Do I have Open Access to Open Science?...
Psychology Today
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1 day ago
The Open Science (OS) movement disseminates accessibility, transparency, and openness to research. Its widespread use has familiarized researchers with its strengths as well as limitations. A prominent shortcoming of OS lies in its usage, and ranking across countries. An article published in Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science outlined the global representation and ranking of research output of Asian countries using OS and the findings reveal a deficit in both areas for OS in Asia. Financial constraints in Lower and Middle Income countries (LMICs) contributed largely to this deficit. Furthermore, the existing bureaucratic challenges in publishing research from LMICs complicates the matter. Publishing LMIC research is thus dependent on collaboration with a western scientist. This collaboration often increases the chances of publishing research that is generalizable to LMICs. This dependency stems from mistrust of LMIC research quality and inapplicability to westerners. Furthermore, costs to publish research adds to the vicious problem. The gap in the ratio of scientists and available grants make such costs unbearable for LMIC-based researchers. These challenges are inevitable for researchers as they lack an efficient OS system that is equipped financially, policy-wise, and technologically to disseminate transparent science. Setting up an efficient Open Science system will resolve many challenges faced by the LMICs Source: Can Stock Photo The identification of aforementioned challenges led to the initiation of Open Science India Report. The report sheds light on the challenges of the OS in India as well as the attitudes of scientists towards it. It aims to provide insights, and fill in gaps to make collaborative science possible. The authors of the report have analyzed OS in all its stages to make democratic science possible. Authors posit that OS will uplift the quality and representation of science in India. It will oversee the behaviors of scientists and eradicate questionable research practices. OS has also created the need for standard data management policies in India. These policies will augment the quality of the research published by LMICs. It will also reduce anxiety in researchers by ensuring reduction in data theft or misuse. OS will open avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration amongst researchers. This will make science more democratic and will lay the foundation for citizen science. OS will also provide credible platforms for publishing research to many scientists, the authenticity of LMIC research. Projects like the Innovation Policy Platform are stepping stones for successful OS in LMICs. This platform is encouraging the government to enforce data protection policies for scientific research. This project helps both LMICs, like India, as well as resource rich countries like Germany. Open Science framework should be taught formally to prepare future researchers to engage in quality, collaborative science Source: ikryannikovgmailcom/iStockphoto Other important aspects required to support OS are education, and training. The most efficient way of teaching OS is to introduce it early on to researchers. Universities can teach OS at undergraduate and graduate level coursework. This will make researchers efficient and encourage them to do better research. Universities, thus, are primary hubs for hosting OS around the globe. Governmental bodies should provide grants, training, and incentives to researchers to maintain the OS. They can consider remodelling policies for Universities to support OS, as they are of huge importance to LMICs. Universities in LMICs need systematic changes, which will enable them to sustain the OS. An essential systematic intervention would be changes in the employment policies. Awarding incentives, or grants to academicians to practice OS will motivate researchers to yield greater research output. Furthermore, successful execution of OS is also possible by employing it as a part of faculty job description. Redesigning curriculum to include training courses and workshops on OS would also be beneficial. Employing OS for undergraduate and graduate projects will help LMIC-based researchers publish credible research. This retooling is essential considering the results of a study that reveal that OS research articles have more citations than paid journal articles. In conclusion, for LMICs to execute OS it is important to not compare them with OS from western countries. This comparison is futile as the growth rate of OS differs between these countries. Furthermore, gauging LMIC research using the standards of western research makes it inept. The key to resolving this issue lies in collaboration, including both international and domestic partnerships. Multicultural countries like India, also require inter-state communities for regulating OS. These communities will help navigate cultural differences and maintain a standard OS system. Furthermore, it will also allow barter of resources, and skills amongst domestic researchers. This post was written by Urvi Mange, a Junior Research Assistant at Monk Prayogshala, India and a postgraduate student pursuing her MSc in Neurocognitive Psychology. Her interests lie in social, developmental, and behavioral psychology. Ethics and Morality Subtitle: Non-western research struggles with adapting to Open Science Blog to Post to: Non-WEIRD Science Teaser Text: Researchers in low-to-middle income countries feel short-handed due to scarce resources, and policies conducive to open science. 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