UNESCO consultation recap
Glenn Hampson
Hi Folks,
---just a quick recap of UNESCO’s North America/Europe consultation conducted last week. As you recall from the program, there were a few longer presentations with slides, followed by ten or so shorter verbal presentations. Most of the presenters gave a fairly narrow pitch, as is appropriate in this setting---why open science matters to them and what they’re doing to advance their vision of open science.
UNESCO slotted me to speak last so I could give the big picture overview. Here is my two minute answer to the question of what are OSI’s three key messages for the UNESCO’s Global Recommendation on Open Science (these messages dovetail with our recent policy papers):
- EMBRACE the diversity in this space. There are so many different and important voices that represent different definitions, motives, goals, fields, disciplines, regions, and more. It takes a village to truly understand it all and create change. We can learn a lot from each other.
- IMPROVE our understanding of open science. There is a lot that we still don’t know. We need to keep an open mind in this quest.
- BUILD on our common goals and interests. We’re all trying to create a better world through open research. Let’s unite to work together on the things we need to meet this challenge, like open infrastructure, better evaluation measures, and so on. Importantly, we also need to demonstrate the value of open by taking the next step and changing the world with it---working together to cure cancer and reverse climate change. To do this, we need data standards, low barriers to entry, massive participation and buy-in, new collaboration tools, new ways to add value to datasets, and more. This is the “next step” in open where as a community we haven’t really focused yet. Stop focusing on the “internal debates,” start focusing on science; and align incentives so that open becomes something scientists want to do, not something they’re told to do.
So---embrace our diversity, improve our understanding of open, and build on our common goals and interest. If we can do this, we will be on the right road to creating a future for global open science that is stronger and ultimately more successful (for both science and society) than any one of us can create alone.
I am told that our message was well received. Ana Persic (UNESCO’s lead on this policy effort) emailed me to say that “Your comments at the end were more than perfect and I had so much positive feedback thanking you as well for the best possible ending of the meeting.”
Going forward, I have mentioned to Ana that this last round of consultation appeared biased in terms of representation (e.g., no scholarly societies, R1 universities, or large commercial publishers---other than Hindawi---were represented). I have also mentioned the rather urgent need to compare notes with OSTP (who didn’t attend this consultation after all), NAS, AAU, and other major stakeholders with open roadmaps under development, lest we end up with a proliferation of new Plan S’s in the coming months and years. If we can join forces to come up with a truly global roadmap that represents in broad brushstrokes the sense of policy agencies throughout the world, we’ll be well-positioned to start making massive breakthroughs on open.
I believe (I hope) we’ll be discussing both of these matters---improving representation and improving policy coordination---in the coming months.
UNESCO is currently preparing a summary of this meeting. I’ll send it around when I get the link (or feel free to share it if you spot it first).
That’s about it for now---more on this story as it develops.
Best regards,
Glenn
Glenn Hampson
Executive Director
Science Communication Institute (SCI)
Program Director
Open Scholarship Initiative (OSI)
Jo De
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