University of Exeter expert helping to boost open science in Europe

Dr Leonelli is advising the European Commission on how they can create a system where all new publications freely available, rather than only available in journals which require expensive subscriptions. The aim is to improve the quality of scientific research and allow findings to have a greater visibility and impact.

Over the last three months, Dr Leonelli chaired the Open Science Publishing Working Group of the Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP), a high-level advisory board created by the European Commission to advise on the implementation of the ambitious Open Science policy of the European Union. This policy, which was announced in May 2016, includes a firm commitment to make all publications funded through the EU available in an Open Access format by 2020, as well as to support Open Data as a default mode of scientific communication.

Last week, Dr Leonelli reported the OSPP recommendations on Open Science publishing to the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas. This included the importance of rethinking the current system of research evaluation and incentives in ways that will reward research quality and stimulate the uptake of Open Science publishing.

Dr Leonelli said: “We have been giving continuous advice on how this shift can happen. Scientific publishing has been moving in this direction, but the whole system for how research is evaluated will need to change to facilitate an entirely open-access system.”

Dr Leonelli’s work has been featured in Nature, Science and the Times Higher Education, and she spoke about it at the recent AAAS conference in the USA last month.