This year, Science Europe released something big.
This is The Scoping Review: the Contributions of Open Science to Research Culture, on how open science is actually shaping the way we work, collaborate, and care in research. Open science in real practice, for real.
It’s the first systematic look at whether open science really delivers on its promises of:
- Inclusion
- Transparency
- Integrity
- Care
- Collaboration
- and Freedom.
The review scanned 62 studies from around the world, mapping how these six values show up —or don’t— in real research settings. And the results have been inspiring, sometimes messy and sometimes uncomfortable.
So here’s our OpenScienceLab digest.
A quick tour through the six cultural values of open science. What the evidence says, where it falls short, and what we can learn moving forward.
Let’s talk about culture. Research culture.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Open science likes to say it’s for everyone.
But… in the Scoping Review, just five studies actually explored this dimension and told us indeed a split story.
On the bright side, openness can amplify women’s visibility and leadership.
While the flip side is sharper when it reveals that openness without justice can deepen inequality.
So maybe the question isn’t how open we are, but for whom that openness works.
Recommendation: Pair every open policy with equity checks. Otherwise, inclusion remains just another promise.
Openness & Transparency
It’s the heart of the open science promise when it says make everything visible, shareable, reviewable.
Out of the 62 studies, over twenty dealt with openness and transparency. But again, the story splits in two.
When openness is grounded in trust, it works.
Yet, when it’s imposed from above, things break.
In the end, transparency is only as strong as the trust behind it and only works when trust runs both ways.
Recommendation: Instead of enforcing openness, build confidence first. The culture change will follow.
Integrity & Ethics
Everyone agrees that science should be honest, transparent, and accountable. The question is whether openness is really helping us get there.
In the Scoping Review, around a dozen studies looked at how open science interacts with integrity. The picture is promising, though perfection is still out of reach.
Some good news first. Open practices like preregistration and replication are slowly moving from rebellion to routine.
Still, there’s a catch. When openness turns into pressure, for example to publish, to disclose, to perform, it can backfire.
So, open science can strengthen ethics when it empowers, not overwhelms.
Recommendation: Support honesty, and integrity takes root.
Care & Collegiality
We talk plenty about data and metrics, almost never about care.
In the Scoping Review, only one study focused directly on care. One. And it said a lot by what it revealed.
Open science depends on curators, data stewards, and behind-the-scenes work that often goes unseen.
It’s a quiet reminder that openness still runs on invisible labour. The kind that keeps research flowing, but rarely gets credit.
Recommendation: Make care visible. Recognize the hidden roles that make openness possible.
Collaboration
Open science loves to celebrate teamwork. Collaboration, however, doesn’t just happen because we say “open”.
In the Scoping Review, collaboration showed up in several studies, often tied to infrastructures and citizen science.
When researchers build things together, like data platforms, communities and shared tools, collaboration grows strong and steady.
Even so, when the system rewards competition over connection, cooperation crumbles.
True collaboration takes time, care, and shared purpose, well beyond data sharing. In fact, it’s something data alone cannot achieve.
Recommendation: Build collaboration as culture, starting with relationships.
Autonomy & Freedom
We often think openness gives researchers more freedom. But does it always?
In the Scoping Review, only a few studies touched this theme, and most of them sounded a warning.
It suggests when openness turns rigid, creativity suffers.
At its best, open science can empower autonomy when it protects the space for creativity to thrive.
Recommendation: Keep openness flexible. Apart from sharing, freedom in research means having space to think.
Reading Culture Through Openness
The Scoping Review shows that open science is changing research culture.
—Unevenly, imperfectly, yet unmistakably.
With this digest, the OpenScienceLab reads those shifts up close, tracing where culture is already changing and where it still resists. The process is already underway.
The full version of the Science Europe analysis is available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17379695.