ERC study identifies repositories that enable researchers to comply with Open Science requirements

Made publicly available at the end of March, a new study by the European Research Council (ERC) identifies data and publication repositories that could help its grantees, as well as recipients of other Horizon Europe grants, comply with the European Union's open science requirements when sharing the results of their Horizon Europe-funded projects. The authors of the study analysed 220 repositories and assessed their features. The material is freely available on Zenodo; the study is accompanied by an inventory of trusted repositories and additional survey data.

The study's authors found that over 90% of the "trusted" repositories were compliant with basic open science requirements. However, only three repositories met all the mandatory metadata requirements, and none met both the mandatory requirements and those recommended in the Horizon Europe grant agreements.

The study shows that repositories support open science principles in a variety of ways, and that information on the repository characteristics is not always publicly available. Furthermore, it highlights that a high level of technical expertise is generally required to assess all requirements and corresponding features of repositories, which reinforces the need for guidance in this respect.

The Horizon Europe grant agreements include new open science requirements. Not only do they mandate grantees to deposit their research results in repositories to make them openly accessible but add several requirements related to the trustiness of such repositories and the metadata provided.

A support tool for researchers

The report is accompanied by an inventory of repositories that will provide researchers with a practical tool to find platforms that facilitate compliance with beneficiaries' open science obligations. The report is also meant to inform and encourage repository managers to update, refine and improve their services.

As the report and inventory provide a snapshot of the current situation, whose landscape is evolving rapidly, a revision of the inventory is envisaged in the second half of 2023.