My reflections after UC3M ticket to open science
In STEM where I belong, complaints about how inefficient, expensive and unfair the state of the current publishing system is are very common. Nevertheless, this is the only way of publishing we have known and the infrastructure that supports it seems to be so powerful and unavoidable, we resign ourselves and succumb to it. I want to show my gratitude to the team that has made this course possible for teaching us that there are alternatives out there to Closed Science that are being encouraged by a determined community who is working hard to make Open Science a core value of the future of science.
One of the things I loved the most about this course is how we learn about not only the tools and resources that are used to manage open science nowadays such as Core , Dimensions and Lens; but the political, social and ethical changes that come with the transition to open science. For example, I had to take this course to realize how institutions and governments sometimes have to pay thrice for research under closed science since they have to fund this research, pay for this research to be published in a journal and then pay again to read the final version of the article in the journal. Luckily, this course has also taught me that Open Science may end this cycle and help us to finally achieve actual public research with their results available for every citizen and institution who committed money for them.
As a researcher on applied mathematics, I have wasted a prodigious amount of time because the code of most algorithms, datasets and the parsing routines of those datasets weren’t available to the public. This probably shouldn’t happen if the researchers who previously worked on these algorithms and datasets would have followed a DMP (Data Management Plan) which would have helped them make their data and software FAIR (Fair Accessible Interoperable and Reusable). Making this kind of practice more common (As the Horizon Europe funding programme is encouraging European researchers to do) will surely help us be less redundant in our efforts and achieve a more efficient collaboration between researchers all around the world.
My thesis involves an immensity of different codes and data and till this moment, I feel that it has slipped my mind how this data and materials have been managed. So after taking the course, I have made the determination to work in the next few months in a DMP which helps me make my work FAIR. In order to do this I will surely ask for the help of UC3M UniOs.
Even though some of the technicalities and resources given in this course may fall between the cracks, I am glad I’ve taken it. Learning about Open Science has made me realize the importance of good and ethical documentation practices in order to make my research practical and relevant.