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How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research

Open Science policies encourage researchers to disclose a wide range of outputs from their work, thus codifying openness as a specific set of research practices and guidelines that can be interpreted and applied consistently across disciplines and geographical settings. In this paper, we argue that...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Levin, Nadine, Leonelli, Sabina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5302085/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28232768
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243916672071
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author Levin, Nadine
Leonelli, Sabina
author_facet Levin, Nadine
Leonelli, Sabina
author_sort Levin, Nadine
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description Open Science policies encourage researchers to disclose a wide range of outputs from their work, thus codifying openness as a specific set of research practices and guidelines that can be interpreted and applied consistently across disciplines and geographical settings. In this paper, we argue that this “one-size-fits-all” view of openness sidesteps key questions about the forms, implications, and goals of openness for research practice. We propose instead to interpret openness as a dynamic and highly situated mode of valuing the research process and its outputs, which encompasses economic as well as scientific, cultural, political, ethical, and social considerations. This interpretation creates a critical space for moving beyond the economic definitions of value embedded in the contemporary biosciences landscape and Open Science policies, and examining the diversity of interests and commitments that affect research practices in the life sciences. To illustrate these claims, we use three case studies that highlight the challenges surrounding decisions about how––and how best––to make things open. These cases, drawn from ethnographic engagement with Open Science debates and semistructured interviews carried out with UK-based biologists and bioinformaticians between 2013 and 2014, show how the enactment of openness reveals judgments about what constitutes a legitimate intellectual contribution, for whom, and with what implications.
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spelling pubmed-53020852017-02-21 How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research Levin, Nadine Leonelli, Sabina Sci Technol Human Values Special Issue Articles Open Science policies encourage researchers to disclose a wide range of outputs from their work, thus codifying openness as a specific set of research practices and guidelines that can be interpreted and applied consistently across disciplines and geographical settings. In this paper, we argue that this “one-size-fits-all” view of openness sidesteps key questions about the forms, implications, and goals of openness for research practice. We propose instead to interpret openness as a dynamic and highly situated mode of valuing the research process and its outputs, which encompasses economic as well as scientific, cultural, political, ethical, and social considerations. This interpretation creates a critical space for moving beyond the economic definitions of value embedded in the contemporary biosciences landscape and Open Science policies, and examining the diversity of interests and commitments that affect research practices in the life sciences. To illustrate these claims, we use three case studies that highlight the challenges surrounding decisions about how––and how best––to make things open. These cases, drawn from ethnographic engagement with Open Science debates and semistructured interviews carried out with UK-based biologists and bioinformaticians between 2013 and 2014, show how the enactment of openness reveals judgments about what constitutes a legitimate intellectual contribution, for whom, and with what implications. SAGE Publications 2016-10-04 2017-03 /pmc/articles/PMC5302085/ /pubmed/28232768 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243916672071 Text en © The Author(s) 2016 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Special Issue Articles
Levin, Nadine
Leonelli, Sabina
How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title_full How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title_fullStr How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title_full_unstemmed How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title_short How Does One “Open” Science? Questions of Value in Biological Research
title_sort how does one “open” science? questions of value in biological research
topic Special Issue Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5302085/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28232768
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0162243916672071
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