Open science failed to penetrate academic hiring practices: a cross-sectional study

To evaluate the current hiring practices of academic institutions around the world, with regard to the mention of advertisements for Open Science (OS) in research based, faculty, and postdoctoral positions.

Cross-sectional study, using 189 global institutions from the Center for Science and Technology Leiden ranking of world universities of 2017, including the U15 Group (Canadian Research-Intensive Universities), and five self-selected supplementary institutions.

The main outcome measure for our study is the level of OS in job advertisements, assessed using the Modified Open Science Modular Scheme.

After assessing 305 job advertisements for academic positions in 91 institutions, only 2 (0.6%) had any explicit mention of OS in their job advertisements on the Modified Open Science Modular Scheme. The sample assessed the level of open science for 39.0% Associate and/or Assistant professor positions, 30.8% Researcher and/or Postdoctoral fellow positions, and 18.7% of Tenured positions. The remaining 11.5% were for positions such as lectureship, research associate, chair, dean, director and other.

This study emphasizes the need for increased recognition of OS as a characteristic in research-active job advertisements. As evident in the alarmingly low percentage of job advertisements that mentioned OS (0.6%), the movement towards enhanced OS profiles across academic institutions is highly encouraged. This can be achieved through increased recognition of OS in research job advertisements and demonstrating the means in which institutions promote OS such as, encouraging preprints, publishing in open access journals, and the importance of data sharing.