The Open Science movement – focused on making research data, software code and experimental methods publicly available and transparent – is steadily gaining momentum. According to Gewin (2016), “[A]a spirit of openness is gaining traction in the science community, and is the only way, say advocates, to address a ‘crisis’ in science whereby too few findings are successfully reproduced. Furthermore, they say, it is the best way for researchers to gather the range of observations that are necessary to speed up discoveries or to identify large-scale trends.” 

 

Although many researchers are already sharing their raw data and data sets, there are researchers who still question why they should share their data, and what benefits are in it for them. In other words, how will they be incentivized, when others use the outputs of their hard work. These issues also apply on national and institutional levels.  What do research institutions have to gain by embracing Open Science?  Will the associated data expertise and opportunities for collaboration outweigh the perceived loss of intellectual capital that, if closed, can be exploited ahead of rivals?  Similarly, on the national level: is there a strong incentive for poorer nations not to be left behind as science is transformed by the digital revolution?  Or will open data and open science merely lead to data assets in the ‘South’ being more quickly exploited by better resourced researchers in the ‘North’? Very few countries and institutions have policies in place regarding the management (incl. curation) and sharing of data as an outcome of funded research projects.

 

The above just some of the issues the African Open Science Platform would like to address during this series of webinars, to be presented during International Open Access Week 2017. 

 

Presenters

We are very excited to bring you 3 experts on this topic, to share their perspectives.

 

 

Registration (free)

If you are interested in attending any one/all of the webinars, please complete the registration form by 20 October 2017. The webinars are presented free of charge. Once you have registered, we will provide you with the login details and further instructions.