Pushing the Boundaries of Open Science at CERN: Submission to the UNESCO Open Science Consultation

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is working to advance a global dialogue on Open Science through the development of a standard-setting instrument in the form of a Recommendation to be adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in November 2021. This recommendation is being prepared through a multi-stakeholder consultation process. This document constitutes CERN’s contribution to the UNESCO Open Science Consultation. CERN— the European Organization for Nuclear Research—is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. Founded in 1954, the organization was given an early Open Science manifesto through its founding constitution. Since then, CERN has been a pioneer in many spheres of openness: from establishing an early culture for the sharing of preprints, to the development of the world wide web and the open release of its underlying software, to being pioneers in developing large-scale global open access programs, and enabling the release of open data accompanied by resources to support its reuse and reproducibility for optimal scientific impact. This paper highlights the major activities of the organization in the broad domain of open science. It demonstrates how an enabling policy environment, innovative technologies, and a progressive vision, can make open science a reality in even the most complex research environments. We aim to extend the CERN experience, knowledge and tools to further accelerate the global adoption of Open Science policies and practices, and to support scientific communities beyond the discipline of high-energy physics to embrace this vision.