A Theory of Knowledge for Open and Citizen Science

Communication by Johannes Jaeger, Paris IAS Fellow, within the framework of the Paris-Saclay University Open Science committee meeting.

Presentation

Efforts to promote open and citizen science tend to focus on protocols and infrastructure for data sharing and collaboration. While open data, open methodology, and open-access publishing improve the accessibility and democratisation of scientific evidence, they also impose a burden in terms of additional costs and time investment. In addition, they restrict the ability of researchers to exploit their own (often hard-earned) data. Similarly, citizen science projects expand possibilities for data collection and project design at low cost, but require much effort to train and integrate participants, and to control the quality of the resulting data. These are significant drawbacks in our current ultra-competitive academic environment with its cult of productivity.
In order to develop their full potential, open and citizen science require a more contemporary perspectival approach to knowledge production, which relies on a diversity of perspectives as well as effective means of collaboration and collective sense-making. Such a system would be able to overcome the creative limitations imposed by excessive competition and short-term maximisation of individual productivity, leading to deeper and more sustainable progress in basic science on the long run.

Event closed to the public.