Developed by a group of research information specialists, the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information is a community initiative to make research information – such as bibliographic metadata, including funding information and information on use and impact – open to all.
Too often this information is locked inside proprietary infrastructures, meaning that when assessing research and institutions, non-transparent/non-verifiable evidence is used. The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information seeks to change this.
Organisations which sign this Declaration agree to support four overarching principles, including one that makes openness the default for the research information they use and produce.
cOAlition S has long been a supporter of open metadata. The Implementation Guidelines of Plan S make it clear that articles published in line with Plan S must include high-quality article level metadata in a standard interoperable non-proprietary format, under a CC0 public domain dedication and that, as a minimum requirement, must include the name of the funder and the grant number/identifier. The Guidelines also specify that articles must include “machine-readable information on the Open Access status and the license embedded in the article, in standard non-proprietary format”. cOAlition S welcomes the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research and encourages funders and research performing organisations to consider signing this. We are delighted to see that some cOAlition S funders – including the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) – have already signed this declaration, and that others are actively considering this.
