Development of Digital Competence Framework for Open Science

Open Science enables access to research by ensuring cooperation, transparency, availability of scientific research results and the use of open research data. In order to realize the full potential, it is necessary to improve the existing digital competences of the future stakeholders of Open Science. Two research objectives were set for this paper. The first objective was related to identifying and defining domains and digital competences for the framework. The framework consists of a domain of generic digital competences and a domain of professional competences. Nine of the generic digital competences were considered, while the domain of professional competences is under development and only certain digital competences are indicated. The second objective is related to the evaluation of the domain of generic digital competences and the application of this domain in determining the levels of digital competences. The research was conducted on a convenience sample of the student population in Croatia. Further guidelines for the development of the framework and digital competences are presented.

I. Introduction

The culture of openness in science has been developing since the early nineties through the initiative of open access to scientific publications. Gradually, this initiative grew into an Open Science initiative, which aims to share research results with a wide range of stakeholders immediately after confirmation, approval, or fulfillment of legal regulations. In addition to publications, Open Science implies the sharing of the entire research process, where it is primarily focused on open research data and open code.