Expanding the actions of Open Government in higher education sector: From web transparency to Open Science

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 9; p. e0238801
• Main Authors: Saraite Sariene, Laura, Caba Pérez, Carmen, López Hernández, Antonio M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 11.09.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Access to Information; Accountability; Collaboration; Computer and Information Sciences; Education; Educational aspects; Freedom of information; Globalization; Government; Higher education; Information dissemination; Information management; Institutional repositories; Internet; Knowledge; Laws, regulations and rules; Literary and scientific exchanges; Open access; Open data; Participation; People and places; Policies; Policy; Public policy; Research and Analysis Methods; Scholarly communication; Science; Science Policy; Social Sciences; Society; Transparency; Trends; United States; Universities; Universities and colleges; Websites; Working groups; United States; Spain
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238801

Universities have been pressured by governments to change their way of acting and to be more responsible with the requirements of social development to face the challenges of globalization. To this end, universities must use the principles of Open Science, to allow them to be more transparent regarding the dissemination of scientific results. The purpose of this paper is firstly, to determine the progress made in Open Access policies made by the best-ranked universities regarding ARWU. Secondly, to examine influencing factors that enhance the level of openness in researching, in particular, "transparency", "reputation", "participation", "funding", "foundation" and "size". The main results show that those private and older universities, best-ranked in terms of excellence researching and those that have been gradually adopting Open Government policies concerning the dissemination of information through institutional web pages and social participation, are the most interested with complying the recommendations established by the authorities of the Open Science projects.