This is the third in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 27-28 October 2023. Pam Maras is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. She was nominated by the International Union of Psychological Science.
Pam Maras was elected first female President of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) in 2016 she is now past-president on IUPsyS Executive Committee, she is a Fellow, Past President, and Past Honorary General Secretary of the British Psychological Society and a Chartered Scientist (CSci) with the UK Science Council.
As the Global body for psychological science IUPsyS is a founding Union of the ISC. Over two million psychologists are represented by IUPsyS members, who collect or use data in primary, secondary or published form; e.g. on evidence informed policy direction, public behaviour compliance and mental health during the pandemic.
Pam represents IUPsyS on CODATA and is a DRUM Ambassador. She is committed to Equality in Science and represents IUPsyS on the Standing Committee on Gender Equality in Science (SCGES).
Pam is Emerita Professor of Psychology at the University of Greenwich, London and where she held senior University roles including chair of the independent committee for institutional compliance with ethical requirements including data stewardship. Pam has attracted considerable research funding with international collaborations, including in Africa, Australasia, China, Europe (including France, Netherlands, Spain, and Italy), the Nordic countries, North and Latin America, and South-East Asia. She is often asked to comment in media and has provided evidence to policy makers. She has over one hundred publications most recent of which were independently rated as internationally excellent or outstanding in the 2021 UK national assessment of research excellence.
Pam’s research moved from experimental psychology to applying psychological science to social situations in education, including testing psychometric measures in different geographical contexts to ensure cultural relevance. Data collection has included surveys and quasi experimental designs. She believes regions should set their own agenda and be able to engage in the ‘open science movement’ as contributors and recipients.
CODATA is in a unique position in the ISC as the global body to represent international science in all its forms in the promotion and dissemination of science. The ethical and open access of data for public good can only be achieved through geographic and disciplinary collaboration, which includes all areas of the science community and all regions of the world. Behavioural sciences should be an equal partner in international science. A challenge is to ensure that scientists collectively ‘buy in’ to processes including for data that are less easy to curate from the social and behavioural sciences.
As a psychologist Pam’s contribution if elected would at an interdisciplinary level include representing and integrating behavioural science into the adoption of principles and policy arising out of CODATA and partners, and at a disciplinary level on human behaviour; both of scientists and on applications of scientific discovery including in areas of interdisciplinary relevance. Pam’s expertise is relevant to the impact of data, and the ethical development and implementation of policy. This can only be effectively achieved with integrity if common processes are not only designed but adopted; the latter is likely to be harder than the former and requires a shared understanding and commitment to act and cooperate – behavioural scientists such as psychologists are essential to this endeavour.