For centuries, science has driven progress, but access to it has been limited by costs, bureaucracy, and other factors. Open science aims to remove these barriers by making research free and transparent and adapting the way of making science to the 21st century, where the TCP/IP protocols of the Internet and the World Wide Web, along with the expansion of markup languages, the Semantic Web, etc, have enabled collaborative research . In this context, open science is understood as more than just a concept -it represents a movement that seeks to transform how knowledge is created and shared.
What is open science? The definition by UNESCO
According to UNESCO , open science is a set of principles and practices that aims to make scientific research freely accessible to everyone. When we talk about accessibility, the first thing that comes to mind is open access, which refers to the free and unrestricted availability of scientific publications online, allowing anyone to read, download, and share research without paywalls. However, open science encompasses much more than just open access or open data; it also includes open software, open research, open peer review, collaborative science, etc . A common metaphor used to represent open science is the umbrella (Figure 1), symbolizing how this movement encompasses all these elements.
Figure 1: “Open science illustration” by Vetenskap & Allmänhet is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Consultation date: 21/03/2025
But Eva Méndez gave a new twist to this idea by using the image of a mushroom (Figure 2). Unlike the umbrella, the mushroom has roots and an environment where open science can develop and grow.
Figure 2: “Open Science Mushroom” by Eva Méndez is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Consultation date: 23/03/2025
Key principles of open science
Beyond these elements, open science is built on fundamental principles that guide its implementation and ensure its integrity and inclusivity. UNESCO has defined the following:
- Transparency, scrutiny, critique, and reproducibility to ensure that scientific research is rigorous, trustworthy, and effective in solving real-world problems.
- Equality of opportunities, so that everyone, regardless of their background, has a fair chance to access, contribute to, and benefit from science.
- Responsibility, respect, and accountability, emphasizing the need for ethical research, integrity, and awareness of its societal and environmental impact.
- Collaboration, participation, and inclusion, fostering diverse, cross-border partnerships and valuing knowledge from all communities, including marginalized ones.
- Flexibility, recognizing that open science can take different forms while still upholding its core values.
- Sustainability, focusing on long-term support, infrastructure, and funding to ensure science remains open and accessible to all, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds.
So, why is open science important?
Open science is more than a trend; it’s a research approach that should be the standard nowadays, in order to reap all its benefits -not only for the scientific community but also for society as a whole.
By making knowledge more accessible, open science enhances research efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing the chances of success. It also fosters collaboration among diverse researchers, amplifying collective intelligence and innovation . Additionally, by increasing transparency, open science helps justify researchers’ work to taxpayers.
This accessibility can also lead to increase the visibility of scientific articles -and research in general- allowing researchers to reach a broader audience and enabling citizens to engage with, understand, and directly benefit from science. Supporting this, some researchers have identified an open-access citation advantage, showing that open-access articles receive 18% more citations than expected .
Also, and to further strengthen scientific integrity, open science promotes the sharing of raw data, methodologies, and code, enhancing transparency, allowing others to validate findings, and ultimately improving the credibility of research while reducing misinformation.
In conclusion, the way we understand research results is changing. Instead of focusing only on the final published study, there is growing recognition of the contributions made throughout the entire (and transparent) research process. In this sense, open-access publishing is more than just a way to share results -it becomes a tool for dialogue, education, and impact, both in academia and society, as long as these open science practices are fully integrated into research .
By embracing this new way of doing science, research not only advances more quickly but also gives policymakers, educators, and professionals the knowledge they need to make better decisions that benefit society and the economy.