Open Science

Open science –Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods. Open Science encompasses a variety of practices, usually including areas like open access to publications, open research data, open source software/tools, open workflows, citizen science, open educational resources, and alternative methods for research evaluation including open peer-review (Pontika et al., 2015). The academic libraries mainly focus on the insurance of open access to publications and open access to research data.

Modern research builds on extensive scientific dialogue and advances by improving earlier work. The Europe 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy underlines the central role of knowledge and innovation in generating growth. Therefore, broader access to scientific publications and data helps to:

  • Build on the previous research results(improved quality of results)
  • Encourage collaboration and avoid the duplication of efforts (greater efficiency)
  • Speed up innovation (faster progress to market means faster growth)
  • Involve citizens and society (improved transparency of the scientific process).

Useful links:

OpenAIRE Advance project

OpenAIRE-Advance continues the mission of OpenAIRE to support the Open Access/Open Data mandates in Europe. By sustaining the current successful infrastructure consisting of a human network and robust technical services it consolidates its achievements while working to shift the momentum among its communities to Open Science, aiming to be a trusted e-Infrastructure within the realms of the European Open Science Cloud.
In this next phase, OpenAIRE-Advance strives to empower its National Open Access Desks (NOADs) so they become a pivotal part within their own national data infrastructures, positioning OA and open science onto national agendas. The capacity building activities bring together experts on topical task groups in thematic areas (open policies, RDM, legal issues, TDM); promoting a train the trainer approach, strengthening and expanding the pan-European Helpdesk with support and training toolkits, training resources and workshops. It examines key elements of scholarly communication, i.e., co-operative OA publishing and next generation repositories, to develop essential building blocks of the scholarly commons.

Project coordinator and national open access coordinator dr Gintarė Tautkevičienė e-mail gintare.tautkeviciene@ktu.lt, tel. +370 37 300 650.

Useful links:

Publications:

Dovidonytė, Rasa. 2019. “Implementation of Open Science in Lithuania ”. Nordic Perspectives on Open Science, August. https://doi.org/10.7557/11.4828.

Tautkevičienė, G., & Cesevičiūtė, I. (2019). Towards open science related policies, infrastructures and practices: The case of LithuaniaQualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries: 10th Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, International Conference, 22-25, May, 2018, Chania, Crete, Greece, 31-45.

Tautkevičienė, G., & Dovidonytė, R. (2017). On the way towards research data management training at Kaunas University of TechnologyDigital Infrastructures for Research 2017 (DI4R), 30 November-1 December, 2017, Brussels, Belgium, 1.

Tautkevičienė, G., Cesevičiūtė, I., & Dovidonytė, R. (2017). Atvirojo mokslo įgyvendinimo prielaidosALTA’17 : Pažangios Mokymosi Technologijos. Išmanusis Mokymasis : Tarptautinė Konferencija Skirta IT Idėjų Sklaidai, 2017 M. Lapkričio 16 D. = Advanced Learning Technologies. Smart Education : Conference Proceedings, 16th of November, 2017, 108-113.

Cesevičiūtė, I., & Tautkevičienė, G. (2015). Atvirosios prieigos vaidmuo mokslinės komunikacijos procese: Pasaulinės ir Europos Sąjungos iniciatyvosZ Kartos Akademinė Biblioteka: Paslaugos, Erdvės Ir Technologijos: Tarptautinė Mokslinė-praktinė Konferencija, Spalio 15 D., 2015, Vilnius, Lietuva, 1.

Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library (eLABa) is a national repository of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and an open access repository of the Lithuanian academic institutions. 50 institutions are members of eLABa consortium (universities, institutes and research centres).

Green Open Access Road (self-archiving)

The published work or the final peer-reviewed manuscript that has been accepted for publication is made freely and openly accessible by the author, or a representative, in an online repository. Some publishers request for Open Access to be granted only after an embargo period has expired. The embargo period can vary between several months and several years. Usually, for the publications that have been deposited in a repository but are under embargo, at least the metadata are openly accessible.

Gold Open Access Road (Open Access publishing)

Gold Open Access (Open Access publishing): the published work is made available in Open Access mode by the publisher immediately upon publication. The most common business model is based on one-off payments by authors (commonly called APCs – article processing charges – or BPCs – book processing charges). Where Open Access content is combined with the content that requires subscription or purchase, in particular, in the context of journals, conference proceedings and edited volumes, this is called a hybrid Open Access.

In the Registry of Open Access Repositories – researchers can find 4725 (data of 11 November 2019) registered institutional and thematic repositories where research publications can be uploaded. The institutional repositories are often administered by the research institutions in order to preserve and share the research results. The thematic repositories are usually administered by the research community; these repositories preserve the subject-specific research publications. The publication repositories are an alternative way to have access to the research publications when access to the primary resource is unavailable.

Over the last few years, the number of open access journals has rapidly increased, researchers have greater freedom of choice where to publish the research results. Currently, there are more than 13 900 research journals and 75 Lithuanian journals registered in the registry of open access journals Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (data of 11 November 2019). The open access journals not only ensure open access and licencing but also provide the necessary conditions for reusability. The majority of journals registered in DOAJ registry do not charge any article processing charges; more information about research is available here.

Directory of Open Access Books is a registry of open access books providing access to more than 22 000 books (data of 13 November 2019).

The researchers who are coordinating Horizon 2020 projects and aim to comply with the requirements of funding institutions as well as PhD students of Kaunas University of Technology who have started their studies from 2018 must prepare a research data management plan DMP.

Research Data Management plan is a key element of good data management. A DMP describes the data management life cycle for the data to be collected, processed and/or generated. Since a DMP makes the research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR), it should include the information on:

  • The handling of research data during and after the end of the project;
  • Which data will be collected, processed and/or generated;
  • Which methodology and standards will be applied;
  • Whether data will be shared/made open access; and
  • How data will be curated and preserved (including after the end of the project).

DMP Online tool helps to create, review, and share data management plans that meet institutional and funder requirements. It is provided by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC).

FAIR (FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) principles provide guidance for scientific data management and stewardship and are relevant to all stakeholders in the current digital ecosystem. They directly address data producers and data publishers to promote the maximum use of research data.

Lithuanian research data repositories:

Data archive

National Open Access Research Data Archive

Crystallography Open Database

Repository of resources in Linguistics, Humanities and Social Sciences

Re3Data.org – registry recommended by European Commission where researchers can find appropriate repository among more than 2400 repositories for data preservation.

Data journals

The researchers can publish information about data sets in the data journals by publishing an article about data. In this publication, data analysis or data results are not published, the main focus is on a detailed data description and its relevance to the analysis. In the data journal, data sets are not provided; however, an active link is available indicating the repository where data are published.

Useful links:

Open Science policies are strategies and actions aimed at promoting Open Science principles and acknowledging Open Science practices. Those policies are usually established by the institutions performing research, the research funders, the governments or the publishers.

On 29 February 2016, the Research Council of Lithuania approved the GUIDELINES ON OPEN ACCESS TO SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS AND DATA, influenced by the participation in the FP 7 project PASTEUR 4 OA. The guidelines present the legal aspects, financial models, roles and duties of researchers. The access to data is discussed in detail, especially the preparation of data management plans, the compilation and preservation of data during and after the duration of a project.

According to these guidelines, the Council calls Lithuanian academic institutions, research infrastructures and other related organisations to approve the provisions of their policies on Open Access to research results, and the procedures for the management and stewardship of such data. After the guidelines were adopted, Vilnius University, Kaunas University of Technology, and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University adopted the institutional open access guidelines.

The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies RoarMap provides open access mandates and policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders from all over the world.

11 open access policies registered in the registry (data of 11 November 2019) are adopted and approved by the Lithuanian institutions.

The consultations regarding the Open Science policy implementation at Kaunas University of Technology are provided at KTU Library. Contact persons: Ieva Cesevičiūtė, email  ieva.ceseviciute@ktu.lt, tel. +370 (37) 300 284, Rasa Dovidonytė, email rasa.dovidonyte@ktu.lt, tel. +370 (37) 300 659.

“Focus on Open Science” event for researchers, research administrators, representatives of academic libraries

On the 29th of October, 2019 in Kaunas University of Technology “Santaka” valley event for researchers, research administrators, representatives of academic libraries took place. In the event were discussed issues related to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), research data management skills, research evaluation and other changes in scholarly communication.

The event is part of the series “Focus on Open Science”.

Video recording

Practising FAIR and Open Data Management

On the 19-20th of April, 2018 PhD students and researchers participated in practical seminar on open research data management Practising FAIR and Open Data Management”, seminar was held by data management experts Elly Dijk and dr Marjan Grootveld from „Data Archiving and Networked Services“ (DANS) organization (Netherland). Seminar was organized as one of OpenAIRE2020 project activities.

Video recording

International conference “Academic Library and Open Science”

On the 6th of December, 2016 international conference “Academic Library and Open Science” was organized. Video recording and slides:

FOSTER seminars

On the 29th of October, 2019 a seminar “Open Access to Research Data” was organized. Video recording and slides are available.

  • “EC/OpenAIRE FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot and Open Access policies. Speaker: Pablo De Castro Open Access Project Officer at the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER).

On the 31st of March, 2016 a seminar „Open Access to Research Data“ was organized. Slides: