Open Science for water research | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

"For the launch of the new scientific journal Nature Water, researchers Emma and Stan Schymanski contributed an article about the future of water research. This opinion paper focuses on the importance of open science in a field where, due to its global societal relevance, knowledge and research results should be freely accessible by a wide range of stakeholders. The publication also highlights the interdisciplinary expertise brought to Luxembourg by the two FNR ATTRACT fellows on such a topical subject....

Research on water systems can help us face these considerable challenges but needs to consider the global societal relevance of its subject. “Since water is a common good, it should be natural that the outcome of water-related research is accessible to everyone,” explains Dr Stan Schymanski. “It needs to become freely available and re-usable for everybody, without the need for paid licenses to view publications or use data.”

The two researchers insist on the importance of implementing Open Science in its broadest definition. It has to go beyond open access to research articles: it must also include open data and open-source computer code. Additionally, open data should be aligned with the FAIR Principles, which describe how to make data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Open reproducible research can only be achieved through the combination of all these aspects.

Their Nature Water article details how this is vital for the development of Early Warning Systems for floods for example, as reliable forecasting relies heavily on real-time sharing of meteorological data. It is also crucial when studying processes on long time scales such as groundwater recharge, that can take centuries in arid systems. Understanding these natural mechanisms is only possible through free access to long time series of hydrological data across the globe.

After reviewing the tools already available to perform open water research – such as open repositories, templates to facilitate reproducibility assessments, practical guidelines for sharing code and choosing appropriate licenses – the two authors call for substantial additional efforts toward fully open science...."