that can be taken to make demonstrable, meaningful progress.
The first is to resource open science as a priority. Research funders (both public and private) should collectively commit to investing a small but meaningful percentage of their current research spend to ensure community control of infrastructure critical to the conduct and communication of science. The second is to reset the rules of engagement for conducting science. Funders and higher education institutions should commit to removing antiquated barriers to the rapid sharing of science, by adopting globally harmonized policies that require and reward the equitable, open sharing of articles, data, software and code. And finally, incentives and rewards for research funding, hiring, and research evaluation need to be realigned to actively support open science. This will require collective agreement among funders and research institutions to drop the current reliance on metrics (including the journal impact factor) that keep the current system skewed towards exclusivity.
Access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science has the promise and the power to make this right a global reality.
