Science as an open enterprise (2012), The Royal Society Science Policy Centre

What is this about?

Science as an Open Enterprise (2012), published by The Royal Society Science Policy Centre, sets out international expectations for open science and open access with a focus on the UK. Written in English, it frames openness as the default while balancing ethics, privacy, intellectual property, and security, following the principle of being “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” The document links openness to research quality, reproducibility, innovation, and equitable access, particularly for communities with limited subscription access. It emphasizes open access publishing through repositories, Creative Commons licensing, persistent identifiers, and FAIR data principles supported by data management plans. Responsibilities are assigned to researchers, institutions, and funders, including rights retention, transparency in embargoes, and cost management. Infrastructure such as repositories, registries, and discovery systems supports adoption, aligning practices with initiatives like Plan S and the European Open Science Cloud. Equity and responsible openness are cross-cutting themes, ensuring inclusion, multilingual communication, and safeguards for sensitive or Indigenous data. Serving as both a benchmark and a practical checklist, it offers actionable steps to strengthen transparency, reproducibility, and equitable access to research.

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