Community perspectives on open science and open infrastructure

DOI: 10.60804/MX4V-7K47

Photos of Jen Gibson, Hilary Hanahoe, Lautaro Matas, (left to right).

In the first of a series of interviews with leaders from SCOSS-funded open infrastructure organizations, we asked about their perspectives on open infrastructure for open science. In this post, we present perspectives from Dryad, RDA and LA Referencia on the value of open infrastructure and the role of institutions in supporting open infrastructure.

Dryad is an open data publishing platform and a community committed to the open availability and routine reuse of all research data. Dryad publishes research data across domains and provides a fully curated data-publishing process to ensure data are discoverable and reusable. 

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a neutral global forum that brings together researchers, data practitioners, policymakers, and infrastructure providers to develop practical solutions for data sharing and reuse. Through the RDA Working Groups and Interest Groups, community members identify and collaboratively develop solutions to open science challenges, by producing recommendations, standards, technical specifications, and best practices that organisations worldwide can adopt. 

LA Referencia is a federated open science network connecting national open access infrastructures across Latin America (and Spain). LA Referencia builds and sustains shared, community-governed infrastructure; it harvests, normalizes, enriches and exposes metadata from national aggregators and institutional repositories, to make research outputs openly accessible, interoperable, and reusable across borders.

Why is open infrastructure important in advancing open science?

"In open infrastructure, more than the noncommercial aspect, it's the openness and the non-proprietary nature of the software that are important. I want to make that distinction because I don't feel that a commercial business model is in itself a bad thing. What becomes problematic is models that operate with very high profit margins, at the expense of funds for research and education. At the same time, a commercial or nonprofit model based on proprietary infrastructure is limiting to open science for a couple of reasons. A premise of open science is that openness allows the work to be done iteratively, so that others can build on things in small or in big steps, and do so more readily than if it is closed. That's true for data and it's true for software; the openness of the software makes it possible for it to grow and change with the needs of research. When the software is proprietary, it not only interferes with the development of that software, but it inhibits access and transparency to the work being done as well as connections with other systems."

Jen Gibson, Dryad

"For me it's simple, doing something for the public good, with assets and resources that are almost always generated and supported by public funds. The value that can be created from accessing data, research outputs, scientific experiments is immeasurable. Only by making that data available for reuse through open infrastructures can new discoveries be made, silos be removed and duplication of efforts be reduced. Open infrastructures almost always break down the equity barriers too, by leveling the playing field for communities and stakeholders that have less resources and opportunities to develop and maintain infrastructures of their own."

Hilary Hanahoe, Secretary General Research Data Alliance

"Open infrastructure is essential to advance open science because openness is not only about access, but about long-term reliability, interoperability, trust, and sovereignty. Research outputs only become truly open when they can be consistently found, accessed, connected, and reused over time, across institutions, countries, and disciplines. That level of continuity and control cannot be guaranteed without infrastructure that is governed with public interest as its core. 

For open data in particular, infrastructure plays a decisive role. Datasets are only reusable when they are persistently identified, well described, linked to publications and other research objects, and preserved beyond the lifespan of individual projects or platforms. Open, community-governed infrastructure provides those foundations: persistent identifiers, shared metadata standards, interoperable APIs, and transparent aggregation and discovery services—while allowing institutions and regions to retain sovereignty over their data, metadata, and technical choices. 

Equally important, open infrastructure prevents dependency on single vendors or proprietary ecosystems that can shape access, metrics, visibility, and even research agendas according to commercial priorities. By contrast, open infrastructure enables the research community to exercise collective sovereignty over how data is curated, discovered, evaluated, and reused—ensuring that openness supports equity, multilingualism, and global participation rather than reinforcing existing asymmetries. 

Ultimately, open science needs infrastructure that is treated as a shared public good. Open infrastructure transforms open data from isolated files into a connected, durable, and reusable knowledge commons, while safeguarding institutional and regional sovereignty in the long term."

Lautaro Matas, Technical Manager, LA Referencia 

Why is it important for research institutions to invest in open infrastructure? 

"Academic and research institutions are important allies to open infrastructure. They understand the risks associated with proprietary lock-ins because they experience the limitations to access, transparency, and con-commitment costs. This allyship and the advocacy within institutions for making values-aligned decisions are important. The institutions are investing in open infrastructure for different motivations and through many mechanisms – one of them being SCOSS. Dryad has received critical institutional support and funding through SCOSS, and also from other institutions.

Our collaboration with institutions has shaped considerations around the value that Dryad creates. Dryad has had a membership program with academic institutions that is very important for us. As we sought to refine our fee model to better support our long-term sustainability, we asked our community of institutions why they invested in us. Some said that they wanted to contribute to open infrastructure. But the vast majority invest in Dryad because of the service that we deliver: they need data infrastructure to meet the needs of campus and their policy environment. So the fact that they value that from us, and that delivering that service creates cost for every data set we handle, helped to inspire a new fee model and partnership program, which includes a base fee plus fee for individual data sets. This is a different lens on the institutional relationship, but one that still relies on collaboration and allyship."

Jen Gibson, Dryad

"As generators of valuable assets – research outputs – research institutions are fundamental to achieving the open science vision. Being able to openly demonstrate the valuable research they produce, the impact of that research and science on society and in addressing societal challenges is most effectively and efficiently done through open infrastructures. Institutions can reduce their overall costs by investing in existing infrastructures demonstrating their contribution to sustainability. Furthermore, if we take a practical example of how research institutions support and contribute to the RDA, by having experts involved in the development of standards for data challenges, that will ultimately lead to FAIR compliance, making those outputs open, in a FAIR and structured way, so that other stakeholders can adopt and implement them, this reduces duplication of efforts, enables interoperability and levels the playing field globally, particularly for institutions with lower levels of resources."

Hilary Hanahoe, Secretary General Research Data Alliance

"It is important for research institutions to invest in open infrastructure because they are not only producers of knowledge, but also long-term stewards of the scholarly record. Without sustained institutional investment, openness remains fragile and dependent on short-term projects or external providers whose priorities may not align with the public interest. 

Investing in open infrastructure delivers several strategic long-term benefits. It strengthens institutional and regional sovereignty and ensures that institutions retain control over their data, metadata, metrics, and access conditions. It improves the return on public investment in research by increasing the visibility, reuse, and societal impact of research outputs. It also supports equity and inclusion, enabling institutions from different regions, languages, and resource levels to participate on more equitable terms in global scholarly communication. 

From an operational perspective, shared open infrastructure lowers total costs over time by avoiding duplication, vendor lock-in, and fragmented local solutions. It also creates more resilient systems, capable of evolving with new research practices, policies, and technologies rather than being constrained by closed architectures. Institutional investment in open infrastructure helps build a durable, interoperable, and community-governed knowledge commons. This enables more transparent evaluation, better data stewardship, greater trust in research, and a research ecosystem that is better aligned with public values and long-term societal needs." 

Lautaro Matas, Technical Manager, LA Referencia