Open for Whom? Universities and Citizens Science; and Citizen Science beyond universities

Príhovor

This year’s International Open Access Week theme, celebrated on October 21 – 27, was “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge”. We, the Members of the Open Access Week Advisory Committee, felt, that as the transition to a system for sharing knowledge that is open by default accelerates, the question “open for whom?” is essential — both to consider and to act upon. Whose interests are being prioritized in the actions we take and in the platforms that we support? Whose voices are excluded? Are underrepresented groups included as full partners from the beginning? Are we supporting not only open access but also equitable participation in research communication? These questions determine the extent to which emerging open systems for research will address inequities in the current system or replicate and reinforce them.

Access is not a big issue any longer. With shared repositories platforms such as ZENODO https://zenodo.org/ and figshare https://figshare.com/, everyone doing research could freely share research results individually or on behalf of research communities (e.g. departmental or institutional, disciplinary or events-related, etc. at https://zenodo.org/communities/). But what about equitable participation in research communication? And what about Citizen Science?

How do universities advance participatory research, either by conducting Citizen Science projects or by supporting them through activities like communication? What are the principles, guidelines and quality criteria for Citizen Science projects in universities — for example on data collection and project co-design, possible ways of giving credit and recognition to citizens? How could we make open science really open for those outside of
traditional research circle?

How do universities incentivize and rewarding Citizen Science practices and are they included in the next generation research assessment/evaluation indicators?

What are the best approaches to create a supportive environment via technology-mediated Citizen Science and open access infrastructures? Are Citizen Science activities and infrastructures interconnected well at the European, national and local levels?

Is there a new role for academic and research libraries to support Citizen Science? …

Iryna Kuchma
(EIFL)
Androniki Pavlidou
(Athena Research and Innovation Center)

Sofoklis Sotiriou
(EllinoGermaniki Agogi)
Eugenia Kypriotis
(EllinoGermaniki Agogi)

*text pokračuje v rubrike Otvorený prístup / text continues in the rubric Open Access

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