The open science movement is changing the way research is published, providing new methods of dissemination and evaluation like preprints and open review that are accelerating the pace and transparency of science. At the same time, these new, more open methods of communicating science threaten to expose the publication process to bad actors keen on weaponizing science for political purposes, spreading misinformation, or publishing junk research to advance their careers. This panel brings together representatives from each stage of open science, from active researchers to open publishing platform developers and journalists for a frank discussion of how each part of the publishing process must adapt to make sure open science advances not just science itself, but society’s understanding of, trust in, and willingness to invest in research.
Panelists will share:
- New trends in open science and how they will change the way policymakers, journalists, and the public encounter, make sense of, and ultimately trust science.
- Potential risks posed by the adoption of open science and how researchers and publishers can work with journalists and policymakers to mitigate them.
- Why researchers are adopting open science, and what it means for the future of access to scientific knowledge.
- Lessons learned from the news media’s history with free online publishing, and what the academic publishing community can take and adapt from them.
Panelists:
Richard Sever is assistant director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and cofounder of the preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv. He also serves as executive editor for the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives and Cold Spring Harbor Protocols journals and launched the precision medicine journal Cold Spring Harbor Molecular Case Studies. Previously he worked as an editor at Current Opinion in Cell Biology, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, and Journal of Cell Science. Richard received a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University and a PhD in molecular biology from Cambridge University.
Needhi Bhalla is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She attended graduate school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she trained with Dr. Andrew Murray and studied how mitotic chromosomes segregate in budding yeast. She performed her post-doctoral research at E.O. Lawrence Berkeley Labs and University of California, Berkeley with Dr. Abby Dernburg, where she identified a meiotic checkpoint that monitors whether chromosomes have synapsed correctly. In her own lab, she studies how cells ensure that the correct number of chromosomes is maintained with every cell division. Having an incorrect number of chromosomes, also called aneuploidy, is associated with cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and infertility, underscoring the importance of this question to human health. Her lab combines genetic and biochemical approaches with high-resolution microscopy and cytological techniques in the nematode worm C. elegans to better understand how chromosomes are partitioned correctly during both sexual reproduction (meiosis) and development (mitosis). In addition to the work in her lab, she is deeply committed to improving the culture of science, with an emphasis on improving equity in research assessment, at the level of both trainees and faculty.
Rachel Zamzow is an award-winning science journalist and editor. She’s the managing editor of The Open Notebook (TON), a nonprofit organization that supports the global community of journalists who cover science. At TON, Rachel commissions and edits stories, manages production, and develops tools in partnership with SciLine and the Reynolds Journalism Institute to equip local journalists with the skills they need to bring scientific evidence into their stories. As an independent journalist, she reports stories about neuroscience and ethics in science for several publications, including Science, Science News, and The Transmitter. Rachel has a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Missouri, and she got her start in journalism thanks to a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship. She lives in Central Texas with her two sons.
Moderator:
Gabriel Stein is a technologist, developer, and writer who has been interested in the intersection of culture and technology since he taught himself to code in middle school to build an online roleplaying game. He is the Head of Platform at Knowledge Futures, a non-profit that builds public digital infrastructure to make information useful. He has worked in multiple technical and editorial roles, including front-end engineering at Ogilvy, support engineering for Google’s display advertising platform, reporting and editing at Fast Company, and audience development and product management at Upworthy. In 2017, he co-founded Massive Science, a media company that instructed thousands of scientists in digital storytelling, reached millions of readers, and collaborated with researchers to study the impact of online science communication. His other work has included product development consulting for probabilistic AI researchers, developing methodologies for measuring and reporting on information warfare for political campaigns and Fortune 500 companies, and creating e-commerce platforms for made in America fashion brands. While at Shorenstein, Stein will examine what impact recent changes to the global information environment — including the rise in popularity of podcasts and newsletters, the abandonment of content moderation practices, and the proliferation of synthetic media — will have on society’s ability to access and understand important information.
