Strategy of the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, for Open Science

As Open Science reaches its most world widespread version yet, Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica has launched the Strategy of the National University in Open Science. This strategy serves as an institutional policy that organizes our community’s efforts towards knowledge democratization and is consistent with the Diamond Open Access Model, the Global South Open Science Model and UNESCO’s Recommendation on Open Science (2021). The strategy leans on the first efforts led by the university’s open access journals, the Institutional Academic Heritage Conservation Policy, and the Institutional Policy for the Use of Free Software and considers a 5 year period (2023-2027) for implementation on a community wide basis. Involved in a public funding cycle, state universities like UNA, are clear about their responsibility to transform the knowledge they generate into direct benefits for the society that finances them. Therefore, the strategy’s main goal is to adopt good practices of Open Science and apply them transversally in the substantive activities of the university (teaching, research, social projection, and production), based on the monitoring of activities associated with the pillars of Open Science.

The strategy includes the following pillars: Open Access; Research Data; Open Science Tools and Technology; Open Access Assessment; Open Innovation; Citizen Science, and Open Science International Policies, Statements and Guidelines. Its construction involved the efforts of the Vice-Rectory of Research personnel, journal editors, librarians, IT Specialists, and legal advisors teamed up as the UNA-Ciencia Abierta working network. The main activities of the strategy consider:

• The promotion of Open Science practices and competencies.
• The adoption of standards and other tools that allow the university community to find, access, reuse and combine knowledge.
• Place sustainable and interoperable infrastructures that allow the open exchange of knowledge.

UNA emphasizes the participative nature of the initiatives, such as this strategy, that involve different knowledge in a constructive manner in accordance with the collective benefit and the institutional purposes, therefore other working areas can be considered in the near future

The document is being published for adoption in 2023, specific and more detailed actions will be available at the published version.