The Future of Open Science Policy: Transparency Across the Research Lifespan
Channel: Center for Open Science
Date: 2024-04-03

Making the outputs of federally funded research transparent and publicly accessible is a central goal of the U.S. government’s open science initiatives. Yet these outputs represent only the final stage of the research life cycle, while earlier stages — including proposal development, protocol planning, project implementation, and peer feedback — often remain closed off to the community, the public, and decision-makers. Increasing the transparency of these key components of the scientific process could be transformative. The Year of Open Science reaffirmed the vital role of government actors in supporting open and transparent science. To help build on that momentum, the Federation of American Scientists partnered with the Center for Open Science and the Wilson Center to run an Open Science Policy accelerator aimed at advancing new, ambitious policy ideas. In this session, participants from the accelerator discuss policies and initiatives to advance openness across the research lifespan. Exploring ideas of openness in research methodology, peer review, grant applications, and data sharing, these recommendations highlight the power of cross-cutting transparency to help lay a stronger foundation for evidence-based policy and scientific advancement.