Reflection Wk 2

During class this week we read McKiernan et al’s paper, [“How Open Science Helps Researchers Succeed,”] (https://elifesciences.org/articles/16800) and then discussed it in our small group discussions. The paper makes the argument that there is a strong movement towards open science: “Each year, more studies are published showing the open citation advantage; more funders announce policies encouraging, mandating, or specifically financing open research; and more employers are recognizing open practices in academic evaluations” (p. 13). What I found most interesting from our group discussion were the realities of publishing open science research and the associated costs. I was unaware of the potentially high costs of publishing one’s work in an open science framework, it seems antithetical to the idea of sharing information freely. I understand the inherent costs of publishing and archiving (editorial services, server space, etc.), but it is especially troubling to hear that researchers on smaller grants or working with institutions are unable to publish due to budgetary constraints.

Fundamentally, I believe open science is beneficial for everyone and should be a prerogative for any publicly funded research, provided there is a budget line to fund publishing the work into the grant or project, or supportive funding from some other source. It seems as though the scientific community (including the social sciences) needs a benefactor or foundation (or two or three!) to help support individual researchers, or researchers with smaller budgeted projects. Matching grants anyone?