Open Census: A Federal Statistical Agency’s Approach to Open Science

Music City Center 

We are in a time of increased action to promote open science. Open scholarship, code, and data policies promote transparency by making research data, methods, and results readily accessible to a wider audience. Efforts within the federal system are underway to advance the principles of open science and federal agencies are implementing policies to increase public access to the results of scientific research and identifying ways to enhance best practices for the preservation, discoverability, accessibility, and utility of research outputs. Federal statistical agencies are not as far along as other federal agencies in implementing open science practices. But they also face their own hurdles. This presentation will recap key discussions and outstanding questions around open science for federal statistical agencies. I will contextualize this with the development of Open Census, a new initiative at the US Census Bureau aimed at fostering open science practices in its research. Open Census will develop an intuitive and secure ecosystem for Census Bureau researchers to develop, publish, and disseminate their work, driving the highest standards of research integrity and transparency.

Federal Statistics

Open Science

Open Source

Open Data 

Social Statistics Section