Open Science (FR0047)

Developing an “open science” ecosystem
Lead institution(s):
Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation
New commitment
OGP principles with which the commitment is associated:
Transparency; accountability; innovation and technology at the service of openness
Challenges
Open science is a movement in which research materials and results are disseminated without technical, legal, geographical or commercial obstacles, and ideally with no unnecessary delay.
It draws on the digital transformation of our societies in order to develop open access and open data, and, more generally, open scientific processes. It includes openness of assessment procedures, indicators, reuse licences, source codes and digital practices.
It seeks to develop an ecosystem in which science will be more cumulative, more effectively backed up by data, more transparent, more integrated, more rapid and more universally accessible. It leads to a democratisation of access to knowledge useful to research, training and society as a whole, and also provides an opportunity for participatory science. It fosters scientific advances, unforeseen advances (serendipity) in particular, along with economic and social progress in France and Europe, in developed and developing countries alike.
Ambitions
Developing an “open science” ecosystem
In France, open science is making very unequal headway, its level of maturity depending very much on branch, players, organisations and territories. The 2016 Digital Republic Law constituted a major advance, with provisions promoting open access along with text and data mining (TDM).
There is still much to be done, however, if open science is to come fully into its own in scientific practice.
The road map in detail

Setting up a “Committee for Open Science” to promote open national and international exchange on questions relating to open science (Access, data, metrics, codes, participatory science, etc.). 2018
Setting up a system for quantitative monitoring of the state of progress of open-access dissemination of national scientific literature. 2019
Setting up a system for rapid, transparent monitoring of expenditure on “article processing charges” and “book processing charges”. 2020
Setting up a system for transparent (public) monitoring of expenditure on electronic acquisitions in university libraries. Open- data dissemination of expenditure on the Ministry in charge of Higher Education’s open-data portal (Electronic Resources Survey [ERE]).
2018
Creating an open dataset on funding of research projects selected following calls for projects, and its beneficiaries (2019). 2019
National membership of ORCID (Open Research and Contributor ID – a single system for identification of researchers, enabling users to find out, more simply and with greater certainty, what scientific contributions any given researcher has made). 2018 or 2019
Speeding up development of the national open archive, HAL, with investment on simplicity of use and interoperability by increasing its resources. 2018 - 2020
Expanding the scanR R&D search engine and the Isidore research platform providing access to digital data on human and social sciences (HSS), raising awareness of their existence and developing their use, in particular to nourish public debate on research results 2018 - 2020
Communicating to scientific communities on the digital law’s implications with regard to openness of publications and data. 2018 or 2019
In the context of public support for reviews, recommending adoption of a policy on open data associated with articles and development of data papers.
Providing support for progressive universalisation of data management plans in calls for research projects, and encouraging the opening of data produced by funded programmes. 2019 and so on

18. Developing an “open science” ecosystem

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

Open science is a movement in which research materials and results are disseminated without technical, legal, geographical or commercial obstacles, and ideally with no unnecessary delay.

It draws on the digital transformation of our societies in order to develop open access and open data, and, more generally, open scientific processes. It includes openness of assessment procedures, indicators, reuse licences, source codes and digital practices.

It seeks to develop an ecosystem in which science will be more cumulative, more effectively backed up by data, more transparent, more integrated, more rapid and more universally accessible. It leads to a democratisation of access to knowledge useful to research, training and society as a whole, and also provides an opportunity for participatory science. It fosters scientific advances, unforeseen advances (serendipity) in particular, along with economic and social progress in France and Europe, in developed and developing countries alike.

In France, open science is making very unequal headway, its level of maturity depending very much on branch, players, organisations and territories. The 2016 Digital Republic Law constituted a major advance, with provisions promoting open access along with text and data mining (TDM).

There is still much to be done, however, if open science is to come fully into its own in scientific practice. [71]

Milestones

18.1 Setting up a “Committee for Open Science” to promote open national and international exchange on questions relating to open science (Access, data, metrics, codes, participatory science, etc.).

18.2 Setting up a system for quantitative monitoring of the state of progress of open-access dissemination of national scientific literature.

18.3 Setting up a system for rapid, transparent monitoring of expenditure on “article processing charges” and “book processing charges”.

18.4 Setting up a system for transparent (public) monitoring of expenditure on electronic acquisitions in university libraries. Open- data dissemination of expenditure on the Ministry in charge of Higher Education’s open-data portal (Electronic Resources Survey [ERE]).

18.5 Creating an open dataset on funding of research projects selected following calls for projects, and its beneficiaries (2019).

18.6 National membership of ORCID (Open Research and Contributor ID – a single system for identification of researchers, enabling users to find out, more simply and with greater certainty, what scientific contributions any given researcher has made).

18.7 Speeding up development of the national open archive, HAL, with investment on simplicity of use and interoperability by increasing its resources.

18.8 Expanding the scanR R&D search engine and the Isidore research platform providing access to digital data on human and social sciences (HSS), raising awareness of their existence and developing their use, in particular to nourish public debate on research results

18.9 Communicating to scientific communities on the digital law’s implications with regard to openness of publications and data.

18.10 In the context of public support for reviews, recommending adoption of a policy on open data associated with articles and development of data papers.

18.11 Providing support for progressive universalisation of data management plans in calls for research projects, and encouraging the opening of data produced by funded programmes.

Start Date: 2018

End Date: 2020

Context and Objectives

The mainstream academic publishing industry requires payment to access scientific papers and results. This payment is often obtained through public funding. This situation restricts access to academic research and technical literature, especially for small universities, which creates inequalities. [72] The action plan notes that open science has developed at unequal rhythms depending on disciplines, organizations, and localities.

It was in response to the limited academic results available in open access that the former government included provisions on open access in the 2016 Digital Republic Bill. In this same vein, the current minister for higher education and research developed an action plan for open science in 2018. [73] For this purpose, the ministry hired Marin Dacos, one of the pioneers of open science in France, as a special counsel. [74] In 2018, the ministry created a steering committee for open science, bringing together stakeholders from the government, research institutions, agencies funding research, and the Council of research evaluation. The government created a website to facilitate access to information regarding open science initiatives. [75] The ministry of France’s efforts to facilitate open access to scientific research constitutes part of a global initiative launched in 2002 in Budapest, within the Budapest Open Access Initiative. [76]

The commitment provides a detailed map of initiatives to further open science in France. They range from setting up the institutional infrastructure through the committee, to creating monitoring tools, opening datasets and archives, and accompanying the various actors on the path toward opening science. The commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and technology and innovation. Many of its milestones concern the publication of new data and information, and most of them concern the creation and enrichment of digital platforms.

The commitment is specific enough to be verifiable. The milestones contain concrete actions that could be easily verified in the framework of the implementation report (e.g., setting up a committee, creating an open dataset).

This initiative could have a moderate effect on opening science in France. If fully implemented, this commitment would be an important step, since limited information is currently available. Steps toward opening access to academic results have already been taken (e.g., through the open archives the Open Edition Center, the HAL repository), often at the initiative of academics and universities. [77] This commitment is part of another action plan, specifically on open science, that the commitment itself seeks to operationalize.

Savoirs Com1, a civil society collective, considered this open science action plan “too good to be true.” [78] These activities would provide better access to information regarding the costs of academic publishing and acquisition of subscriptions by public universities. It would also facilitate the management of data produced by the research community and provide new incentives to academics to give open access to their work. These incentives are, however, currently limited to research funded through competitive funding. [79]

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends that the commitment be carried on in the next action plan and that:

• The targets to ensure open access to scientific research be made clearer;
• The number of separate milestones be reduced, and the focus put on what is relevant to OGP principles, rather than what concerns internal coordination and administration; and
• Training material and an information campaign be prepared to mobilize stakeholders and the public more widely.

18. Developing an “open science” ecosystem

Completion: Substantial

The Ministry of Higher Education created a Committee for Open Science in 2018 and an open science barometer, measuring the number of publications stemming from French research institutions that are available in open access format (which was last updated in 2019). [li] It also set up a French ORCID consortium in 2019 to expand the use of the ORCID system in France. [lii] It set up a system for monitoring the expenditure on “article processing charges” and “book processing charges”. [liii] The National Research Agency published data on the projects it financed between 2005 and 2019 in open data format, including partner institutions, name of principal investigator, location of partner and total amount allocated. [liv] The results of the survey on the expenditure on electronic acquisitions by higher education institutions was published in 2020. [lv] The government invested €500,000 in the development of HAL, through the National Fund for Open Science, according to the government self-assessment. The Committee for Open Science published a couple of guides for researchers and research institutions on opening scientific data. [lvi]