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Revive the core principles of science Konrad U. F¨ orstner Core Unit Systems Medicine, Universit¨ at W¨ urzburg July 14th, 2014, MPI-CBG Dresden The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.

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Why Open Science? ”It’s a tragedy we had to add the word open to science.” Eduardo Robles https://twitter.com/edulix/status/219390289519968256 http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Why Open Science? Openness and transparency are core principles of science but are violated at several points in the research process. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Examples for low reproducibility Study performed at Bayer prior to launching a drug development program - 20–25% of published data reproducible (Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 10, 712, 2011) Similar approach performed at Amgen - reproducibility rate of 11% (Nature 483, 531–533, 2012) http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Research workflow – spot the error Scientists (publicly funded) generate knowledge Scientists transfer the copyright of the resulting manuscript* to commercial publishers for free in exchange for free** publication. Library (publicly funded) buys*** the journal subscription from publisher while the broad public has no access. * After peer review performed by other publicly funded scientists ** Oh, colored/extra pages!?! Well, then we need to charge a small fee! *** Often in bundles of journals and after signing a NDA about the prices negotiations http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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In 2013 Elsevier had a profit margin of 39%! http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.de/2014/03/elsevier-stm-publishing-profits-rise-to.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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My very personal opinion The subscription-based publication system is obsolete, over-prized and hampering the exchange of knowledge. It is obscene and embarrassing that this a core instrument of the scientific community. https://secure.flickr.com/photos/96302395@N00/2514147406 – CC-BY by flickr user Malinki

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Open Access journals Luckily there is a growing number of open-access journals and pressure by funding bodies. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Still, the concept of the immutable publications, publisher and journals should reconsidered. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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From publisher to open repositories The Episciences Project aims to create community-run, open-access journals based on open repositories like arXiv. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Writing scientific article in Wikis / version control systems Constant, real-time update of ”articles” Contributions are trackable Avoiding of redundancy (”Background” etc.) http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Open Peer-Review Making the reviewing process transparent. source: The Library of Congress

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Post Publication Peer-Review Publish first – then review. E.g. done by F1000 Research source: The Library of Congress

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Open (Research) Data Making all experimental and derived data accessible. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Open (Research) Data Currently: A selected subset of the experimental data of a project becomes part of the publication. Needed: The full data set becomes public with the manuscript. Optimum: Data is immediately after generation public. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Feeling uncomfortable now? http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Sharing the data immediately would be the best for science. In the current system this is not necessarily the best for the scientists. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Aligning the interests Scientist compete for limited resources and try to adapt optimally to the given evaluation/funding system. Due to this we have to generate a system which promotes openness and has incentives to share results. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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New measurements of scientific impact are required Not only measure ”papers” but also shared data, manuscript review, comments etc. ORCID compiles different typs of ”works” Alternative metrics - beyond impact factors, h-index (etc.) http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Besides these technical approaches we have to change our research culture. This is hard and one of the major challenges. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Now it gets even more uncomfortable. http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Have you every asked yourself if you are really needed in your lab? http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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Automation of science Use formalization of experimental protocols and open standards to implement automated research. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Automation of science Program your experiments and share the code. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Automation of science Optimal reproducibility and transparency. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Formal language – EXACT http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Robot scientist ADAM http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Microfluid systems as one path https://secure.flickr.com/photos/schlaus/708447474 – CC-BY by flickr user schlaus

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Current challenges Price (as long as not coming a commondity) Lack of flexibility Formalization is hard Vendor lock-in ⇒ open standards required http://www.flickr.com/photos/tallkev/256810217/ – CC-BY by flickr user tallkev

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Summary Openness and transparency are core principle of science We are not using the full potential of available technologies to implement openness in our research workflow We need a culture of openness and incentives to open up science http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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What can you do right now (easily)? Use/promote Open Acces journals Use/promote pre-print servers (arXiv, bioRxiv) Use/promote specialized data repositories as well as general-purpose repositories to publish you research data Think ”open” http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147 – CC-BY by flickr user subcircle

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/nateone/3768979925/ – CC-BY by flick user nateone