In pursuing our network’s commitment to Open Science and our determination to work towards the implementation of CoARA’s principles, YERUN joins efforts with other organisations and signs the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, reaffirming our longstanding commitment to the principles of openness and transparency in research.
The research community is overly reliant on closed research data that do not only limit access to metadata and research outputs, but also induce a lack of transparency in research assessment. Since proprietary research publishing infrastructures impose severe limitations on the use and reuse of information, indicators deriving from them (e.g., publication and citation statistics, journal impact factors, university rankings, etc.) lack transparency and reproducibility. This plays a major role for universities, researcher’s careers, and their evaluation processes. Addressing the opacity in the research information landscape requires the widespread adoption of open scholarly infrastructures.
By endorsing this Declaration, we are also affirming our dedication to CoARA’s 10th Commitment: ‘Evaluate practices, criteria and tools based on solid evidence and the state-of-the-art in research on research and make data openly available for evidence gathering and research’. It is crucial that the information used in research evaluations can be accessible and verified by those being assessed.
YERUN is looking forward to seeing the Declaration’s commitments translated into practice, and eager to contribute to transforming the way research information is used and produced. We believe that this collective effort can also drive innovation, enhance research integrity and trust, and foster a more inclusive and equitable scientific community.
