Open Science Initiative

• RTI encourages research staff to share knowledge through Open Access channels, such as Open Access journals, RTI Press, and preprint repositories, whenever possible. Open Access is consistent with RTI’s mission and intentions toward more purposeful equity and inclusion. RTI supports Open Access as a means of making science more accessible, by increasing the discoverability, reach, and impact of RTI’s research.
• Since 2007, RTI Press has shared research through peer-reviewed, Open Access publications. We publish on a broad range of topics reflecting RTI’s multidisciplinary research, expertise in social and laboratory sciences, and extensive international activities. Our publications inform national and international research, scientific discussions, and policy debates. RTI International supports RTI Press as a means of sharing research and practical knowledge to improve the human condition.
• RTI data scientists have created a range of open source tools that make it easier to work with large data sets and address the needs of our partners. Examples of these tools - such as gobbli, SMART, and Harness-Vue - are detailed in the Open Source Tools section below.

• RTI is committed to being at the forefront of the call to action on racial justice and equity. To ensure focused and sustained attention, we have established the Transformative Research Unit for Equity (TRUE). TRUE is turning practice into impact through transformative research that leverages power, influence, and resources to advance equity. TRUE researchers have made their research open through RTI Press publications.
• With support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the All of Us Researcher Academy is designed to provide training, technical assistance and peer-to-peer learning for health researchers at Minority Serving Institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
• RTI researchers work to respect diverse cultures throughout the research life cycle, for example, by reflecting cultural norms of communication in survey research. 
• RTI Press is a signatory to the SDG Publishers Compact. We publish works that help inform, develop, and inspire action to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

• RTI is invested in promoting FAIR data principles to meet the needs and challenges for modernizing and securing data systems.
• In line with the National Science and Technology Council's guidance, RTI is integrating the use of digital persistent identifiers throughout the research life cycle. In particular, RTI has successfully adopted and integrated ORCID iDs, which are researcher-level PIDS, to link scientists and their accomplishments.

RTI researchers collaborate with a range of clients on efforts to promote open science, a number of which are highlighted in the gallery below.

• In 2023, NIH adopted a new policy to promote the sharing of scientific data. As part of the NIH HEAL Data Stewardship Group, RTI ensures that NIH HEAL data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) by developing processes for data harmonization, data storage, metadata collection, and sharing within a federated data ecosystem. 
• Since 2010, improving early grade reading has been a top priority for RTI and for many bilateral and multilateral donors, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), The World Bank, UK Aid and others. In support of this work and to improve upon paper forms of assessment, RTI developed a mobile assessment and coaching tool we dubbed Tangerine. Open source for all users, Tangerine is a first-of-its-kind software application optimized for offline data collection on low-cost Android tablets. Originally designed to record data from early grade reading and mathematics assessments and to enhance coaching feedback for teachers, students, and school administrators, the Tangerine app has been adopted in other sectors, such as health.

• RTI has adopted DMPTool for researchers to prepare data management and sharing plans that meet funders' expectations and facilitate open data.
• RTI Fellows and our Scientific Stature Services team are advancing Open Science at RTI through a series of roundtables to address topics especially relevant to our scientists. The purpose is to introduce these topics and prompt researchers to explore the relevant details for their own fields and funders. In 2022-23, topics have included protocol papers, data management and sharing plans, and Open Access publishing.
• RTI researchers embrace reproducible research as good stewards of research funding and as providers of credible information for policy decision-making across many areas of public concern. For example, the authors of the highly collaborative publication Monthly excess mortality across counties in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, March 2020 to February 2022 host a living repository of data and code that enable replication of the results in the paper.