Science as an open enterprise

This report analyses the impact of new and emerging technologies that are transforming the conduct and communication of research. The recommendations are designed to improve the conduct of science, respond to changing public expectations and political culture and enable researchers to maximise the impact of their research. They are designed to ensure that reproducibility and self-correction are maintained in an era of massive data volumes. They aim to stimulate the communication and collaboration where these are needed to maximise the value of data-intensive approaches to science. Action is needed to maximise the exploitation of science in business and in public policy. But not all data are of equal interest and importance. Some are rightly confidential for commercial, privacy, safety or security reasons. There are both opportunities and financial costs in the full presentation of data and metadata. The recommendations set out key principles. The main text explores how to judge their application and where accountability should lie research, but the best communication of data. They must recognise and reward their employees and reconfigure their infrastructure for a changing world of science.

Here the report makes recommendations to the organisations that have the power to incentivise and support open data policies and promote data-intensive science and its applications. These organisations increasingly set policies for access to data produced by the research they have funded. Others with an important role include the learned societies, the academies and professional bodies that represent and promote the values and priorities of disciplines. Scientific journals will continue to be media through which a great deal of scientific research finds its way into the public domain, and they too must adapt to and support policies that promote open data wherever appropriate.