Open research

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Open research is scientific research, conducted in the spirit of free and open source software. It extends upon the more common notion of open science, so as to encompass the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities.

Much like open source schemes are built around a source code that is made public, the central theme of open research is to make clear accounts of the methodology, along with data and results extracted therefrom, freely available via the internet. This permits a massively distributed collaboration.

Most open research is conducted in existing research groups. Primary research data are posted which can be added to/interpreted by anybody who has the necessary expertise and who can therefore join the collaborative effort. Thus the 'end product' of the project arises from many contributions rather than the effort of one group. Open research is therefore distinct from open access in that the output of open research is mutable.[1] Issues of copyright are dealt with by either standard copyright or by releasing the content under licenses such as the Creative Commons Licence or one of the GNU General Public Licenses.

Several early (2005) examples arose in the area of the search for new/improved treatments in neglected diseases.[2][3][4][5]

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[edit] External links

  • Open Source Drug Discovery Blog - Open Source Drug Discovery Blog is the official Blog of the Indian Open Source Drug Discovery Initiative .
  • The GNU Free Documentation License or GFDL is the licence used for the open-research content associated with Meta Collab.
  • MIT's open source research community is another example of open research.
  • UsefulChem is an example of Open Notebook Science mainly focussed on the synthesis and testing of anti-malarial compounds
  • The Synaptic Leap Open Research organisation in biomedical science, currently focussing on neglected tropical diseases.
  • SCRIBE - an interdisciplinary and open research group on computer-aided searches by similarity of handwritings in digitized music manuscripts.
  • The Orb Project - an innovative new content management and platform for spreading open source philosophy in research. Orb is short for open research base.
  • designbreak - open science and engineering non-profit, with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration to address issues of health and poverty.
  • The Open Research Society - an independent NGO that aims at the development of open research and open science.
  • Science Commons - a branch of the Creative Commons process specifically dedicated to open science and research.
  • Open Source Drug Discovery Foundation - Open Source Drug Discovery Foundation is an international non-profit foundation based in India to accelerate drug discovery for infectious diseases.