EPS Survey on Open Science & Career Development for Researchers 2018
A survey was addressed to physicists in Europe, asking as many as possible to express their views on ‘Open Science and Career Development’. It was formulated by the European Physical Society in collaboration with the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc). It was launched in December 2017 and ran essentially during the first quarter of 2018. Information of the survey went through the usual channels of EPS to its Divisions, Groups and Individual Members, hoping also for the support of its member national societies.
The purpose of this survey is to help define European policy on open science and to improve the career development of researchers. In particular it was to help EPS to provide specific advices and solutions related to the needs and expectations of the European community of physicists.
The full survey can be found under https://www.eps.org/blogpost/751263/312837/ and is summarised as follow.
The majority of the respondents to this survey were active established researchers (professors, group leaders, principal investigators, etc.), postdocs and PhD students, with education in physical science and working essentially at universities in 29 European countries. Half of them are members of a national physical society and one third are individual members of EPS. Generally speaking, the scientists who answered are happy with their research activity and would rather pursue it in a university or research institution than starting or joining a small company. Their knowledge of Open Science and Open Data is surprisingly still rather modest, with the exception of Open Access publication, but they realise the necessity of getting more information, skills and support from their institutions. The interest for policy and Open Science initiatives is still rather limited. On the relevant current issue of Open Data and Data Management, the majority is nevertheless aware of its importance and would appreciate further guidelines. The research data are still often stored on their personal computers or group’s and institute’s servers, whereas the access to data remains limited to own groups, institutions or collaborating scientific community. Sharing research data is recognised as a good means to increase one’s own visibility but the reasons for not sharing them are personal data protection and confidentiality, or legal and intellectual property issues. Much concern is due to the potential additional time, efforts and costs related to the management of open data.
According to the statements of the European Commission, “Data should be as open as possible but as closed as necessary”. We hope that this survey will help getting a better picture of the “modus vivendi” with the different aspects of Open Science by the community of physicists in Europe.
