Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS)

OAR on December 23, 2020

The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS), established in 2017, is a network of influential organisations committed to helping secure OA and OS infrastructure well into the future. 

Our purpose is to help identify non-commercial services essential to Open Science, and to make qualified recommendations on which of these services should be considered for funding support. Only non-commercial services on unsound financial footing are eligible. SCOSS provides the framework and funding structure, vetting potential candidates based on a defined set of criteria. The most eligible of those that pass the vigorous evaluation are then presented to the global OA/OS community of stakeholders with an appeal for monetary support in a crowdfunding-style approach.

SCOSS-supported open science infrastructure provides the scientific and scholarly community with resources and services to access, share, and assess research. SCOSS is a pragmatic approach to investing in open infrastructure; one that allows stakeholder institutions to participate in the direct and immediate funding of essential infrastructure. It is not the only pathway or means to invest in open infrastructure.

Encouragingly, since 2018, there has been a flurry of activity in this space. SCOSS runs parallel with a range of important, ambitious efforts aimed at investing in and supporting open infrastructure.

Though our approaches may differ, we all share the same goal of investing in open infrastructure. There is still much to be done before we have a global answer for how best to efficiently and effectively secure the future of open science infrastructure. Working together on this as a community is essential. In September 2018, a new initiative was launched called Invest in Open Infrastructure, where those engaged in this area regularly gather to update each other on their approaches, and to explore how we can move forward together. SCOSS is an active and proud member of this group.

https://scoss.org/

ZBW MediaTalk

OAR on April 17, 2020

ZBW Blog about Open Science, Information Infrastructures, Innovations and more.

Open science has fundamentally changed the research landscape. Scientific workflows are becoming more collaborative, more reproducible and more transparent, and there are also many new possibilities to make a scientific impact. The development is based on two points: While many researchers engage in open access and open research data practices in their daily work routines in a bottom-up movement, European research policies are also shaping the framework conditions in which open science can develop.

ZBW MediaTalk wants to accompany this transition. The blog is run by ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, which is the world’s largest research infrastructure for economic science literature. ZBW is actively involved in shaping the radical change in science and, its dedicated application-oriented research and scientific policy department bringing new momentum to development – be it in-house, in Germany or in Europe.

The blog retraces the path of transformation. With researched articles, guest commentaries, interviews, conference reports and analyses, we address the following topics, among others:

  • The rise of open access and the development of new licencing models
  • Changes in publishing behaviour and new forms of publication
  • Alternative metrics (‘Altmetrics’) and a reward systems for researchers
  • New approaches such as the open peer review of the traditional quality assurance procedure
  • Aspects relating to scientific policy such as the GO-FAIR initiative and European research policy
  • Research data infrastructures such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
  • Modern forms of science communication
  • The application of FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) to research data
  • Transformations of research data management and open data repositories
  • New research methods and protocols
  • The development and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • The use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, in the scientific environment
  • News from the Leibniz Research Alliance Open Science

ZBW MediaTalk is being used as a networking platform for actors and interested parties from the areas of science, information infrastructures and scientific policy at the same time.

https://www.zbw-mediatalk.eu/

Generation R

OAR on April 17, 2020

Generation R is an online editorial platform for Open Science discourse across Europe.

Our guiding editorial question to approach Open Science is to take a ‘needs based approach’ to researchers and look for replicable models that the wider community can use, either on a conceptual level or in practical implementations.

This lead question makes up one part of our four lines of investigation:

  • taking a ‘needs based approach’ to researchers,
  • Open Science discourse,
  • improving the making of Open Science software & systems, and
  • addressing imbalances and problems in science knowledge systems.

The platform runs blog posts, as well an evolving and collaborative ‘Notebook’ format where we look to transfer our findings as learning resource to partner platforms, for example as content for: MOOCs, syllabi, guides, Software Carpentry resources, listings, or literature bibliographies.

We organize our postings by theme, but not exclusively. Themes can vary in time period that they will run for, but the standard time period will be six weeks. Using our Notebook we will pre-announce themes and look to collaboratively develop the ideas. Our launch theme is ‘Software Citation’ which will be followed by ‘The Decentralized Web’ in September, and by ‘Citizen Science’ for mid-October.

Generation R is brought to you by the Leibniz Research Alliance Open Science.

https://genr.eu/

Outbreak Science

OAR on February 28, 2020

Outbreak Science; A nonprofit to advance the science of outbreak response.

Recent epidemics of H1N1 influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), chikungunya, Ebola, and Zika, highlight the global importance of infectious disease outbreaks. The scale, speed, and diversity of these epidemics demand an equally scalable, rapid, and agile scientific response to prevent and control their impact.

Outbreak Science, a nonprofit founded in 2016, aims to support open data, open access, and open science in the context of epidemic responses.

https://outbreakscience.org/

2nd Open Science FAIR Conference

OAR on September 10, 2019

Open Science is a new research paradigm facing many challenges, mainly the ingrained research habits accompanied by non-incentive institutional and funder reward systems, the lack of embedded tools and services, the connection to non-academic communities.

OSFair2019 is organized as an emblematic initiative of OpenAIRE, co-organized by 3 other EU projects in the area of Open Science: FIT4RRI, EOSC Secretariat and FAIRsFAIR. It is locally curated by the University of Minho.

Open Science Fair will critically showcase the elements required for the transition to Open Science: e-infrastructures and services, policies as guidance for good practices, research flows and new types of activities (disseminate, mine, review, assess, etc.), the roles of the respective actors and their networks.

Open Science Data Cloud

OAR on July 2, 2019

The Open Science Data Cloud provides the scientific community with resources for storing, sharing, and analyzing terabyte and petabyte-scale scientific datasets. The OSDC is a data science ecosystem in which researchers can house and share their own scientific data, access complementary public datasets, build and share customized virtual machines with whatever tools necessary to analyze their data, and perform the analysis to answer their research questions. It is a one-stop shop for making scientific research faster and easier.

https://www.opensciencedatacloud.org/

 

FOSTER – Open Science

OAR on February 4, 2019

The FOSTER portal is an e-learning platform that brings together the best training resources addressed to those who need to know more about Open Science, or need to develop strategies and skills for implementing Open Science practices in their daily workflows.

Here you will find a growing collection of training materials. Many different users – from early-career researchers, to data managers, librarians, research administrators, and graduate schools – can benefit from the portal. In order to meet their needs, the existing materials will be extended from basic to more advanced-level resources. In addition, discipline-specific resources will be created.

https://www.fosteropenscience.eu

Opensource.dev – Introduction to Open Source

OAR on January 11, 2019

Google has launched a new educational site at opensource.dev that offers a succinct and approachable introduction to open source software and licensing.

Google believes that open source is good for everyone. By being open and freely available, it enables and encourages collaboration and the development of technology, solving real world problems.

At Google, we’ve always used open source to innovate. We want to give something back; we enjoy being a part of the community. We often release code to push the industry forward or share best practices we developed. But sometimes, it’s just fun and interesting code. The list of projects we’ve released and contribute to is long and continues to grow.

opensource.dev