Encouraging researchers in astronomy, from early-career to senior levels, to work openly by providing the why's and the how's in a single resource.
Thank you for visiting the Resources for Open Science in Astronomy (ROSA) project repository! (We love acronyms in astronomy.) ROSA aims to compile and tailor open science best practices from around the web into a kit for astronomers to work openly from proposal to publication, but can be adapted for use by any field! Just change the 'A' 😉
Here you will find information about the project and how to get involved!
First things first, what is "Open Science"?
According to FOSTER, Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.
But wait, isn't that just "Science"? Hence:
The field of astronomy & astrophysics has been very successful in open access of publications on arXiv, however other open practices such as open data and open source are not as widespread. This can make it difficult/impossible to reproduce results - a fundamental aspect of the scientific method - and frustrating to build on the research of others. The reasons for this are diverse, but prominent issues include:
- Culture! Tradition! "This is just the way it has always been done."
- Perceived barriers against working openly such as competition for jobs, the race to publish results or the need to protect intellectual property.
- A lack of understanding in the community about how to work in an open way.
As a result, academia can be a closed and stressful environment where imposter syndrome is not uncommon.
These days, it is widely recognised that making research results more accessible contributes to better and more efficient science, and to innovation in the public and private sectors. Recent studies have also shown that open research practices reap benefits such as increases in citations, media attention, potential collaborators, job and funding opportunities. Not to mention that funding agencies, such as those under Horizon 2020, now require research products (such as data and publications) to be made openly available. ROSA aims to translate this policy into action by tailoring open research best practices and tools to suit astronomy.
This project's mission is to:
- Change the culture by
- Breaking down the perceived barriers against open research and
- Providing a resource that equips researchers with the tools to work openly from proposal to publication.
This project aims to result in two products:
- A general open science resource kit that can be adapted to any field, and
- One specifically tailored for astronomy: ROSA.
The project will be developed here on GitHub so that anyone can contribute resources and tutorials from around the web and it will undergo curation and tailoring to create ROSA. The end product aims to be a well-documented guide on WHY you should research openly and HOW.
I am Dr. Rachael Ainsworth, a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Open Science Champion at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester (Twitter: @rachaelevelyn, GitHub: @rainsworth). I observe jets from young stars with next-generation radio telescopes to investigate the physical processes that assemble stars like our Sun. I organise a chapter of XX+Data in Manchester (Twitter: @xxplusdatamcr), a meetup group to bring together women who work with and love data - to support one another, share experiences and talk data. I am interested in promoting openness and well-being in astronomy/academia.
I am also a Mozilla Open Leader as part of Round 4 Cohort C (#RebelFoxes!) which provides me with the encouragement, mentorship and training to get this project off the ground! You can read more about this round's Cohort and projects here.
This project relies on contributions from both the wider astrophysics and open science communities in order to benefit from diversity and range in input - there is no way that a single person can provide a comprehensive enough resource! It will also continuously evolve over time as people use it and more open science tools become available. Not only will the general kit grow over time, but it can also be adapted to suit the needs of different research fields and audiences.
What open access, open data and open source tools from around the web would be useful for a researcher to have at the very start of their career? How can we present this information to senior researchers, who may be less experienced with these tools, so they can promote open research practices to their students and research teams?
If you have ideas or suggestions for content for this project, please check out our contributors' guidelines and our roadmap. Please note that by joining this project, you agree to follow the code of conduct in all interactions both on and offline.
Join us at the Mozilla Festival October 27-29, 2017 at Ravensbourne College, London! We'll be meeting in person to collaborate on this project and learn from each other - we will discuss and brainstorm what a kit like this should look like and compile content for it. Read more about our session and get your MozFest tickets now!
Together, we change the culture of the astronomy community to be more collaborative, iterative and open which is vital in order to pursue answers to fundamental questions about our Universe and inspire the next generation of researchers in STEM!
If you want to report a problem or make a suggestion, the easiest thing to do is to open an issue within this GitHub repository. You can also contact me by email ([email protected]) or on Twitter (@rachaelevelyn).
- STEM: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics
- README file: a document that introduces an open project to the public and any potential contributors
- Repository or Repo: a collection of documents related to your project, in which you create and save new code or content
- Roadmap: a document outlining the schedule of work to be done on a project
- Milestone: an event or state marking a specific stage in development on the project
- Issue: the GitHub term for tasks, enhancements, and bugs for your projects
(README.md template and Glossary by @KirstieJane/STEMMRoleModels) (Photo by: Sarah Pflug)
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