Open Science in 2017 G7 Science Ministers' Communiqué

The G7 Open Science Working Group was created in the 2016 Science Ministers' Communiqué, the Tsukuba Communiqué (PDF)

1. Establish a working group on open science with the aims of sharing open science policies, exploring supportive incentive structures, and identifying good practices for promoting increasing access to the results of publicly funded research, including scientific data and publications, coordinating as appropriate with the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) and Research Data Alliance (RDA), and other relevant groups

The 2017 Science Ministers' Communiqué (PDF) is now available, with a statement about Open Science as well as a summary of the G7 Open Science Working Group (G7 OS WG) report.  The Communiqué directs the Open Science Working Group to continue its work.

19. We recognize that ICT developments, the digitisation and the vast availability of data, efforts to push the science frontiers, and the need to address complex economic and societal challenges, are transforming the way in which science is performed towards Open Science paradigms. We agree that an international approach can help the speed and coherence of this transition, and that it should target in particular two aspects. First, the incentives for the openness of the research ecosystem: the evaluation of research careers should better recognize and reward Open Science activities. Secondly, the infrastructures for an optimal use of research data: all researchers should be able to deposit, access and analyse scientific data across disciplines and at the global scale, and research data should adhere to the FAIR principles of being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

20. We support the work and results achieved so far by the G7 Open Science Working group. The OS Working Group has identified priorities that deserve and require common aligned actions, both in encouraging openness and data skills in scientific research practice, through workforce development and training. We encourage the OS WG to follow-up actions taken by G7 members according to the WG’s recommendations and to collect good practices, in order to report to the next G7 Science Minister’s Meeting. In particular, we support the OS WG deepening its efforts on the two topics identified above (paragraph 19), namely the incentives for openness of the research ecosystem, including the role of research indicators and metrics relevant to open science, and the infrastructures and standards for optimal use of research. The summary report of the OS working group is attached to this Communiqué.

To extract specific priorities and direction:

• priority - incentives - "the evaluation of research careers should better recognize and reward Open Science activities"
• priority - research data infrastructure - "all researchers should be able to deposit, access and analyse scientific data across disciplines and at the global scale, and research data should adhere to the FAIR principles"
• direction - G7 OS WG - follow up (monitor) G7 member states' actions related to the WG recommendations
• direction - G7 OS WG - collect good practices
• direction - G7 OS WG - report back to the 2018 G7 Science Ministers' Meeting
• direction - G7 OS WG - deepen efforts on incentives, including research indicators and metrics relevant to open science
• direction - G7 OS WG - deepen efforts on infrastructures and standards for optimal use of research (with a particular emphasis on research data)

The statement "The summary report of the OS working group is attached to this Communiqué." is a bit confusing - the summary report is actually a separate annex document, it's not part of the main Communiqué PDF.

The summary report (PDF) also contains a key opening recommendation:

Overall, the G7 Open Science Working Group recommends that each G7 nation convene and engage with relevant stakeholders who can support moves towards incentivizing the increased adoption of Open Science in their national context.

as well as potential future discussion for the G7 in the areas of incentives and infrastructure for Open Science:

Incentives -

Potential future discussion at the G7 level: Consider approaches towards developing principles, for measuring the quality and impact of research enabled by Open Science practices. Discussions could also include means to identify, promote and implement best practices for Open Science, for example, through codes of conduct that build on existing procedures. This might lead to international consensus on the roles and responsibilities of researchers, institutions, and funders under Open Science.

Infrastructure -

Potential future discussion at the G7 level: Establish a forum for continued multilateral discussion to share information about major research data infrastructure initiatives in G7 countries and beyond. Discussion objectives could include:

• Development of a common understanding of Open Science and the related infrastructure requirements (e.g. for whom? Under which conditions?), including consideration of best practices in different disciplines of science and technology as well as in social sciences, humanities and the arts.

• Agreement to promote the FAIR principles for data resulting from government- funded research, increase discussion on sustainability and working towards shared guidelines for incorporating FAIR principles into the operations of infrastructure that support Open Science.

• Raising awareness of the necessity of well-qualified human resources and professional expertise for curation, annotation and other management of research data and incorporate them in the research processes.

Disclaimer: I was one of the Canadian representatives on the G7 Open Science Working Group in 2016-2017.

SIDEBAR: The FAIR principles mentioned are that data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable.  See e.g. https://www.force11.org/fairprinciples  END SIDEBAR

The G7 will be held in Canada in 2018.  The dates and location for the 2018 Science Ministerial have not been announced.

2016, 2017 and 2018 Science Communiqué Websites and Links

The 2016 Communiqué website is http://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/english/others/communique_en.html and there were two annexes to the Communiqué:

• Tsukuba Communiqué(PDF：169KB)
• Attachment 1 to Tsukuba Communiqué(PDF：82KB) - G7 follow-up workshop on mapping, coordination and joint activities in the field of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and Poverty-Related Infectious Diseases (PRDs)
• Attachment 2 to Tsukuba Communiqué(PDF：126KB) - Recommendations – G7 expert workshop on future of the oceans and seas

 The 2017 Communiqué website is http://www.g7italy.it/en/documenti-ministeriali and there were four annexes to the Communiqué:

• G7 Science Communiqué
• Annex 1 - Future of the Seas and Oceans
• Annex 2 – Report of the group of senior officials on global research infrastructures
• Annex 3 - WG Neglected Tropical Diseases and Poverty Related Diseases
• Annex 4 - WG Open Science

UPDATE 2017-10-03: You can also find a standalone page about the Science Ministerial at http://www.g7italy.it/en/news/the-ministerial-meeting-on-science-has-ended END UPDATE

UPDATE 2018-02-08: There is also an Italy 2017 Science Ministerial page at http://www.g7italy.it/en/science-ministerial-meeting but the link on that page to the Communiqué is currently broken.  END UPDATE

The 2018 G7 website is http://www.international.gc.ca/g7/ - updated to https://g7.gc.ca/

Twitter:

• @G7Canada - for the duration of the 2018 Canadian G7, Twitter will be @G7
• Peter Boehm, the Deputy Minister for the 2018 G7 Summit, tweets @G7Sherpa