Open Science FAQ

​​Open Science in the context of brain and mental health, is the open sharing of research data, either as it is conducted or once completed. Open science is access to the raw data as well as conclusions drawn, for other institutes to interpret and use as support for their own research projects. Open Science allows for research collaboration at a data level and speeds up new research. It also has the potential for impact across a much more broad population over a shorter period of time.

Open science means that research discoveries can be correlated more quickly, and data sets can be evaluated by multiple different parties, which adds to the reliability of research conclusions and expedites new research discoveries by allowing researchers to easily build off of research done by other parties.

At the moment, the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute out of McGill University, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute are the only two neuroscience organizations committed to Open Science

Open Science provides the opportunity for your research to inform and support further research in similar fields, faster and with impact on a scale that is broader than it might be otherwise. This allows research to have the potential to progress more quickly with less duplication and greater collaboration.

The HBI acknowledges the autonomy of its stakeholders - including but not limited to: researchers, staff, trainees and participants - through recognizing their right to decline to participate in research and associated activities conducted under an Open Science framework. That said, any HBI research Teams or Platforms supported by the HBI will endeavour to support Open Science principles insofar as their activities are supported by HBI. See Principle 5.