Editorial: Open Science and Ethics

Abstract

Academic institutions in Europe (e.g. universities, research funding institutions, academies) are increasingly committing themselves to ‘open science’ principles (see e.g. http://openscienceasap. org/open-science/). Those principles are increasingly seen as the basis of good academic practice. They include a broad spectrum of considerations. On a primary level they include principles like ‘transparent documentation of methodology’ and ‘peer review’ that are already well-established elements of academic practices. On a secondary level they have to do with access to research (use of open sources and open access): access not only to the results of research, but also to underlying information, such as the empirical data on which research results are based. On a further level open science refers to a research culture in which research is communicated in ways that are not only accessible to specialists in a field. Open science principles require that such communication with various societal stakeholders should not only be a one-way communication (academics inform the public about their research results) but instead should be a two-way communication, in which relevant stakeholders should have significant impact on the formulation of research questions. Research processes should in this view be increasingly seen as responsive to public discussions and public interests. The role of research can be summarized as supporting society in understanding and solving societal challenges.