A topology of principles for open science: object, subject, and act

A topology of principles for open science places the principle-sets of the field on three axes rather than on a single plane. The object axis governs the thing at rest, where FAIR, TRUST, and the FAIR extensions sit; the subject axis governs the authority of a holder, where CARE, OCAP, consent, licence, intellectual property, and national and regional law sit; and the act, where the two axes cross, is the offer and its acceptance, the cooperation by which a described object is put on the table by an authorised holder to another under agreed terms. FAIR and CARE are orthogonal and meet only in the act. The act is already densely governed, by contract law, the data-space frameworks, ODRL, eIDAS, and MyData, and the PILOT Principles are offered for a single vacant office there: a principle of division for the governance contract, keyed to answerability, that divides the contract into clause-families and requires each term to be asserted by a named holder who can be held, while leaving the substance of each term to the framework proper to it. The three axes rest on a normative ground of ethics, values, and international governance, founded on human rights. The claim for the PILOT Principles is offered for refutation rather than asserted from standing.This paper was prepared under the author’s direction with the assistance of several AI systems, including various models of Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and DeepSeek. The models assisted with ideation, structuring, drafting, language editing, literature search, and critique. Drafting, analysis, and interpretation were carried out by the author. The ideas expressed here are, unless cited or referenced, those of the author. All normative claims are those of the author. Facts and citations were verified by the author, who takes full responsibility for the work. A structured statement is deposited with the record as a machine-readable object.