113th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

Issue of February 25, 2026

On our own behalf

Starting with this issue, we will be creating and sending our newsletter ourselves and no longer using the third-party provider Brevo. Subscriber contact information will be managed via a DFN mailing list.

1. Research assessment: CoARA action plans

The Coalition to Advance Research Assessment (CoARA) is an international initiative of organizations that advocates for research assessment reform and promotes responsible assessment practices. As part of this effort, member institutions develop CoARA action plans that show how organizations are implementing reforms in practice: they make plans transparent, promote accountability, and encourage exchange within the organization.

A new study takes a look at 248 CoARA action plans: open science is primarily anchored as a guiding principle, while concrete measures – with the exception of open access – are still in various stages of development. For future action plans, the study emphasizes the importance of clear operationalization: in addition to describing interactions and strategic goals, it will be crucial to formulate concrete criteria, measures, and incentive structures with which open science can actually be implemented and made visible in research evaluation.

In February 2025, the Helmholtz Open Science Office (OS Office) signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA) and joined CoARA. The OS Office has now published its own CoARA action plan, which provides an overview of the interactions between open science and research assessment reforms, followed by a description of the status quo and planned activities for 2026-2030 based on the ten ARRA commitments.

2. Research software in focus: Quality indicators and community survey

The Helmholtz Association is developing quality indicators to increase the recognition of research data and software publications as scientific contributions. As part of this effort, the Helmholtz Open Science Office is coordinating the task group “Helmholtz Quality Indicators for Data and Software Products,” which was established by the Open Science Working Group and consists of experts from all centers.

In this context, an important step is the recently published paper, “Research software as a new key performance indicator for evaluation in the Helmholtz Association.” It shows how research software can be used as an independent quality indicator—a basis for making open science practices visible within the association. At the same time, this approach provides valuable impetus for national and international research evaluation initiatives such as CoARA.

In line with this, an international survey is currently underway to better understand the needs of research software engineers. In Germany, the survey has been adapted by de-RSE and FutuRSI to reflect the specific needs of the community. The results will support national associations, funding organizations, and policymakers in strengthening the RSE community in a targeted manner.

3. Retrospective: Love Data Week 2026

Under the motto "Where’s the Data?", the international Love Data Week (February 9–13) brought global attention to Research Data Management (RDM). The goal of this campaign week was to raise awareness for RDM and to emphasize that research data is a scientific output of equal value to traditional text publications. Numerous university and non-university institutions—most notably Helmholtz Centers and various NFDI consortia—participated with a wide-ranging program to advance this vision.

The content of the sessions spanned from strategic debates on research assessment (SaxFDM Digital Kitchen with a contribution from the Helmholtz Open Science Office on the topic of research assessment) to overcoming specific hurdles in data reusability (organized by Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC), FAIRmat, and DAPHNE4NFDI). Technical highlights included the PID4NFDI Open Hour, which focused on the discoverability of research instruments via Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), and the HMC FAIR Friday, which addressed interoperable metadata capture in Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs). Furthermore, discipline-specific highlights, such as the orchestration of catalysis data by NFDI4Cat, underscored the immense potential of structured data for the scientific community.

4. Review of the 3rd Forum Helmholtz Research Data Commons

The third Forum Helmholtz Research Data Commons on “Sample Handling and Tracking – Good and FAIR Data Practices in Action” took place on February 3. In the Helmholtz-internal forum format, jointly organized by the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) and the Helmholtz Open Science Office, this time focused on good practice in research data management for scientific samples. Use cases and examples from four different institutions and research fields were presented: Speakers from three Helmholtz Centers (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz Munich) and from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research presented how they handle and track different types of samples – such as material samples, soil samples, bio samples and plant samples – in their respective areas of application. The talks allowed to gain both practical insights into the specific use cases as well as into the general challenges in collecting accompanying good-quality metadata for samples. A subsequent discussion highlighted that – and how – successful sample handling and tracking hinges on a variety of components.

A published report on the forum provides further insights into the presentations and discussions.

5. Draft for Research Data Act Aims to Unlock Germany’s Public Data

Germany is moving to unlock its public-sector data for research through a draft for a Research Data Act (Forschungsdatengesetz, FDG) proposed by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR). Despite rich administrative and statistical data, access is currently fragmented and legally complex, often forcing researchers to rely on foreign datasets during crises like COVID-19. The FDG aims to change this by creating a German Microdata Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Mikrodaten), serving as a secure hub for controlled access and linkage of pseudonymized datasets, with strict safeguards and auditing.

The law also aims to unify Germany’s fragmented data access rules, allowing accredited institutions to carry out research in the public interest while safeguarding privacy and trade secrets. Cross-state projects would be overseen by a lead supervisory authority to minimize bureaucratic hurdles, and researchers would be required to publish anonymized results within a set timeframe. The Alliance of German Science Organizations has welcomed the draft in a recent statement, while stressing that its implementation should be research-oriented, minimally bureaucratic, and legally robust.

6. Sovereignty through Openness: New Impulses from Brussels

At the beginning of 2026, Europe's technological and data sovereignty is increasingly coming into the focus of research policy. Two new documents provide important momentum in this regard: a European Parliament resolution of January 22 on Europe's technological sovereignty and digital infrastructure, as well as the EOSC Steering Board's opinion paper "Strengthening European sovereignty in data for research". Central to these is the realization that sovereignty and Open Science are not contradictions. Under the guiding principle “Enforcing Sovereignty with Openness,” the papers demonstrate that autonomy and security interests can go hand in hand with scientific openness rather than stand in opposition to it. A technical backbone of this sovereignty is the sustainable funding of digital research infrastructures, along with the promotion of standardized metadata and persistent identifiers (PIDs) for data and software publications, in order to ensure the long-term transparency and traceability of European research.

The Helmholtz Open Science Office has already addressed the topic of research security in its commentary on the perceived tension between Open Science and research security. This debate will continue in the summer: the Helmholtz-internal forum "Open Science in a Changing Geopolitical Context" will take place on June 11, 2026, to discuss the role of Open Science in a changing geopolitical environment. Program details and registration information will be communicated shortly.

7. Review of the Online Seminar “Open Research Information in Action”

Under the title “Open Research Information in Action: Institutional Journeys Toward Open Systems”, an online seminar jointly organized by the Barcelona Declaration Working Group on Replacing Closed Systems and the Helmholtz Open Science Office took place in December 2025, which was also the 71st Helmholtz Open Science Seminar. The event showcased four institutional journeys from Europe and Latin America that use or are moving toward open, non-proprietary systems for open research information. The speakers explained why the institutions signed the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information; how they use or are moving to open, non-proprietary systems, the governance considerations and technical steps taken, as well as the challenges and benefits. These cases offer practical pathways and actionable insights for institutions considering similar transformations.

A recording of the seminar for watching the presentations is now available. An accompanying short review of the event has been published on the Barcelona Declaration website.

8. Open Science Monitoring Initiative: New Steering Board

Inspired by the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI) aims to to promote the worldwide adoption of the Principles of Open Science Monitoring, to promote recommendations for technical specifications for their implementation, as well as to support stakeholders on various levels in monitoring Open Science practices.

As of 2026, OSMI is now governed by a Steering Board that sets the main guidelines and strategy, oversees the Coordination Committee, and decides on the creation and closing of working groups; the board comprises the five international experts as as well as further rotating members, the co-chairs of the working groups, and OSMI’s initiators. The Helmholtz Open Science Office actively monitors the OSMI activities and partakes in a task group on the open science monitoring landscape.

9. Project OASA analyzes challenges and scenarios of the open access transformation

With the start of the year, the project Open Access Scenario Analyses (OASA), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has commenced. The project will analyze the current challenges of the open access transformation in the area of financial and organizational structure and develop recommendations for further addressing the open access transformation in Germany. The objective of OASA is to assess the various financial development perspectives in the field of open access and their potential impacts, as well as to gain a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and risks of the further development of the open access transformation through data analyses and systematic research. A key focus is also the collaboration with relevant stakeholders and experts from the community, who will be involved through various workshops and other activities.

The project has a duration of three years. It is carried out by the central library of Forschungszentrum Jülich, the School of Library and Information Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the university library of Leipzig University, the university library of RWTH Aachen University and the Helmholtz Open Science Office.

# More information is available on the project website. #

10. New learning materials by OA Datenpraxis

The project OA Datenpraxis has published new learning materials for open access practitioners on monitoring activities using open data sources.
Interactive R notebooks for self-learning show how to analyse publication volume and costs using open data sources – all without any prior knowledge. There is one notebook based on OpenAlex as data basis and one based on OpenAPC.

In addition, an introduction to open access monitoring and open research information has been published as a LIBER Topic Guide.

11. Open Journal Systems: Germany Consortium launched

The OJS Germany Consortium was launched in January 2026. Initially, 14 German institutions have committed to providing financial support to the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) for three years through membership fees for the development of the Open Journal Systems (OJS) software. OJS is free and open-source software for academic publishing that enables the operation of open access journals without license fees and without dependence on commercial publishers.

The new consortium is coordinated by the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB). With their contributions, the members support the sustainable operation of an open information infrastructure. The consortium remains open to new members.

12. COAR publishes resource “Dealing With Bots”

In last year's June edition of our newsletter, we reported on a survey conducted by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) which revealed that the majority of repositories surveyed are confronted with aggressive bot attacks. In response, COAR established the “Dealing With Bots” task group to develop support materials on this issue. The results are now available on a dedicated website. There you will find background information on this issue, a conceptual overview of the relevant steps for dealing with bots, and a list of possible strategies.

There is also a post on the DOAJ blog on the topic of bots, which shows how the platform deals with these challenges and discusses their impact on OA infrastructures.

Save the Dates

Recommended Reading

Arabi, S., Ni, C., & Hutchins, B. I. (2025). Most researchers would receive more recognition if assessed by article-level metrics than by journal-level metrics. PLOS Biology, 23(12), e3003532. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003532  

Hrynaszkiewicz, I., Novich, B., Harney, J., Gray, R., & Kiermer, V. (2026). A survey of how biology researchers assess credibility when serving on grant and hiring committees. PeerJ, 14, e20502. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.20502  

Fischer, G., Neufend, M. & Kindling, M. (2026). Open Research, aber rechtssicher: Rückblick auf die Workshops des Legal Helpdesk Berlin. Open Research Blog Berlin. https://doi.org/10.59350/g2yvs-db929 

Nazarovets, S., & Y. Suchikova. (2026). Review Articles, Generative AI and the Remaking of Scholarly Infrastructure. Learned Publishing 39, no. 2: e2045. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2045

Recker, J., Pegelow, L., Schuster, A., & Mauer, R. (2026). Hope for the best, plan for the worst: reducing risks associated with repository cessation. International Journal of Digital Curation, 20(1). Hope for the best, plan for the worst: Reducing risks associated with repository cessation  

Starman, M., Kirchner, F., Held, M. et al. ELNdataBridge: facilitating data exchange and collaboration by linking Electronic Lab Notebooks via API. J Cheminform 17, 86 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13321-025-01024-1 

Wu, M., Löffler, F., Mathiak, B., Psomopoulos, F., Schindler, U., Aryani, A., Sempere, J. B., Culina, A., Czerniak, A., Erdmann, C., Gregory, K., Juty, N., Lister, A., Liu, Y.-H., & Pearman-Kanza, S. (2026). Bridging the data discovery gap: user-centric recommendations for research data repositories. Data Science Journal, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2026-006 

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