Open science is an approach to scientific inquiry that advocates for collaboration, accessibility, and transparency in an effort to increase the dissemination of scientific knowledge and participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Common practices include making research data public, campaigning for open access, and communication strategies that are inclusive of a wide audience. 1
Although open science as a movement confers multiple benefits, 2 its openness and inclusivity can be exploited by motivated actors intent on seeding false or misleading content. Digital data repositories and preprint servers, for example, are an outcome of the movement for open science, but because of their lack of peer review they can be misused or abused to spread poor quality research or disinformation masked as science.3 Publicly available data, even if credible and from authoritative sources, can also be manipulated to mislead or undermine scientific consensus.4
Open science is a Casebook value under the "Vulnerabilities" variable in the code book.
- 1“Open Science Movement | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,” accessed January 3, 2021, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-and-platforms/goap/open-science-movement/; “What Is Open Science? Introduction,” Foster Open Science, accessed January 3, 2021, https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/content/what-open-science-introduction.
- 2Christopher Allen and David M. A. Mehler, “Open Science Challenges, Benefits and Tips in Early Career and Beyond,” PLOS Biology 17, no. 5 (May 1, 2019): e3000246, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000246; Martin Lakomý, Renata Hlavová, and Hana Machackova, “Open Science and the Science-Society Relationship,” Society 56, no. 3 (June 1, 2019): 246–55, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-019-00361-w.
- 3 Amy Koerber, “Is It Fake News or Is It Open Science? Science Communication in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 35, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 22–27, https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651920958506; Joan Donovan, Irene Pasquetto, and Jennifer Pierre, “Cracking Open the Black Box of Genetic Ancestry Testing,” Proceedings of the 51stHawaii International Conference on System Sciences, https://doi.org/10.24251/HICSS.2018.218; Aaron Panofsky and Joan Donovan, “Genetic Ancestry Testing among White Nationalists: From Identity Repair to Citizen Science,” Social Studies of Science 49, no. 5 (October 1, 2019): 653–81, https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312719861434.
- 4Crystal Lee, Tanya Yang, Gabrielle Inchoco, Graham M. Jones, and Arvind Satyanarayan, “Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online,” CHI ’21, May 8–13, 2021, Yokohama, Japan, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.07993.pdf.