Open Science Outlook 1: status and trends around the world

The Open Science Outlook is the first effort to assess the status of open science at a global level. UNESCO produced this first baseline study as part of its role in monitoring implementation of the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. In adopting this Recommendation, all Member States committed to providing national progress reports on implementation every four years. The next edition of the Outlook will be based on the first series of progress reports. Open Science Outlook 1 finds that access to open science and the sharing of its benefits remain unequal across regions and disciplines. Although a growing number of countries are embracing open science, open science suffers from the same lack of equity in access to funding, skills and tools that have hindered science across the globe. Contrary to any other assessments, the Outlook considers the full spectrum of open science: open access to scientific knowledge (publications, data, software, source code, hardware); open infrastructure; open engagement with societal actors beyond the scientific community and open dialogue with other knowledge systems. The Outlook also highlights gaps in the available data and information. The Open Science Outlook unveils disparities within open science that demand our immediate attention. For instance, many researchers are sharing their findings on open-access repositories, but nearly 85% of such open publication and data repositories are situated in Western Europe and North America. Africa and the Arab region account for less than 2% and 3%, respectively.