Open Science & Societal Impact

Introduction

In order to advance the impact of science and address global challenges, timely access to credible information sources is imperative. Concealing knowledge behind subscription paywalls can stand as a roadblock towards advancements in innovation, research quality, integrity, efficiency, social welfare, and public trust and engagement. Given this, Open Science is undeniably a growing movement that facilitates further impact of science in our society, yet those who work in supporting impact and those involved in Open Science often operate in separate worlds with their own vocabularies, strategies, and missions.

In recent years, many initiatives have been pushing for more transparent and open practices in science, such as with Plan S calling for publicly funded research to be published under an open license. Moving towards open practices in science has no doubt led to efficiency in information-sharing, the democratisation of access to knowledge, and the involvement of the wider public in scientific discourse. However, it also must not be overlooked that the priority to make research findings available openly and quickly (such as through preprint servers) may come at the cost of quality, having not undergone stringent peer-review and potentially (and inadvertantly) promote misinformation, and that the shift towards open-access publishing may be introducing new types of inequality within academia.

With these progresses as well as challenges in mind, it is time to bring together the often separate worlds of Open Science and Societal Impact together, to discuss topics such as:

• How can we better use Open Science for societal good, and how would we evaluate this?
• What incentivisation strategies & policies may be put in place to stimulate Open Science practices?
• What are the geopolitical implications of global policies for access to scholarly publications and research data?
• How can Open Science policies and practices foster public trust and understanding in science?
• Safe spaces to facilitate open scientific discourse in academia, and between academics and other stakeholder groups;
• Next steps towards effective knowledge exchange in an international open science landscape.

For this seminar, we had originally planned to bring the discussion of Open Science & Societal Impact to Finland, where the ‘Declaration of Open Science and Research 2020-2025’ has put the themes of Open Access, Open Data, and other pillars of Open Science at the forefront of the Finnish Science Eco-system and research community. However, because of persisting hesitations over an in-person meeting due to the pandemic, we have decided to move this seminar to an online format. Nonethless, this seminar programme has been developed with Finland as the hosting country in mind, and we look forward to welcoming you to this virtual event to share ideas on bridging the gap between Open Science and Societal Impact in the Finnish science eco-system and beyond.

Target groups

Research managers & administrators ∙ Librarians ∙ Funders ∙ Policy-makers

Publishers ∙ Scientometricians ∙ Other stakeholders of Impact & Open Science