Open science, along with research ethics and research integrity, is fundamentally based on the universality of human rights. In complete alignment with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, open science upholds the principle that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, endowed with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Furthermore, Article 27 of the Declaration asserts that "Everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts, and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits," as well as the right to protect their moral and material interests stemming from their scientific, literary, or artistic productions. Open science is also grounded in research integrity, which, based on a fundamental respect for individuals, defines good research practice as per the principles stated in the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science identifies the core values of open science, emerging from its rights-based, ethical, epistemological, economic, legal, political, social, multi-stakeholder, and technological implications. These values, applicable to the entire scientific research process, include (1) quality and integrity, (2) collective benefit, (3) equity and fairness, and (4) diversity and inclusiveness (UNESCO, 2021).

Understanding and embracing these values aligns with the ethos of open science and contributes to a more inclusive, equitable, and collaborative scientific environment that benefits humanity at large. The UNESCO Recommendation also introduces guiding principles of open science, such as transparency, scrutiny, critique, reproducibility, equality of opportunities, responsibility, respect, accountability, collaboration, participation, inclusion, flexibility, and sustainability (UNESCO, 2021).

Social scientists can implement open science principles in various ways. For example, embracing transparency can involve preregistration of research - including questions, hypotheses, variables, and analysis plans - and providing detailed documentation of research methods, data sources, and analyses. Transparency also includes sharing datasets and research instruments to facilitate replication of studies. Collaboration and inclusion can be promoted through citizen science and participatory research, involving stakeholders to ensure research relevance. Sustainability can be pursued by using non-profit platforms and repositories for data sharing and research results.

Open science practices are ideally reciprocal and symmetrical, with everyone contributing knowledge and data for open access and usage. However, this idealized view of open science faces challenges. Many practices, such as preparing datasets to comply with FAIR ("Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable") standards, require resources. Consequently, researchers with limited resources, such as those in LMICs or in less affluent scientific communities, face systematic disadvantages in benefiting from open science. For instance, while open access articles are often more cited, the costs of publishing in open access can be prohibitive (Piwowar et al., 2018). These issues of justice and fairness necessitate systemic solutions, like the FAIR and CARE principles for indigenous peoples, which stand for "Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility, and Ethics" (Carroll et al., 2021). Researchers must act fairly in collaborations, and other agents in the research system should ensure that LMIC researchers have the necessary resources to participate fully in open science. To promote responsible open science practices, the ROSiE General Guidelines on Responsible Open Science encourage the following actions:

8.2.  Research Performing Organisations should recognise potential global inequities in access to OS [open science] infrastructure and act to promote global justice and support the needs of researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is a great need for policymakers, Research Funding Organisations, Research Performing Organisations, and researchers from high-income countries to provide support to institutions from LMICs in building their capacities, exchanging good practices, and establishing infrastructure conducive to OS.& 
8.3.  Research Funding Organisations and publishers need to consider unequal opportunities that researchers from LMICs have in accessing and contributing to OS and take measures to promote inclusivity, such as expanding OA publication privileges to more countries. 
8.4.  The rights and participation of marginalized groups and individuals with vulnerabilities, including individuals with disabilities, the elderly, individuals from LMICs, indigenous populations, among others, should be ensured in an OS environment. 
8.5. To support research dissemination, results of research could be in local languages, with appropriate high-quality translation in English or vice-versa. 

In terms of open science implementation, significant progress has been made in open publication, data, and code. However, many other research elements are not routinely shared openly, and there is no consensus on their sharing, despite recommendations from UNESCO. These elements, crucial for reproducing specific research results (e.g., specific software, unique research sites), are often exchanged for collaboration opportunities or kept proprietary. This approach resembles how research data was handled before the widespread acceptance of open science. Yet, there is no compelling reason to exclude these elements from the openness obligation. They could be made public goods with a resource investment similar to that required for making data FAIR. Their initial production requires effort and intellectual input, akin to any high-quality scientific dataset. While there are successful grassroots initiatives (e.g., spaces for sharing data or preprints), institutional stakeholders like science policy bodies, research organizations, and funding agencies play a crucial role in promoting openness.

Please read parts I., II., and III. of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (pp. 6-19) for further details.

References

1. Carroll, S. R., Herczog, E., Hudson, M., Russell, K., & Stall, S. (2021). Operationalizing the CARE and FAIR Principles for Indigenous data futures. Scientific Data, 8(1), 108. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00892-0 
2. Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., ... & Haustein, S. (2018). The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ, 6, e4375. https://peerj.com/articles/4375/ 
3. UNESCO (2021). Recommendation on Open Science. https://doi.org/10.54677/MNMH8546