Open Science Festival: a day focused on collective benefit, equity, fairness, and sustainability
At the Netherlands National Open Science Festival in Rotterdam, 400 people with a heart for research and sharing knowledge came together — including many Leiden University employees. Four colleagues told us about their Festival experience, and their work to practice Open Science at Leiden University.
Sarah de Rijcke, Professor of Science and Evaluation Studies & Academia in Motion Ambassador
'I joined two panel discussions at the Festival: one in which I shared my experiences as co-author of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, and one on developing incentives for Open Science.
Open Science is not only about quality and integrity, but also very much about collective benefit, equity, fairness, and sustainability. I see it as part of a wider societal transformation. We need more diverse perspectives and inclusive participation in science because of the huge global challenges we are facing.
Perhaps you’ve seen Oppenheimer? Not all science and innovation is harmless, so we should carefully monitor who we collaborate with and what outcomes we are creating in opening up science. And we should also incentivize reflective learning. No one-size-fits-all rankings and metrics please!
Want to discuss these topics with me and other Leiden University colleagues? I invite you to join our Academia in Motion Festival in November.’
Margaret Gold, Citizen Science Lab Coordinator
'I represented the Dutch Citizen Science Network at the Festival. I encourage anyone at Leiden University who is interested in Citizen Science to get involved in the network. It’s a great way to meet other researchers and learn from each other, especially with folks who might be bumping into similar challenges around ethics or how to handle the data.
We’re supporting that within Leiden University too. Get in touch with us at the Citizen Science Lab to learn about more examples of citizen science in your area of research, or for advice on how to apply Citizen Science in the design or proposal phase of a project. We’re happy to bounce ideas around with you.
Citizen Science matters to Open Science because it’s a crucial element of opening up the scientific process, not just its outputs. We involve people in the process itself.'
Daniela Gawehns, PhD Candidate at LIACS
I was at the Open Science Festival with colleagues at the Netherlands eScience Center. We organized a panel discussion on research infrastructure for sustainable software. Research infrastructures are, for example, version-control systems so that you know, at every step of research process, what you did on your code and can always go back. We're asking questions about how we finance this type of infrastructure at a national level and where we host it.
The topic of transparent research workflows is part of Open Science discussions because transparency is key to more robust and reproducible research. Good research infrastructure also facilitates research across disciplines and borders, and that makes our research more meaningful.
If you want to know more, reach out to me or get involved in the new Netherlands Reproducibility Network (NLRN). I'm the coordinator and we’re officially launching later this year.
Andrew Hoffman, Service Scientist at FSW
'I think along with researchers to figure out what data management information to include in their research proposals or data management plans. We discuss where best to keep, archive and share their research data, and we talk about the ethical and political aspects. It’s all about ensuring an equitable, sustainable, and well-documented process throughout a given project.
At the Festival I ran a workshop with my FSW colleagues Céline Richard, Clifford Tatum and Katie Hudson. The focus was ongoing efforts to develop shared policy guidelines for how research data should be handled in the Dutch faculties of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The workshop was a first step towards a national consultation. We aim to make an appreciation for epistemic diversity a key part of such guidelines.
At FSW, we’re also carrying out a wider research program to better understand what ‘good’ Research Data Management (RDM) looks like in these different fields, and what the implications of this are for RDM policy and practice.'
Curious about Open Science and Recognition & Rewards at Leiden University?
Join our university's Academia in Motion Festival on 2 November — for all Leiden University and LUMC colleagues!
Register for the FestivalOpen Science Festival website
Top photo credit: Pim Rusch / IM-Studio.eu (CC BY 4.0)