Interview with Co-Authors: “Open Science Policies: What About Equity and Inclusion?”

From ZBW MediaTalk:

The study “The neglect of equity and inclusion in open science policies of Europe and the Americas” was published in November 2023 and used a qualitative document research approach. One of its findings is that Open Science policies tend to focus on a narrow set of practices, particularly Open Access and Open Data, and do not effectively capture the democratic, participatory and inclusive ethos of Open Science.

Two of its authors, Natascha Chtena, a postdoctoral fellow in the Scholarly Communications Lab at Simon Fraser University, and Isabelle Dorsch a postdoctoral fellow at the ZBW and in the Scholarly Communications Lab, shed a light on their findings in this interview.

Here’s One Exchange From the Interview:

Q. What problems did you find regarding Open Science policies?

A. A key insight from our study is that some of the core values of OS (for instance, the desire to contribute to the collective good, the desire to bridge knowledge divides that exist between and within countries) are not well reflected in current policy language. Most of the practices and measures being promoted are rather inward facing and designed to serve a narrow set of interests. Additionally, the majority of stakeholders publishing OS policies and policy guidance are currently located in Europe, despite OS being a global movement that includes diverse constituencies with diverse needs and goals. While this is not de facto a “problem,” it is certainly something worth interrogating.

Learn More, Read the Complete ZBW MediaTalk Interview (about 880 words)

Filed under: Data Files, Interviews, News, Open Access, Profiles, Publishing, Scholarly Communications