Open Science Guideline

Authors

Affiliations

Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Tobias Bengfort

RDI

Josefine Blunk

RDI

Neele Engelmann

CHM

Thomas Feg

SCT

Stefan Herzog

ARC

Maike Kleemeyer

RDI

Sina Schwarze

LIP

Sebastian Nix

RDI

Aaron Peikert

LIP

Ilse Pit

ARC

Penelope Tilsley

CEN

1 Introduction

For the purpose of this guideline, Open Science is defined based on the “UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science” that is, as an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible, and reusable for everyone. It seeks to increase scientific collaborations and information sharing for the benefit of science and society and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation, and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community. It comprises all scientific disciplines and aspects of scholarly practices, including basic and applied sciences, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. This guideline refers to the following Open Science domains:

• Open Methods,
• Open Access to Publications,
• Open Data,
• Open Software/Code,
• and Open Educational Resources.

This guideline contains information that affects various actors in the Institute’s context. It addresses aspects that affect the Institute as a whole or individual organizational units of the Institute (e.g., research centers and research groups, scientific infrastructure), as well as aspects that affect individual researchers (i.e., directors, senior researchers, postdocs, doctoral candidates, bachelor/master students, research assistants).

2 Context

This guideline and the implementation plan are to be seen in the broader context of institutionally relevant requirements and recommendations on OS:

• As a co-signatory of the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities”, the MPG is committed to supporting the goals and principles set out in this declaration.
• The MPG’s Rules of Conduct contain a clear commitment, among other things, to the “publicity principle” and formulate transparency obligations regarding research.
• Research funding organizations, including those that are members of “cOAlition S,” have clear requirements with respect to the openness of scientific research.
• Professional scientific associations such as the “German Psychological Society” (DGPs) are unambiguous in their commitment to the principles of open and transparent research. They have partly issued corresponding principles and recommendations with respect to OS.
• In the context of efforts to further develop the principles of research assessment, as exemplified in statements and initiatives such as the “San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment” (DORA) and the “Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment” (CoARA), there is a clear commitment to the principles of OS. The implementation of these principles contributes to a more differentiated evaluation of research.

3 Guiding Principles

OS activities at the Institute will be guided by several key principles:

• Openness and Transparency: Sharing all aspects of research, including methods, data, and results, to allow others to scrutinize and validate findings, while balancing openness with legal obligations, such as protecting participant privacy and respecting intellectual property rights (“as open as possible, as closed as necessary”).
• Reuse: Ensuring that research materials are shared in a manner that allows others to replicate the study, either in full or in part. Encouraging researchers to share data in a manner that allows others to effectively use and build upon it, following FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Promoting responsible research practices by making the research process transparent and subject to community oversight.
• Accessibility: Making research outputs, including publications, data, and tools, available to everyone. Encouraging and supporting publication under adequate Open Access licenses.
• Collaboration and Inclusivity: Encouraging researchers to work together across disciplines and geographic boundaries, facilitating the exchange of ideas and knowledge. Ensuring that all stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers, and the public, can participate in and benefit from scientific research.

4 Open Science Dimensions

4.1 Open Methods

Open Methods refer to the practice of making the methodological details of scientific research fully accessible. This ensures that others can scrutinize, reproduce, and build upon the original research. Open Methods involve sharing detailed descriptions of research design, data collection processes, analysis procedures, and any tools or protocols used. This can include making scripts, software, or workflows available, often through open repositories (e.g. ROAR, OpenDOAR, Re3data) or supplementary material in publications.

The goals of Open Methods are to improve the replicability of studies, enhance the credibility of research findings, and facilitate collaboration by providing other researchers with the resources needed to independently verify or extend the work. By doing so, Open Methods help mitigate issues related to questionable research practices, increase trust in scientific results, and accelerate the advancement of knowledge by reducing redundant efforts and fostering collective progress.

4.2 Open Access to Publications

Open Access refers to the free availability of scientific publications on the public internet, that is, free of charge and, as far as possible, also free of technical and legal barriers. A minimal requirement is that anyone should be able to read scientific publications without having to pay. Moreover, it should be possible to download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these publications, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose.

Scientific publications are understood here as any form of written reproduction of research results in a form that corresponds to the conventions of scientific communication in various scientific disciplines. This includes, for example, but by no means exclusively, publications on preprint servers, (reviewed) articles in scientific journals, conference papers, talks, research reports, contributions to edited volumes, or scientific monographs.

By publishing in Open Access, the researchers:

• Promote transparency in research and allow others to more easily reuse and build upon their work, thus enhancing worldwide collaboration and reproducibility;
• Allow the general public to access and benefit from scientific research, fostering greater public engagement and understanding;
• Contribute to increasing the visibility and impact of their publications;
• Accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and innovation.

4.3 Open Data

Open Data refers to research data and metadata that are openly accessible to enable transparency, reproducibility, and reusability across the research community. Research data, especially but not exclusively those that form the basis for text publications, are made accessible to the public via sustainable repositories in accordance with the FAIR principles. If legally permissible, this includes data in their raw format, accompanied by metadata and documentation. In cases where legal or ethical restrictions apply (e.g., GDPR, copyright, export control), researchers may seek advice from the Institute’s RDM coordinator and/or data protection coordinator. If the actual data cannot be published, metadata are made available including guidelines on how the actual data can be accessed.

In line with the guiding principles, the goal of Open Data is to foster openness and transparency, enabling reuse and collaboration to enhance significant scientific discoveries.

To minimize the effort of publishing data in the most comprehensible and reusable way, a clear data management strategy is recommended to be defined at the beginning. More details on this aspect can be found in the Research Data Management guideline.

4.4 Open Software/Code

Open-source software allows anyone to freely use, study, share, and modify code in compliance with a limited set of conditions (cf. “The Open Source Definition”. The core objective of promoting open-source code and software within the Institute is to enhance collaboration, transparency, and reproducibility across the research community. In this context, the Institute understands the term software in its broadest possible interpretation, explicitly including any computer code that is used during the research process and has contributed to the end result.

By making the source code generally openly available, researchers facilitate reproducibility, enable peer review, and enhance the potential for collaborative innovation across disciplines. Open-source software embodies the principles of openness, accessibility, and reusability, which are integral to OS. These principles ensure that research tools, methods, and results are freely available to the global research community, facilitating the verification of results, encouraging innovation, and enabling broad collaboration. The promotion of open-source code is aligned with the values of scientific integrity and excellence, as it fosters transparency in research processes and outputs, making it easier to reproduce and verify scientific findings. It is therefore in the Institute’s interest that researchers dedicate their working hours to publishing and contributing to high-quality open code.

Software that is developed with the primary goal of reuse (e.g., packages, libraries, applications) provides great value to the scientific community. The development and use of open-source software encourage continuous improvement and innovation through community-driven contributions. By making software openly available, the Institute invites external contributions that can lead to more robust, secure, and efficient solutions. This collaborative development model not only accelerates scientific progress but also ensures that the tools used in research are constantly refined and adapted to meet the evolving needs of the scientific community.

4.5 Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) refer to teaching, learning, and research materials in any format and medium that are freely available and openly licensed, allowing anyone to access, use, adapt, and redistribute them with minimal or no restrictions. OER can include lecture notes, course materials, textbooks, videos, simulations, and other digital or print resources used for educational purposes.

The Institute encourages the creation, adaptation, and dissemination of OER to promote knowledge sharing and enhance accessibility to educational materials. By making educational resources open, researchers and educators contribute to the democratization of knowledge, supporting a more inclusive and equitable educational landscape.

5 Research Assessment and Evaluation

The Institute strongly values the commitment of researchers to OS in its hiring and contract extension procedures and in evaluating research quality and performance. Efforts to make research processes and outputs openly accessible, reproducible, and collaborative are recognized and rewarded. Examples of such recognitions include the Open Science Innovation Award, which acknowledges exceptional contributions to open scientific practices, and alignment with COARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) principles.