What happened? Even though it was officially launched a couple of weeks ago, the recording of the webinar introducing the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information has just been published online. The Declaration is one of the most recent efforts to push the open availability of data describing research, such as all those gathered in national-wide CRIS systems. The declaration has been signed by several universities (including the University of Bologna), funders, national and regional governments, and other institutions and organisations, and it is supported by plenty of infrastructures (including OpenCitations) already providing open research information. The webinar lasts over one hour but deserves a watch, particularly if you are an Open Science supporter.
What I did. In the past weeks, I’ve worked with colleagues (Arianna, Ivan and Sebastian) to finalise a paper describing our experience using and adapting an existing ontology development methodology to create application profiles of given standards. The case scenario was entirely focused on a project that concerns the creation of a digital twin of a temporary exhibition (finished in May 2023) dedicated to the figure of Ulisse Aldrovandi. The goal, on our end, was to have a data model based on appropriate international standards that we can use to record descriptive information about the original physical objects included in the exhibition, the related digital models crafted, and the process followed for such digitisation.
What to read. A few days ago, I finished reading a lovely book on Open Science by Sabina Leonelli, which Ludo Waltman suggested a few months ago. It is a short, beautifully written book that introduces a new perspective on Open Science, suggesting using a philosophy of openness where “research is understood first and foremost as an effort to foster collective agency” instead of “openness as sharing” of the outcomes of research. Published by Cambridge University Press, the book is available in Open Access:
Leonelli, S. (2023). Philosophy of Open Science (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009416368