Course Description

"Open" is the new black. Everybody talks about it, but nobody knows what it really means.

This course will explain where open science comes from and will give an overview of latest tools researchers can use to be more efficient, more visible and more relevant in their community.

How to use 21st century writing and publishing methods? How to best generate and share data? How to document and keep track with versions of your code? These will be some of the questions that will be answered by the panel of talented young researchers contributing to the event.

The summer school is aimed at early career researchers who are interested in learning more about what academic research will look like in the future. The core idea behind this summer school is to propose a pragmatic approach to Open Science that addresses what early career researchers care about:

  • Having access to the necessary training, tools and information sources to conduct their research in an optimal way.
  • Increasing the quality and visibility of their contributions to science.
  • Learning best practices in the field of publication, data life cycle management, and software publishing.
  • Getting credit for their work, enabling collaborations, and increasing reuse and impact.

More information about the course content can be found in the program section.

Important Information

 

Important Dates

11 August - Registration closes

14 August - Participants are confirmed, course fee is expected to be paid within 30 days

15 September - First essay due date

25-29 September - Summer School

13 October - Second essay due date

 

Course fee

CHF 150.- per participant (to be paid within 30 days after being accepted to the course)

The fee covers: course material, lectures and workshops, lunch and coffee breaks, course dinner on Thursday night

 

Course credits

EPFL doctoral students can obtain 2 ECTS for completing this Summer School.

Non-EPFL PhD candidates who wish to register for ECTS credits should check with their own institution for the possibility to receive the credits.

Requirements and workload for obtaining credits are detailed in the application form under the Registration tab.

 

Background

Open science is an umbrella term. It describes a multitude of initiatives trying to harvest the potential of digital technologies to change how knowledge is produced, disseminated and reused. These solutions are often work in progress and challenge a status quo where the publication process leads to static, often behind pay wall, text documents that do not represent the complexity of the research process.

In an attempt to restore best practice in the production and dissemination of knowledge, a transition to a more open and reproducible research is desirable and requires new incentives and infrastructures. This transition is mostly a cultural change, which is best supported by initiatives stemming from the scientific community itself (bottom-up approach). To a lesser extent, it is also a technical issue that requires the development of new tools based on state-of-the art digital technologies.