Open Science Studies from ITU and EELISA

Interview with EELISA Open Science Ambassador Dr. Burcu Bulut

Under EELISA European University’s vision of shaping the future, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) is working to develop and support open science.

Dr. Burcu Bulut from the ITU Library and Documentation Department represents our university at EELISA as an Open Science Ambassador. Our faculty member answered the questions of the ITU EELISA Office on open science and talked about the work of our university and EELISA in this field and the expectations for the future.

The result of open science: inclusivity, equality, and accessibility

—What is open science? What basic principles distinguish the open science approach from the traditional one?

I define open science as scientific knowledge production becoming more transparent and collaborative with new technologies. The way science is done is changing. In the traditional approach, there is a process of scientific communication in which only those with money have access to scientific content. Even the authors access the content they produce by paying a fee, and the impact of the research and the researcher on society is at the lowest level. With open science, there is a transformation to a process in which all actors can play an equal role, where openness and collaboration are essential at every research stage, from its conception to its dissemination and reproduction.

 —Why is open science important in today's research ecosystem? What are the benefits for students, researchers, and academics?

It is important in various ways for different individuals and groups, especially for the contribution of scientists and institutions to science to become visible and accessible in the scientific world for the formation of new collaborations, the transition from small-scale, repetitive scientific projects to large-scale, multi-participant, value-added, high economic and technological returns, and high social impact collaborations thanks to today's technologies.

The benefits can be generalized as follows: it increases the impact of research and international collaborations and competitiveness, creates new funding sources and opportunities, and supports the improvement of the quality and transparency of the research process, national and international visibility, production of value-added services, innovation by developing and producing new products.

Student-specific benefits range from removing economic barriers in accessing different educational programs that improve their knowledge and skills, finding people and institutions that can fund their projects, supporting their career choices, and reaching their career goals in a shorter time.

Invitation to work together

— As an EELISA Open Science Ambassador, you have taken a leadership role in promoting open science by leading EELISA's open science activities through ITU. How are the open science activities carried out at ITU contribute to this role?

The formation of the open science ambassadors network builds on the work carried out within the EELISA innoCORE project to establish a strategic framework for EELISA's open science practices. This project’s aim is to enhance the open science dimensions of EELISA by exploring joint innovative mechanisms and tools for greater efficiency, productivity, transparency and better responsiveness to interdisciplinary research needs.

I believe that the most important factor in giving me such a responsibility is that I have been working in the team that has been carrying out open science studies for many years in the Department of Library and Documentation where I work. From this point of view, I think the mission of “open science ambassador” provides a good opportunity to diversify the open science practices carried out by our Library, to increase the impact of its services, and to reach more ITU members. Additionally, it is a good opportunity to work more actively in determining ITU's open science strategy, creating a policy, preparing an action plan, and putting it into practice.

The roles and responsibilities of EELISA Open Science Ambassadors can be categorized under four main subjects: advocacy, education, support, and community building. It is not possible to realize any of these responsibilities through the efforts of a single person. Therefore, I would like to take this interview as an opportunity to invite all ITU stakeholders who support open science culture, values, and principles to work together. I believe that, together, our sphere of influence will be stronger and expand further than ITU.

I already have two great teams supporting me on this path. One of them is a member of the ITU Academic Archives Commission, which started to work actively in 2023, and the second is an expert in our Library. Knowing the existence of these teams thrills and encourages me for our future work on the adoption and promotion of an open science culture in our institution. However, I would like to reiterate that every support from ITU academics, administrative staff, students, and alumni is important and invaluable.

— How does Open Science affect interdisciplinarity and collaborative research? Can you share examples from ITU and EELISA?

Open science itself is a system change that enables better science through open and collaborative methods. Open science improves the quality and impact of research and advances science by promoting reproducibility and interdisciplinarity.

Open access publication of the results of scientific studies supported by public resources, open and FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability) sharing of the data that is the source of these studies, ensures that these studies reach all those interested in the world of science, those who follow the studies carried out in academia, those who develop applications and those who produce.

Researchers from different disciplines, who are not aware of each other but work interactively, get to know each other and develop collaborations. In this way, institutions have the opportunity to use their budgets effectively and invest in different equipment, enabling research and production to take place under more affordable conditions. This open science practice in itself enables the realization of national and international multi-partner and collaborative studies/projects. EELISA is planning to implement a similar application, and once the preliminary preparations are completed, the “EELISA joint labs” will be one of the most important examples of the implementation of open science practices within EELISA. EELISA Open Science Community, one of the EELISA communities, is another good example I can think of here. This community, which brings together EELISA members from different disciplines and at different levels, offers its members the opportunity to produce projects together while raising awareness.

In the case of ITU, what comes to mind is the fact that our Library, which pioneered open science studies, has established a strong communication network with many different academic and administrative units within the institution in the process of disseminating open science practices, and this network is getting stronger every day. Today, joint in-house projects are produced with many units and academics, from the International Project Office to the Center of Excellence. Thanks to this network, the Library also acts as a bridge for joint projects with ITU and EELISA.

— What impact do Open Access publications have on the dissemination of scientific outputs?

The Budapest Open Access Initiative defines open access as “the ability of scientific literature to be accessed, read, recorded, copied, printed, scanned, linked to full text, indexed, exported as data to software, and used for any lawful purpose, without financial, legal or technical barriers through the Internet.” In this context, open-access publications have a direct impact on the dissemination of scientific outputs. Moreover, it would not be wrong to say that open-access publishing is the starting point of the open science movement. Open-access publishing of the outputs of scientific studies produced with public resources increases the immediate visibility, publication, and utilization of the results obtained.

What are the barriers to Open Science initiatives and how can these barriers be overcome?

There are sociocultural, technological, political, institutional, economic, and legal barriers to open science that are directly or indirectly related to each other. Fundamentally, there is a lack of awareness of the benefits and importance of open science practices and a lack of clear political commitment to promote open science and integrate it into government agendas.