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Open science and research

Open science and research are an integral part of Tampere Universities’ operations and underlie our research culture, publishing, research data and education.

Our activities are informed by national and international policies and recommendations on open science and research. We are committed to the Declaration for Open Science and Research 2020-2025 and the policies and recommendations that specify and enrich it. We actively participate in national and international development work to promote open science and research. We are also committed to, for example, the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

Openness of research culture

In our research community, responsible openness is part of everyday life throughout the research process, and we are actively developing evaluation practices, incentives, and services to support it.

Openness of publishing

We promote and support the immediate responsible openness of scientific publications and other research outputs equally in all fields of science and all career stages of our researchers. 

The publications, theses, research data and research methods produced at Tampere University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences are principally shared and open.

Openness of research data and methods

Our aim is to ensure that research data and methods are as open as possible and as closed as necessary. Data are appropriately managed in accordance with the FAIR principles. We consider research methods and data as independent research outputs.

Openness of education

Our community understands open education as part of open science. Open education enables the sharing, reuse, and further use of a wide range of learning materials and teaching practices.

We value and support open science and research. The key objectives and characteristics of open science are:

  • publishing research results, data, source codes and methods in a way that makes them accessible and usable
  • the transparency and the easy access and use of methods, data, teaching materials and research outcomes
  • benefits to society, science, research, and the researcher.

Openness advances science and research and the development of the scientific community by

  • improving and ensuring the quality of scientific knowledge
  • strengthening the reliability and transparency of research and its evaluation
  • increasing access to scientific knowledge and scientific research methods in research, teaching and learning
  • enabling and enriching collaboration between researchers
  • increasing the impact of research in society.

Services and support for open science

Openness is included in the responsible conduct of research, and also an essential part of researcher skills. Tampere University Library supports open access publishing, open education and research data management, advises on monitoring the impact and visibility of research and using Tampere Universities’ research information systems.  

The Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) – which operates as a separate unit of Tampere University – has worked to promote open science in Finland for over 20 years. FSD’s Aila Data Service allows users to browse the FSD data catalogue, search for data, read data descriptions and download data. The data descriptions in Finnish and in English also contain in-depth information on how the data were collected. In addition, FSD’s Research Method Guidebook provides information on use of research methods.

We encourage open science and research by annually awarding a person, group or project in our community that has notably promoted open science and research practices.

The following guidelines define our principles: 

In addition, our Data Management Policy for Open Research Infrastructures guides our research infrastructures in devising their own policies for open science. Both our open science and research policy and our action plan are being updated.