ICBAS sets the standards for open science in Europe

Rosie – Responsible Open Science in Europe – is the name of the European project in question Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) From the University of Porto in definition of Guidelines Aiming to organize Open science in Europe. The project was completed in February this year and has worked for three years, within the framework of Horizonte2020, to create new tools for greater scientific integrity in the context of open science.

This work arose out of the need raised by the increase in open science in Europe, and the resulting ethical issues, namely research misconduct and authorship standards.

He added: “We are talking about very large numbers that lack scientific integrity, and we know that there are no institutions exempt from this. We even know that the numbers have increased, and although today we have tools that allow us to detect these problems, it is clear that this is still a very serious problem. Anna Sofia Carvalhothe researcher responsible for the project at ICBAS.

Easy challenge? “Not always,” the researcher admits, given the “different speeds” of European countries when it comes to open science.

According to Ana Sofía Carvalho, “Open science is already very solid in terms of maturity in many countries, but in others there is still a long way to go.” This is the case of Portugal: “Our country is still at a medium to low level when it comes to open science, but this is the path that is being followed.”

It is primarily a cultural issue, which explains why the Nordic countries have reached another level of scientific maturity: “For the Nordic countries, which already have a culture of transparency and openness, scientific openness is not as disruptive as it is for the Southern European countries. These countries have “All the documents are already public, and citizens already have access to everything,” says the specialist in the fields of ethics and bioethics. “The remaining countries will have to prepare for this.”

“If we want citizens to continue to trust science and pay for it with their taxes, we must follow a policy of reciprocity and give citizens what they are Outputs And the benefits that science can bring to humans,” Ana Sofía Carvalho.

Science in the service of the citizen

The goal of the ROSiE project, funded by the European Commission, was to create practical tools capable of ensuring ethics and integrity in research in open science and citizen science, in all fields of science.

These tools, as Ana Sofía Carvalho explained, are intended to be a complement to the so-called European Code of Conduct for Research Integritya document that describes professional, legal and ethical responsibilities and is intended to serve as a self-regulation for the scientific community.

In addition to the organizational aspect, the project also included an aspect aimed at developing… Educational strategiesfocused on different disciplinary areas.

The project consists of an interdisciplinary team, from ICBAS, which also includes professor and researcher Maria Strecht Almeida, also includes other researchers from 10 different countries and is coordinated by the University of Oslo.

The results of the project were presented in A Plenary session Which took place in the European Parliament.