ROSiE
Responsible Open Science in Europe
Objectives
ROSiE will provide an analysis and develop practical tools aimed at ensuring ethics and research integrity in open science and citizen science. This will be done by a strongly multi-disciplinary project group consisting of world-leading experts and organizations in these three fields.
Open science does raise new questions about research ethics, integrity and misconduct. Re-search misconduct and questionable research practices occur in the current scientific processes, and it is likely that similar or new forms of misconduct and questionable practices will emerge in open science, too. It is therefore important to identify and analyse the potential for misconduct in various areas of open science practice and in different scientific disciplines, and to identify and analyse current ethical, social, and legal approaches responding to questionable practices. It is only based on such an analysis that the European science system can effectively ensure that ethics and research integrity become a structural component of open science.
Outputs
- Provide a systematic inventory of ethics and research integrity, social, and legal implications and challenges of open science; and of existing technologies and platforms that safeguard responsible open science.
- Conduct consultation and stakeholder engagement aimed at creating and sustaining a community of practice involving all European stakeholders interested in open science and ethics and research integrity.
- Conduct a strategic policy assessment for promoting responsible open science and develop operational guidelines for relevant stakeholders, including a complement to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.
- Develop an ethics and research integrity knowledge hub for open science and training materials for ethics and research integrity aspects of open science.
Key project results/activities for RECs and ethics experts
D3.3 “Report on interviews” highlights the relationship between open science and research ethics through a series of expert interviews. The report acknowledges the potential benefits of open science in enhancing transparency and engagement but notes emerging challenges, particularly in areas like data protection, intellectual property rights, and societal engagement. It calls for a balance between openness and safeguarding privacy, with the GDPR and national data protection laws serving as integral components in addressing these challenges. The report also highlights the limited consideration of open science in ethics reviews by RECs and emphasises the need for guidance to help REC members navigate the practical aspects of the “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” approach.
D3.4 “Recommendations resulting from the analysis of the consultation process” highlights the compatibility of key research ethics principles with open science but reveals a gap in explicit consideration within REC reviews. Stakeholders express a desire for guidance on integrating open science into ethics reviews and highlight RECs’ role in ensuring the ethical adequacy of the “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” approach. The recommendations stress the importance of protecting research participants' autonomy, dignity, and privacy in an open data environment.
The ROSiE General Guidelines on Responsible Open Science present overarching principles that emerge from the project’s analysis. These guidelines call for respect for research participants’ rights and dignity, with a recognition that alternative modes of engagement and consent might be necessary in open science environments. Privacy protection in open data settings is highlighted, emphasising the need for governance mechanisms and technical solutions to address reidentification and dual-use risks. The guidelines call for the exploration of approaches to protect privacy and acknowledge the importance of inclusivity, nondiscrimination, and ethical governance in fields where ethics review systems are less developed, such as in technology research.
Duration
March 2021 - February 2024
Website
Cordis Entry
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
