Foster’s Open Science Training Handbook

The Open Science training handbook is an open knowledge learning resource designed to support Open Science instructors and trainers. Its objective is not to disseminate the ideas of Open Science, but rather to teach how to disseminate those ideas in the most effective way, gathering for this purpose methods, techniques and practices that become a useful guide in the promotion of knowledge about the principles of Open Science.

Developed by the FOSTER project (Facilitating Open Science Training for European Research), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. In February 2018, 14 international experts gathered at the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) in Hannover to create the handbook through a four-day collaborative “book sprint”. EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) coordinated the project’s training activities.

The handbook emerged in 2018 in response to the detected need to standardize and professionalize training in Open Science. Although scattered resources existed, there was a lack of a comprehensive guide that would equip instructors and trainers with effective pedagogical methodologies to transmit Open Science principles and practices. The growing demand for Open Science literacy from academic and research institutions required specialized didactic tools transferable to diverse contexts.

The objective of this handbook is to offer instructors tools to train, educate, convince, support and guide researchers and other stakeholder groups about Open Science, thus fostering the conducive environment for a substantial change in the way research is conducted and disseminated, through the teaching of Open Science practices.

The book provides instructors and trainers with methods, instructions, training schemes and inspiration for their own training courses on topics related to Open Science: concepts, principles, data management, open software, licenses, collaborative platforms, open peer review, policies, citizen science and open educational resources.

Open Science instructors and trainers (research support staff, technical staff, librarians, teaching and research staff) are the main beneficiaries, and indirectly all stakeholder groups that can be trained by these instructors.

Among the direct impacts, teaching staff, trainers and instructors obtain a tool to be able to transmit in an optimal, effective and efficient manner the knowledge about Open Science, both principles and practical applications. The handbook has been translated into multiple languages (Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, among others), achieving global dissemination.

Indirectly, this transmission of knowledge benefits the scientific community that learns from these trainers.

Among the direct impacts, teaching staff, trainers and instructors obtain a tool to be able to transmit in an optimal, effective and efficient manner the knowledge about Open Science, both principles and practical applications. The handbook has been translated into multiple languages (Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, among others), achieving global dissemination.

Indirectly, this transmission of knowledge benefits the scientific community that learns from these trainers.

Among the examples of successful application of this handbook, we find references to:

• Göttingen Open Science Meet-ups, periodic meetings held at the University of Göttingen between library staff and research staff where issues related to Open Science are discussed and analyzed: new methods, tools and practices.
• Mozilla Study Group Project: informal meetings where skills, experiences and ideas about Open Science, programming and research communities are shared.
• Analysis on reproducibility and transparency in research, organized by NIOO-KNAW and DANS-KNAW.
• Open Science, how does it benefit me? It is a workshop where researchers are offered practical examples of Open Science tools to apply and discuss them, also debating the obstacles and incentives to transform their own research into Open Science.
• Carpentry Workshops: two-day workshops, Software Carpentry with instructors and volunteers where short programming tutorials alternate with practical exercises through live coding. The Data Carpentry workshop is oriented towards best practices related to data.
• EIFL instructor training programme, from universities in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Tanzania and Nepal committed to Open Access in doctoral courses.

• Manual de capacitación sobre ciencia abierta (español): https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_ES/
• Ejemplos y Guía Práctica: https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_ES/05ExamplesAndPracticalGuidance/05ExamplesAndPracticalGuidance_ES.html
• Open-Science-Training-Handbook en GitHub: https://github.com/Open-Science-Training-Handbook