Open science is necessary

Use the link above to access the letter to the editor published in the Correspondence section of the May 2012 issue of Nature Climate Change. The full text of the letter is available by subscription or pay per view. The letter to the editor opens as follows: “The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia led to an intensive examination of the scientific practices of climate change researchers. The House of Commons' report strongly suggested that the scientific community change practices ‘to ensure greater transparency,’ and ended with a declaration that ‘the science must be irreproachable’. Unfortunately, the US government does not endorse such high standards. Much of the US government-financed research related to climate change policy is not available for public scrutiny. For example, consulting firms doing such research are not obligated to reveal the formulas they use to arrive at their policy evaluations and recommendations. This makes the kind of examination that is the norm for scientific communications impossible. An excellent example of the value of open science arises when one examines the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon. This was a major attempt at determining the social cost of carbon, the dollar value on damages from one ton of carbon emissions, and the optimal carbon tax. DICE2007 (ref. 3) was one of three integrated assessment models used by the Working Group. Professor Nordhaus, the author of DICE, has always made public the details of his calculations. We have recently found serious problems in DICE2007 (Refs 5,6)... Without access to the details of DICE2007, the critique above would have been impossible and there could be no discussion of these issues. Professor Nordhaus is to be commended for following the principles of open science. The scientific and policy communities should insist that all follow his practices, allowing others to scrutinize the analyses. Only open and transparent research using the best mathematical and computational methods can provide the intellectual foundation for significant policies that address climate change...”