Key Values: What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Open Science’
Date:
Keynote at Open Science Symposium, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Mānoa, Hawaiʻi
Openness in science is hard to disagree with as an abstract principle, but what exactly do we mean when we call for science to be made open – or more open than before? In this talk, I introduce and unpack the many different goals, strategies, products, values, and assumptions of the broad open science movement. It can be hard to make sense of all the different ways people are calling for science to be made more open: free-to-download publication PDFs, datasets re-usable by anyone, documented workflows or lab notebooks to support reproducibility, open source scientific software packages, publicly-funded computing infrastructure, public peer reviewing platforms, citizen science research projects, alternative metrics for publications and researchers, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and better public-facing science communication. Instead of pursuing openness simply for openness’ sake or focusing too closely on any single specific problem or solution, I call for scientists to think broadly about why openness is a value for science in society and who will benefit from making science more open in different ways.