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The National Plan for Open Science
The French Plan for Open Science is a strategic initiative by the French government to promote open access to scientific research. The first part of the plan was launched in 2018 and focused on making public research accessible to all.
What are the main aims and objectives?
The French Plan for Open Science primarily aims to democratize access to scientific research by mandating open access for all publicly funded research. This initiative seeks to foster a culture of data sharing and re-use, which can accelerate scientific discovery and innovation. It also aspires to support innovative publishing models to reduce barriers in disseminating research findings. By ensuring transparency in public research, it aligns with the broader global movement towards open science. These objectives all contribute to the plan's overarching goal of making public research results accessible to all, both locally and internationally.
How does the program work?
The French Plan for Open Science has several main features:
- Mandatory Open Access: All publicly funded research is required to be freely accessible. This ensures that the results of the research are available to all, promoting transparency and democratizing access to knowledge.
- Promotion of Data Sharing and Re-use: The plan encourages the sharing of research data and its re-use. This promotes collaboration and helps to avoid duplication of effort.
- Support for Innovative Publishing Models: The plan supports the development of new models of publishing that make research more accessible. This includes support for open access journals and platforms.
- Transparency in Public Research: The plan aims to increase the transparency of public research, making it easier for people to understand and engage with the research process.
- International Collaboration: The plan is not just limited to France but aims to be part of a broader global movement towards open science.
The first axis of the national plan consists of generalizing the opening of publications by:
- Establishing an obligation to distribute open access articles and works that result from research financed with public funds
- Creating a fund for open science to strengthen the editorial system and helping support a diverse and high quality scientific editorial community.
- Further support and simplification of Frances national open archive, HAL which makes it possible to grant access to articles that were published in closed journals.
The second axis of the national plan consists of structure and opening up of research data by:
- Establishing an obligation to disseminate open access data that results from publicly funded research.
- Creating the function of Chief Data Officer at the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation whose role it is to coordinate public action in terms of scientific data, in order to optimize their structuring, conservation and circulation.
- Encouraging the association of structured and open data with articles published by researchers. This step is towards the development of ‘data papers’ to help better describe how the data has been constructed.
The third axis is to promote France as a leader of open science in a sustainable, European and international dynamic by:
- Encouraging training in open science through dedicated funding provided by the ministry, which will encourage the development and pooling of training materials.
- Inviting universities and research organizations to adopt an open science policy that combines the issues of publications, data, skills and evaluation.
- Participating in the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) led by the European Commission as well as in GO FAIR, a joint initiative of the Netherlands, Germany and France to involve all scientific communities in the data transformation movement.
What is the overall cost?
There is currently no information available on the costs of implementing the National Plan for Open Science.
How was it implemented?
The National Plan for Open Science was launched by Frédérique Vidal, the former Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, on July 4 2018. It was designed to align with the obligations set by the French National Research Agency and the European Union to publish all publicly funded research as open access.
The Second French Plan for Open Science was launched in 2021 following the perceived success of the original plan. The plan focuses on promoting data sharing and openness, with a vision to make open science a common and shared practice internationally. One of the significant goals of this plan is to achieve 100% open access to scientific publications by 2030 and includes supporting the rights retention strategy of cOAlition S, which allows researchers to disseminate their open-source texts without delay. The plan also supports the Jussieu Call for Open Science and Bibliodiversity, aiming to create a transparent and ethical ecosystem for scientific publishing. It is set to be effective until 2024.
What impact has been measured?
The French government is able to demonstrate that over the three-year period the plan was in place (2018-2021), that the percentage of open access scientific publications increased from 41% to 56%. However, no further impact studies have been conducted on the impact of the National Plan for Open Science.
What lessons can be learned?
The National Plan for Open Science is a laudable effort that seeks to promote transparency, accessibility, and the democratization of science. However, like all plans, it has faced certain limitations and challenges that offer valuable lessons for future initiatives.
Firstly, the implementation of the plan has been a significant hurdle. The plan requires significant investment in open access platforms, updating the assessment system for researchers, and the use of open citations. The strategic and systematic investment needed for these initiatives has been a challenge, given the need for careful development of open policies.
Secondly, the effectiveness of the plan has been somewhat curtailed by issues of data sharing. Despite the emphasis on open access, instances of data withholding have been observed, requiring a follow up plan to enforce the principles of open science.
