The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information – Openness of research information as a prerequisite for research assessment reform

Materials from the GraspOS Community of Practice meeting held on 13 November 2024

Topic of Discussion 

Vast amounts of information are used to manage the research enterprise. This information plays a vital role in the distribution of resources and the evaluation of researchers and institutions, however, much of it is locked inside proprietary infrastructures by companies which are accountable primarily to their shareholders instead of the research community.

As a response to this, the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was launched on 16 April 2024. The declaration was drafted by a group of over 25 research information experts, representing organisations performing, funding, or evaluating research, and has already been signed by more than 80 organisations. The signatories commit to (1) making openness of research information the default, (2) working with services and systems that support and enable open research information, (3) supporting the sustainability of infrastructures for open research information, and (4) working together to realise the transition from closed to open research information.

In order to achieve this open research information ecosystem, a joint roadmap for open research information was developed recently at the Paris Conference on Open Research Information (23-24 September, 2024).

In this panel, Bianca Kramer, Thanasis Vergoulis and Janne Pölönen will discuss the roadmap from the perspective of the coordinators of the declaration, the GraspOS project, and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). The discussion will focus on ways in which openness of research information can support and strengthen reform in research assessment practices.

Contents

1. Slides from the presentation that was given by Bianca Kramer (these slides can also be found here)
2. Slides from the presentation that was given by Janne Pölönen
3. Slides from the presentation that was given by Thanasis Vergoulis
4. The collaborative notes that were taken on the day