The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) promotes open science as part of its core activities by producing and sharing reliable geological information for the benefit of society, industry, and the research community. Openness strengthens the quality, transparency, and accessibility of research, enabling the broad reuse of scientific knowledge and thereby increasing its impact.
GTK operates according to the principle as open as possible, as closed as necessary. Openness is implemented responsibly, taking into account legislation, data protection and information security, as well as intellectual property rights and contractual obligations.
GTK is committed to national open science policies and has signed the Declaration for Open Science and Research 2025–2030.
Open science is an integral part of GTK’s operating culture, values, and strategy.
Responsibilities and services related to open science are supported across the organisation. Guidance on matters related to open science is provided through both personal support and up-to-date instructions available on the intranet. In addition, dedicated trainings are provided as needed.
Openness is clearly embedded in GTK’s project activities, and the organisation promotes openness throughout the entire research lifecycle. Openness improves the reliability of research, enables collaboration, and strengthens the societal interaction of research.
GTK takes a comprehensive approach to integrating open science principles into the evaluation of researchers. In addition to research quality, this includes recognising the openness of research data and methods, diverse research outputs, and collaboration. Evaluation is guided by principles for responsible research assessment and reflects GTK’s core values, which emphasise openness, equality, and continuous competence development.
GTK actively participates in national and international open science collaboration and develops its practices in line with shared recommendations and best practices within the research community. In addition, GTK promotes citizen science in its project activities while also maintaining a publicly accessible citizen sample collection scheme to support the collection of geological data.
Open access publishing increases the visibility, impact, and long-term availability of research results. GTK promotes immediate open access to ensure that research results are widely and rapidly available for everyone to use. Open access covers both scientific publications and other research outputs, such as reports and geospatial data, thus supporting the wide use of research knowledge across society.
GTK supports open publishing by participating in the FinELib consortium, which enables cost-effective open access publishing. Openness is also advanced through self-archiving in Helda, ensuring long-term availability of publications and enabling green open access. GTK also promotes the visibility and accessibility of publications through the Hakku service and by publishing its own peer-reviewed journal the Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Finland.
GTK promotes the responsible openness of its research data and methods, which is guided by GTK’s data policy, the Declaration for Open Science and Research (2025–2030), and national policies on open research data and methods (in Finnish).
GTK aims to ensure that research data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable in accordance with the FAIR principles. Research data are integrated into GTK’s Geodata and Digital Solutions, which is part of the national data infrastructure and serves both research and societal information needs. Data are also published on trusted open platforms as part of publication and project activities.
Research infrastructures and methods are a key component of open science at GTK. They enable the production and management of research data and support high-quality, impactful research. GTK promotes openness and accessibility of research infrastructures, taking into account constraints related to security, costs, and access rights.
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