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The University needs to take a holistic approach to open science

Two men looking and a screen.

In 2019, the University established a project for open science. The project has resulted in a report and now it is up to us at the University to discuss how to move forward with the proposals.

The project’s goal was, among other things, to “investigate different options for how LU could structure its work on open science.” How we approach open science depends primarily on what we want to achieve, but also on what the world around us looks like. The report therefore includes both an analysis of how other higher education institutions, internationally and nationally, view and approach to open science and a proposal for an LU-wide vision for open science. The report also suggests what we should be working on and how this should be organised.

To summarise the project’s analysis of the world around us, some countries have come further than Sweden and some universities have progressed more than us in their approach to open science. But when it comes to open access publishing, for example, we have come a long way and almost 80% of all articles are already openly available.

Why should Lund University focus on open science? We want to work actively at the national and European level to develop open science to benefit research and the use of research by society. Open science is key to the credibility and quality of research, but it also provides researchers with new opportunities.

In the coming years, I see two particularly important areas for Lund University to work on. Firstly, LU must be able to offer simple and secure ways for researchers to store and open research data according to the principle “as freely as possible and as limited as necessary.” Secondly, we should aim to open up our research to different societal actors and the general public. Much is already being done and participation is already extensive compared to other countries. But we have not linked external engagement to open science, which I think we would have a lot to gain from.

/Per Mickwitz

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This text is included in LU News no 15 - 2022