FWF Signs Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information

The Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information calls for the open accessibility of research metadata. The declaration was published on April 16 and has already been signed by 60 international organizations. The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is now a signatory of the Barcelona Declaration, making another clear statement in favor of openness and transparency of information in research.

May 14, 2024

Stack of publications — The FWF has signed the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information. © Unsplash/Yazid N

Research information is data on research and includes bibliographic metadata, metadata on research data, and software, as well as information on funded research projects from research funding organizations. This information is highly relevant for international analyses and helps policy makers come to informed decisions. In many cases, however, this data is only available from commercial providers for a fee. Signatories of the Barcelona Declaration, now also including the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), are committed to ensuring that research information is made available as openly as possible, to the application of open standards, and to supporting open infrastructures.

The FWF has been committed to open science and open standards for many years. Information on FWF-funded research projects can be found on the FWF’s Research Radar page and at Crossref, making it openly accessible and usable for anyone. Through the use of persistent identifiers such as the grant DOI and ORCID, the FWF supports the interconnectedness and interoperability of the research information resulting from the projects it funds. The FWF also provides an overview of its funding in the FWF Statistics Dashboard and, as a proponent of Open Science, has supported open research infrastructures for over a decade.