Welcome to the Open Science Community Nijmegen
We are the Open Science Community Nijmegen (OSCN), where we unite people across all research-performing institutes in Nijmegen, who are passionate about making Open Science the standard in scholarly activities. We are a vibrant bottom-up community striving to co-create a better academic culture that fosters more reliable and inclusive science. Within OSCN, we can learn from and inspire each other to take the next step in our journey to improve research and education. We value diversity, openness, and fairness, respecting all perspectives while promoting the recognition of Open Science as a way to enhance scholarly and societal contributions. The goals of OSCN – and similar local OSCs – are to 1) reach and engage scholars to learn about Open Science, 2) inspire and enable scholars to adopt Open Science practices, and 3) empower and support scholars to shape Open Science relates policies, infrastructure, and services. Success for us means having engaged members who feel empowered to bring meaningful value to our community. Through engaging activities, collaborative projects, and a strong online presence, we make ourselves visible and accessible in daily academic life. Join us in shaping the future of science—together, we can make a difference!
OSCN was founded in 2019, after the successful launch of several open science communities across The Netherlands. OSCN is part of the network of Open Science Communities the Netherlands (OSC-NL) consisting of 13 Dutch local communities and the International Network of Open Science and Scholarship Communities that includes 35 local communities representing 18 countries in 5 continents (as of March 2024).
In the past, OSCN has organised events, workshops and discussion sessions on research data management, pre-registration, open access publishing, GitHub, research integrity and recognition & rewards. It also organized a ReproducibiliTea journal club. After going through some internal reorganisation in 2022, the OSCN is back in action since 2023, with a stronger focus on community building in Nijmegen.
- Is Science Truly Open to Everyone? – OSCN Relaunch Event!
What role should the public play in research? And should all researchers openly share their teaching materials? Today, science is all about collaboration and transparency. Thanks to Citizen Science, non-scientists can actively participate in research. But to what extent does/should/can societal engagement really contribute to science? In education, the demand for Open Education is growing. Imagine teachers making their …Continue reading “Is Science Truly Open to Everyone? – OSCN Relaunch Event!”
- We are back!
It’s been a long time since our last post, and we are back with some news! The Open Science Community is growing and has extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands, or even Europe – Open Science Communities have gone global! As the Open Science Community is growing worldwide, we have also moved our website …
What is Open Science?
There is no single definition of «open science» that would cover the variety of principles and practices associated with it, however, the following definition from the Open Science Training Handbook provides a useful starting point:
Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.
Examples of «open science practices» therefore include, among other, the practice of conducting preregistered studies (i.e., full transparency with regards to planned and conducted analyses), sharing research data and resources (e.g., computer code) required to reproduce empirical results, transparency in the evaluation of scientific work (e.g., open peer review), ensuring free access to published work, etc.
Open Science as a default
In OSCN, we do not distinguish «open» science from «traditional» science («Open science is just science done right», the slogan goes) as many of the Open Science practices are best viewed as desirable default scientific behaviours. The course of the technological and global sociopolitical developments in the recent decades (e.g., the rise of the world wide web) has considerably reshaped the way science can be and is conducted. Academic communities, however, have not yet fully caught up with the developments and possibilities offered to the extent that such disconnect can reasonably be thought to undermine the quality, credibility, and public image of scientific work.