The National Open Science and Research Steering Group in Finland has awarded the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies with the Champions of Open Science (Avoimuuden edistäjät) 2021 award. This prestigious honour is a recognition of the CoE’s merits in the strategic advancement of open science in their research work, and it was presented at the Open Science Autumn 2021 conference held on the 24th of November in Turku.
The Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies is a joint research unit of three Finnish universities: Tampere University, University of Jyväskylä, and University of Turku, funded by the Academy of Finland. CoE GameCult has put special emphasis on open science in the organisation of their research practices. During 2020, with the support from the open science experts at Tampere University Library, CoE GameCult created their own open science strategy, openly published on their website in February 2021. CoE GameCult researchers actively participated in creating the strategy by editing and commenting on the draft and by participating in related training and workshops. The strategy remains a living document for the CoE researchers, to be regularly updated.
The process of creating the CoE GameCult open science strategy is driven by and done for the researchers themselves. Its goal has been to bring the principles and practices of open science closer to the researchers, particularly from the perspective of game culture studies, and to provide the researchers with practical tools and guidelines for applying them in their own research work.
In their open science strategy, CoE GameCult has set tangible goals for open research conducted within the unit. These measurable objectives focus on the number of the researchers’ ORCID profiles, open access publications and open research data sets produced within the CoE, as well as on implementing the principles and practices of open science into the publication planning and data management planning within CoE GameCult research groups. CoE GameCult follows and openly reports on their progress in achieving these goals (the first progress report will be published in early 2022 on this website).
Alongside the strategy work, the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies invests in open science by organising open science training for their researchers, encouraging the opening of publications through self-archiving, openly publishing selected research collections and articles, and opening research data. Additionally, CoE GameCult practices open science by actively organising and participating in research-based interaction and communication with various audiences and stakeholders (e.g. through the GameCult Talks event series).
The Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies aims to advance open science also externally by sharing the principles and good practices adopted within the unit with other researchers and research groups, as well as by participating in the public discourse on open science. In addition to openly publishing their open science strategy, CoE GameCult has actively communicated about its work in this area, initiated discussion on the benefits of open science within the three CoE GameCult universities, and visited open science events and podcasts (e.g. “Yhteistyötä kilpailun sijaan” – Avoimesti tieteestä podcast 25.5.2021).
The Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies is honoured to receive the Champions of Open Science award and recognises it as an encouragement to continue its efforts towards advancement of openness and responsibility in science. The CoE also wishes to thank the Tampere University Library open science experts for their continuous assistance and support in creating the open science strategy and maintaining open science practices.