Open Science

On 28 October 2021, the Open Science Network Bielefeld had invited to its online semester kick-off event, which was attended by around 35 interested participants. During the virtual panel discussion, differences and similarities regarding the topic of "Open Science" were highlighted from the perspective of representatives from four different disciplines:
Prof. Sebastian Kuhn for medicine, Prof. Silke Schwandt for digital humanities, Dr. Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar for biology and Martin Wegrzyn for psychology.

In this article we summarise important arguments from the panel discussion:

Open science is a transdisciplinary topic. However, the diversity of the various scientific communities and their inherent cultures results in different needs, which are also reflected in the topic of open science.

In biology, for example, but also in psychology, studies are increasingly preregistered as part of the research plan, which can improve the quality and transparency of one's research. In more technically oriented subjects, where the processes that generate the research data are often subject to much stronger experimental control, this practice is probably less dominant. In all subjects, the software used to generate and analyse the data must be publicly available (open source) to ensure the reproducibility of the work by third parties.

The Corona pandemic acted as a magnifying glass for the benefits and needs of open science in various disciplines: for the historical science, free access to digitised historical materials of research objects had become immensely important, where direct access to literature in the Libraries often failed due to Corona protection measures. Open access, i.e. free access to scholarly publications, also plays a central role and represents a good introduction to Open science in the humanities. However, it is also clear that Open Science as an overall topic must go beyond.

The circumstances of the pandemic have also acted as an accelerator of existing processes and developments: In medicine, for example, the research on COVID-19 has once again highlighted the importance of free access to scientific publications. In addition, the open and transparent communication of interim results of research projects also experienced a boost during the time of the Corona pandemic, so that reliable results could be achieved more quickly.

More essential than the anchoring of concrete Open Science practices is the development of an Open Science culture and raising awareness about Open Science.

This should be done especially with early career researchers: It is important to address the topics of Open Access and Open Science already in teaching. In this way, besides teaching them concrete tools and methods, Open Science and other aspects of good scientific practice become “the norm” for them.

Initially, the application of Open Science practices will always be associated with additional effort. But in relation to the entire system of science and research, it will produce strong synergy effects. In order to achieve the implementation of Open Science in everyday research for all, incentive and support structures must be further developed. Support is particularly important in the area of training and advice, e.g. in the selection of suitable licences for sharing publications, data and code.

In some disciplines, such as the humanities, there is a need for more data and digital infrastructure, but it is sometimes difficult to communicate such requirements because it still contradicts traditional intuition of those responsible. Good communication and making the needs transparent or plausible is key.

In general, it can be said that the attitude towards open science at the university and among the university administration is open-minded. This is an important and favourable prerequisite for implementing Open Science more and more in practice.

The self-conception of the Open Science Network at Bielefeld University is that of a network of scientists for scientists. It is coordinated by Bielefeld University Library and the Bielefeld Center for Data Science.

For the winter semester 2021/2022, the network is planning and organising the peer format or Hacky Hour. For the summer semester 2022, the organisation of an Open Science Seminar series is in preparation.