From Closed Outputs to Reusable Research: Why Open Science Matters for First-Year PhD Candidates

This presentation provides an introduction to Open Science and Research Data Management (RDM) for first-year PhD candidates at the Max Delbrück Center (MDC). It explains why Open Science has become an international research standard and demonstrates how good research data management supports transparency, reproducibility, and reuse throughout the research lifecycle. The presentation addresses questions such as: What is Open Science and why does it matter? What are the current challenges in scientific publishing, peer review, and research reproducibility? What are the FAIR principles and how can researchers make their data FAIR? How should research data, code, and metadata be organized throughout a PhD project? What is a Data Management Plan (DMP), and why should it be created early? How to use FAIR Wizard? How do Creative Commons licenses support data and software reuse? How do researchers choose appropriate repositories for publications, datasets, and code? What are persistent identifiers (ORCID, DOI, RRID), and why are they important? What are the expectations of funders, publishers, MDC, and Charité regarding Open Science and research data management? Which practical steps can PhD candidates take to improve the transparency, reproducibility, and long-term preservation of their research? The presentation also includes several interactive exercises and practical examples illustrating common challenges in reproducible research.