Open science in agricultural economics

Abstract

We provide a 'big picture' of what Open Science is and what benefits, limitations, and risks it entails for agricultural economists. We show that Open Science comprises various aspects, such as the accessibility of science, transparency of scientific processes, open and findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) research data and code, and openness in teaching and education. We identify potential benefits of Open Science for individual researchers and the public, as well as adoption barriers. We highlight that public benefits of a widespread uptake of Open Science practices still remain unexplored. We share best practice examples for key aspects of agricultural economic research, i.e. primary data collection and analysis, optimization and simulation models, use of replication packages, and an Open Science Community. Assessing the author guidelines of twelve agricultural economics journals for their Open Science practices, we find that data citation and transparency are considered important in many journals already, whereas replication, pre-registration, or results-blind reviews are encouraged but rarely enforced. It also becomes evident that the journals differ in terms of how strictly they enforce their open science guidelines. We close by providing recommendations for researchers, journal editors, policymakers, universities, research institutes, and funding agencies to better align public benefits with private incentives.