Developing an Open Science Readiness Assessment Framework for the SEP

Developing long-term OS policies and roadmaps can be a daunting task for research units. This blog post proposes to develop an Open Science Readiness Assessment Framework tool, aligned with the Dutch Strategy Evaluation Protocol to help research units to better embed OS in their long-term planning.

Louise Bezuidenhout • April 14, 2026

Insular policy feedback: Why reforming metrics alone may not be enough

Metric-driven research systems persist because governance structures often matter more than metrics themselves.

Eleonora Dagiene, Ludo Waltman, Guus Dix and Vincent Larivière • April 09, 2026 • 1 comment

ORION dashboard: Bringing open research data within reach

The ORION dashboard enables easy exploration of CWTS OpenAlex data on BigQuery, letting users analyse institutions, funders, and research topics via interactive visualisations and reproducible SQL queries without any coding skills required.

Juan Pablo Bascur Cifuentes • March 24, 2026 • 2 comments

When impact signals become noisy: RI² as an early warning framework for university rankings

As publication and citation signals face structural distortion, performance metrics require contextual interpretation. This essay introduces RI² as a diagnostic overlay to support more cautious and governance-aware reading of university rankings.

Lokman Meho • March 11, 2026

The global map of science according to EU funding

In this blog post, we report a global funding landscape created using semantic relations of all EU R&I Framework Programme grants that helps locate regions, organisations and funders in the disciplinary space of science without relying on citation data.

Adrià Plazas, Nicandro Bovenzi, Nicolau Duran, Enric Fuster, Hermes Carretero and Ismael Rafols • March 04, 2026 • 1 comment

Reclaiming the scholarly ecosystem: Reflections on the first CWTS research seminar of 2026

In the first research seminar at CWTS of 2026, Samuel Moore argued that Open Access publishing took the wrong path and proposed alternatives with a new ‘commons’ approach. As PhD candidates studying scholarly communication, we expand his view to broader research infrastructure and culture.

Joonha Jeon and Tanya Lee • February 24, 2026

Looking ahead to 2026: Key priorities of the Netherlands Barcelona Declaration Network

In late 2025, the Netherlands Barcelona Declaration Network met in Leiden to reflect and set priorities for 2026. This blog outlines those priorities and highlights how the growing network of universities, funders, and research infrastructures advances open, community-governed research information.

Ana Ranitovic • February 11, 2026

Resilience in times of crisis: Strengthening Open Science against geopolitical pressures

How can open science be resilient in the face of geopolitical pressures? Drawing on findings from a recent workshop, we suggest four discussion points that need further consideration as funding agencies, policymakers, and institutions work towards resilience.

Kathleen Gregory and Louise Bezuidenhout • February 03, 2026

Launch of a new tool to track CoARA signatories

How global is research assessment reform? Our author introduces a practical, interactive dashboard she developed, allowing users to easily view up-to-date information on CoARA signatories worldwide, their distribution, organisation types, and submitted or pending action plans.

Nina Gogadze • January 21, 2026

Advancing open research information: The next three years of the Information & Openness focal area