Course in open science: "Investment in your future research career"
Stockholm University offers a course in open science for doctoral students.
The article was published in 2023 and updated in June 2024.
Since 2022, Stockholm University has had a policy on open science. It states that, as far as possible, the university's research results and research data must be published under an open license and that data and results must be freely available. Several research funders require open access publishing, and open access is also becoming increasingly common internationally.
One way to support researchers at the university is the course Open Science for PhD students, 5 ECTS. The course is offered within the framework of the Doctoral School in the Humanities. Doctoral students at the Faculty of Humanities have priority for the course – but subject to availability, doctoral students at other faculties and higher education institutions are also admitted.
The course has been designed to provide doctoral students with basic skills in good research data management and open publication pathways. The overall goal is to improve the doctoral students' knowledge of good practices in scientific communication. Teaching takes place both at the university and digitally.
Highly appreciated course
Beyza Björkman Nylén is a professor of English, a member of the reference group for open science at the university and is responsible for the doctoral course, which is given together with the University Library. She teaches the course together with Maria Almbro, Lisa Olsson and Sofie Wennström from the library. Beyza Björkman Nylén says that the course given in the spring semester of 2021 was highly appreciated with a large group participating with great interest.
"After the course, all the doctoral students agreed that it is no longer possible to be a doctoral student and plan your research future without knowledge of open science.”
Why should you take the course as a doctoral student?
“You should take the course because open science is important for ethical and democratic reasons. As a doctoral student, there is a responsibility that lies with the researcher to make their research transparent, accessible and reusable as much as possible. Research that is fully or partly publicly funded should, as far as possible, be openly available (according to the university's policy) and as a researcher you must know what this means.”
Beyza Björkman Nylén and the other teachers on the course would like to see that there also should be help for supervisors so they can help their doctoral students about open science.
Important to learn the FAIR principles
Photo: Max Hesselbrandt
Matti Marttinen Larsson took the course in the spring semester of 2021. At the time, he was a doctoral student at the Department of Romance Studies and Classics, and is currently a postdoc at the Department of Linguistics.
“The most important thing I learned during the course was the FAIR principles*. It was very instructive and useful to learn what they mean and how to reflect on and work in accordance with them during the course of a research project, especially in connection with developing a data management plan and publishing data and code.”
In linguistics, according to Matti Marttinen Larsson, it is becoming increasingly common for journals to request that articles should be published with open data and code to the extent possible.
"It has been very helpful to have the knowledge from the course and the FAIR principles with me when I make data and code available when my research is reviewed and published.”
What is your advice to other doctoral students who are considering taking the course?
"The course is a fun and very effective way to assimilate the knowledge that is increasingly required to be able to publish your research. Therefore, it can be very useful to take this course.”
He believes that the knowledge conveyed can be useful both during the course of the doctoral project and in future research projects.
"My view is that open science is the foundation for future research. Being well acquainted with the fundamentals and principles of open science can be an important investment in your future research career.”
*FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The FAIR principles mean that research data must be findable, there must be information on how to access it, it must be compatible with other data, and it must be possible to reuse.
Read more on FAIR
Doctoral School in the Humanities
Stockholm University's policy for open science can be summarized in six overarching objectives.
1. The University's research and education environments support, encourage and educate about open science
2. The university offers and develops central services and support in a local infrastructure that can meet researchers' needs for basic support throughout the research process
3. The University's research results and research data are published as far as possible under an open licence
4. The University's research results and research data are managed, published, preserved and disposed of in accordance with the FAIR principles, as well as managed securely throughout the research process
5. The University encourages cooperation and participation in national and international contexts that lead to the promotion of sustainable development in open science
6. The University encourages an incentive structure that promotes and values open science as an integral part of research evaluation methods.
Policy for open science at Stockholm University
Read more about open science at Stockholm University
Last updated: June 24, 2024
Source: Communications Office