Open Science

The University of Milan embraces and supports the principles and actions of Open Science, a global movement that seeks to make science production, validation, dissemination and evaluation processes available and transparent, through research review and reproducibility.

In line with the values of Open Science, the University adheres to the principles of free access to scientific literature and free circulation of research results, and implements a multi-level strategy for the communication and dissemination of science, to give visibility and access to research findings.

The University formally committed to full access to scientific data and publications in 2005, when it adhered to the Messina Declaration on open access to scientific literature. Later, our organisation took this commitment further by joining the LERU roadmap for Open Science, the OPERAS consortium for the development of a European infrastructure for the humanities and social sciences, and the OpenAPC initiative, whose goals is to collect data on article processing charges (APCs) in the Gold Open Access system.

To nurture a truly Open Science culture, the University of Milan has created an ad-hoc Commission chaired by Flaminio Squazzoni and composed of 31 members, one for each Department.

The Performance, Quality Assurance, Assessment, and Open Science Policy Division implements and supports actions for the promotion of Open Science. In particular, the Division:

• researches publishing houses and provides quality assurance services to prevent authors from choosing predatory publishers
• develops Open Science policies to be submitted to the University’s governing bodies by the Open Science Commission
• provides support for the analysis of copyright transfer agreements
• manages the main tools for implementing Open Science policies (AIR, Dataverse, Milano University Press)
• organises numerous training and dissemination activities to foster Open Science, as well as ad-hoc actions upon request of departments and research groups
• oversees the allocation of APC funds, on the basis of criteria defined by the governing bodies
• monitors APC expenses paid by the University of Milan and its Departments
• participates in national and international projects for the promotion of Open Science
• monitors and reports the main developments of science communication