On open science and regain of public trust in science: The imperative, rationale and trade-offs

IORFA, STEVEN KATOR; MAES, MARLIES; KU, SEULKI; BROU, ABENIN MATHIEU; GÖNÜL, BUSE; BENÍTEZ, YASER RAMÍREZ; MAKILA, MAKUTSA LEUNITA; MONTEOLIVA, JUAN MANUEL; MARCEL A G VAN AKEN

Conferencia; Reproducibility, Replicability and Trust in Science (Virtual Conference); 2022

The force of science and its consequent authority on the society revolves around its provision ofsolutions to societal challenges. However, what happens when scientific authority is questioned andits solutions begin to seem less credible? During the COVID-19 pandemic, a public mistrust in scienceand the research community became exacerbated as issues surrounding science communication,research integrity, fishing, data falsification and results manipulation, etc. (the replication crisis) gainedmore momentum and were publicly discussed in the media. Coupled with perceived governmentalinsincerities, a percentage of the public refused the COVID-19 vaccines and engaged in conspiracytheories which endangered their lives and those of others. While a significant number of deaths wererecorded among the unvaccinated, it is currently unclear to what extent this mistrust in science mayaffect future acceptance and compliance to scientific advice and innovations. This paper aggregatesperspectives of early career scholars from an open science workshop in Rhodes, Greece, and offersinsights into the threat to science as well as the role of early career scholars in regaining public trust inscience. Among many other things, early career scholars agreed that one way to gain back public trustin science and research, and to diminish issues surrounding the replication crisis, would be to pushforward the agenda of open science in making the whole scientific process, and the communicationabout it, as open and accessible as possible. Early career scholars noted that open science has notbeen given the requisite attention within the research community and surprisingly has received ratherstiff opposition among more senior researchers. While recognising the efforts of organisations such asthe League of European Research Universities and others, early career scholars pointed out waysthrough which open science could be advanced. These ways are summarised under the followingthemes; collaboration among open scientists, implementation of open science policies by early careerscholars, implementation of open science into academic curriculums, creation of open sciencenetworks across universities and a membership drive.