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Open science and research

Open science and research have become an internationally significant method to promote the coverage and impact of science in the society. In addition to open access (OA), the openness of research refers to opening research data and methods. Research material is open when it can be utilised by everyone online. Digitalisation of research provides new possibilities for co-operation, communication and improving the visibility of scientific research. Openness increases opportunities to advance science and its methods, so responsible openness is a natural part of the research culture. Active presence online and in social media is essential in scientific communities.

Open science

  • improves the accessibility of findings and the transparency of research
  • speeds up innovations, corporate actions and collaboration
  • saves resources and promotes sustainable development,
  • promotes equality and equity,
  • makes it possible to bring up new research questions
  • helps to develop critical thinking and scientific literacy in the society

The purpose of scientific research is to produce new information for the society’s use, but for the time being, a great deal of research data is difficult to reach by the greater audience. Research studies, especially when funded with public financing, should mainly be open, unless there are, for instance, ethical or juridical reasons to not open certain phases or data of the research. Open research publications and data are increasing due to funder demand, the growing number of OA journals and the generalisation of other methods to support open access, such as publication archives. Openness offers opportunities but also requires researchers to develop new types of research information and process management skills, along with readiness to open their research work and its results.

According to the University of Eastern Finland’s publishing and data policy, research results will be published in each field’s most essential scientific publications of the highest quality. Findings, data and publications are open when following the principles of research integrity and showing respect towards the juridical (legislation and agreements) operating environment.

University of Eastern Finland aims to use open research activities to advance the development of science and good scientific practice. Regarding research and findings, the University of Eastern Finland’s goal is to promote their:

  • the scientific impact
  • reliability and transparency
  • usability and societal impact
  • durable application


The objective is to ensure research data produced via public financing to be broadly utilisable for the scientific community and the society. This requires the methods, results, data, source code and publications of a research study to be opened. Responsible opening takes into account the transparency, discoverability and usability of outputs. As per the publishing policy, the publications will be published OA by self-archiving (i.e. parallel publishing) them into the university’s publication archive within the framework of permit conditions defined by the publishers. Publications are recommended to be published also in high-quality scientific open access journals.

National guidelines

International guidelines

The European Union's open science web page

The European Comission's online manual

The European Comission's Funding and Tenders Portal

Horizon Europe Programme Guide (p. 38)

Horizon Europe General Model Grant Agreement (article 17)

Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement (pre-draft)

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources

International agreements

Berlin Declaration was compiled in a conference organised by the Max Planck Society in October 2003. An international group of representatives from universities, research institutes and scientific publishers attended the conference. The Finnish Council of University Rectors has also signed the declaration. According to the Berlin Declaration, scientific knowledge spreads only partially, unless information is used and shared openly. Knowledge and cultural heritage produced by humankind needs to be distributed globally and freely online.

Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) is an international initiative that aims to promote open publishing of scientific publications and communication in different fields of science. BOAI focuses only on peer-reviewed data. The main principle is that the publications have to be openly accessible online. Open access publishing increases visibility, readership and impact of scientists and their work.

CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) is the group of signatories that will contribute to the implementation of the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. This Agreement is published by Science Europe, representing European research funders, in July 2022.

Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication aims to encourage the global scientific community to adopt an atmoshphere that values multilingual science communication and open access to scientific publications in all languages.

LERU Statement on Open Access to Research Publications contains the leading European scientific universities’ statement that promote open publishing.

LERU Statement on Open Research Data contains the leading European scientific universities’ statement that promote open research data.

Plan S is a project that started in September 2018 that promotes open access to research publications. The project is backed by cOAlition S, an international network of research funders.

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Research Coalition) is a worldwide group of research institutes, scientific libraries and associations that promotes open accessibility of research knowledge and encourages alternative scientific publishing. SPARC Europe is its European branch. The University of Eastern Finland’s Library is involved in SPARC.

YERUN (Young European Research Universities) Open Science Strategic Actions