The journey toward Open Science is complex and varied, but at its core lies a shared vision: making research accessible to all. Rachel Sully delves into the history, global initiatives and future outlook of a movement set to transform how science is created, shared and applied.
Open Science originated from the 17th century during the early days of modern science – when scientists were conducting experiments and making discoveries that laid the foundations of modern research. Back then a culture of openness and collaboration was fostered through scientists often sharing their research findings with other scientists and the public.
However, in the 18th and19th centuries, there was a widespread increase in publishing of findings within scientific journals, leading to wider dissemination of research through a peer-review system that allowed scientific work to be evaluated and critiqued by the scientific community.
Unfortunately, these journals were often too expensive for individual researchers, leading to access being limited to a small group of scholars and institutions.
The rise of the internet in the 20th century led to new opportunities for disseminating research, increasing transparency and openness of research. Journals that are open access facilitate free and unrestricted viewing of research to be read, downloaded and distributed widely. A hierarchy of types has been developed over time, with different journals offering different levels of open access.
The Open Science movement is a global initiative that aims to make scientific research freely accessible to everyone, by promoting practices of data sharing and dissemination. The initiative hopes to strengthen trust in research findings, enhancing its quality, credibility and reach. From this, the Open Science Framework (OSF) has been created, with the three main principles:
- Transparency: Making research visible
- Sharing: Making research accessible and usable
- Inclusivity: Involving and crediting more contributors to research
UNESCO provided the first internationally agreed definition [1, 2] of Open Science as “an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices, aiming to:
- Make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone
- Increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society
- Open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.”
They also define the values and principles of Open Science, which are very similar to the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) guiding principles of responsible chemistry [3] that were unveiled at the 2025 IUPAC 53rd World Chemistry Congress in Kuala Lumpur.
The guiding principles include responsible innovation; ethical behaviour; communication and collaboration; integrity and accuracy; safety, security and sustainability; inclusivity, equity and belonging; equitable access; and convergence across disciplines.
At IUPAC 2025, Sara Bosshart from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) hosted a forum on ‘Open Knowledge Dissemination’, where a panel of speakers from different regions of Asia and Australia discussed the initiatives present in their countries to promote open access. The speakers from Indonesia detailed how it is difficult to get into peer-reviewed journals, as well as the financial challenges that come with it; often, authors will create their own peer-reviewed journal and publish it in order to make their research accessible.
Both Australia and Malaysia do not have set open access policies currently, but Malaysia is working on an Open Science Alliance (MOSA), with the creation of the Malaysian Open Science Platform (MOSP), a data repository for authors to upload research data. Science Platform (MOSP), a data repository for authors to upload research data. Japan has started its own initiative, with a mandatory requirement for all public funded research to be open access. In Europe, Horizon 2020 established an initiative for all Horizon beneficiaries to participate in Open Science. There are also read-and-publish deals available that combine the costs of subscription access to content with the cost of publishing open access articles.
The Open Science movement is a global initiative that aims to make scientific research freely accessible to everyone, by promoting practices of data sharing and dissemination
What is clear from this forum is that different parts of the world have approached the Open Science initiative in different ways and are therefore all at different stages of their journeys. This is where worldwide initiatives such as the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) [4] can help bridge the gaps between countries. Publishing data to trusted databases such as ChemRxiv and using APC exemptions/waivers can help low- and middle-income countries to achieve an Open Science initiative.
A key step in the Open Science journey is to increase the openness and transparency of research data. The use of databases, such as the European Open Science Cloud, are safe and reliable ways to store, process and access research data, encouraging the best practices of data management according to the FAIR principles.
So, what is the future of Open Science and open access? And how do we make open access achievable for all? Open access is essential for the future progress of science. The more people that can engage with research the more can be learnt from it. It is vital that we open up research data to all, whether that be through open access, open data, open peer review, etc. While the transition to an effective Open Science community presents challenges, a comprehensive cultural shift is essential to ensure that scientific research delivers real-world impact.
References:
- UNESCO 2022, Understanding Open Science, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383323 (accessed 27 July 2025)
- UNESCO 2021, UNESCO Recommendations on Open Science, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379949.locale=en (accessed 27 July 2025)
- IUPAC 2025, Guiding Principles of Responsible Chemistry, https://iupac.org/responsiblechemistry/ (accessed 27 July 2025)
- DORA 2025, What is DORA?, https://sfdora.org (accessed 27 July 2025)
Dr Rachel Sully is a senior formulation chemist
