About Open Science

Open Science’s principles and practices have gained great relevance in recent years. They are increasingly asserting themselves as one of the commitments that will most deeply influence the multiple synergies between the scientific community, companies and society.

The creation of the UC Open Science webpage gives public visibility to the commitment of the University of Coimbra to Open Science and to its programmatic engagement to position itself at the forefront of a movement across scientific institutions, policymakers, economic agents and all forms of active citizenship.

The new Science Law (Decree-Law no. 63/2019), approved by the Council of Ministers on February 21, 2019, entered into force on May 17, 2019. Reformulating the legal regime of institutions dedicated to scientific research and technological development, the Law seeks to achieve, among others, the objective of:

"Encouraging the adoption of open practices and processes for the creation, sharing and use of scientific knowledge by R&D institutions, in accordance with the principles that underpin the strategies of “Open Science” and “Right to Science”, namely in terms of access and participation."

Thus, in accordance with art. 8th,

"R&D institutions must contribute to open science, in accordance with international best practices, guaranteeing free and open public access to scientific knowledge and promoting involvement and interaction with society."

The path to Open Science began to be trodden with the Budapest Open Access Initiative, in 2002, focused on a statement that calls for online availability, without restrictions and without cost, of scientific literature.

It assumes that the shift from scientific publications to the electronic model and to circulation on the Internet makes possible wide dissemination of research results and, consequently, their use for the benefit of society. The proposal is reiterated in the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge on Science and Humanities, both from 2003.

The movement intensified and progressively gained defenders, reaching the decisive point of influencing political decisions. In this way, Open Science, asserting itself initially in the context of scientific publications, broadened its scope and begins to define itself, now, as a new way of making science.