The BSO’s objective is to measure the progress made in opening access to research results in the form of publications, code and data. This initiative is part of the National Open Science Plan and France’s National Action Plan within the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
Two versions of the Monitor are now available. The first is a General Monitor which describes the level and modalities of French scientific publications from all disciplines. It breaks down these data according to disciplines and publishers and provides indicators specific to open archives. The second is the Health Monitor focusing, as the name suggests, on health research, and developed in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. The latter tool is based on all indicators relating to publications in the field of health research and also adds a specific focus on clinical trials and observational studies. It particularly provides numerous indicators on the registration of clinical trials and their results in public registers
The BSO is a compilation of open data from Unpaywall (a global database of scientific publication metadata that provides information on the openness status of publications) obtained using an open methodology. Thus, the underlying data is available under an open licence, its code is open source as well and its methodology is discussed in detail in an OA publication. As of 2022, the data is updated every quarter.
An annual Flash Note from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation’s Sub-directorate for Information Systems and Statistical Studies (SIES) will highlight the key trends revealed by the BSO.
Work on enriching the Monitor is ongoing with the upcoming inclusion of new indicators concerning the opening of research data.
The underlying data and the code: https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/about/opendata
The methodology: https://frenchopensciencemonitor.esr.gouv.fr/about/methodology
The ‘Flash Note’ for January 2022: https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/barometre-francais-de-la-science-ouverte-2021
The ‘Flash Note’ for January 2021: https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid156502/barometre-francais-de-la-science-ouverte-2020.html
The ‘Flash Note’ for January 2020: https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid148931/barometre-francais-de-la-science-ouverte.html
The ‘Flash Note’ for October 2019: https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid146139/barometre-francais-de-la-science-ouverte.html