Open science initiatives can be intimidating, especially in established research organizations that are contract-based. To help internal stakeholders such as researchers and administrators become more familiar with open science principles, we utilized outside-the-box thinking. As a research organization connected to a state university, we must follow state document depository requirements for select publications. Using this mandate, we can create an environment of internal trust to create public trust. Internal stakeholders need to know that we are only sharing information that is not confidential or proprietary. The public deserves trustworthy scientific information to combat the misinformation that is widely available. By placing publications in an institutional repository, documents are webcrawled by the state and become immediately available to the public. Additional benefits include further visibility for the organization and the potential for new partnerships, usage statistics, and basic preservation of born-digital materials. With the upcoming changes to federally funded research requirements, getting stakeholders at research organizations comfortable with open science is imperative.
