In celebration of OpenCon, the international open science conference being held this week in Toronto, the UCSF Library is reflecting on all things open science. What is open science exactly? Open science is a movement that promotes open sharing of scientific data, code, publications, and information to re-energize the way science is currently practiced in order to harness the power of technology for public good. According to a recent report by the National Academies of Science, the benefits of open science include increased rigor and reliability, the ability to address new questions, faster and more inclusive dissemination of knowledge, broader participation in research, effective use of resources, improved performance of research tasks, and open publication for public benefit. At UCSF, open science looks like sharing genomic datasets to harness the power of big data, making publications open access so they can be read by researchers and clinicians around the world, and writing analyses in open source tools like R or Python so others can build off of your work.
Interested in how you can practice open science? Here are some easy steps to get started:
- Publish in an open access journal (read more about open access and apply for funding to cover the cost)
- Share your research protocols for others to build off of (Protocols.io is a great resource)
- Make your research data accessible in a public repository (Dash is the UC open data repository)
- Learn an open source tool like R or Python (upcoming UCSF classes)
- Connect with the UCSF open science community. Why not attend our OpenCon breakfast watch party this Friday Nov 2nd at 9am to learn more about the role of community in promoting open science and meet other UCSF folks interested in changing the way we practice science?