Introduction to Open Science: Where are we heading?

This presentation provides an introduction to Open Science, its principles, challenges, infrastructures, and policy frameworks. It discusses barriers in the current research ecosystem, including paywalls, reproducibility challenges, peer review issues, and incentives in scholarly communication. The presentation introduces key Open Science practices such as Open Access, FAIR and Open Data, Open Research Software, Open Peer Review, Citizen Science, and Open Education. The presentation further highlights Open Science infrastructures, research data management, metadata standards, persistent identifiers, repositories, licensing, and research assessment reform initiatives such as CoARA. International, national, and institutional Open Science frameworks are discussed, including the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and the Croatian Open Science Plan. The material was prepared for an introductory lecture on Open Science and research data management. The presentation addresses the following questions: What is science, and what resources are required to conduct research? What are the major challenges facing modern research and scholarly communication? Why do paywalls, limited access to data, and reproducibility issues matter? How do current publishing and research assessment systems influence scientific behaviour? What is Open Science, and why is it important? How can Open Access, Open Data, Open Software, and Open Peer Review improve research? What are FAIR data principles, and how can they be implemented in practice? What role do metadata, persistent identifiers, repositories, and licences play in making research reusable? How can research data, software, protocols, and educational resources be shared openly and responsibly? What infrastructures, policies, and frameworks support Open Science at institutional, national, and international levels? How are UNESCO, CoARA, and national Open Science initiatives shaping the future of research? What practical steps can researchers take to contribute to a more transparent, reproducible, and inclusive research ecosystem?