Open access requirements demand researchers to follow procedures that were not common until now. Their compliance can be seen as an added difficulty. It is for this reason that the goal of a country’s research system is to make easy for researchers to follow open access requirements when publishing.
Open science and open research increase the quality and impact of science by encouraging reproducibility and interdisciplinarity. This makes science more efficient because resources are shared, more reliable because it reaches better verification and rigor, and more sensitive to the citizens needs.
The concept of open science emerged in 2014 due to the public consultation promoted by the European Commission (Science 2.0: Science in Transition). Since then, its meaning has been evolving, especially through the impulse of the Horizon 2020 framework program of the European Commission, and Horizon Europe, where open science becomes one of the main pillars of the new research and innovation program.
On this account, different institutions and European countries have drawn up national plans and roadmaps that indicate the steps to be followed to make open science effective.
In Catalonia, within the framework of the National Pact for the Knowledge Society, the Catalan Government approved an Open Science Strategy and the Science Act 9/2022. For further information, see the section “Catalan Strategy“.
In Spain, open science has also been addressed at legislative level: article 39 of the 17/2022 Act which modifies Act 14/2011, of June 1st, on Science, Technology, and Innovation. And article 12 of the Law 2/2023 of the University System (LOSU).
Among the national open science plans, some receive special attention:
