Open Practice Conference

Open Practice Conference. The Open Practice Conference is an international, community-driven forum dedicated to advancing transparency, collaboration, and reproducibility across scholarly disciplines. It brings together researchers, practitioners, and advocates from fields including open science, open access, open data, and open educational resources. The event serves as a critical nexus for discussing the practical implementation of open principles to address global challenges and innovate within the academic publishing ecosystem.

History and background

The conference emerged in the 2010s against a backdrop of growing international movements advocating for greater transparency in research. Its formation was influenced by pivotal declarations such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which critiqued traditional scientific journal metrics and access barriers. Early organizers were often affiliated with institutions like the Max Planck Society and the University of California, Berkeley, who sought to create a practical, action-oriented complement to larger meetings like the FORCE11 conference. The founding ethos was deeply connected to addressing the replication crisis in fields such as psychology and biomedicine, promoting practices like preregistration and open notebook science.

Format and organization

The event typically employs a highly participatory format, blending traditional presentations with interactive workshops and unconference sessions. A defining feature is its commitment to open governance, with a program committee often selected from the community and proceedings published via platforms like Zenodo or OSF. Sessions are designed to be accessible, frequently offering livestreaming and encouraging remote participation through tools like Slack and Twitter. The location rotates globally, with past hosts including the Alan Turing Institute in the United Kingdom and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, reflecting a deliberate effort to foster a diverse and inclusive global dialogue.

Key themes and topics

Central discussions revolve around implementing FAIR data principles, developing infrastructure for open source software in research, and reforming academic career incentives to reward open practices. Significant attention is given to citizen science projects, the use of preprint servers like arXiv and bioRxiv, and legal frameworks such as Creative Commons licenses. Emerging topics frequently include the ethics of open data in sensitive fields, the sustainability of open access publishing models like Plan S, and the role of artificial intelligence in automating research transparency. The conference also serves as a forum for critiquing and proposing alternatives to traditional impact factor-based evaluation.

Notable editions and impact

Specific annual meetings have garnered attention for launching significant community resources or declarations. One edition held in conjunction with the European Open Science Cloud initiative helped draft guidelines for data stewardship. Another, co-located with the Open Repositories conference, produced widely adopted recommendations for research data management. The conference's outputs have directly influenced policy discussions at organizations like the National Institutes of Health, the European Commission, and the Wellcome Trust. Its community has also contributed to the development of key tools and standards, including the Research Data Alliance's outputs and the Journal Article Tag Suite for open publishing.

Related initiatives and movements

The conference exists within a broader ecosystem of aligned efforts. It maintains strong synergies with the Open Science Framework, the Center for Open Science, and global events like Open Access Week and the Open Science Conference in Berlin. It draws inspiration from and contributes to movements such as open education, free software, and public understanding of science. Collaborations often extend to specialized communities focused on open hardware, open peer review, and open scholarship, as well as policy advocacy groups like SPARC and Open Knowledge Foundation.

Category:Open access Category:Academic conferences Category:Science and technology events