Open Science Is the Future

The term open science is often used yet seldom defined. Open science describes the approach of not only making the results of scientific work but also the entire process publicly accessible. Where possible, the results of publicly funded research should be made available and reusable free of charge online without legal or technical restrictions. The more easily research results can be found and accessed, the better they can serve as the foundation for further research activities.

Technische Universität Berlin also profits from this. Open science summarizes the strategies and processes that describe changes in research methodology, organizational and content design of teaching, publishing and the supply of information and literature, as well as the storage of research data.

This includes:

• Open Access, free access to scientific publications
• Open Data, free, long-term access to all research data
• Citizen Science, public participation in the entire knowledge acquisition process

Technische Universität Berlin views open science as an important component of good scientific practice. Open access to knowledge and science including publications, data, and software will achieve greater transparency, efficiency, and visibility, and, consequently, an improved quality and increase in trust in science and research. The establishment of citizen science projects at the University requires a participative research approach.

The introduction of the DepositOnce repository in 2014 was a first important step towards achieving open science. In DepositOnce, publications, research data, scientific software, and other research results are made publicly accessible. In order to increase the transparency of research results, research data and scientific publications, dissertations, and other qualifying work (PhD, Habilitation) are linked to each other. The platform is operated on the FAIR principles:

• Fair
• Accessible
• Interoperable
• Resusable