README
Intro to Resources for Open Science in Astronomy (ROSA)
ROSA is designed to help you learn best practices in “open science” in astronomy – researching in such a way that:
- others can collaborate and contribute to the work
- data, lab notes and other research outputs are freely available on the Internet, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.
This resource is designed to help researchers in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, at all stages of their career, to work openly from proposal to publication.
The problem
The field of Astronomy & Astrophysics is better at open science than many other scientific fields but there is still a long way to go to make astrophysical research more transparent, reproducible, open and inclusive. The field has been very successful in open access of publications on the arXiv, however other open practices such as open data and open source are not as widespread. This can make it difficult/impossible to reproduce results - a fundamental aspect of the scientific method - and frustrating to build on the research of others. The reasons for this are diverse, but prominent issues include:
- Culture! Tradition! “This is just the way it has always been done.”
- Perceived barriers against working openly such as competition for jobs, the race to publish results or the need to protect intellectual property.
- A lack of understanding in the community about how to work in an open way.
As a result, academia can be a closed and stressful environment where imposter syndrome is not uncommon.
A solution
These days, it is widely recognised that making research results more accessible contributes to better and more efficient science, and to innovation in the public and private sectors. Recent studies have also shown that open research practices reap benefits such as increases in citations, media attention, potential collaborators, job and funding opportunities. Not to mention that funding agencies, such as those under Horizon 2020, now require research products (such as data and publications) to be made openly available. ROSA aims to translate this policy into action by tailoring open research best practices and tools to suit astronomy.
This project’s mission is to:
- Change the culture by
- Breaking down the perceived barriers against open research and
- Providing a resource that equips researchers with the tools to work openly from proposal to publication.
This resource consists of # sections, each containing information on a topic related to working open. The # sections are:
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