Sally Ekanayaka Sally Ekanayaka

Open Science & Open Access : How far apart are they?

So far, yet so near!

It is easy to confuse the two for one and understandably so, what with media using one as a substitute for the other. To fully understand the underlying differences of the two is to fully acknowledge the importance and implications it manifests in the research world.

 

Difference between Open Science and Open Access

Open Access (OA) is the terminology used for the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available in online repositories such as MyScienceWork to anyone interested in reading it. Open Access could be applied to all kinds of research content such as published journal articles, book chapters, monographs or research data.

                                                                            

Open Science or Open Research is a much broader term which is the conduction and dissemination of research in a more transparent and collaborative way.  In many ways, open science is no different to traditional science with research data and lab notes at various stages of research cycle being made freely available as early as possible. So Open Science includes open access to content and information but also could encompass things like scholarly communication networks, citizen science projects, open lab notebooks and open source software.

 

How does MyScienceWork help research libraries host Research Data that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)?

MyScienceWork strongly advocates for maximizing storage of research data and access of scholarly communications while simultaneously addressing the needs of multiple stakeholders of research libraries and repositories. On one hand The MSW Scientific Platform serves the needs of individual members eager to search, access and share research. On the other hand MSW proposes advanced solutions for research institutions to make their scholarly outputs more Findable (with metadata structuring and enrichment solutions), and effortlessly Accessible (all scholarly output hosted in one place and as open as possible), Interoperable (solutions made to be integrated with third party systems) and Reusable (features to share, download and read).  

Our open source research data repository solution in conjunction with our data analytics algorithms on scholarly content is the perfect match for a cost-effective and scalable solution to help researchers deposit their data in repositories and make it FAIR.