How to build an Open Science Monitor based on publications? A French perspective

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of the French Open Science Monitor, a tool that leverages publication metadata to track open science policy impacts, focusing on research outputs like publications, theses, and clinical trials.

Contribution

It presents a methodology for building an open science monitoring framework based on publication metadata, tailored to the French context.

Findings

Established a framework for monitoring open science policies in France.

Demonstrated how publication metadata can inform on research data, code, and software.

Provided insights into the challenges of leveraging metadata for policy monitoring.

Abstract

Many countries and institutions are striving to develop tools to monitor their open science policies. Since 2018, with the launch of its National Plan for Open Science, France has been progressively implementing a monitoring framework for its public policy, relying exclusively on reliable, open, and controlled data. Currently, this monitoring focuses on research outputs, particularly publications, as well as theses and clinical trials. Publications serve as a basis for analyzing other dimensions, including research data, code, and software. The metadata associated with publications is therefore particularly valuable, but the methodology for leveraging it raises several challenges. Here, we briefly outline how we have used this metadata to construct the French Open Science Monitor.