Activity one What are the difficulties of fostering openness within your research context (10 mins) Using post-its participants will be asked to note down three issues they feel are hampering attempts to foster openness in research in their daily research Place your post-its on the boards at the back according to geographic region.

Louise Bezuidenhout University of Notre Dame Benefits and Challenges, Guidance and Confusion: Daily Open Data Practices Louise Bezuidenhout University of Notre Dame

What is open science?

Moving ahead towards a culture of sharing Governments, funders, institutions and scientific bodies recognize the benefits of sharing data Increase visibility of research Increase outputs and returns on investments Decrease duplicate research, increase verifiability of research

Fostering openness Notwithstanding issues to do with data quality and sustainable infrastructures, there is a lot of interest in creating environments that facilitate effective sharing and re-use Issues to consider include: Legal and policy frameworks Ethical guidance Awareness and skill sets Cross-cultural dialogue and context-appropriate solutions

Legal and policy Scientists are expected to contribute the data arising from their research to an open access repository with appropriate metadata to facilitate re-use Funding agencies National funding agencies – RCUK (UK), NRF (RSA) Private funding agenicies – Wellcome Trust Journals Institutions – repositories MOUs in collaboration National governments and international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and the Global Research Council, private foundations such as the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust and science academies such as the International Council of Science (ICSU), the Royal Society, the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the Global Young Academy (GYA) have devoted considerable attention and resources to developing regulatory frameworks for big and open data production, dissemination and use. The results of such efforts is evidenced in institutional and national policies on Open Science, policy documents such as the international accord Open Data in a Big Data World released jointly by ICSU, IAP, the World Academy of Sciences and the International Social Science Council in December 2015 (13), and the Open Science policy introduced by the European Commission in May 2016 (14).

Ethical Scientists are expected to treat data in a responsible manner that maximizes benefits and safeguards against harms Codes of conduct Aspirational Advisory Enforceable Issues often considered are benefits of sharing, issues relating to human data Special considerations relating to LMICs – expected speed of data release, protection of particularly vulnerable populations, ownership of data, capacity building for local research, context-appropriate re-use of data and informed consent

Skills and awareness Scientists should be educated in data management, as well as the ethical, legal and social implications of data-intensive research Initiatives to increase technical skills in data management, curation and release. Also increasing amount of interest in training for data scientists. Support for the development of data infrastructures in LMICs – particularly development of institutional repositories Initiatives to increase ethical awareness

Cross-cultural In an increasingly international milieu, scientists need to be able to negotiate the intricacies of cross-cultural perspectives of data research Science is increasingly international Multi-national collaborations International funding Data from different national origins Different perspectives on what constitutes data and what is an appropriate use of data Differences in research priorities and practices Differences in resources and support available for data management Need careful negotiation that is regularly revisited

Challenges of the individual Despite clear expectations to share data, ethical and legal environment very complicated and can be confusing Scientists are expected to contribute the data arising from their research to an open access repository with appropriate metadata to facilitate re-use Scientists are expected to treat data in a responsible manner that maximizes benefits and safeguards against harms Scientists should be educated in data management, as well as the ethical, legal and social implications of data-intensive research Clear need for more skill training Lack of clear idea of what needs to be shared, where and when Local concerns Resources necessary to share data are sometimes not available – need for cross- cultural sensitivity

Creative solutions Be vocal about local concerns and challenges Be up front about limitations in physical, legal and social infrastructures Investigate creative solutions for local challenges: Creative commons and altmetric alternatives to repositories Regional partnerships and lobby groups Leveraging private businesses for physical infrastructure

Activity two How can these concerns be addressed in your research context? (30 mins) Participants work in geographic groups to address solutions to the problems identified in activity one. Groups report back on their discussions. If anyone would like to discuss further please find me at dinner or at the bar after dinner. Email: louise.m.bezuidenhout.1@nd.edu