The European Union-funded FOSTER project has launched an online training toolkit with 10 courses about Open Science theory and practice. The courses target early career researchers.

FOSTER (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research) defines Open Science (OS) as the movement to make scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to all levels of society. OS methods enable collaboration in research and make research processes and data open at all stages, from planning to publication of results.

Ranging from introductory to advanced levels, the courses introduce OS and components of OS, and answer some of the most common questions asked about putting OS into practice. They include practical tips on getting started with OS and provide information on discipline specific tools and resources. Each course takes about one to two hours to work through.

The toolkit and courses were jointly developed by the project partners. EIFL is a partner in the FOSTER project and is responsible for coordinating all training activities for the project.

FOSTER welcomes feedback and suggestions as to how the courses could be improved. The deadline for feedback is 31 July 2018.  You can access the evaluation form here.

THE TEN COURSE TOPICS

What is Open Science? - an introductory course.

Best Practices - introducing funding body policies and other factors influencing opening up research practice.

Managing and Sharing Research Data - on which data you can share and how to share effectively.

OSS and Workflows - introducing Open Source Software (OSS) and workflows.

Data Protection and Ethics - on responsible data sharing.

Licensing (this course will be released soon) - on the best licences for open research outputs.

Open Access Publishing - OA publishing skills in the wider context of Open Science.

Sharing Preprints - on preprints sharing practices, and how they can support research.

Open Peer Review (OPR) - introducing OPR.

Open Science and Innovation - about how OS accelerates Responsible Research and Innovation.

Find further details about each course here.