The goal of the policy is to strengthen the quality, transparency, and impact of scientific work. When publications, research data, methods, or software are openly accessible, results can be more easily understood, verified, and reused. This strengthens academic integrity and improves the reproducibility of research.
At the same time, open science facilitates access to academic knowledge for policymakers, industry, and civil society. Research becomes more visible and has stronger international connections. Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, explains: “The university therefore also views open science as a contribution to its social responsibility.”
A major new feature of the policy is the strategic consolidation of previous activities. The university has already established recommendations regarding open access, research data management, and open educational resources. The new policy brings these approaches together for the first time within a comprehensive framework and identifies clear areas of action. These include, among others, open access, open data, open source, open educational resources, as well as open infrastructures and open transfer. The policy stipulates that the responsible application of open science must always be carried out while safeguarding academic freedom and is closely linked to ethical standards, which should be balanced according to the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.”
The university also sees the policy as part of a cultural shift in academia. Kucera: “In the future, open science activities should receive more formal recognition and be given greater weight in the assessment of academic achievements.”
The policy is accompanied by a central website, which will in the future bundle information, advisory services, infrastructures, and contacts related to open science at the University of Bremen.
The policy is the result of the work carried out by the Open Science Committee. The committee coordinates the university’s open science activities and will continue to support their implementation and further development.
The Open Science Policy is aimed at all members of the university and researchers, teaching staff members, students, and academic support staff are equally addressed. “Open Science is explicitly understood as a shared responsibility,” states Kucera.
