Areas within open science

Open access to scholarly publications means that everyone who has a need for or interest in research results can access and benefit from them, regardless of financial resources or organisational affiliation. This includes researchers at universities and university colleges or other research performing organisations, professionals in the public sector such as schools and healthcare, as well as the business sector, the media, and the general public.

Making scholarly publications immediately open access creates better conditions for scientific knowledge to be disseminated and utilised more quickly and for results, methods and theories to be scrutinised, discussed, and supplemented. Open access to scholarly publications can help improve the quality, efficiency and impact of research.

Goals and priorities:

• That all types of scholarly publications produced wholly or partially with public funds are published with immediate open access.
• That publication takes place with an open license, in accordance with the FAIR principles, and with support from guiding information provided by KB.
• That costs associated with open access publishing are not borne by either readers or individual authors.
• That publishing costs are transparent and decrease over time without affecting Swedish researchers' ability to disseminate research results in the form of scholarly publications.
• That measures are taken to promote authors retaining the economic copyright to their works.

Actors and areas of responsibility:

KB is an expert agency in the field and has been mandated by the government to coordinate, monitor, and promote collaboration in the work for open access to scholarly publications.

Research performing and research funding organisations should establish or develop policies that encompass immediate open access to all types of scholarly publications. It is also crucial that research funders’ and research performers’ policies for open access to scholarly publications are harmonised.

Costs for scholarly publishing should, to the greatest extent possible, be managed at the national level in collaboration between research performing and research funding organisations. In cases where contract negotiations occur with publishers or other service providers, this is conducted within the framework of the Bibsam Consortium on behalf of participating organisations. A common goal is to reduce publishing costs over time.

Costs for open access books are often substantial, and a specific strategy for how to handle them should be developed in collaboration between research performing and research funding organisations.

Research performing organisations have a responsibility to carry out initiatives to increase knowledge of copyright issues among researchers, teachers, students, and relevant support staff.

Research performing and research funding organisations can explore the possibility of establishing policies or strategies that promote researchers' ability to disseminate their works while complying with formal transfer of economic copyright to publishers.

Open access research data can be more easily discovered, reviewed, shared, cited and reused. This contributes to raising the quality of research by allowing more researchers to validate and build upon previous findings. Data produced within or funded by the public sector are a strategic national resource for the development of society, business and the public sector. Use and reuse of data can foster transparency, innovation and efficiency, and provide a basis for decision making and research.

In the guidelines, research data refers to data, including metadata, that is collected or produced within the framework of research activities. Working for a transition to open access primarily means that assessments of opportunities for open access to research data (including metadata) become a natural part of data management planning. When research data are made available as digital information freely accessible on the internet, this means that open access has been achieved.

Not all research data can be open access, or they may only be accessible to a certain extent, due to legislation or other requirements. The assessment of openness should be based on the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary". When there are obstacles to making research data fully open, the focus should be on making metadata that describes the research data openly available.

In order for open research data to be reusable, for example in further developing and reproducing results, they should be made available according to the FAIR principles.

Goals and priorities:

• That research data produced within the framework of publicly funded research is made available, by 2026 at the latest, according to the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary".
• That research data, including metadata, is made accessible in accordance with the FAIR principles and with guidance provided by VR and Digg.
• That strategic orientations and supportive and technical measures facilitating open access to research data exist at all appropriate levels and in working methods, processes, and routines.
• That cost-effective management of open access to research data is ensured. As a first step, costs associated with making data open access according to the FAIR principles should be clearly identified.
• That research performing organisations, including research infrastructures, give researchers access to adequate support, knowledge-raising initiatives, and reliable, suitable, and interoperable technical solutions that enable open access to research data according to the FAIR principles.

Actors and areas of responsibility

VR is an expert authority in the area and has been mandated by the government to coordinate, monitor and promote collaboration in the work for open access to research data.

Guiding information from VR and Digg provides strategic and practical support for organisations in their work with open access to research data. This information can serve as a support for strategic decisions or for the practical implementation of open access to research data. It also outlines the legal requirements placed on state-run universities and university colleges regarding making research data and associated metadata available.

The Swedish National Data Service (Svensk nationell datatjänst, SND) has a clear role as a national resource, infrastructure and knowledge hub, thus contributing to making open research data available.

Open research methods contribute to an improved quality of research and a more efficient utilisation of insights gained from previous research. They enable reliable systematic reviews, where the results from multiple studies are synthesised. Such reviews involve identifying potential sources of error and assessing the risk of bias in individual studies. Open research methods can allow researchers to avoid investing resources in developing approaches that already exist.

To enable use of open research data, conducting of peer review and confirmation of the validity and usability of research results as well as verification of how they have been reached, descriptions of the workflows used in research need to be openly accessible. When all stages of the research process are made accessible, such as protocols, software, source code, and computational models, these can also be reused in similar contexts or they can be evaluated, developed and applied in adjacent and new areas. New procedures and methods thereby become more rapidly available for others to use.

Within all research areas, describing methods and approaches is part of publishing research results. Detailed information about methods and procedures is generally needed for results to be reproduced or research objects to be reused in new contexts. Methods for and knowledge of how such information can be made available vary among different research contexts. Therefore, in many areas there is a great need for competence development in making research methods available. To facilitate machine reuse of research methods, when feasible and appropriate, open research methods should be accompanied by sufficient metadata to meet the FAIR principles. Support for the establishment of standards and common approaches therefore needs to be developed.

Goals and priorities

• That methods, protocols, and program code are made available as open as possible and as closed as necessary to ensure transparency in the data collection and analysis processes.
• That research methods are always documented and made available at a sufficiently detailed level.
• That research methods are made available in such a way and with sufficient metadata that the FAIR criteria are met.
• That research performing organisations, including research infrastructures, give researchers access to adequate support, knowledge-raising initiatives and reliable, suitable and interoperable technical solutions that enable open access research methods.
• That standards for sharing research methods are used and developed within and based on experiences from different research areas and with regard to international development.
• That reuse of research methods is facilitated through the use and specification of open licenses, when applicable.

Actors and areas of responsibility

Research performing organisations need to contribute to developing support, guidance and technical solutions to make it easier for researchers to provide sufficiently detailed information about the workflows used in the research.

Research performing organisations also need to contribute to developing forms of collaboration between different disciplines to identify needs and develop standards.

Research funders, together with research performing organisations, need to develop policies, guidance, and infrastructural support for open research methods, as this is related to making research data accessible and providing infrastructures that support open science.

Open educational resources can be used in many learning contexts. There are opportunities and applications in adult education and clubs and associations, as well as in continuing education. An important context is that of formal education, including preschool, primary and secondary school, and in particular, higher education.

The purpose of instruction and educational resources at universities and university colleges is to disseminate research-based knowledge to students and, ultimately, to the society as a whole. Open educational resources can contribute to a more equitable and accessible education, reduce costs for pupils and students, enable adaptation to individual needs, and promote collaboration and knowledge sharing. Open educational resources are based on the idea of a culture of sharing and collaboration. By providing high-quality materials that others can use and build upon, open educational resources promote knowledge exchange and collaboration among teachers and teaching staff.

Open educational resources require an open licence that allows users to adapt the material to their needs. This enables teachers and other teaching staff to modify and edit open educational resources to meet specific requirements and goals in their courses.

The incentives to create, use and reuse open educational resources are weak. Therefore, there is a need to develop incentives, in particular regarding how the creation of open educational resources can be a component in the evaluation of teachers at universities and university colleges.

Goals and priorities

• That universities and university colleges have policies and guidance for the production and use of open educational resources.
• That open educational resources and their metadata are shared with open licences and, to the greatest extent possible, in accordance with FAIR principles, with the aim of promoting dissemination and reuse.
• That the work on open educational resources at universities and university colleges is coordinated.
• That the need for and prerequisites for a common platform for collecting and disseminating open educational resources are investigated.

Actors and areas of responsibility

Research performing and educational organisations establish or develop policies that promote the creation and use of open educational resources as well as guidance for teachers and other teaching staff. A particularly important aspect is the development of incentives for the creation and use of high-quality open educational resources.

Research performing organisations with an educational mission should be responsible for collaboratively investigating the need, prerequisites and opportunities for a common platform that collects open educational resources at universities and university colleges.

An important aspect of open science is to bring the scientific process closer to society and its citizens.

There are various approaches and forms within research for involvement, dialogue and collaboration with the public. They go by names such as citizen science, user participation, scientific crowdsourcing, citizen dialogue and co-creation. They are all characterised by researchers and the public collaborating to generate new knowledge, develop new research themes or shed light on pressing societal issues. Public engagement in science may be limited to one part of the research process, such as data collection or analysis, but may also include other parts, such formulation of research questions, development of methods and dissemination of results.

A strong motivation for public engagement in science is the way in which it contributes to quality in research and the manner in which new knowledge and understanding are created. The interaction between research and the public - including individuals as well as organisations – provides research better opportunities to address issues and questions that stakeholders perceive as relevant and urgent. This interaction can also contribute to increased understanding of scientific processes and confidence in research.

Involving the public in the research process is a way to collaborate with the surrounding society, promoting mutual exchange, which is the responsibility of Swedish universities and university colleges according to the Swedish Higher Education Act.

There are points of intersection between forms of public engagement in science and science communication. Both aim to promote a greater understanding of and interest in scientific processes, thereby building trust in research. Science communication and participation are therefore not always distinct activities but can often reinforce each other, especially when it comes to recruiting participants and communicating to the public the value of participating in research.

Goals and priorities

• That principles and methods for involving the public in science are developed, known, and established within all research disciplines where it is relevant for the quality and advancement of research.
• That research performing organisations offer enhanced methodological support and knowledge-raising initiatives for researchers on how the public can be engaged in science.
• That research funding organisations develop policies and assessment criteria around collaboration, co-creation, and public engagement in science.

Actors and areas of responsibility

Research performing organisations and research funders should collaboratively develop principles and methods for how public engagement in science can contribute to research quality and ensure adherence to good research practices. This work should leverage the knowledge and experience of existing infrastructures for citizen science and of expert organisations.

Research performing organisations need to develop methodological support and conduct knowledge-raising initiatives for researchers on how the public can be engaged in science.

Research funders need to develop policies and assessment criteria for collaboration, co-creation, and public engagement in science.

Suitable and user-friendly infrastructures are crucial to enabling researchers and organisations to embrace open science. With such infrastructures, systems, services, and protocols, research results can be made openly accessible to other researchers, agencies, businesses, organisations and the public. They enable research results to be collected, stored, managed, and made accessible in a standardised manner, facilitating both collaboration within research fields and utilisation by other actors in society and industry. Open access services and repositories contribute to increased accessibility and use of research results.

Operation and development of infrastructure that supports open science takes place in individual organisations or through collaboration between organisations, nationally and internationally. The infrastructures are typically supported by a combination of membership fees and/or grant funding and are operated by public research organisations or as non-profit initiatives.

Swedish research relies on international services and infrastructures for open science. These are often an important prerequisite for research results to be discovered, linked together and disseminated, and it is often here that the use of standards and best practices is developed and established. There is a particular need to support such open services and infrastructures at the national level. The starting point should be that investments benefit many, that the services are operated by non-profit organisations, and that they follow established definitions and recommendations for open infrastructures.

There is a particular need to use established standards and solutions to link together the various outputs of research, which may be dispersed among multiple sites. The use of persistent identifiers is crucial for ensuring long-term durability in links between different types of research outputs, such as research data, publications and research methods. The development and use of established and robust standards and services enables accessibility in line with the FAIR principles. This also facilitates monitoring and evaluation of open science, thereby contributing to its development.

Goals and Priorities

• That international services and infrastructures supporting open science are funded nationally in a coordinated manner.
• That particular support is provided to non-profit infrastructures for open access publishing.
• That infrastructures that enable sufficient and future-proof sharing of open research methods are developed.
• That standards and technical solutions that link publications, research data, and methods are used and developed.

Actors and areas of responsibility

Research performing organisations hosting digital infrastructures such as repositories and platforms enabling open access to research data and scholarly publications, for example, ensure that these infrastructures are developed according to research needs and, as much as possible, based on open source code and open standards.

Research performing organisations should collaborate to identify and implement common standards and technical solutions for linking publications, research data and methods to enable the sharing of open research methods.

Research funders and research performing organisations are responsible for ensuring that funding for infrastructures supporting open science aims for long-term sustainability and benefits for Swedish research.

Funding for international services and infrastructures supporting open science should be coordinated by the expert agencies KB and VR to ensure efficiency and long-term viability.