Road to Open Science (R2OS): Recent Episodes
Open Science Community Utrecht
The Road to Open Science Podcast is your guide on everything Open at Utrecht University and beyond. In our monthly podcast we discuss the latest developments in the fields of open acces, open data/software, public engagement and recognition and rewards.
Caspar and Sicco talk academic careers and what motivates you to stay in academics with Alexandra Vennekens from the Rathenau Institute. Is #LeavingAcademia really happening and what do academics actually value in their own work? And does the university think about that the same way?
Some background reading: - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01512-6 Has the great resignation wave hit academia? (Nature) - https://www.mareonline.nl/opinie/waarom-ik-mijn-verloving-met-de-universiteit-verbreek/ - Suze Zijlstra (Mare) - https://twitter.com/sanli/status/1534788435684347904?s=20&t=EBCxZkQpkrPB1LPY0Wcb3g - Young Academy Research (Tweet Sanli) - https://decorrespondent.nl/13674/aan-de-universiteit-mag-een-onderzoeker-geen-mens-meer-zijn/41342173387218-787c5801 - Correspondent Article by Ilse Jozepha Lazaroms
And for the Newsynews: - On the new Regieorgaan Open Science: https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/hans-de-jonge-quartermaster-director-new-open-science-regieorgaan - On the new White House Open Access policy:https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/08/25/ostp-issues-guidance-to-make-federally-funded-research-freely-available-without-delay/ - National Science Communication Day: https://www.nationalewetenschapscommunicatiedag.nl/
Shownotes
First, thanks to the great Bianca Kramer we now have a transcript! You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zhpOk-yw8G-xLRCXDNad1zwUaxAe2Wgev77bwPUl5Y8/edit#heading=h.xvuiepf8k4aj
From the newsynews: - HELIOS (Higher Education Leadership initiative on Open Scholarship): https://www.heliosopen.org/news/22/3/22 - Discussion series "Publishing in transition". In this edition, researchers will discuss the challenges of a transition to fully open access https://www.uu.nl/en/news/how-do-you-prepare-your-academic-journal-for-an-open-science-future - Session ‘Wetenschappers in de publieke arena’ announcement - https://intranet.uu.nl/agenda/wetenschappers-in-de-publieke-arena-collegialiteit - Royal Academy of Science, council of social sciences: ‘Wetenschap met de ramen wijd open’ publication, 10 lessons: https://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/wetenschap-met-de-ramen-wijd-open - Open Science festival is coming, although the deadline for workshop proposals has closed, you can still register at https://opensciencefestival.nl/ - NRC Opinion piece by Juliette Schaafsma en Martijn van der Meer (Tilburg): https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/05/08/verdienmodel-van-grote-uitgevers-bedreigt-onbetaalbare-academische-vrijheid-a4123727
From the interview: - Robin and Eiko's blog: https://eiko-fried.com/welcome-to-hotel-elsevier-you-can-check-out-any-time-you-like-not/utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing - Elsevier rebuttal in nrc (via Tweet): https://twitter.com/vandermeer_rm/status/1526636197233233920?s=20&t=oCxmjjz802BqIpCCWvretA - Article on research infrastructure by Bjorn Brembs et al. https://zenodo.org/record/5526635 - Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/ - How long would it take to buy Elsevier (blog) https://svpow.com/2018/08/15/__trashed/
Sicco and Sanli talk to the new chair of the Utrecht University open science platform about her vision on promoting good scientific practices, collegiality, and the implementation of the university policy on recognition and rewards based on the TRIPLE criteria.
mentioned in this episode: - Polution map of Utrecht measured by UU professors on their outreach trip https://knowyourair.net/prof/ - Dies Natalis 386 https://www.uu.nl/nieuws/dies-natalis-2022-curious-collaborations - Open Science Community Utrecht looking for new ambassadors https://openscience-utrecht.com - Call for open science proposals https://www.uu.nl/onderzoek/open-science/open-science-fund
This episode we talk 'Team Science' and how to really 'Open Up' your science with Ruth van Veelen and Judith de Haan. Together with colleagues they worked on the Utrecht University Open Science Monitor of 2020.
In this episode we mentioned:
Sicco's thread on Royal Academy (KNAW) report on recognition and rewards https://twitter.com/SiccodeKnecht/status/1489195279677071360?s=20&t=CUhsBMlHK7YWmUiT4kODqg Sanli's thread on the Strategic Evaluation Protocol (SEP) https://twitter.com/sanli/status/1451839522053009410?s=20&t=ZJF87fLdRgvii5JAbRg0cQ Link to the SEP https://www.universiteitenvannederland.nl/files/documenten/Domeinen/Onderzoek/SEP_2021-2027.pdf More info on the Rewards and Recognition3 leadership course! https://www.uu.nl/nieuws/een-gesprek-met-stans-de-haas-de-nieuwe-trekker-van-erkennen-en-waarderen Paris call on Research Assessment https://osec2022.eu/paris-call/ Preprints trustworthyness in Economist https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/preprints-on-the-coronavirus-have-been-impressively-reliable/21807492 > OA article in Correspondent https://decorrespondent.nl/13091/iedereen-betaalt-mee-aan-wetenschappelijk-onderzoek-waarom-is-het-dan-niet-voor-iedereen-beschikbaar/814916635104-62278a3a
“Who are these Open Science people, anyway?” In this special installment Felix and Sicco interview Susanna Bloem and Martijn van der Meer on their project called ‘Faces of Open Science’. These two young researchers in the field of the history and philosophy of science went out to find oral histories – as it happens – for which they spoke to a myriad of Open Science minded colleagues at Utrecht University. From that they distilled a number of typical persona’s, all with their own unique motivations and ideals drawing them into the movement. We find out that Open Science isn’t a monolith and why we need more internal debates on values.
We talk to Jose Urra Llanusa and Santosh Ilamparuthi, founders of the open hardware community at Delft Technical University, on promises and pitfalls of open hardware, and how to scale up good quality devices.
Show notes: + Guide to preprints + Book launch "Open Science, the Very Idea" + NWO Open Science fund + OSCU symposium, faculty of Science
We talk to Michael Bon, founder of the Collective Science Platform (CoScience) on his take on the big sin of academia and how reviving the scientific debate in the digital age make science great again.
Show notes: + Climate Helpdesk: https://www.klimaathelpdesk.org/ + National measures to combat threats against scientists: https://www.vsnu.nl/en_GB/news-items.html/nieuwsbericht/788-universiteiten-nemen-landelijke-maatregelen-tegen-bedreiging-wetenschappers + Elisabeth Bik: https://scienceintegritydigest.com/about/ + Better animal research through Open Science: https://www.uu.nl/en/events/better-animal-research-through-open-science + The Collective Science Platform: https://www.sjscience.org/about-sjs
The recognition and reward discussion surged during the summer. Charisma Hehakaya (PhD candidate at the UMC) had co-authored a opinion piece about including early career academics, because the decisions affect them the most. She talks with us about the background of this discussion and why she is active in the Young Science In Transition. Show notes: Article of Charisma and Sander Bosch: https://www.scienceguide.nl/2021/06/jonge-wetenschappers-worden-soms-nog-vergeten-in-erkennen-en-waarderen/ Letter with 171 signatures: https://www.scienceguide.nl/2021/07/nieuwe-erkennen-en-waarderen-schaadt-nederlandse-wetenschap/ Response 1 to that letter: https://recognitionrewards.nl/2021/08/03/waarom-het-nieuwe-erkennen-en-waarderen-juist-excellent-onderzoek-bevordert/ Response 2 to that letter: https://www.scienceguide.nl/2021/07/we-moeten-af-van-telzucht-in-de-wetenschap/ Inadequacy of bibliographic metrics: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/reliability-of-researcher-metric-the-h-index-is-in-decline/4014025.article Preprint Manifesto: https://zenodo.org/record/5345573#.YTH-8dMzaTc
Can science be truly open if it doesn't allow for all perspectives? In this episode we talk diversity and inclusion with associate professor at the UMC Utrecht Gönül Dilaver. Also, we touch base on the newsynews and talk education with Gönül.
Shownotes: - Interview Paul Boselie on not using the Journal Impact Factor: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01759-5?fbclid=IwAR14xtmGL5yCfesD5ziYSbkdrB99lPcDidEAl1e4sVZDUWaodj0d9JNofag - Ovrir le Science, The French Government's bold Open Science Plan: https://www.ouvrirlascience.fr/second-national-plan-for-open-science/ - Two introductory open science workshops now available for all UU&UMCU groups, https://www.uu.nl/en/news/university-library-helps-research-groups-to-get-started-with-open-science
"Code often isn't your project, the research question is your project." Research software is a major component of modern science, but not everyone is a specialist in this regard. Barbara Vreede and Lieke de Boer from the Netherlands eScience center talk about the increasing importance of version control and the role of the research software engineer.
Shownotes: Tweede Werksessie Erkennen en Waarderen: hoe dichten we de kloof tussen OBP en WP? https://www.uu.nl/agenda/tweede-werksessie-erkennen-en-waarderen-hoe-dichten-we-de-kloof-tussen-obp-en-wp The infamous Randall Munroe comic: https://xkcd.com/2456/ Atlantic article by Benjamin Mazer - Scientific publishin is a Joke: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/05/xkcd-science-paper-meme-nails-academic-publishing/618810/ Paper on the credibility of preprints: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.201520#d1e476 Open grants database https://www.ogrants.org/ Minor revision podcast by Lieke de Boer and her colleague Jeroen: https://pod.link/1559554932
How do you replicate history? No, this is not a rhetorical question but an actual ongoing open science project by historians from Utrecht University. Together with a group of students Pim Huijnen and Pieter Huistra are shaping an entirely novel approach to historical research.
Also, your shownotes:
Innovation is overvalued, hail the maintainers!: https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more
Fieldlabs criticism: https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/na-kritiek-uit-samenleving-nu-kritiek-uit-wetenschap-fieldlabs-voldoen-niet-aan-ethische-normen~bb37d048/
Open Science Newsletter: https://www.uu.nl/nieuws/schrijf-je-in-voor-de-open-science-nieuwsbrief
More on the open Science Practice Funds: https://www.uu.nl/en/news/four-teams-have-received-a-contribution-from-the-fund-for-stimulating-open-science-practices
FAIR Software event: https://www.uu.nl/en/events/fair-software
Wilma van Wezenbeek blog on education: https://vu-ntl.nl/index.php/en/2021/04/08/linking-open-education-to-open-science-2/blog-2/
White Paper on Open Education: https://www.uu.nl/sites/default/files/210401%20-%20White%20Paper%20Open%20Science%20Education.pdf
Yet another installment of the Road to Open Science podcast where we tackle the question of how to find a needle in an ever growing haystack: Automated Systematic Reviews (ASReviews). With Rens van de Schoot we discuss what drives him and his team to run this project, and why they opted for the 'open' approach.
SHOWNOTES Sanli introduces himself as a new member of De Jonge Akademie: https://vimeo.com/524195598 More on the Open Access and Diamond study: https://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/Domeinen/Onderzoek/Open%20access/Naar%20100%20procent%20Open%20Access%20-%20tijdschriftartikelen.pdf Moderna sequence: https://github.com/NAalytics/Assemblies-of-putative-SARS-CoV2-spike-encoding-mRNA-sequences-for-vaccines-BNT-162b2-and-mRNA-1273/blob/main/Assemblies%20of%20putative%20SARS-CoV2-spike-encoding%20mRNA%20sequences%20for%20vaccines%20BNT-162b2%20and%20mRNA-1273.docx.pdf More on the Corona Field Labs https://fieldlabevenementen.nl/ Paper on Automatic Systematic Reviews by Rens; https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-020-00287-7 Website Rens; https://www.rensvandeschoot.com/ Webinar ASReview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_QCospiZw The Kinder app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=global.kinder&hl=nl≷=US
In this episode, Sicco and Sanli review some open-science-related projects and events. They talk to dr. Marieke Adriaanse and prof. Paul Boselie, co-chairs of the “Recognition and Rewards” workgroup at Utrecht University, about their vision document. This document, recently approved by the University board, will set the basis for transformation of the evaluation and appreciation procedures at Utrecht University. Mentioned in this episode: • Twitter memes of Oded Rechavi - https://twitter.com/OdedRechavi • The KlimaatHelpdesk initiative – www.klimaathelpdesk.org • Advancing Open Access in the Netherlands after 2020: from quantity to quality, by Jeroen Bosman, Hans de Jonge, Bianca Kramer, and Jeroen Sondervan - https://zenodo.org/record/4455790#.YCJDJDGg-Uk • Report of the Recognition and Rewards festival, February 2021 https://recognitionrewards.nl/2021/02/11/a-recap-of-the-recognition-rewards-festival/ • Peer-reviewers time for mass rebellion by Richard Smith - https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/02/01/richard-smith-peer-reviewers-time-for-mass-rebellion/ • Open-source flight control software operating the NASA Mars Helicopter deployed by the Perseverance Rover - https://github.com/nasa/fprime • Utrecht University Recognition and Rewards vision document - https://www.uu.nl/en/news/utrecht-university-presents-new-vision-on-recognition-and-rewards • Communication illustration (Praatplaat) of the Recognition and Rewards workgroup - https://www.uu.nl/onderzoek/open-science/themas/erkennen-en-waarderen • DUB interview with Paul Boselie and Marieke Adriaanse - https://www.dub.uu.nl/en/depth/%E2%80%98just-get-started-new-recognition-and-rewards-system%E2%80%99 • Young Science in Transition, PhD competence model - https://phdcompetencemodel.nl/ • Nooit meer een functioneringsgesprek, interview with Paul Boselie in NRC - https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2016/01/30/nooit-meer-een-functioneringsgesprek-1582623-a1164422 • Twitter handles Paul and Marieke: @paulboselie and @mariekeadria
The Road to Open science podcast is made possible with the support of Utrecht University Open Science program. Hosts are Sanli Faez and Sicco de Knecht and sound design is by Lieven Heeremans.
In this episode, cohosts Sicco and Sanli share their personal takes on the essence of open science and how it benefits the academic community and the society at large taking examples from the hot debates around handling of the Covid19 pandemic by national health agencies. They review the recent announcements and news. They talk to Melanie Imming about her 6 years of advocating for Open Science in the Netherlands and the upcoming open science festival.
Mentioned in this episode: Covid vaccination data - https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations NWO open science fund - https://www.nwo.nl/calls/open-science-fund-2020/2021 San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)- https://sfdora.org/read/ Open Science Festival - https://www.openscience.nl/the-netherlands-national-open-science-festival Everything Hertz podcast with Michael Eisen - https://everythinghertz.com/122 SciPost’s peer-witnessed refereeing - https://scipost.org/FAQ#pwr
In the first University Cooperative workshop on May 14th 2019, at Utrecht University, participants were introduced to the issues, the concepts, and successful examples of governing common resources. They also investigated two cases related to the university and knowledge dissemination. In this podcast some of the participants reflect on the program of the day. more info
Nearly thirty years ago, Elinor Ostrom published her groundbreaking book Governing the Commons, in which she showed that users of natural and agricultural resources can and do govern such resources themselves. They do not have to rely on hierarchical state or corporate regulation, nor on a pricing mechanism to overcome the collective action problems that may arise. By setting up rules together, and monitoring compliance with these rules, commoners are able to manage resources themselves. Ostrom also extended her work on commons governance to knowledge commons. Sharing resources, such as data, methods, publications, and the curriculum, is one of the foundations of university education and development. But today many academic resources such as subscriptions and the syllabus are managed in a rigid, bureaucratic way. Many users and producers of resources and knowledge lack the opportunity to express their wishes and highlight alternatives. In the first University Cooperative workshop on May 14th 2019, at Utrecht University, participants were introduced to the issues, the concepts, and successful examples of governing common resources. They also investigated two cases related to the university and knowledge dissemination. This podcast reports on this workshop. more info
In the May episode of the Road to Open Science newschat, Melanie Imming and Loek Brinkman talk with Jeroen Bosman and Bianca Kramer about some of the latest developments in Open Science in Utrecht and beyond. Topics discussed include recent activities of the Open Science Community, developments within the National Platform Open Science (NPOS), and a workshop on University Cooperatives building on the idea of the university as a commons. We also discuss how the current discourse around Open Science is viewed by researchers.
Bianca Kramer and Jeroen Sondervan share recent development with open science activities in Utrecht, the Netherlands, and the EU. We also discuss a recent report from the Horizon 2020 expert group on Future of Scholarly Publishing and Scholarly Communication provided to the European Commission .
Anita Eerland and Jeroen Bosman share some hot news about open access publishing. We also discuss the recent growth of the Open Science communities in The Netherlands and formation of the Open Science platform at Utrecht University with an ambitious plan.
Micah Vandegrift is Open Knowledge Librarian at North Carolina State University, and recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to study the state of Open Science in two European Countries, Denmark and The Netherlands. He tells us about his observations in Europe and his vision on the future position of libraries in the "discovery" decade of open science.
Bianca Kramer and Barbara Vreede tell us some good news and we review the newly released information about the execution of planS and the discussions around it.
Jeroen Sondervan reports from the KNAW- organized meeting on Plan S and publishing open access books
We hear from Marleen Stikker and Bianca Kramer on governing scholarly work like creative commons.
Marleen Stikker is founder of Waag. She is also founder of De Digitale Stad (The Digital City) in 1993, the first virtual community introducing free public access to the Internet. She leads Waag, a social enterprise that consists of a research institute for creative technologies and social innovation. She is also member of the European H2020 Commission High-level Expert Group for SRIA on innovating Cities / DGResearch and the Dutch AcTI academy technology & innovation.
Marleen Stikker strongly adheres to the Maker’s Bill of Rights motto: “If You Can’t Open It, You Don’t Own It”. Marleen is actively involved in the Open Design and Creative Commons movement and believes that society needs open technologies that meet societal challenges.
Bianca Kramer is subject specialist Life Sciences and Medicine at Utrecht University Library. Bianca studied Biology at Wageningen University and is one of the initiators of the project 101 Innovation in scholarly communication.
Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-6/) where you can also find all the show-notes
Barbara Vreede and Jeroen Bosman talk about Plan S and the Force2018 conference in Montreal
In episode 5 of the Road to Open Science podcast we talk to Cameron Neylon.
David Cameron Neylon is an advocate for open access and Professor of Research Communications at the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University. From 2012 - 2015 he was the Advocacy Director at the Public Library of Science.
Cameron is one of the four authors of The Panton Principles, a set of principles which were written to promote open science.
In this converstaion, we focused on two of his recent papers. 1- “Excellence R Us”: university research and the fetishisation of excellence, and 2- Sustaining Scholarly Infrastructures through Collective Action.
Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-5/) where you can also find all the show-notes
Rosanne Hertzberger is a microbiologist, writer and columnist. She obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam and worked at the Washington University in St. Louis at the Center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research. She is now a visiting researcher connected to the VU University in Amsterdam. Within the context of open kitchen science, she shares her findings, experiences and experiments on her personal blog REBLAB.org. On this website you can also find the guidelines that define good science for Rosanne. She has written the book "Ode aan de E-nummers" about the food industry and writes columns in Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad and nrc.next.
Egon Willighagen is assistant professor at Maastricht University, in the Department of Bioinformatics. Egon is active in various projects and initiatives connected to open science. For example BridgeDb, a framework for finding and mapping equivalent database identifiers, WikiPathways, a database of biological pathways, The Chemistry Development Kit, a collection of modular Java libraries for processing chemical information and Bioclipse, an open source platform for chemo- and bioinformatics.
Francien Peterse is assistant professor of organic geochemistry and a climate scientist. Despite the large body of evidence for the climate disaster we face, in the not-so-distant future, and the confirmation that this is caused by human activities, she sees insufficient efforts are made to save the planet. We talked about the role of scientists in encouraging stronger actions. From talking about collective action, we drift to another issue facing the academics who feel the increasing pressure to deliver more with less resources, which has caused rage in part of the community. Here again, different part of the community is hesitant in providing their support as they feel the burn less severely and see the uncertain benefits of acting now come their way only in the distant future.
We spoke with Rosanne Hertzberger and Egon Willighagen. Rosanne Hertzberger is a microbiologist, writer and columnist. After receiving her PhD at the University of Amsterdam and postdoctoral appointment in United States, she continued her research as an independent open scientist next to her professional writing activities. She is now a visiting researcher connected to the VU University in Amsterdam.
Egon Willighagen is assistant professor at Maastricht University, in the Department of Bioinformatics. Egon is active in various open science projects for more than 20 years.
If you want to engage in the discussion around the topics presented in this podcast series you can follow us on twitter (twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-4/) where you can also find all the show notes.
Jean-Sébastien Caux is a professor in theoretical condensed matter physics at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITFA), part of the Institute of Physics within the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. He is also a ricipient of the ERC-advanced grant for his research. You can read more on his blog and follow his Twitter @jscaux. He is also the founder of the publishing portal SciPost.
Christopher Jackson is a professor of basin analysis at the Imperial College in London and a member of the advisory board of EarthArxiv. He shared his views about open access publishing and the use of preprints for more effective dissemination of knowledge.
We had conversations with Christopher Jackson and Jean-Sébastien Caux, two researchers who have started open access publishing platforms. They both told us that academics should be more in charge of the publishing system than they currently are, because publishing is too important for academia to be left at the discretion of the commercial players.
Christopher Jackson is a professor of Basin Analysis at Imperial College in London. He has been one of the initiators of EarthArxiv (built on the Open Science Framework.
Jean-Sébastien Caux is professor of theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Amsterdam and a recipient of ERC-advanced grant. He has founded the open-source publishing platform SciPost.org.
What role do you think the researchers should play in the publishing industry? What personal initiatives have you taken or are planing to take? How can researchers help each other in promoting academic-lead open-source publishing? Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-3/) where you can also find all the show notes.
We talked to Daniel Lakens, assistant professor in Applied Cognitive Psychology at Eindhoven University of Technology, and author of the blog 'The 20% Statistician'. In 2017, he recieved the Leamer-Rosenthal prize for Open Social Science as a Leader in Education. He believes science should be a much more collaborative enterprise
A shorter version of this interview was used in the second episode, "Collaboration is Key" (https://soundcloud.com/utrechtyoungacademy/the-road-to-open-science-ep-2-collaboration-is-key). The other guests of episode 2 are Kirstie Whitaker, Anita Eerland and Loek Brinkman. All the show-notes and discussion about that episode are available on openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-2/. Follow @R2OSpodcast on twitter to stay up to date about the upcoming episodes.
We talked to Kirstie Whitaker. She is a research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (London) and senior research associate at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. She is also a Mozilla Open Science Fellow. The Mozilla Science Lab is a community of researchers, developers, and librarians making research open and accessible. Kirstie was a member of the first Mozilla Open Leadership cohort and is currently a mentor for the fifth round of this cohort.
A shorter version of this interview was used in the second episode, "Collaboration is Key" (https://soundcloud.com/utrechtyoungacademy/the-road-to-open-science-ep-2-collaboration-is-key). The other guests of episode 2 are Daniel Lakens, Anita Eerland and Loek Brinkman. All the show-notes and discussion about that episode are available on openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-2/. Follow @R2OSpodcast on twitter to stay up to date about the upcoming episodes.
The Road to Open Science podcast series follows the path to open science through the perspective of researchers. In the second episodes we had conversations with Kirstie Whitaker, Daniel Lakens, Anita Eerland and Loek Brinkman. We asked our guests, what motivates them personally to advocate for adapting open science practices and what is the most important role the university can play to foster open science.
What do you think about the role of university in promoting open science? What personal initiatives have you taken or are planing to take? How can researchers help each other in making science more open and accessible? Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-2/) where you can also find all the show notes.
The music in the break is Vittorio by Blue Dot Sessions (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Aeronaut/Vittoro_1103)
We talked to an expert of digital innovation: Sascha Friesike, assistant professor of Digital Innovation at VU Amsterdam and associated researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. Sascha is one of the editors and writers of the book Opening Science, on the significant impact of internet on research, collaboration and publishing practices. In this episode he tells us more about the various definitions and the barriers to a wider embrace of open science. According to Sascha, there is a contradiction between the goals of the academic system and the incentives of the individual scientist. He describes this current situation as a social dilemma: ‘Individual rationality leads to collective irrationality.’
A shorter version of this interview was used in our first episode (https://soundcloud.com/utrechtyoungacademy/the-road-to-open-science-ep-1-a-social-dilemma). All the show-notes and discussion about that episode are available on https://openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-1/. Follow @R2OSpodcast on twitter to stay up to date about the upcoming episodes.
Frank Miedema, is a professor of Immunology and dean and vice chairman of the board at the University Medical Center in Utrecht. We talked to him for the first episode of R2OS, "A Social Dilemma".
In this interview Miedema states ‘The purpose of the individual is not in sync anymore with the purpose of the system.’ In his opinion, the management of universities and big funding agencies are responsible, in the first instance, to change the current situation and they must add to their efforts to improve the incentives and reward system. A shorter version of this interview was used in our first episode. All the show-notes and discussion about that episode are available on https://openscience-utrecht.com/. Follow @R2OSpodcast on twitter to stay up to date about the upcoming episodes.
Episode 1: A social dilemma
The Road to Open Science podcast series follows the path to open science through the perspective of researchers. What is open science and what can it do for research? In this first episode, ‘A social dilemma’, we try to answer the first part of this question and will also look into the current contradiction between the goals of the academic system and those of the individual scientist. Sascha Friesike, our first guest, describes this situation as a social dilemma.
Sascha is assistant professor Digital Innovation at VU Amsterdam and one of the editors and writers of the book Opening Science, on the significant impact of internet on research, collaboration and publishing practices. He has done extensive research on adapting open science practices. In this podcast he will tell us more about the various definitions and the barriers to a wider embrace of open science. He describes the current situation as a social dilemma: ‘Individual rationality leads to collective irrationality.’
Our second guest is Frank Miedema, professor of immunology, dean and vice chairman of the board at the University Medical Center in Utrecht. He is also one of the initiators of Science in Transition. Miedema generally confirms the issues that are raised by Friesike: he expresses that ‘The purpose of the individual is not in sync anymore with the purpose of the system.’ In his opinion, the management of universities and major funding agencies are responsible in the first instance to change the current situation and they must add to their efforts to improve the incentives and reward system.
What are your opinions on the issues that are raised in this first episode? Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (https://twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (https://openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-1/) where you can also find all the show notes.
Four young researchers from four faculties talk frankly about their unhealthy work habits. They wish to promote a sincere and rational discussion on how to create a healthier working environment at the university.
Wim Otto looks differently at the “cure” or career dichotomy. He does so by putting meaning above science, elevating the discussion level so high that talking about the “academic career” will sound naive. Looking from his perspective, the “cure” or career question becomes almost irrelevant. He is a successful neuroscientist with a long publication record (metrics) and inventions that are currently being used by medical doctors in their practices (impact). Despite his high performance, he expresses his dissatisfaction because he is “actively helping to get the segregation between the poor and rich bigger”. He is worried that “if there is too much separation between the winners and the losers, we end up in a very segregated world, which makes it difficult to tackle global problems.” By analyzing the science enterprise from a value-centered humanitarian standpoint, he can set free from the constraints of swimming in the mainstream. Meanwhile, even in playing the rules of the game, he collects points using his strong sense of empathy with the other players who do not necessarily share his viewpoint, for example by making his articles easy reads for reviewers and making the figures attractive for the editors. Climbing up the academic ranks is not an end goal for him, but only a middle stop to an elevated search for meaning.
With the current political climate persisting and war and climate refugees reaching record high numbers, a fundamental discussion on the rights of immigrants and natives is hard to avoid. This area of sociology is a main topic of research for Borja Martinovic, associate professor at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science/Ercomer at Utrecht University. She has gathered ample empirical evidence on intergroup attitudes in western societies. Her finding underlines the important role of mass media and public education in shaping the in-group identity and positive or negative attitude towards both immigrants and the “true” first inhabitants.
Ron Dotsch is a psychologist that has studied human perception of others' faces for more than a decade. For his research he heavily uses technologies such as virtual reality and computer-generated modelling. He tells me how we adjust our interaction with people based on less than a second of looking at their faces. When meeting strangers, we tend to judge their characteristics, such as trustworthiness, sexual orientation, or political views, based on a very short glance. He also tells me that these kinds of judgment are mostly wrong. Research shows that for guessing the political orientation correctly seeing one's face does not help any more than knowing age, skin color, and gender. Ron has experienced both making it into the system and breaking away from it. Last summer he resigned from his tenured university position as an associate professor of behavioral psychology. He has left academia to work in a company. I curiously wanted to know why and I could not read it from his face.
In a pleasantly sunny summer day, I sat with Lars in Sterrenburg in the center of Utrecht and we talked about job autonomy, his research on policy alienation, and his vision on open science.
How did she become a law professor? What can academics learn from judges in dealing with perils of the new public management? And how can slowness of law be one of its strengths? Hear the answers to these questions in my dialog with Professor Elaine Mak.