Action Areas of UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science: China’s Response and Practices

In November 2021, UNESCO released the Recommendation on Open Science, marking the global consensus on open science. The Recommendation puts forward the principles and connotations of open science, and calls on all countries to actively respond and actively implement it in the seven open action areas. China already developed some open science practices around 2021, and at the end of 2021, the revised “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Progress of Science and Technology” clearly stated “to promote the development of open science”.

In order to further respond to UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, a correspondence table for China’s open science practice was established to clarify China’s action process. If a practice is not included, please feel free to contact us (openresources@mail.las.ac.cn)


UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science

 

Correspondence

     Open Science in China

Open Action Areas 

Specific Action Content

China Implementation Content

Practical cases

Implementation time

(i) Promoting a common understanding of open science, as well as diverse paths to open science

Ensuring that open science incorporates the values and principles as outlined in this Recommendation.

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

NSFC Project “Study on the Development Trend of Open Science and the Impact on Science Foundation Policy”

2022

Chinese Academy of Sciences Consulting Project “Research on Global Trends and Impact of Open Science”

2022

 

Ensuring that publicly funded research is undertaken based on the principles of open science

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institutional Repositories Grid

2012

 

National Science and Technology Report Service

2013

 

National Social Sciences Database

2016

 

NSFC-OR(Open Repository of National Natural Science Foundation of China, 国家自然科学基金基础研究知识库)

2018

 

Encouraging  multilingualism in the practice of science and in academic communications.

2 Academic influence

Open Tibet Plateau Scientific Data


ChinaXiv, a platform for pre-publishing scientific papers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

2016

 

4.0

iFlytek Translator 4.0 Released

2022

 

Ensuring that the needs and rights of communities should not be infringed on in open science practices

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Chinese Academy of Sciences Open Day

2004

Outline of the National Science Literacy Action Plan (2021-2035)

2021

 

Enhancing open science communication

7 Policy influence

GoOA WeChat official account

2014

 

OA2020 WeChat official account

2018

 

Engaging the private sector in the discussion about open science

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Open access to Taobao data worldwide

2015

 

ByteDance Data Center

2017

 

Tencent Data Center

2017

 

Huawei Cloud Data Center

2017

 

Enabling open multi-stakeholder discussions

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

China Open Access Week

2012

 

At the 2021 ZGC Forum, the “ Alliance of Open Science and International Innovation” was established, and the “Beijing Initiative on Open Science Practice” was announced.

2021

 

World Laureates Forum

2021

 

The 3rd World Science and Technology Development Forum

2021

 

The Ministry of Science and Technology prepares to establish a preprint platform alliance

2022

 

(ii) Developing an enabling policy environment for open science

Developing effective institutional and national open science policies and legal frameworks

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

NSFC committee’s policy statement on open access to research publications from its funded projects

2014

 

CAS’s policy statement on open access to articles from publicly funded scientific research projects

2014

 

“Notice on Accelerating the Establishment of the Guiding Opinions on the National Science and Technology Reporting System”

2014

 

“Opinions of the State Council on Opening National Major Scientific Research Infrastructure and Large Scientific Research Instruments to the Society”

2014

 

“Implementation Rules for the NSFC Committee’s Open Access Policy for Open Repository”

2017

 

Law of the People’s Republic of China on Progress of Science and Technology

2021

Aligning open science policies, strategies and actions from local to international levels

7 Policy influence

Attended the Berlin Conference

2018

CCOS/CAST(中国科协联合国咨商开放科学与全球伙伴专委会)

2022

Encourage research institutions to implement open science policies and strategies

7 Policy influence

Notice of the CAS on the Issuance of the “Measures for the Management and Open Sharing of Scientific Data of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Trial)”

2019

 

“Measures for Agricultural Science Data Management and Open Sharing of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences”

2019

 

National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences formulated preprint policies

2022

 

More than 50 Chinese sci-tech journals launched preprint policies

2022

 

Encouraging stakeholders to coordinate open science practice

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Chinese Institutional Repository Conference

2014

 

Seminar on Open Resource Construction of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2015

 

“Blue Book on China’s Scientific Journal Development (2021) “

2021

 

Enhancing the inclusion of citizen and participatory science in open science policies and practices

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

CSDN Developer Community

1999

 

The “Bird Monitoring Project” initiated by the China Bird Report Center

2002

 

“Chinese Academy of Sciences Public Science Day”. The scientific research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are open to the public every May.

2005

 

China Natural Herbarium

2007

 

Popular Supernova Project

2015

 

Designing models that allow co-production of knowledge and establishing guidelines


7 Policy influence



Encouraging responsible evaluation and assessment practices

7 Policy influence

“Guiding Opinions on Improving the Evaluation Mechanism of Scientific and Technological Achievements”

2021

 

“Several Measures to Eliminate the Undesirable Orientation of “Paper Only” in Science and Technology Evaluation (Trial) “

2020

 

Fostering equitable public-private partnerships for open science


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility

2014

 

Designing, implementing and monitoring funding and investment policies and strategies for science


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO



Mainstreaming gender equality aspects into open sciences policies


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO



(iii) Investing in open science infrastructures and services

Contributing at least 1% of national gross domestic product (GDP) dedicated to research and development expenditure.

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

“Communiqué on National Expenditures on Science and Technology in 2021”: The intensity of research and experimental development (R & D) investment (ratio to GDP) was 2.44%, an increase of 0.03 percentage points over the previous year

2022

 

1 Academic output

The output of academic papers has reached 20% of the world’s total.

2021

 

Reliable Internet connectivity and bandwidth for use

7 Policy influence

The world’s largest 5G network

2021

 

Encouraging regional and international collaboration between national research and education networks services.

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

STI Forum 2022 Side Event: Open Science Promtoed Quality Graduate Education in Global South

2022

 

Non-commercial infrastructures should facilitate ensuring the long-term preservation and stewardship of research products

5 Data platform

National Scientific Data Sharing Project

1994

 

National Social Sciences Database

2002

 

National Science and Technology Basic Conditions Platform

2004

 

“2004-2010 National Science and Technology Basic Conditions Platform Construction Outline”

2004

 

National long-term preservation system of digital scientific and technological literature resources

2007

 

China Open Access Journals (COAJ)

2012

 

GoOA Open Access One-Stop Paper Discovery Platform

2014

 

NSFC-OROpen Repository of National Natural Science Foundation of China, 国家自然科学基金基础研究知识库

2015

 

Open Science Research Knowledge Cloud

2017

 

Enhancing the federation of information technology infrastructure for open science with international interconnectivity

5 Data platform

Deep Time Digital Earth Project

2019

 

Global Open Science Cloud

2019

 

Global Catalogue of Microorganisms


Concluding community agreements on a global scale

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

China-Africa, China-ASEAN, China-South Asia, China-Latin America, China-Arab, China-SCO, China-CEEC Science and Technology Partnership Programs


The Ministry of Science and Technology of China has established the “Program for Outstanding Young Scientists from Developing Countries to Work in China” and the “Intergovernmental Exchange Program with Developing Countries”. The Chinese Academy of Sciences implements the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Special Exchange Program


Presided over “International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Program (ITER)“, “Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)“, “Fourth Generation Nuclear Energy System“, “Renewable Energy and New Energy International Cooperation Program“ and “Chinese Medicine International Science and Technology Cooperation Program“ and other international scientific engineering and research programs.


Participated in big scientific programs and projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Program (ITER), the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP)


“Belt and Road Initiative”

2013

 

“Belt and Road Initiative” Education Action

2016

 

Confederation of China Academic Institutional Repository (CHAIR)

2016

 

China Institutional Repository Alliance

2016

 

19 university libraries and research libraries in China signed a letter of intent for the OA2020 initiative, clearly expressing their support for the OA2020 initiative proposed by the international scientific and technological community and the Open Access Plan S jointly proposed by funding agencies from 11 European countries

2021

 

Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center

2021

 

Shanghai International Science and Technology Innovation Center

2021

 

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Technology Innovation Center

2021

 

Developing joint strategies for shared, multinational, regional and national open science platforms

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

CCOS/CAST

2022

 

Automating the process of searching and analysing linked publications and data

5 Data platform

SciEngine Academic Journal Full-Process Digital Publishing and Knowledge Service Platform (SciEngine Platform)

2014

 

Building platforms for exchanges and co-creation of knowledge

5 Data platform

Sciencepaper Online

2003

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institutional Repositories Grid (CAS IR GRID)

2012

 

Scientific Data Bank (ScienceDB)

2015

 

Sharing service platform of CAS large research infrastructure

2016

 

Atomly material database

2018

 

National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII)

2019

 

China  Agricultural Institutional Repository Alliance

2019

 

National Scientific Journal Open Platform

2022

 

Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine Clinical Case Base

2022

 

National  high-end exchange platform

2022

 

Building community-based monitoring and information systems

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Global OA Journal APC Reasonableness Monitoring Tool APCheck

2018

 

Funding for the necessary costs associated with transformation towards and maintaining open science practices

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

On behalf of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) has officially joined the open publishing funding program SCOAP3 in the field of high energy physics, and fully assumes the SCOAP3 open publishing service fee that China should bear

2013

 

Chinese Academy of Sciences BMC Open Publishing Funding

2014

 

Open Conversion Protocol for OUP Database of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2019

 

ACM Open Conversion Protocol of Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2021

 

(iv) Investing in human resources, training, education, digital literacy and capacity building for open science

Providing systematic and continuous capacity building on open science

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

China Open Access Week

2012

Chinese Institutional Repository Conference

2013

 

 

China Data Librarian Training Course Series

2014

 

Seminar on Open Resource Construction of Chinese Academy of Sciences

2015

 

China Fair Use Week

2016

 

OA training for scientific research institutions and universities nationwide by the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

2018

 

Open Access Specialist Training Workshop

2020

 

Agreeing on a framework of open science competencies and developing training programmes

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Open Source Construction Guide

2013

 

CAS Open Science Training Course

2022

 

Investing in and promoting advanced education and the professionalization of roles in data science and data stewardship

7 Policy influence

Fudan University has offered data science seminars since 2007, started to recruit doctoral students in data science in 2010, and opened a postgraduate course “Data Science” in 2013, started to hold a data scientist training workshop in 2014, and officially recruited graduate students in data science and undergraduates with a second major in data science since 2015.

2010

 

The Chinese University of Hong Kong has established a master of science degree in “Data Science Business Statistics” since 2008.

2008

 

Tsinghua University launched the master’s program in big data in 2014 and started recruiting graduate students in September 2014.

2014

 

From 2017 to 2018, a total of 283 colleges and universities in China offered the major of “Data Science and Big Data”.

2017

 

Promoting the use of open educational resources (OER) as an instrument for open science capacity building

7 Policy influence

National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences Please report to the Center to develop an open science micro-video series

2022

 

Supporting science communication accompanying open science practices

7 Policy influence

WeChat official account of brain intelligence frontier science


COSN


(v) Fostering a culture of open science and aligning incentives for open science

Recognize researchers for sharing, collaborating and engaging with other researchers and society


7 Policy influence



Reviewing research assessment and career evaluation systems in order to align them with the principles of open science


7 Policy influence



Promoting the development and implementation of evaluation and assessment systems

7 Policy influence

Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Improving the Evaluation Mechanism for Scientific and Technological Achievements

2021

Ensuring that the practice of open science is taken into account as a recruitment and promotion criterion


7 Policy influence



Encouraging stakeholders to adopt policies that require and reward open access to scientific knowledge

7 Policy influence

Provisions on the Administration of Post-fund Subsidies for National Science and Technology Plans and Special Projects

2013

 

Ensuring diversity in scholarly communications

2 Academic influence

ChinaXiv, a platform for pre-publishing scientific papers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

2016

 

Chinese Academy of Sciences National High-end Exchange Platform

2022

 

4 National journals

More than 1000 scientific journals entered the Scopus database

2022

 

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Scientific Journal Website

2022

 

Enforcing effective governance measures and proper legislation

7 Policy influence

“Notice on Carrying out the Identification and Performance Appraisal of the National Science and Technology Basic Conditions Platform”

2011

 

Promoting materials that are in the public domain and existing open licensing schemes

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

China Fair Use Week

2016

 

Promote high-quality and responsible research

7 Policy influence

“The Action Outline for Promoting the Development of Big Data”

2015

 

Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility

2014

 

(vi) Promoting innovative approaches for open science at different stages of the scientific process

Extending the principles of openness in all stages of the scientific process

7 Policy influence

Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility

2014

 

Promoting, as appropriate, open peer review evaluation practices

2 Academic influence

“China Scientific Data (Chinese and English Online Version) “

2015

 

ChinaXiv, a platform for pre-publishing scientific papers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

2016

 

Encouraging and valuing publication and sharing of negative scientific results


1 Academic output



Developing new participatory methods and validation techniques

1 Academic output

Preparing for the establishment of a pre-registration reporting system in the field of psychology in China

2022

 

Developing participatory strategies for identifying the needs of marginalized communities


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO



Developing strategies that facilitate the deposit of data in archives

5 Data platform

NSTL long-term preservation strategy of digital resources

2014

 

Promoting the development of shared infrastructures for open source software and source code

3 Large-scale scientific instrument platform

China Technology Cloud

2018

 

Supporting the accumulation and use of open data resources in a transdisciplinary mode

5 Data platform

Big Data Platform for Sustainable Development


Encouraging sharing, promoting interoperability, and enhancing open access of infrastructures

3 Large-scale scientific instrument platform

“Big Earth Data Science Engineering Program” S&T Innovation Work

2018

 

National Network Management Platform for Major Scientific Research Infrastructure and Large Scientific Research Instruments (nrii.org.cn)


Dozens of large scientific installations have been built


Promoting open innovation practices that connect the practices of open science to more rapid translation


2 Academic influence



(vii) Promoting international and multi-stakeholder cooperation in the context of open science and with a view to reducing digital, technological and knowledge gaps

Encouraging international  scientific collaborations

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

“Big Earth Data Science Engineering Program” S&T Innovation Work

2018

Promoting and stimulating cross-border multi-stakeholder collaboration  on open science

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

China Open Access Week

2012

 

Beijing Science and Technology Conditions Platform


Establishing regional and international collaboration mechanisms for promoting open science

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Consortium for Reliability and Reproducibility

2014

 

Supporting the creation and maintenance of effective collaborative networks

6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO

Open Science and Innovation Center

2022

 

Promoting international cooperation in capacity-building in open science


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO



Promoting international collaboration on metrics for open science


6 Policy adaptation to UNESCO



Entrusted UNESCO to coordinate the development and adoption of a set of open science goals

7 Policy influence

CCOS/CAST was established

2021

 

STI Forum 2022 Side Event: Open Science Promtoed Quality Graduate Education in Global South

2022