Gaps between Open Science activities and actual recognition systems: Insights from an internation...

There are global movements aiming to promote reform of the traditional research evaluation and reward systems. However, a comprehensive picture of the existing best practices and efforts across various institutions to integrate Open Science into these framewo…
Mr. Winston Beer · 4 days ago · 2 minutes read


Open Science Rewards and Incentives

Participants' Profiles

Our survey gathered responses from 230 individuals from 37 countries, primarily those affiliated with universities, research institutes, and government agencies. The majority identified their disciplines as natural sciences (53.1%) and social sciences (22.6%).

Familiarity and Engagement with Open Science

90% of respondents reported familiarity with Open Science, with most actively involved in making their scientific publications open access (63%). Engagement with other practices, such as data sharing and pre-registering study designs, varied.

74% claimed familiarity with the FAIR Principles, with about a third involved in data FAIRification processes.

Reward Preferences for Open Science Activities

Open or FAIR data management and sharing (82%) and publishing a paper/monograph as open access (79%) were strongly endorsed as activities deserving rewards. Conversely, sharing research manuscripts as preprints received the least support (14%).

Current Rewarding Practices

85% of participants reported that their organizations lacked any formal initiatives or tools for rewarding Open Science activities. However, respondents from France, the United States, the Netherlands, and Finland mentioned specific funds, awards, and consideration of OS activities in evaluations.

Preferred Reward Types

The most desired rewards included:

  • OS indicators in research evaluation and/or career progression processes (54.5%)
  • Funding or grants for OS activities (21.3%)