Barcelona Declaration - April 16, 2024
Openness of research information must be the new norm.
April 16, 2024
BARCELONA DECLARATION ON OPEN RESEARCH INFORMATION
Preamble:
Vast amounts of information are being used to manage the research enterprise, from information about research actors and their activities to information about inputs and outputs in the research process and signals of the use, esteem, and societal impact of research. This information often plays a vital role in the distribution of resources and the evaluation of researchers and institutions. Research performing and research funding organizations use this information to set strategic priorities. The information is also indispensable for researchers and societal stakeholders to find and assess relevant research outputs.
However, a large share of all research information is locked inside proprietary infrastructures. It is managed by companies that are accountable primarily to their shareholders, not to the research community. As research community, we have become strongly reliant on closed infrastructures. We have ended up assessing researchers and institutions based on non-transparent evidence. We are monitoring and incentivizing open science using closed data. We are also routinely making decisions based on information that is biased against less privileged languages, geographical regions, and research agendas. To advance responsible research assessment and open science and to promote unbiased high-quality decision making, there is an urgent need to make research information openly available through open scholarly infrastructures. Openness of research information must be the new norm.— BARCELONA DECLARATION ON OPEN RESEARCH INFORMATION 1
Download the Barcelona Declaration.2
Some of the best known databases, such as the Web of Science and Scopus, are proprietary and offer pay-to-access data and services supporting these and other metrics, including university rankings and journal impact factors. But in a declaration posted today, more than 30 research and funding organizations call for the community to commit to platforms that instead are free for all, more transparent about their methods, and without restrictions about how the data can be used.3
The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was prepared by a group of over 25 research information experts, representing organizations that carry out, fund, and evaluate research, as well as organizations that provide research information infrastructures.
Barcelona Declaration. April 16, 2024.
BarcelonaDeclaration.pdf (barcelona-declaration.org)
(reporting on Science article): Price, Gary. “Researchers Need ‘Open’ Bibliographic Databases, New Declaration Says” Info Docket, April 16, 2024.
Interesting. There's a similar debate going on in the U.S. mineral industry regarding prospect data developed on mining claims located on public lands. The idea is that when a claim owner drops the claims, that all the prospect data for that claim should be turned over to a geologic materials information database. Not just the data, but the mineral samples and rock cores, as well. Some mining companies do this voluntarily and provide for an outstanding resource for future prospectors.
As one with a deep distrust and dislike of all things proprietary, I hope the Barcelona Declaration will prevail. Open source; open mind ... words to live by.