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Open Science

1. What is Open Science

"Open science" is a scientific approach to research based on open cooperative work and systematic knowledge sharing, whereby research data, laboratory notes and other research processes are freely available, according to terms that allow re-use , redistribution and reproduction of research, its data and underlying methods.

 Making search results accessible to all brings advantages:

  • to science itself, making it more transparent, original, verifiable and reproducible as well as faster and more efficient;
  • to companies, which by accessing the research results can offer more innovative products;
  • to the society, as administrators can make more objective decisions based on the available data; moreover, citizens, teachers and professionals can keep up to date.

2. Open Science in practice

Open Science encompasses multiple practices including publication in Open Access, but it is not just this.

3. Open Science at UNIMC

The University of Macerata recognizes and promotes the implementation of the principles of open science, and to this end has developed a University policy for open access to publications and research data, and has nominated a working group (DR 185/2025) whose duty is to develop all the actions provided by the University policy.

UNIMC has adopted a four-year Roadmap for Open Science, which includes a list of actions to be implemented during the period 2025-2028, with the aim of supporting the adoption of Open Science practices, with particular focus on those related to Open Access, Data Management according to FAIR principles, and Citizen Science. The document, approved by the Senate on January 28th, 2025 addresses the main support and training needs on the topic, which emerged following a survey conducted by the Open Science working group in November 2024.

U-PAD (Unimc - Pubblicazioni Aperte Digitali) is the University of Macerata system based on IRIS (Institutional Research Information System), born to facilitate collection and management of data related to the available research activities and products.

UNIMC is member of ICDI (Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure), a working group created by the representatives of some among the main Research Infrastructures in Italy, with the aim of promoting synergies at national level towards the current European challenges in this sector, such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), European Data Infrastructure (EDI) and High Performance Computing (HPC).

UNIMC is also member of COARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) and is therefore one of the signatories of the  "Agreement on reforming research assessment", thus promoting the Open Science practices as criteria for quality assesment of research and researchers. 

4. Data Management Plan (DMP)

A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a document that illustrates how research data is managed during and after a project. Its purpose is to identify strategies aimed at ensuring that research data are of high quality, safe, preserved over time and compliant with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).

The DMP is a mandatory document in the research projects financed under the "Horizon 2020" and "Horizon Europe" programs, and in many national programs, including those financed with PNRR funds. It must be prepared - in broad terms - in the proposal phase already, and then completed during project execution (within six months from project start). The Data Management Plan is a living document, as it must be reviewed periodically or whenever the need arises.

To receive support both in the pre-award and post-award phases, contact the Grant Office – Gloria Moretti – gloria.moretti@unimc.it

 VIDEO PILLS ON OPEN SCIENCE (accessible only with UNIMC account, video in Italian language)

USEFUL RESOURCES

  • Open Science dalla A alla Zeta, corso a cura di Elena Giglia per UNIMC
  • Video   made by the Grant Office on the Open Science principles
  • OPERAS  is the Research Infrastructure supporting open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the European Research Area. Its mission is to coordinate and federate resources in Europe to efficiently address the scholarly communication needs of European researchers in the field of SSH.
  • UNIMC VADEMECUM:  how to publish in open access, how to manage research data, how to write a dmp, how to manage intellectual property rights, licenses and the researcher digital identity
  • Open Science in European project management, corso a cura di Lottie Provost per UNIMC
  • DMP Template Horizon Europe : the DMP official template approved by the European Commission for the projects financed within the Horizon Europe framework programme
  • DCC DMP Online : free platform offering support for preparation of the DMP through questions, instructions, useful suggestions. The platform provides also an archive with examples of real data management plans 
  • Elixir Data Stewardship Wizard : free platform offering support for preparation of the DMP through a guided questionnaire, with plenty of resources and tools useful to check the FAIRness level of own data
Ultimo aggiornamento  2025/05/05 14:28:20 GMT+2