Research information – data on research outputs and activities – is ubiquitous and essential in everyday research, whether in the form of bibliographic metadata on publications and other research results, data on funding and projects, or information about research institutions and researchers themselves. However, much of this information is often collected by commercial providers and made available to the scientific community for a fee (e.g. Web of Science and Scopus). Since research information is indispensable for strategic decision-making, resource allocation, research evaluation, and recruitment – in other words, crucial for transparent and fair research assessments – ensuring its openness is essential. Open research information is therefore a key component of open science practices and the ongoing reform of research assessment – not least for safeguarding academic sovereignty. This talk will give a brief overview of these issues.