Abstract
Abstract. Open, accessible, reusable, and reproducible hydrologic research can have a significant positive impact on the scientific community and broader society. While more individuals and organizations within the hydrology community are embracing open science practices, technical (e.g., limited coding experience), resource (e.g., open access fees), and social (e.g., fear of weaknesses being exposed or ideas being scooped) challenges remain. Furthermore, there are a growing number of constantly evolving open science tools, resources, and initiatives that can be overwhelming. These challenges and the ever-evolving nature of the open science landscape may seem insurmountable for hydrologists interested in pursuing open science. Therefore, we propose the general “Open Hydrology Principles” to guide individual and community progress toward open science for research and education and the “Open Hydrology Practical Guide” to improve the accessibility of currently available tools and approaches. We aim to inform and empower hydrologists as they transition to open, accessible, reusable, and reproducible research. We discuss the benefits as well as common open science challenges and how hydrologists can overcome them. The Open Hydrology Principles and Open Hydrology Practical Guide reflect our knowledge of the current state of open hydrology; we recognize that recommendations and suggestions will evolve and expand with emerging open science infrastructures, workflows, and research experiences. Therefore, we encourage hydrologists all over the globe to join in and help advance open science by contributing to the living version of this document and by sharing open hydrology resources in the community-supported repository (https://open-hydrology.github.io, last access: 1 February 2022).
Highlights
The objective of this paper is to introduce the Open Hydrology Principles and Open Hydrology Practical Guide to help hydrologists take actionable steps towards open science
We focus on four major research stages: (1) research process and approach, (2) data collection and analysis, (3) code and software use and development, and (4) publishing
We discuss guiding principles for meaningful engagement in open hydrology and we provide practical steps to answer how to engage in openness
Summary
Hydrologic research intersects various Earth sciences (e.g., climatology, geology, ecology) and social sciences (e.g., policy and public health) to tackle pressing environmental and societal challenges. Open science outputs share scientific insights beyond those discussed in the main text of journal articles and are more accessible for more researchers, leading to an increase in citations (Piwowar et al, 2007) Another benefit of embracing open science practice is a vastly improved collaboration practice. Despite general calls and efforts to support open science, practical guidance on steps hydrologists can take to incorporate open science principles into their research is limited. The Open Hydrology Principles and Open Hydrology Practical Guide are available online at https://open-hydrology.github.io (last access: 1 February 2022) This website provides a platform to facilitate continued discussion and evolution of open hydrology presented in this article (i.e., to serve as a living document), highlight emerging open hydrology resources and educational opportunities, and serve as a meeting point to connect open hydrologists. We invite everyone to contribute to the discussion, share resources and experiences, and work towards incorporating open science principles into all stages of their hydrology research
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