The Open Science Company Manifesto

This manifesto aims to define the fundamental statements that all companies running with the Open Science initiative in mind must respect and promote.

Open Science pillars as [the Company]’s culture

Unless [the Company] has justifiable reasons (e.g., National Security concerns), every principle of the Open Science initiative should be treated as [the Company]’s credo.

Each time [the Company] produces source code that may help other scientists in their everyday work (e.g., software, data analysis, web servers), the code should be made publicly available, allow community contributions, and be clearly accompanied by appropriate licensing information and/or credits.

Any data collected by [the Company] that is relevant to the scientific community should be stored in a public repository, also explicitly accompanied by any licensing information and/or credits. [The Company] should pay careful attention to a repository’s terms and conditions before submitting any data. Institutional repositories such as Zenodo are preferred; however, third-party repositories may also be considered, provided that the service maintainer clearly addresses the treatment of stored data in the event that the maintainer’s status were to change (e.g., fusion, acquisition, liquidation).

Once research results are ready for publication, [the Company] should submit its manuscript to Open Access journals using an open peer-review process.

Users’ privacy is of utmost importance

[The Company] must respect the users’ right to privacy. Data about the users (e.g., use patterns, location, or any other metadata) should never be sold or given away without explicit informed consent from the users. Additionally, [the Company] must never publish any analyses containing data not publicly available at the time of publishing.

All users should be treated as contributors to [the Company]’s common goods, not as products. Users have a right to know where their data is being stored, how it is being used, and how to have their data removed.

Openness & privacy must coexist

Openness and privacy are both key pillars that need to coexist. [The Company] must provide a way for its users to keep their data private until a decision has been made to release their content. The sharing of information should be incentivized, never forced.

Transparency & ethics first

[The Company] must always value and exhibit transparency in communicating its mission, goals, and decision-making. The more transparent [the Company], the better. Additionally, [the Company]’s primary motivation must be to contribute towards the common good. When multiple options are available, [the Company] should always choose the most ethical decision/action.

Investors must embrace this Manifesto

If [the Company] is raising funds, incoming investors must accept all terms stated in this Manifesto without any modifications. To prevent corruption of [the Company]’s values, [the Company] statuses deposited to the administration of the country of affiliation should refer to this Manifesto.

Versions

1.0 created on 15 June 2016 (status: final)

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