The Principles of Open Science Monitoring
To fully take advantage of the adoption of the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, transparent and representative monitoring must be put in place to drive and support the intended change. It is also vital to identify effective actions and priority gaps.
To compensate for the lack of global guidelines on open science monitoring, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research initially brought together a group of French experts (Université de Lorraine, Inria) to work on a proposal for common monitoring principles. This text served as a basis for a conference which gathered international experts at the Paris UNESCO headquarters in December 2023 (get access to the presentations), leading to the Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI).
OSMI and UNESCO then conducted an international consultation to gather opinions from around the world to ensure that the Principles meet a variety of needs, approaches and contexts worldwide. In 2025, the OSMI Initiators and the OSMI Coordination Committee have painstakingly integrated the feedback from more than 150 experts worldwide, from 41 countries on the five continents into the draft principles. We are now proud to announce the publication of the final internationally agreed upon version of the Principles of Open Science Monitoring.
These Principles focus on three key pillars: (1) relevance and significance, (2) transparency and reproducibility, and (3) self-assessment and responsible use. They have been drafted with differing stakeholder contexts, capacities, and resources in mind, consistently considering both qualitative and quantitative outputs and outcomes. Importantly, the Principles are not intended for assessing individual researchers. In addition, they are intended to be more aspirational than prescriptive. We hope that these Principles will serve as the framework of past and upcoming open science monitoring systems and will be endorsed worldwide.
Text of the Principles
The original text of the Principles is in English. It is also available in Arabic, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Slovenian and Spanish. Interested in translating the Principles into other languages? Contact us!
Infographic
In order to introduce and explain the Principles of Open Science Monitoring to a broad audience, the OSMI Coordination Committee developed an infographic. It serves as a visual guide for anyone interested in understanding or applying these principles, whether for planning, policy-making, or research practices. The infographic emphasises key aspects such as relevance, transparency, reproducibility, and responsible use of open science monitoring systems.
Testimonials
This section is intended for organisations wishing to share their experiences with the Principles of Open Science Monitoring. You would like to share your experience? Send an email to osmi-coordination@groupes.renater.fr
Secretariat for Open Science and Research, Finland, 2026
OSMI’s work has attracted considerable and sustained interest in Finland. The OSMI Principles provide an important global framework that supports our local monitoring development. OSMI and its work are actively promoted to the Finnish open science community.
In Finland, both international and national policies, as well as examples of monitoring, were used in developing the national monitoring model. A new national open science and research monitoring framework was approved in 2022 and carried out in 2022 and in 2024. Staying informed about international developments has been an integral task in ensuring that national monitoring remains up to date. As part of this work, the Secretariat for the National Open Science and Research Coordination has published regular updates on the Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI) on the Openscience.fi news section.
OSMI was introduced on our website in March 2025 as an interesting new global initiative developing a common framework for open science monitoring. The article also described OSMI’s goals, introduced its four working groups (WGs), and encouraged readers to follow OSMI by subscribing to its newsletter or following it on social media.
In August the OSMI Principles, released in July, were introduced to the Finnish open science community. This article explained the three pillars: relevance and significance; transparency and reproducibility; and self-assessment and responsible use. Also, it provided an overview of the ongoing work in the WGs and promoted the possibility to join the groups. The article also reflected on how the Principles and outputs of the WGs could be used in the development of Finnish national monitoring.
In September, we were pleased to announce that the Finnish translation of the Principles was ready. With kind help from Laetitia Bracco, member of the OSMI Coordination Committee, the Finnish version was formatted to match the other language versions and added to the Principles publication record in Zenodo. Finnish was one of the first additional languages after the English original, added together with German and Spanish after the French version.
Another important milestone in September was analysing how the national monitoring model aligns with the OSMI Principles. The analysis shows that Finnish monitoring is almost fully aligned with each individual principle. At the same time, areas for development were identified. Case studies need to be included, and a more in-depth self-evaluation of national monitoring should be conducted once OSMI has released further information on how that should be carried out. This article is available in English, link. Information on OSMI was also added to the permanent page that describes international statements under the Policies & Materials section on Openscience.fi, link.
In October, the OSMI Principles were included in the first issue of a new series discussing international developments in responsible science, published on the Responsible Research website.
The Finnish national monitoring model is currently under further development by the working group appointed by the National Open Science and Research Steering Group. The outputs of OSMI working groups, especially the list of open science monitoring initiatives compiled in WG2, have been extremely helpful in providing important background material on international and national monitoring solutions, as well as benchmarks for the national development work.
Marita Kari, Senior Specialist, Secretariat for Open Science and Research, Finland