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Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Open Science is the movement to make scientific research and data accessible to all. It has great potential for advancing science. At its core, it includes (but is not limited to) open access, open data, and...

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Autores principales: Mwangi, Kennedy W., Mainye, Nyabuti, Ouso, Daniel O., Esoh, Kevin, Muraya, Angela W., Mwangi, Charles K., Naitore, Careen, Karega, Pauline, Kibet-Rono, Gilbert, Musundi, Sebastian, Mutisya, Jennifer, Mwangi, Elizabeth, Mgawe, Cavin, Miruka, Silviane, Kibet, Caleb K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34056516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.669675
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author Mwangi, Kennedy W.
Mainye, Nyabuti
Ouso, Daniel O.
Esoh, Kevin
Muraya, Angela W.
Mwangi, Charles K.
Naitore, Careen
Karega, Pauline
Kibet-Rono, Gilbert
Musundi, Sebastian
Mutisya, Jennifer
Mwangi, Elizabeth
Mgawe, Cavin
Miruka, Silviane
Kibet, Caleb K.
author_facet Mwangi, Kennedy W.
Mainye, Nyabuti
Ouso, Daniel O.
Esoh, Kevin
Muraya, Angela W.
Mwangi, Charles K.
Naitore, Careen
Karega, Pauline
Kibet-Rono, Gilbert
Musundi, Sebastian
Mutisya, Jennifer
Mwangi, Elizabeth
Mgawe, Cavin
Miruka, Silviane
Kibet, Caleb K.
author_sort Mwangi, Kennedy W.
collection PubMed
description According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Open Science is the movement to make scientific research and data accessible to all. It has great potential for advancing science. At its core, it includes (but is not limited to) open access, open data, and open research. Some of the associated advantages are promoting collaboration, sharing and reproducibility in research, and preventing the reinvention of the wheel, thus saving resources. As research becomes more globalized and its output grows exponentially, especially in data, the need for open scientific research practices is more evident — the future of modern science. This has resulted in a concerted global interest in open science uptake. Even so, barriers still exist. The formal training curriculum in most, if not all, universities in Kenya does not equip students with the knowledge and tools to subsequently practice open science in their research. Therefore, to work openly and collaboratively, there is a need for awareness and training in the use of open science tools. These have been neglected, especially in most developing countries, and remain barriers to the cause. Moreover, there is scanty research on the state of affairs regarding the practice and/or adoption of open science. Thus, we developed, through the OpenScienceKE framework, a model to narrow the gap. A sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model was applied in Nairobi, the economic and administrative capital of Kenya. Using the model, we sensitized through seminars, trained on the use of tools through workshops, applied the skills learned in training through hackathons to collaboratively answer the question on the state of open science in Kenya. While the former parts of the model had 20–50 participants, the latter part mainly involved participants with a bioinformatics background, leveraging their advanced computational skills. This model resulted in an open resource that researchers can use to publish as open access cost-effectively. Moreover, we observed a growing interest in open science practices in Kenya through literature search and data mining and that lack of awareness and skills may still hinder the adoption and practice of open science. Furthermore, at the time of the analyses, we surprisingly found that out of the 20,069 papers downloaded from BioRXiv, only 18 had Kenyan authors, a majority of which are international (16) collaborations. This may suggest poor uptake of the use of preprints among Kenyan researchers. The findings in this study highlight the state of open science in Kenya and challenges facing its adoption and practice while bringing forth possible areas for primary consideration in the campaign toward open science. It also proposes a model (sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model) that may be adopted by researchers, funders and other proponents of open science to address some of the challenges faced in promoting its adoption in Kenya.
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spelling pubmed-81557102021-05-28 Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We? Mwangi, Kennedy W. Mainye, Nyabuti Ouso, Daniel O. Esoh, Kevin Muraya, Angela W. Mwangi, Charles K. Naitore, Careen Karega, Pauline Kibet-Rono, Gilbert Musundi, Sebastian Mutisya, Jennifer Mwangi, Elizabeth Mgawe, Cavin Miruka, Silviane Kibet, Caleb K. Front Res Metr Anal Research Metrics and Analytics According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Open Science is the movement to make scientific research and data accessible to all. It has great potential for advancing science. At its core, it includes (but is not limited to) open access, open data, and open research. Some of the associated advantages are promoting collaboration, sharing and reproducibility in research, and preventing the reinvention of the wheel, thus saving resources. As research becomes more globalized and its output grows exponentially, especially in data, the need for open scientific research practices is more evident — the future of modern science. This has resulted in a concerted global interest in open science uptake. Even so, barriers still exist. The formal training curriculum in most, if not all, universities in Kenya does not equip students with the knowledge and tools to subsequently practice open science in their research. Therefore, to work openly and collaboratively, there is a need for awareness and training in the use of open science tools. These have been neglected, especially in most developing countries, and remain barriers to the cause. Moreover, there is scanty research on the state of affairs regarding the practice and/or adoption of open science. Thus, we developed, through the OpenScienceKE framework, a model to narrow the gap. A sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model was applied in Nairobi, the economic and administrative capital of Kenya. Using the model, we sensitized through seminars, trained on the use of tools through workshops, applied the skills learned in training through hackathons to collaboratively answer the question on the state of open science in Kenya. While the former parts of the model had 20–50 participants, the latter part mainly involved participants with a bioinformatics background, leveraging their advanced computational skills. This model resulted in an open resource that researchers can use to publish as open access cost-effectively. Moreover, we observed a growing interest in open science practices in Kenya through literature search and data mining and that lack of awareness and skills may still hinder the adoption and practice of open science. Furthermore, at the time of the analyses, we surprisingly found that out of the 20,069 papers downloaded from BioRXiv, only 18 had Kenyan authors, a majority of which are international (16) collaborations. This may suggest poor uptake of the use of preprints among Kenyan researchers. The findings in this study highlight the state of open science in Kenya and challenges facing its adoption and practice while bringing forth possible areas for primary consideration in the campaign toward open science. It also proposes a model (sensitize-train-hack-collaborate model) that may be adopted by researchers, funders and other proponents of open science to address some of the challenges faced in promoting its adoption in Kenya. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8155710/ /pubmed/34056516 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.669675 Text en Copyright © 2021 Mwangi, Mainye, Ouso, Esoh, Muraya, Mwangi, Naitore, Karega, Kibet-Rono, Musundi, Mutisya, Mwangi, Mgawe, Miruka, Kibet and OpenScienceKE Collaborators. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Research Metrics and Analytics
Mwangi, Kennedy W.
Mainye, Nyabuti
Ouso, Daniel O.
Esoh, Kevin
Muraya, Angela W.
Mwangi, Charles K.
Naitore, Careen
Karega, Pauline
Kibet-Rono, Gilbert
Musundi, Sebastian
Mutisya, Jennifer
Mwangi, Elizabeth
Mgawe, Cavin
Miruka, Silviane
Kibet, Caleb K.
Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title_full Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title_fullStr Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title_full_unstemmed Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title_short Open Science in Kenya: Where Are We?
title_sort open science in kenya: where are we?
topic Research Metrics and Analytics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34056516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.669675
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