3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

Towards a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science 3rd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee 30 November 2020

Background and Objectives In line with the Resolution 40 C/Resolution 24 of the UNESCO General Conference and to guide the consultative process towards developing the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation, an international Advisory Committee on Open Science was established by the Director-General of UNESCO in June 2020.

With the guidance of the Advisory Committee that met in July and September 2020, the first draft of the Recommendation was developed based on the wealth of perspectives, proposals, and expectations that emerged from a global survey and a series of regional and thematic consultations with different Open Science actors from around the world. On 30 September 2020, the first draft of the Recommendation was transmitted by the Director-General to the UNESCO Member States for their consideration.

The third meeting of the Advisory Committee was held on 30 November 2020. The main objectives of the meeting were:

i) to discuss the actions undertaken and planned by the Secretariat to promote the draft Recommendation, ii) to discuss the actions by Members of the Open Science Advisory Committee in terms of: a) expert and strategic advice to support the process of the development of the Recommendation in their countries/regions; b) assistance with advocacy and communication; c) support with fundraising.

The meeting was chaired by the Chair of the Advisory Committee, Prof Fernanda Beigel from .

Report

Presentation of the actions undertaken by the UNESCO Secretariat

After the adoption of the agenda, Dr Peggy Oti-Boateng, Director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity building, UNESCO, presented an overview on the actions undertaken by the UNESCO Secretariat following the submission of the first draft of the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation to Member States on 30 September. She mentioned that the Secretariat was receiving the comments of the Member States and other concerned actors on the first draft until 31 December 2020.

Dr Oti- Boateng referred to the launch of a joint appeal for Open Science by UNESCO, WHO, and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 27 October. With this appeal, the 3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

three Organizations called upon their Member States, policy-makers, civil society representatives, youth networks, and the scientific community to uphold the ideals of Open Science, at all stages of the scientific process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and taking into account the ongoing process of development of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

She also informed the Advisory Committee about the presentation of the first draft of the Recommendation in different settings and international events including the information meetings for UNESCO Member States, Open Science thematic meetings and events such as 2020 World Science Day, OpenAir conference, FAIR data Symposium, Global Open Science Cloud workshop, IAP workshop on predatory journals and Preparatory meeting of the G20. She referred to gathering comments on the first draft from i) the African Open Science actors through an online meeting on 15 December 2020 organised in collaboration with the African Union, ii) the international scientific community, through an online survey launched by ISC, TWAS, IAP, ALLEA, and iii) Indigenous People, through an online meeting on 15 January 2021.

Dr Ana Persic, Chief a.i., Section for Science Policy and Partnerships, Division of Science Policy and Capacity building, UNESCO, added that the general feedback received during the Information meetings with Member States, has been positive. The draft text is characterized as comprehensive, but extra effort should be made to avoid any possible mismatch between the Recommendation and other policy instruments, with specific reference to the Nagoya Protocol. Another point of reference was the consistency with the draft UNESCO Recommendation on Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.

Discussion of the actions undertaken and/or planned by the Members of the Open Science Advisory Committee

During this session members of the Advisory Committee shared their actions in support of the development of the Recommendation and pointed to the main issues raised in their national and regional contexts.

The members from Argentina, Korea, Portugal, Serbia, Uruguay, and Poland were involved in national discussions on the draft Recommendation involving different stakeholders, including academics, researchers, experts, policy makers and publishers.

Dr Eun Jung Shin shared some suggestions from Korean experts, namely:

- the inclusion in the text of the Recommendation, and preferably in its preamble, of the previous relevant actions of UNESCO in the field of on Open Access, - the need to mention innovative and positive impacts of Open Science before introducing the challenges and barriers to Open Science; and - the need to mention institutional aspects of Open Science actors. In this context, Dr Beigel also added that “students” were an important group of Open Science actors that should be included in text.

Dr Iryna Kuchma and Prof Samia Charfi Kaddour reported on the feedbacks on the draft Recommendation from the meeting of the West and Central African networks on Open Science, which took place in Cote d’Ivoire and gathered stakeholders from French speaking African countries. They highlighted that according to the significant differences in the Open Science landscape and infrastructures among countries, different types of support for implementing the Recommendation in different countries should be foreseen. 3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

Dr Grisel Romero Hiller reported that in Venezuela Open Science is perceived differently by each group of stakeholders. For instance, people in the field of technology have particular interest in open data, code and software; people working in research institutes are concerned with costs related to Open Science and the burden of related open infrastructures; and among academics, there are concerns about plagiarism. Open innovation should be more prominent in the document and there are arguments to replace citizen science with participatory science. In sum, all stakeholders need to be consulted to reach a national consensus on Open Science.

Prof Gregory Randall mentioned that overall, there is a lack of awareness of the issue of Open Science. He also added that predatory practices were raised as an important issue at a discussion at the Council for Science and Technology of Uruguay. Furthermore, he reported a recent Resolution of the Central Board of Directors of the University of the Republic, Uruguay, on Open Science https://udelar.edu.uy/portal/2020/11/resolucion-del-cdc-sobre-los- desarrollos-de-la-udelar-en-el-contexto-de-la-lucha-contra-la-pandemia/

Dr Mouïn Hamzé highlighted the growing concerns raised by the significant increase of Open Access publishing costs by the key scientific journals.

Dr Jane Mubanga Chinkusu pointed out that from the point of view of Zambian stakeholders, the issue of intellectual property and benefits arising from sharing of indigenous knowledge needs to be addressed more clearly in the Recommendation.

The Advisory Committee also discussed some issues with the translation of the first draft of the Recommendation. In particular, Dr Beigel and other Spanish-speaking members of the Committee pointed to some inconsistencies in the Spanish translation, namely with regard to the translation of the terms “indigenous people”, “scientific practice” and “scientific enterprise”. The secretariat clarified that at this stage, only the French and English versions of the text were official, and the other four versions were provided to facilitate the discussions of the Members States. Member States will also comment on the translations of the Recommendation during the intergovernmental meeting. Members of the Advisory Committee showed interest in reviewing the four versions of the text and providing expert inputs in the translation of the Recommendation text at the most appropriate time.

The members of the Advisory Committee also discussed fundraising for implementation of the Recommendation. In this context, Dr Simon Hodson emphasized that Member States commitment to this Recommendation should include the commitment to fund infrastructures and capacity building for Open Science practices, and to provide incentives for practicing Open Science. He added that the Recommendation will provide guidelines and framework for Member States to direct their investment in this area.

Dr Randall added that public funds should cover Open Access publications, to prevent the financial burden of Open Access on researchers and to maintain the quality of scientific publishing.

Dr Delfim F. Leão added that implementation of Open Science requires the participation of actors and investors beyond the academia and research centres.

Members of the Advisory Committee agreed that in the way forward, sharing experiences, solutions and alternative practices of Open Science, across the world is important to support the implementation Open Science policies. Identifying champion countries and impactful initiatives in each region as well as supporting the establishment of institutions or public-private 3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

partnerships prior to adoption of the Recommendation was suggested as an important topic to be further discussed at the next meeting of the Advisory Committee.

Next Steps

In this session, Dr Persic informed the members of the Advisory Committee about the timeline and the next steps in the process of the development of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science as presented in the table below.

Next Steps Time Consolidation of comments received from Member States and other end of January actors 2021 Submission of the 2nd draft text of the Recommendation to Member end of March 2021 States Special intergovernmental committee meeting to negotiate the 10-12 May 2021 Recommendation text Possible 2nd meeting of the special intergovernmental committee 5-7 July 2021 Adoption of the final text of the Recommendation by 41st session of November 2021 the General Conference Launch of the Recommendation at the World Science Forum in South December 2021 Africa (tbc)

Dr Persic also informed the Advisory Committee that the Secretariat was preparing a set of background documents on key topics of Open Science to support Member States in their discussions and negotiations of the text of the Recommendation. She invited the members to further raise the visibility of the draft Recommendation and outreach about its objectives through their networks, in the scientific journals and other media.

Next meetings of the Advisory Committee

Based on the above described timeline, and upon the proposal from the Secretariat, the Advisory Committee agreed to hold two meetings in February 2021, on 1st and 17th February to review and discuss the integration of the received comments, and to discuss and finalize the second draft of the Recommendation, respectively.

Closing remarks

In her closing remarks, Dr Oti-Boateng emphasized the importance of advocacy for Open Science at the national and regional levels. She noted the need for a Roadmap for the implementation of the future Recommendation on Open Science and the important role for the Advisory Committee in such a Roadmap.

3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

Annexes I. List of participants II. Links shared by the participants in the chat

Annex I List of Participants A. Members of The Open Science Advisory committee

1. Ms Hanne Monclair, Policy Director, Department for Higher Education, Research and International Affairs, Ministry of Education and Research, Oslo, Norway 2. Mr Delfim F. Leão, Vice-rector for Culture and Open Science, Coimbra University, Portugal 3. Ms Ausra Gribauskiene, Chief Officer, Division of Science, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, Vilnius, Lithuania 4. Mr Jakub Szprot, Head of the Open Science Platform, Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw, Poland 5. Mr Stanislav Stanislavovich Davydenko, Deputy Head of Department, Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation 6. Ms Aleksandra Barac, MD, Scientific Associate, Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia 7. Ms Fernanda Beigel, Researcher at CONICET and professor at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza-Argentina 8. Mr Luiz Fernando Fauth, Advisor to the Vice-Minister, Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC), Brazil 9. Mr Gregory Randall, Professor, Institute of the Electronic Engineering, University of Republic, Uruguay 10. Ms Grisel Romero Hiller, President of the National Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation, Venezuela 11. Mr Juncai Ma, Director, Institute of Microbiology and the Information Centre, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 12. Mr Kazuhiro Hayashi, Senior research fellow, National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, Japan 13. Ms Noorsaadah Abd. Rahman, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Malaysia. 14. Ms Eun Jung Shin, Head of the Office of Institutional Innovation Research, Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), Republic of Korea 15. Ms Vivian Etsiapa Boama, Senior lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana 16. Ms. Jane Mubanga Chinkusu, Director of Science and Technology, Ministry of Higher Education, Zambia 17. Mr Philemon Mphathi Mjwara, Director-General of the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST), South Africa 18. Mr Essam Khamis Ibrahim Al-Hanash, Advisor to President of Alexandria University for International Ranking and Scientific Research, Egypt 19. Mr Mouïn Hamzé, Secretary General, National Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon 3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

20. Mr Ahmed Ali Abdalla Murad, Acting Associate Provost for Research, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), United Arab Emirates 21. Ms Samia Charfi Kaddour, Director-General, Scientific Research, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia 22. Mr Simon Hodson (UK), Executive Director of CODATA (Committee on Data for Science and Technology) 23. Ms Iryna Kuchma (Ukraine), Open Access Programme Manager, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) 24. Ms Carolina Botero (Colombia), Director of the Karisma Foundation 25. Ms. Joji Carino (The Philippines), Senior Policy Advisor, Forest Peoples Programme 26. Mr Henri Edouard Zefack Tonnang (Kenya), Researcher, Member of the Open Science Working Group, Global Young Academy 27. Ms Faiza Al-Kharafi (Kuwait), L’Oréal UNESCO FWIS 2011 Laureate, Board member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS)

B. Observers:

28. Mr Marc Vanholsbeeck (), Director of the Directorate of Scientific Research of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation 29. Mr Tommi Himberg (Finland), Counsellor of Education and Science in the permanent delegation of Finland to the OECD and UNESCO 30. Mr Carlo Andrés Altamirano Allende () 31. Mr Ismael Madrigal (Delegation of Mexico) 32. Ms Daniela Rodriguez Uribe (Delegation of Colombia) 33. Ms Emma Rodriguez (Delegation of Mexico) 34. Carolina Villarrubia (Permanent Delegation of Uruguay) 35. Santiago Saint Pierre (Delegation of Argentina) 36. Thembi Mdepa 37. Paola Castro

C. Secretariat: 38. Peggy Oti-boateng (DIR/SC/PCB) 39. Ana Persic (Chief a.i. SC/PCB/SPP) 40. Nigel Thomas Crawhall (Chief SC/PCB/SII) 41. Rafieian Fereshteh (Associate Programme Specialist SC/PCB/SPP) 42. Annapaola Coppola (Project Officer SC/PCB/SPP) 43. Despoina Sousoni (Consultant SC/PCB/SPP) 44. Ai Sugiura (Programme Specialist, Jakarta office) 45. Anne-Floor Scholvinck (Secondment SC/PCB/SPP) 46. Armelle WAFO GUEMGNE (Intern SC/PCB/SPP)

3nd meeting of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee

Annex II: Links to external resources shared by the participants in the chat • Journée francophone LIBSENSE (West Africa): https://spaces.wacren.net/display/LIBSENSE/Journee+francophone+LIBSENSE • Uruguay’s Universidad de la República Resolution N°7 (November 24, 2020) https://udelar.edu.uy/portal/2020/11/resolucion-del-cdc-sobre-los-desarrollos-de-la- udelar-en-el-contexto-de-la-lucha-contra-la-pandemia/ • UC joins the International Open Access Week with online initiatives: https://www.uc.pt/en/openscience/article?key=a-16e4550538 • Open Access Week: Coimbra University Press reaches 600 books at DOAB: https://www.uc.pt/en/openscience/article?key=a-5b15f26b39 • Rector and Vice-Rector of UC participate on symposium on open scientific repositories: https://www.uc.pt/en/openscience/article?key=a-dc52721b06 • UC Community is invited to participate in UNESCO's Open Science Recommendation: https://www.uc.pt/en/openscience/article?key=a-72fce7bc71 • A list for Open Access journals https://doaj.org/ • Compass to publish: a methodology to detect predatory journals: https://app.lib.uliege.be/compass-to-publish/ • Open Science & the Decolonization of Knowledge: https://knowledgeequitylab.ca/2020/11/08/open-science-webinar-series/ • Latin American OS initiative: https://www.latindex.org/latindex/inicio • Latin American OS initiative: https://scielo.org/en/ • Latin American OS initiative: https://www.redalyc.org/ • European Commission open publishing platform: https://www.uc.pt/en/openscience/article?key=a-dae7bf0647 • European Commission initiative: https://www.openaire.eu/item/equity-and- inclusion-open-science-policies • Convergence for Global Open Science Infrastructures: https://codata.org/events/conferences/international-fair-convergence-symposium- convened-by-codata-and-go-fair-22-23-october-2020-paris-france/plenary-session-2- convergence-for-global-open-science-infrastructures/ • The New Research Assessment Reform in China and Its Implementation (scholarlyassessmentreports.org) • IG for Surveying Open Data Practices: https://www.rd-alliance.org/groups/ig- surveying-open-data-practices