The importance of open data and software: Is energy research lagging behind?
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Pfenninger, Stefan
DeCarolis, Joseph
Hirth, Lion
Quoilin, Sylvain
Staffell, Iain
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Energy policy often builds on insights gained from quantitative energy models and their underlying data. As climate change mitigation and economic concerns drive a sustained transformation of the energy sector, transparent and well-founded analyses are more important than ever. We assert that models and their associated data must be openly available to facilitate higher quality science, greater productivity through less duplicated effort, and a more effective science-policy boundary. There are also valid reasons why data and code are not open: ethical and security concerns, unwanted exposure, additional workload, and institutional or personal inertia. Overall, energy policy research ostensibly lags behind other fields in promoting more open and reproducible science. We take stock of the status quo and propose actionable steps forward for the energy research community to ensure that it can better engage with decision-makers and continues to deliver robust policy advice in a transparent and reproducible way.
Date Issued
2016-12-02
Date Acceptance
2016-11-27
Citation
Energy Policy, 2016, 101, pp.211-215
ISSN
0301-4215
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
211
End Page
215
Journal / Book Title
Energy Policy
Volume
101
Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/)
License URL
Subjects
MD Multidisciplinary
Energy
Notes
publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The importance of open data and software: Is energy research lagging behind? journaltitle: Energy Policy articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.11.046 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Publication Status
Published