Kickstarting the Open Science Monitoring Initiative

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A meeting in Paris on 20 September 2024 marked a significant step forward for the Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI). It brought together the OSMI Initiators: Laetitia Bracco, Head of Research Data and Bibliometrics Support Services, Université de Lorraine; Andrea Davidson, Open Science and Open Education Communications and Engagement Lead, SPARC Europe; Nicolas Fressengeas, Open Science Officer in charge of international affairs for the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Vice President in charge of the digital, data and open science policies Université de Lorraine; Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Director, Open Research Solutions, PLOS; Anastasiia Iarkaeva, Institutional monitoring for OS, Berlin University Alliance Open Science Magnifiers, Charité; Ana Persic, Open Science, Implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation, UNESCO; Vanessa Proudman, Director, SPARC Europe and Laurent Romary, Director for Scientific Information and Culture, Inria, who hosted the meeting.

OSMI was launched during an international workshop held in UNESCO in December 2023. It currently focuses on creating common Principles for Open Science Monitoring and seeks their adoption by the global policymaking community. Going forward, OSMI hopes to address matters related to their implementation via a range of working groups, with a supporting community. 

The small group of initiators started to discuss the key aspects of the project, including its goals, pathways to good governance, and working groups to set it in the right direction. OSMI aims to serve international, regional and national policymakers, and those at research institutions. Research funders, groups and service providers will also be important stakeholders. Involving representative international stakeholders from around the globe is vital in the future: this was central to the discussion. 

OSMI’s primary goals are to promote the worldwide adoption of Open Science Monitoring Principles, provide technical specifications for their implementation, and support stakeholders on various levels in monitoring Open Science (OS) practices. The meeting emphasized the need for inclusivity and global representation to serve global needs, also recognising the work of existing OS monitoring initiatives, such as UNESCO’s monitoring working group. In a nutshell, OSMI aims to build a network of OS policy monitoring stakeholders and to secure the endorsement of its Principles.

The consultation status of the Principles was also discussed, currently including 24 contributions from individuals in 17 countries. This feedback is generally positive on a substantive level, and includes suggestions for improvements to its structure and certain vocabulary. The group plans to review feedback from the consultation, open until November 30th, by early 2025. OSMI will then finalize the Principles and publish them on its website. In the meantime, attendees committed to expanding their outreach efforts to gather more feedback from experts from underrepresented regions across the world at short notice.

The group also started to discuss a governance structure for OSMI. However, this was very preliminary as we felt it was premature given the limited global representation within the initiators group. It will be constructed once  OSMI membership has grown global, and working groups have been established. However, for operational reasons, it was considered appropriate to establish the OSMI Coordination Committee, which will be responsible for day-to-day operations and communication. This committee’s members include SPARC Europe, the Université de Lorraine and UNESCO, and we are seeking an additional member from the Global South.

Working groups will be the OSMI drivers of action. Over the summer, a number of members proposed several working groups. These groups focus on scoping the needs for OS monitoring and understanding the current monitoring landscape. They are intended to lay the foundation for the initiative’s technical and implementation phases. OSMI members will be invited to participate in these working groups soon. 

To be a part of OSMI, one will have to participate in a working group.

The OSMI Initiators agreed to meet every month to plan an OSMI launch event this year, discuss OSMI’s governance and structure, and a roadmap for action as well as a strategy to engage a broader global community. It will next meet in October 2024.

Watch out for the invitation to our official OSMI Launch event soon.