InES Open Science Project U. of Chile concludes with regulations
Guiding the development of this area within the institution is the objective of the Open Science Regulations for scientific publications and research data produced at the University of Chile, a document prepared within the framework of the InEs Open Science Project of the campus. The closing event was held in the Julio Cabello auditorium of the Faculty of Medicine, where the academic and student community gathered to learn more about its main milestones, advances and challenges.
On May 30, the Closing of the InES Open Science Project of the University of Chile. The event took place at the premises of the School of Medicine and brought together the academic and student community to account for the challenges and goals achieved during the implementation of the initiative between 2021 and 2024.
In 2021, the University of Chile, through the vicerectories of Information Technologies (VTI), Research and Development (VID), and the Directorate of Information Services and Libraries (SISIB)awarded the Project called “Towards cultural change in the University of Chile on Open Science.”
This initiative, funded by the National Research and Development Agency (ANID)focused on designing and proposing strategies to achieve a cultural change in the institution, towards Open Science.
Open Science at the Casa de Bello: Actions and balances
The InEs Open Science Project focused on create an institutional framework for data governance and publicationscreating committees that propose a research data strategy and publishing publications.
At the same time, it sought to strengthen the application of existing technologies at the University, as well as creating training tools for communities of academics, researchers, librarians and graduate students.
Among the achievements obtained, the initiative promoted a series of activities to encourage open science at the university. Among them, highlighted the commons coffee creation on the different campuses; the realization of open access weeks during 2022 and 2023, with a series of actions open to the community; the execution of a international symposium on biological collections and open data 2023; the coordination of a introductory course on the EOL platform; and a campaign to link the ORCID profile, unique identifier of research production, of UCH academics.
Also, it was achieved obtaining 70 datasets in the UCH data repository; the record of almost a thousand academics with an ORCID profile linked to the University; more than 2 thousand new publications in the academic repository; and nearly 300 students enrolled in the UCH Open Science course, among other data.
Project closing event
The Julio Cabello auditorium of the Faculty of Medicine was the setting to receive the academic and student community, who gathered to learn more about the main milestones, challenges and advances achieved during the validity of the InES Open Science Project.
The Director of Data of the Vice-Rector’s Office for Information Technologies, Lucía Moreno valued the meeting, pointing out that “we start 2021 with this strategic alliance between vice-chancellors and with the objective of institutionalizing open science at the University. This is beyond a vision about the steps for an investigation or a repository where to leave this data, but the idea was to leave at the center of the University of Chile, forms and work teams that can continue with this work.” .
In that sense, Moreno reported that despite the closure of the Project, the issue will continue to be addressed through the institutional website dedicated to it, where the course on open science will also continue to be available for the entire national and international community.
He Vice-Rector for Research and Development, Christian González-Billault, mentioned the contribution of open science to university development. “This approach is necessary to solve most of the most complex problems that affect our country and the planet. There is also a social benefit in making knowledge available to other areas of society such as educators, decision-making legislators and citizens.”
For his part, the director of the Directorate of Information Services and Libraries (SISIB), Rodrigo Donoso, positively evaluated the closure of the Project, stating that “it met its objectives and sought to go further in lines that are important for the University, such as Citizen Science. In addition, it managed to improve the existing digital infrastructure in the data repository, the development of the open science course, the proposal for regulations, and multiple dissemination actions, among others.”
The day also included the participation of Patricia Muñoz, deputy director of Networks, Strategy and Knowledge at ANIDwho, along with valuing the synergistic work of the Vice-Chancellors and SISIB, maintained that “an integral part of this change management process will be supported by permanent training strategies and the dissemination of the results that were generated during its execution.”
Finally, the event also allowed the recognition of those who completed UCile’s Open Science course, which was launched last April free of charge for the community. In this way, students, academics and officials were awarded for their achievement and new knowledge on the subject.
Open Science Regulations for UCH
In the activity, the Project Director reported that the work team designed and wrote a draft regulations to define the mechanisms for publishing research results and data. These standards were delivered to the Vice-Rector for Research and Development (VID), to be presented, discussed and approved by the higher authorities of the University.
Among the main proposals supported by the regulation, the recognition of Open Science in institutional work and that of authorship in the matter is addressed. It also problematizes the role of editors, aspects of scientific integrity and the use of data management plans and institutional repositories.
Given this, the VID Vice-Rector, Christian González-Billault, mentioned that “this regulation represents a significant advance that allows us the opening and accessibility of scientific knowledge and benefits society in general. The regulation defines a set of sciences as an inclusive construct that integrates various movements and practices with the aim of making scientific knowledge available and accessible to everyone.
For his part, Rodrigo Donoso, director of SISIB, expressed that “it is highly valuable that the University recognizes open science and, based on this, generates instances to promote and develop its components. The valuation of open access to scientific publications and research data as one of the ways to achieve the widest dissemination of knowledge, to bring closer its heritage of research, artistic creation and innovation, seems to me to be of the greatest importance.”
