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In the summer of 2019, the University of Zurich appointed two Open Science Delegates to support and represent the university in all aspects of Open Science. Marc Thommen, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, specialises in Open Access – i.e. free access to publications –, and Mark Robinson, Professor of Statistical Genomics, specialises in Open Data and Open Code – i.e. free access to research data and software. Together, they thus represent three of the most important pillars of Open Science, and are supposed to support and advance the increasingly important movement at the University of Zurich.
In an interview with Stefan Stöcklin of the UZH Journal, they explain why a rethinking is necessary in the research system in order to better promote Open Science. They also talk about what hinders cultural change towards transparency and cooperation in research, how the university and they as delegates want to accelerate change, and how they see the development of Open Science from a bottom-up to a top-down initiative. Although, according to Mark Robinson, young researchers in particular are willing to share their data and publish in Open Access journals, there is still much to be done to establish Open Science as a standard.
