PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Tips to make science more open

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better – and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

Open science has become an increasingly important part of how we carry out and communicate research. At its core, open science is about making scientific knowledge more accessible, transparent, reusable, and collaborative. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science provides a broad framework for thinking about open scientific knowledge, infrastructures, communication, and engagement.

Why does this matter? Research is often funded, directly or indirectly, with public money, and there is a strong argument that the results should therefore be available beyond the walls of universities and research institutes. Open practices can also help other researchers understand what you did, build on your work, reproduce your analyses, and avoid unnecessarily repeating work that has already been done.

At the same time, open science can feel like yet another item on our never-ending academic to-do lists. So, how can we make our science more open without completely overhauling the way we work? Here are seven ideas.

1. Think about open science when you start a new project

The easiest moment to think about open science is not when you are wrapping up a project, but when you are starting one. As you develop your research plan, ask yourself: What can I share? Where will I store my data? Are there restrictions related to privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, or agreements with partners?

You can also set up your project on the Open Science Framework to organize materials, documentation, and research outputs from the beginning.

2. Share your datasets when possible

If your data can be shared ethically and legally, consider depositing your dataset in a repository. Sharing data allows other researchers to examine, reuse, or build on your work.

Repositories such as Zenodo allow researchers to upload datasets and other research outputs and assign them a DOI. When preparing your data, keep the FAIR principles in mind: data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

Of course, not all data can or should be made publicly available. Sensitive data, personal information, and data covered by agreements require restricted access or anonymization.

3. Make your publications openly accessible

When selecting a journal, look at its open-access options. You can search the Directory of Open Access Journals for fully open-access journals in your field.

If the journal charges an Article Processing Charge (APC), don’t immediately assume that you need to pay it yourself or from your research budget. Check what your university library offers. Many universities have agreements with publishers that cover or reduce APCs for affiliated researchers.

Also investigate whether you can deposit an accepted manuscript in your university repository. Depending on the journal’s policy, this route may allow you to make your work accessible without paying an APC.

4. Share your code

If you use code to process data, run simulations, create figures, or perform statistical analyses, consider sharing that code as well. A paper may describe what you did, but the actual scripts often show much more clearly how you obtained your results.

Platforms such as GitHub make it relatively easy to share and document code. For a published project, you can also archive a version of your code through Zenodo so that the exact version associated with your publication remains available.

And please add a README file. Code without documentation can be very difficult for somebody else (including your future self) to understand.

5. Explore open educational resources

Open science is not limited to research. We can also bring openness into our teaching.

If you teach, consider using, adapting, or creating Open Educational Resources (OER). You can explore existing materials through resources such as OER Commons. Instead of every lecturer creating similar materials independently, open resources allow us to share what works and adapt good materials to our own context.

6. Choose appropriate licenses

Making something available online does not automatically tell others what they are allowed to do with it. A license can clarify whether others may reuse, adapt, or redistribute your work.

Creative Commons provides several licenses for publications, educational materials, figures, and other creative work. For datasets and software, check which licenses are commonly used in your field and repository.

7. Find out what support your university offers

Finally, don’t assume that you need to figure all of this out alone. Your university library or research support office may already provide guidance on data management plans, repositories, open-access publishing, APC agreements, copyright, research software, and licensing.

Spend half an hour browsing your university’s open-science or library webpages, or make an appointment with a librarian. You may discover resources and agreements you did not know existed.

Open science does not have to mean making everything open, all at once. Some research materials simply cannot be shared, and responsible openness always needs to take ethical, legal, and disciplinary requirements into account. Instead, I like to think of open science as a question we can ask throughout a project: Could I make this part of my work more accessible, transparent, or reusable?

You also don’t need to adopt every practice in this list tomorrow. Start with one change. Perhaps you deposit your next dataset, upload the code belonging to your next paper, investigate your university’s open-access agreements, or try an open educational resource in your next course. Small changes in the way we carry out and share research can add up—and help make scientific knowledge available to more people.

What steps have you taken to make your research or teaching more open, and what open-science practice would you like to try next?