R2OS, Episode 1, A Social Dilemma

We talked to an expert of digital innovation: Sascha Friesike, assistant professor of Digital Innovation at VU Amsterdam and associated researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. Sascha is one of the editors and writers of the book Opening Science, on the significant impact of internet on research, collaboration and publishing practices. In this episode he tells us more about the various definitions and the barriers to a wider embrace of open science. According to Sascha, there is a contradiction between the goals of the academic system and the incentives of the individual scientist. He describes this 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 big 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? How to solve this social dilemma, who needs to take action, what should be done? We are eager to learn about what you think! Please feel welcome to engage in the discussion. You can leave your comments below or contact us on Twitter. Follow @R2OSpodcast for links to the next episodes and all the references that are discussed in each episode.
The Road to Open Science podcast is an initiative of the Utrecht Young Academy supported by the Utrecht University Library.

Show notes and more information:
You can subscribe to the Road to Open Science podcast on Soundcloud, Stitcher, and iTunes.

Do you want to know more about Sascha Friesike? You can check his university profile. His book, Opening Science, The Evolving Guide on How the Internet is Changing Research, Collaboration and Scholarly Publishing is open to read. Two interesting chapters Sascha contributed to are: Benedikt Fecher and Sascha Friesike, Open Science: One Term, Five Schools of Thought and Sascha Friesike and Thomas Schildhauer: Open Science: Many Good Resolutions, Very Few Incentives, Yet. Want more from him to listen to? Check Sascha’s fiction podcast Grobmann & Pieper .

On the UMCU website you can read more about Frank Miedema and his work. It might also be interesting to look at the Science in Transition website and to read the EU report on open science and altmetrics, Miedema contributed to. An article that explains the criteria of the UMCU can be found here. In a more recent article  several similar initiatives are discussed.

Furthermore, you can check the open science MOOC and listen to the Open Science Radio, if you want to learn more about open science practices and many active groups contributing to these developments. Check also the suggested plan of Utrecht University towards adapting more open science practices

On Twitter you can find:
@Friesike
@MiedemaF
@OpenSci_MOOC
@OpenSciRadio

And of course:
@R2OSpodcast