Day 24 — Open science

Today seemed like an extremely short day, even though I was working from 9am to 7pm. The pressure to progress is building up with some deadlines coming. Meanwhile, I had an introductory lecture to research data systems and open science.

Honestly, this lecture turned out to be more interesting than I expected. Other than learning that I can update my profile in one place and it will be propagated to other systems, which is nice, I had an opportunity to think a little bit about the “market” for scientists and scientific pubilcations.

Here’s the deal — What’s the difference between having your article published in a journal with a paywall versus having it freely available? I didn’t think too much about this question before. But, now, let’s consider the “market” perspective.

Researchers are not selling anything (at least not as a primary job). So what is the currency in this “business”?

Citations, recognition, impact.

Now think again — What’s the difference between paid versus open access article? Paid means that fewer people are able to access it. Open access is the opposite. Not only can people without university background easily access (not necesarily consume though), but those with research agendas can build on and expand your work. This means earning scientific currency. The wider the reach, the higher the chance of reaching someone who can reference your work.

Another idea — share the data. Okay, this is easier said than done. Especially, if personally identifiable data is involved. But still, this is a neat idea. Creating and sharing a useful and interesting data set that is openly available can have positive ramifications. One is replicability of the research results. Another one is citations that you might earn, because someone is using “your” data.

In my first lecture during the doctoral program I heard “There is no other business more open to internatinal competition than research”. On the flip side, nobody is going to steal your market share once you publish and your market penetration can grow, if you sow the right seeds. Open access articles and open access data sets very well might be such seeds.