International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations

Open Science

The Open Science Statement of the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations consists of Values, Principles and Practices as shown in the chart below. The practices are outlined in more detail following the chart.  Our expectation is that any Alliance research collaborators must commit to making their outputs (materials and knowledge) publicly available without restriction on use and adhere to the following values, principles and practices, which support the values of the International Alliance of ALS MND Associations with respect to Open Science.

Values, Principles and Practices

Values Principles Practices
Human-centric
  • Fairness
  • Representative
  • Respectful
  • Inclusive
  • Communications
  • Behaviours
  • PALS/CALS driven
  • Accountability
  • IP
  • Auditable
Knowledge-sharing
  • Urgency
  • Timely
  • Transparency
  • Article access
  • Interoperable
  • Data & code access
  • Replicable & reproducible
  • Protocols
Trustworthy
  • Reliability
  • Accessible documentation
  • Private & secure
  • Compliance processes & guidelines
  • Follow-on research
  • Re-use
  • Attribution & acknowledgement

Practices

  1. Each researcher or project will have a plan for how the principles of Open Science will be adhered to from inception to the end of the project. That plan will include how the values of human centric, the knowledge sharing, and the trustworthiness will be met.
  2. Where possible, existing human data will be used so PALS and CALS do not have to undergo repeat testing if they have made informed consent to make their data available under open science principles.
  3. Post experimental protocols to a protocol-sharing service, such as protocols.io
  4. All articles resulting from funding must be published in a fully open access journal or posted in an open repository with free, immediate readership rights
  5. Researchers will seek to place open access results arising from research projects (internal or collaborative) in the public domain. Researchers will not, under any Alliance Project they undertake (internal or collaborative), file any form of patent application, or allow a collaborator to restrict the research use of Open Access Project Outputs.
  6. Data will be shared according to FAIR principles [Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets]
  7. Researchers will promptly release the associated output data through free and publicly accessible digital repositories while still maintaining compliance with any privacy and confidentiality regulations.
  8. Any data, code, and software needed for independent verification of research results must be curated and made free and publicly available in an established, open repository no later than the publication of the first paper based on the data, or no later than the expiration of the grant, whichever comes first.
  9. Research outputs (articles, data, code, and software) resulting from funding must be made available with generous reuse & remixing rights (e.g. CC BY.CCO licences)
  10. Applicants will be encouraged to include the anticipated costs for making their work open in their grant applications.
  11. All researchers and projects will include a data-sharing plan as part of the application process and there will be compliance checkpoints throughout the term of engagement which proactively compiles proof of policy compliance as a component of interim and final reports