{"id":49,"date":"2015-05-14T17:23:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T15:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.curatore.es\/foster\/?p=49"},"modified":"2015-05-14T17:23:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T15:23:48","slug":"open-stream-of-scientific-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.curatore.es\/foster\/todos\/open-stream-of-scientific-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Stream of Scientific Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

About me<\/em>: I’m Luca Cominardi and I’m undertaking my PhD in Telematics Engingeering at UC3M. I’m currently working at IMDEA Networks as research assistant.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/em>:\u00a0this is not a resume of the Open Science Workshop held on May 13th, 2015 at UC3M.\u00a0I unleashed my thoughts about Open Science, raised\u00a0questions to myself and tried to figure out\u00a0some answers based on Workshop discussion.<\/p>\n

What happens when you have to do some extra work for getting\u00a0some ECTS for your PhD? Well, you’re not very happy about that. Mainly because the life of a PhD student is usually frenetic, scheduled by a huge number of\u00a0deadlines, stressful\u00a0with no so much spare time and you’re not very positive at the idea of dealing\u00a0some extra work.<\/p>\n

At least, let’s try to make something useful and interesting\u00a0for getting these ECTS and obtain some new ideas. When I was looking for the different options proposed by the university, \u00a0one captured my attention:\u00a0\u00abFOSTER: Winning Horizon2020 with Open Science\u00bb. \u00a0I know what Horizon2020 is because I have been involved for several years in FP7 projects. Besides, I was totally missing the meaning of FOSTER and Open Science. So, I gave a try to this option by attending the Workshop.<\/p>\n

Open Science turns out to be a very\u00a0comprehensive view about scientific research. It spans over\u00a0Open Access, Open Data, \u00a0Open Source, Open Methodology \u00a0and Open Peer Review. I heard something about that in the past but I’ve never gone\u00a0deep into the topic, nor linked them together under\u00a0the same umbrella. \u00a0What is\u00a0Open Science? And what is its goal?<\/p>\n

Citing from Wikipedia [1]<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Open science is the movement to make scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to all levels of an inquiring society, amateur or professional. It encompasses practices such as publishing open research, campaigning for open access, encouraging scientists to practice open notebook science, and generally making it easier to publish and communicate scientific knowledge.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s really a noble statement. Scientific research is nothing without dissemination. If you perform some kind of research and you don’t share your results, you are not doing research, you are deploying your own product. What’s the point of not sharing your research? Are you frightened that someone might steal your work?\u00a0If so, you should ask to yourself why you are doing research. And what is the purpose of that.<\/p>\n

In my vision (sometimes a bit utopian) everyone’s\u00a0research must be of public domain\u00a0and\u00a0shared with the community. What’s the point of not sharing your results? Who is the\u00a0beneficiary of your\u00a0research? With a bit of luck (and lot of efforts), your research may have a great impact on the community and\u00a0society. Similarly, someone else’s research may have a great impact on you. Research should follow\u00a0do ut des <\/strong>(give-and-take) philosophy. It’s\u00a0not ethical to take without giving. This ethical aspect surely has long been debated\u00a0and it’s not easy to give a concise definition of\u00a0\u00a0a fair balance between\u00a0give<\/em> and take<\/em>.\u00a0In this post I\u00a0want to be more pragmatic than philosophic, so let’s put aside the ethical debate and let’s analyse briefly the situation in Europe nowadays.<\/p>\n

The European Commission is funding several European Projects which involve both academic and industrial partners. Why industries are involved in research projects?\u00a0The answer is pretty straightforward. Research leads to a economic growth and the industries are the engine carrying such growth. Nevertheless, if the industries are the engine,\u00a0universities are the ignition system. We need a strong operation between industries and companies, and the European Commission is aware of that. Furthermore, EC believes\u00a0that Open Science should pave the way of research in Europe\u00a0\u00a0[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, it is widely recognised that making research results more accessible contributes to better and more efficient science, and to innovation in the public and private sectors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I stated before, if you\u00a0don’t share your research, you are not doing research, you are developing your own product. But this is exactly what industries do, isn’t it? So, how can we reconcile industries and research world? Why industries should adopt Open Science philosophy? Industries are not inclined to share their results (nor their data). Who should lead the adoption of Open Science?\u00a0Should Open Science adoption be driven by common feelings or should it be imposed? Most of the times, people\u00a0care only about \u00a0their own interests and not about the community making it difficult to\u00a0change their mind. For this reason, I believe that a European Commission directives are\u00a0the most efficient means\u00a0to adopt Open Science in Europe.<\/p>\n

The introduction of such\u00a0directives has been already planned for European Projects. Making directives is good starting point but it’s not enough for effectively adopting Open Science.\u00a0I believe that a common platform should be developed\u00a0for industries and universities providing a\u00a0dedicated support for both. It’s not only a matter of providing\u00a0Open Access\u00a0to research results. There are several Intellectual Property Right (IPR) issues\u00a0that must be addressed in case of collaboration between industries and universities. If we want Open Science really catching on,\u00a0universities and industries should be actively supported (maybe by the European Commission or some institution in her\u00a0behalf).\u00a0Nobody is\u00a0willing to bear the cost of building the required infrastructure for Open Science on its own. Do-ut-des<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The path towards Open Science is still long and full of pitfalls. We can reach a real Open Science environment only\u00a0if everyone walks step by step in the right direction. How can I be part of that? As engineer working with Open Source software, I’ve already been contributing to several Open Source projects\u00a0and some\u00a0of my code has already been published. Starting from this, I think that Open Data will be definitely my next step. However,\u00a0I’m still far to fully embrace Open Science philosophy. As I said before \u00abstep by step\u00bb<\/em>.\u00a0The hashtag #IamAnOpenScientistBecause should be used by all the people who really feel Open Scientists. Though, I’m not ready to use such tag yet, I shall instead use a slightly modified version. #IamAGrowingOpenScientistBecause I believe that Open Science is the right\u00a0path to follow for everyone and for the sake of community and society, but it’s still too early for me to be a full Open Scientist.<\/p>\n

At the beginning I was a bit sceptical regarding the Workshop, but at the end I have to say that I had a very positive feelings. A lot of efforts are being put in Open Science,\u00a0but in order to make it successful, research community has to be aware of it and later on start using it. The dissemination activities\u00a0carried out by FOSTER project seem to be effective and going straight to the point regarding the academic world.\u00a0But what about industries?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About me: I’m Luca Cominardi and I’m undertaking my PhD in Telematics Engingeering at UC3M. I’m currently working at IMDEA Networks as research assistant. Disclaimer:\u00a0this is not a resume of the Open Science Workshop held on May 13th, 2015 at UC3M.\u00a0I unleashed my thoughts about Open Science, raised\u00a0questions to myself and tried to figure out\u00a0some … Seguir leyendo Open Stream of Scientific Consciousness<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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