Stockholm University is actively working towards an open science system, and as part of this work, the university, represented by President Astrid Söderbergh Widding, has recently signed the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. The declaration aims to make research information, such as metadata, open, and over 50 universities, research funders, and organizations worldwide have signed it so far.
"This is an important step as we strive to open up the process of research evaluation and make it transparent," says Wilhelm Widmark, Senior Advisor for Open Science at Stockholm University.
Research information refers to information or metadata relating to the conduct, evaluation or communication of research. This may include metadata for scientific articles and other research publications, for individual researchers, or for research data and research software. Currently, many infrastructures for research information are entirely closed, meaning that metadata is only accessible to organizations that pay subscription fees.
"In an open scientific system, metadata relating to research is also a crucial component. Data and bibliographic databases used for research evaluation should be openly accessible and not locked up by commercial companies, and tools and technical systems should enable transparency in evaluation — which is not the case today," says Wilhelm Widmark.
Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information
The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was prepared by a group of 25 experts in research information, representing organizations that conduct, fund, and evaluate research, as well as organizations that provide research information infrastructures. Signatories of the declaration commit to:
• Making openness in research information the default
• Working with services and systems that support and enable open research information
• Supporting the sustainability of infrastructures for open research information
• Supporting collective action to accelerate the transition to openness of research information
Open science important for Stockholm University
Stockholm University supports and advocates for many aspects of open science and actively works towards an open science system where everyone has free and open access to scientific texts, research results, and research data. The university also supports several organizations that promote the use and creation of open metadata and practices the use of open metadata in various ways, such as through the open publication platform DiVA. The platform can be used to search for open research publications and as a source for statistics and evaluation as it contains open metadata about research publications.
Stockholm University also supports several open research infrastructures that handle open identifiers, such as being members of Crossref, which assigns and manages DOI identifiers for research publications, and ORCID, which assigns and manages ORCID identifiers for researchers. The university also supports Datacite, which manages DOI:s for research data via the SND consortium.
"Together with other initiatives the university has signed, such as DORA and CoARA, which aim to change the research assessment, this declaration is another important step towards achieving an open scientific system," says Wilhelm Widmark.
This article was first published on 24 April by Stockholm University.
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