PhD Courses in Denmark

Description: This course introduces PhD students to The principles of Open Sciences and shows them how to implement them in their own PhD projects. Knowledge about open science is crucial for early career researchers for several reasons: 

- Transparency and Reproducibility: Open science promotes transparency in research methodologies, data, and findings. This ensures that research can be independently verified and reproduced, which is essential for the credibility and reliability of scientific work.    

- Collaboration and Networking: Open science fosters collaboration by making research outputs more accessible. Sharing data, methods, and findings openly allows researchers from different disciplines and institutions to collaborate more easily, leading to innovative and interdisciplinary research.    

- Increased Visibility and Impact: Open access publishing and data sharing increase the visibility and impact of research. When research is freely available, it is more likely to be read, cited, and used by other researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, amplifying its reach and significance.   

- Ethical Responsibility: Adopting open science practices aligns with ethical standards in research by ensuring that publicly funded research is accessible to the public. It also helps prevent issues related to data fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism.    

- Funding and Career Advancement: Many funding agencies and institutions are increasingly requiring or encouraging open science practices. Researchers who are knowledgeable about open science are better positioned to secure funding and comply with these requirements. Additionally, demonstrating a commitment to open science can enhance a researcher's reputation and career prospects.    

- Public Engagement and Trust: Open science enhances public trust in scientific research by making it more transparent and accessible. Engaging with the public and stakeholders through open practices helps to demystify research processes and outcomes, fostering greater public understanding and support for science.    

- Innovation and Efficiency: Open science accelerates scientific discovery and innovation by reducing duplication of efforts and enabling researchers to build on existing work more efficiently. Sharing data and tools openly can lead to new insights and advancements that might not be possible in a closed research environment.  

In an nutshell, participants in this course will learn why embracing open science practices is not only beneficial for their own work but also contributes to the broader goals of advancing science, promoting ethical standards, and fostering a more inclusive and collaborative research community.

Prerequisites: Students should have completed the mandatory PhD courses ("Introduction to the PhD Study" and  "Applying the Danish Code of Conduct" or comparable courses) and be far enough into their PhD study to have some data to work with (quantitative or qualitative).

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, PhD students will be able to critically evaluate and apply the principles and practices of open science to their own research. They will develop skills in data sharing, open access publishing, reproducibility, and collaboration, fostering transparency and accessibility in their scholarly work. Students will also gain an understanding of the ethical and legal considerations in open science, and be equipped to advocate for and implement open science practices within their academic communities.

Teaching methods: This course will combine lectures, discussions, and hands-on exercises where students practice how to use a data management plan, research data repositories, and reproducible workflows. We plan to hold it in person at AAU CPH.

Criteria for assessment: Students will be assessed based on an Open Science strategy that they will develop for their own PhD project after this course. 

Key literature: 

Foster, Erin D., and Ariel Deardorff. "Open science framework (OSF)." Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA 105.2 (2017): 203.    

Banks, George C., et al. "Answers to 18 questions about open science practices." Journal of Business and Psychology 34 (2019): 257-270.    

Wilkinson, Mark D., et al. "The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship." Scientific data 3.1 (2016): 1-9.    

Burgelman, Jean-Claude. "Politics and open science: How the European Open Science Cloud became reality (the untold story)." Data Intelligence 3.1 (2021): 5-19.

Organizer: Carsten Keßler, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani

Lecturers: Carsten Keßler, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani

ECTS: 2.0

Time: 17 - 18 March 2025 

Place: Aalborg University

Zip code: 2450

City: Copenhagen

Maximal number of participants: 20

Deadline: 24 February 2025