Open science and research leads to surprising discoveries and creative insights (2014), Ministry of Education and Culture

What is this about?

Open Science and Research Leads to Surprising Discoveries and Creative Insights (2014), published by Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, sets out national expectations for open science and open access, aligning local practice with international principles. Written in Finnish and English, it positions openness as the default, balanced by ethics, privacy, intellectual property, and security, and promotes the principle of being “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” The document highlights open access publishing via trusted repositories, Creative Commons licensing, persistent identifiers, and FAIR data principles supported by data management plans. It assigns responsibilities to researchers, institutions, and funders, covering rights retention, funding acknowledgments, and justified embargoes for sensitive cases. Infrastructure, such as repositories, discovery services, and research information systems, underpins compliance and visibility. Equity and responsible openness are cross-cutting themes, stressing affordability, multilingual communication, and safeguards for sensitive or Indigenous data. Serving as a benchmark and checklist, it offers actionable steps to improve transparency, reproducibility, and equitable access in Finland.

For whom is this important?

All stakeholders in research

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