What is Open Scholarship?
Open scholarship (sometimes called “open science” or “open research”) is an expansive term meant to encompass the rapid and widespread sharing of a range of scholarly activities and outputs, across disciplines. Open scholarship promotes inclusivity, transparent and trustworthy research, innovation, and collaboration (HELIOS Open, 2025).
Under the broad umbrella of open scholarship are:
- Open Access - publishing model where research is published without financial, legal, or technical barriers to accessing it.
- Open Data - data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable, and shared by anyone for any purpose.
- Open Educational Resources - materials openly licensed and accessible online that are used to support teaching and learning at all levels of education.
- Open Source - source code and software made freely available for possible modification and redistribution.
- Open Pedagogy - process of engaging students as creators of information and not only consumers.
(Adapted from The University of North Dakota Libraries guide to open scholarship.)
Duke Libraries supports open scholarship in the Duke community with staff expertise, services, and open initiatives to share and discover knowledge.
This guide serves as portal to the open scholarship support as part of the Libraries' Copyright and Information Policy program.
