Pig Farming

Pig Welfare and Open Science

Open science practices in pig welfare research accelerate knowledge translation and enable global collaboration on welfare improvement.

Key Facts

Open access publication increases research citation and real-world adoption by practitioners
Preprint servers allow rapid sharing of welfare findings before lengthy peer review processes
Collaborative data sharing between research institutions enables larger, more powerful welfare studies
Citizen science from farmers provides welfare data at scale impossible from traditional research
Open-source welfare assessment tools reduce barriers to welfare monitoring adoption globally

Welfare Considerations

Open science accelerates welfare improvement by removing barriers between research and practice. When welfare findings are freely accessible, farmers, veterinarians, and policymakers can act on them without navigating paywalls. Collaborative data sharing enables research at scales impossible for individual institutions. These practices collectively shorten the journey from welfare science to welfare improvement for billions of pigs.

What You Can Do

Support open access publication mandates for publicly funded welfare research
Advocate for data sharing requirements in welfare research funding conditions
Use and share freely available pig welfare resources from research institutions