Challenges and opportunities of open science in transport research

Abstract

The current technological advances and the rapid development of new collaborative tools have endorsed an on- going transformation of transport research enabling research information sharing. This systematic change of transport research covers a wide range of aspects, from evaluation of research, open access to research results, and relevant data infrastructures, all aiming at making science more efficient, better reproducible and more responsive to societal and economic expectations. In an attempt to address the above, this paper presents an action list of the different main aspects of Open Science in transport research of the European area exploiting previous initiatives and mapping among research areas with longer experience and more “mature” research fields. The novelty of the proposed action list is to contribute in implementing Open Science approaches in transport research enabling stakeholders to share and use all available knowledge at an earlier stage in the research process. The focus is given on the identification of guidelines that transport research stakeholders have to use to integrate open science in their current operations. This opening up of science and research is expected to lead to a European community of transport research stakeholders willing to work together and speed up the path from research to innovation and promote citizen’s engagement in the scientific process.