Open Science and Open Access Publishing in Social Sciences

This chapter is about open science in the social sciences, with a particular emphasis on open access. The last two decades have demonstrated various obstacles in adopting practices and models that have become established within other research disciplines, leading to the need to shape practices that acknowledge the particular circumstances of the diversity present in the social sciences. In addition to diversity, a central theme in the chapter is research quality and its relationship with open science, and how science policy can match or clash with researcher realities in the push towards more openness. A key conclusion is that caution should be taken when rules and implicit or explicit expectations are changed - sensitivity to disciplinary circumstances, predictability and trust in science policy need to be maintained as new options for introducing transparency and disseminating research arise.