The Road to Open Science, Ep. 1, A Social Dilemma

Road to Open Science (R2OS)

Episode 1: A social dilemma The Road to Open Science podcast series follows the path to open science through the perspective of researchers. What is open science and what can it do for research? In this first episode, ‘A social dilemma’, we try to answer the first part of this question and will also look into the current contradiction between the goals of the academic system and those of the individual scientist. Sascha Friesike, our first guest, describes this situation as a social dilemma. Sascha is assistant professor Digital Innovation at VU Amsterdam and one of the editors and writers of the book Opening Science, on the significant impact of internet on research, collaboration and publishing practices. He has done extensive research on adapting open science practices. In this podcast he will tell us more about the various definitions and the barriers to a wider embrace of open science. He describes the current situation as a social dilemma: ‘Individual rationality leads to collective irrationality.’ Our second guest is Frank Miedema, professor of immunology, dean and vice chairman of the board at the University Medical Center in Utrecht. He is also one of the initiators of Science in Transition. Miedema generally confirms the issues that are raised by Friesike: he expresses that ‘The purpose of the individual is not in sync anymore with the purpose of the system.’ In his opinion, the management of universities and major funding agencies are responsible in the first instance to change the current situation and they must add to their efforts to improve the incentives and reward system. What are your opinions on the issues that are raised in this first episode? Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion on twitter (https://twitter.com/R2OSpodcast) or on the portal of the Open Science Community Utrecht (https://openscience-utrecht.com/r2os-episode-1/) where you can also find all the show notes.