Helping science succeed
Helping science succeed

The Open Scholarship Initiative

Working together on the future of science

HIGH-LEVEL LEADERS

OSI participants, alumni and observers are the largest group of high-level leaders ever assembled to work together on the future of open scholarship—over 450 in all. Our focus on bringing together high-level leaders has resulted in OSI developing an incredibly substantive knowledge base. This approach has also given thought leaders in this space the resources and connections they need to develop better open tools and policies.

GLOBAL, DIVERSE, INCLUSIVE

OSI participants, alumni and observers represent over 250 key research and publishing institutions, 32 countries, and 18 different stakeholder groups in research, from researchers to universities, libraries, funders, governments, advocacy groups, and more. All perspectives are not only welcome in this group, they are needed to develop open solutions that work for everyone everywhere. OSI is the only group in the world that has taken this approach at scale for such a long time.

BROAD FOCUS

The work of this group has focused mostly on open access, but has also encompassed a broad variety of related issues, from open science to peer review, predatory publishing, impact factors and much more. There can be no solutions to any of these issues without a broad and complete understanding of how they are all related and entangled.

Achievable

OSI recognizes—and indeed, embraces—the fact that there are many different definitions of open, that researchers have many different needs for open solutions and a variety of motives, and that the ability of countries and institutions around the world to implement open policy solutions varies widely. OSI’s main recommendations are to focus on policy solutions that are broad and achievable, based in evidence, and built on common ground, not ideology. Ideologically grounded solutions have decreased global equity in research, increased costs, consolidated power, and failed to capitalize on the full potential of open.

OSI Milestones

OSI concept development (2014-15)100%
OSI2016 issue discovery100%
OSI2017 solutions discovery100%
OSI2018 action plan formulation100%
OSI2018-19 action plan rollout100%
OSI2020-25 global actions50%

OSI's 7 PILLARS

Why OSI, and why now?

Around 4 million research articles are published every year in perhaps as many as 90,000 different academic journals. These articles form a critically important foundation of knowledge. Today, rapid changes in publishing–both good and bad—combined with ever-present “publish or perish” pressures in academia are making it increasingly difficult to ensure the accuracy of all this work, keep track of it all, and maintain equitable access to the knowledge being created. OSI manages a global perspective on the rapidly evolving landscape of scholarly communication reform, and is working with partners in this space to help build a future that realizes the full potential of the open movement for everyone everywhere.

1

Equitable & inclusive

  • All groups and stakeholders
  • All regions and countries
  • All fields and disciplines
  • All perspectives on "open"
2

Broad focus

  • Improve incentives
  • Rethink peer review
  • Undo impact factors
  • Stamp out fraud

Follow the evidence

  • No open ideology
  • Understand what works
  • No unintended consequences
  • Understand what researchers need
4

Work together on common ground

  • New Ideas
  • Faster discovery
  • Big goals
  • More efficient spending
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Participants, Observers & Alumni
0
Institutions
0
Countries
0
Stakeholder groups

News & Reports

EU ditches old Plan S, backs new Plan S

EU policymakers have picked up a new cause: supporting so-called "diamond" open access. But does this make sense?

UNESCO’s open science plan moves forward

UNESCO's open science plans are moving forward. While these plans aren't precisely aligned with OSI's recommendations, there is common ground.

OSI 2022 Annual Report

OSI conducted global surveys of researchers in 2022, and used the findings from these surveys to inform open solutions policy development work. See the full...

Findings from OSI’s global survey of researchers

What do researchers around the world think about open access and open data policies? What kinds of open policies do they really want and need?

Considering evidence-based approaches to open policy

According to the world’s most influential open access policies, only certain types of information outputs are genuinely open. In practice, however, there are actually many...

OSI 2021 Annual Report

OSI continued making strong progress in 2021 toward our goal of developing a workable, global policy framework for open solutions. See the full report for...

UN General Assembly approves UNESCO policy

The UN General Assembly has unanimously approved UNESCO's open science recommendations.

UNESCO approves open science draft

UNESCO's open science policy draft was approved on May 11, 2021. The policy now moves on to a vote by the UN General Assembly in...

TSK post: A unified approach to open

Some are perfectly happy with our community’s progress to date on open and are confident we’re heading in the right direction. Others have concerns that,...

OSI Brief: A unified approach to open

Is it possible to create a unified approach to different open solutions like open access, open data, and open source? Why should we con-sider this,...

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