Transition to open: a shift in research culture and practice

April 05, 2024

Speaker

Dr. Maria Pawlowska

In 2024, KT Connects is focusing on open science — the practice of making scientific inputs, outputs, and processes freely available to all with minimal restrictions. Learn more!

Webinar summary

Friday, April 5

12 – 1 p.m. PST

As information technology enables more people to rapidly share large amounts of data and knowledge, open science — making scientific processes and practices, including research methods and outputs, more accessible and transparent — is moving from the fringe to centre stage. However, there is much more to open science than who pays for scientific publications, the reliable reuse of data, or publishing results before peer review. As seen through multiple national and international open science efforts, truly open research includes emphasis on knowledge translation and mobilization activities, as well as equitable and meaningful engagement with diverse communities impacted by research findings.

In this webinar — the first in Health Research BC’s series focused on open science — Dr. Maria Pawlowska will give an overview of open science by illustrating the variety of efforts underway in Canada, the United States, and Europe, explaining why open science is relevant to everyone, and highlighting the opportunities, benefits and challenges that lay ahead.

 

Learning objectives

After this webinar, the audience will be able to:

  1. Explain what open science entails.
  2. Describe the Canadian and international context for open science implementation.
  3. Illustrate how to implement an open science framework in a biomedical research context.

 

Speaker bio

Dr Maria Pawlowska is an expert in research management with a focus on scientific data management and open science. Following her PhD in earth sciences from the University of Cambridge, she transitioned to a career in research administration and policy. Maria has collaborated with European governments and non-governmental organizations as well as Fortune200 companies. She has helped establish over a dozen new centers of excellence, working with institutions such as Oxford University and National Centre for Scientific Research. Additionally, she has contributed to the design and implementation of international open science policies. Currently, Maria is involved in implementing open science practices in Nova Scotia.

Upcoming webinar

Dr. Alice Fleerackers and Dr. Juan Pablo Alperin

Date

November 06, 2024

Preprints as knowledge translation: Another way of opening science to the public

In 2024, KT Connects is focusing on open science — the practice of making scientific inputs, outputs, and processes freely available to all with minimal restrictions. Learn more.

Webinar summary

Wednesday, November 6 

1 – 2 p.m. PST 

Preprints are research papers made publicly available before journal peer review and publishing in scientific journals. They allow rapid and free sharing of findings within and beyond academia. Recent research suggests that journalists also report on them. This brings new challenges and opportunities for making research knowledge public.

This session will introduce participants to preprints as one means to make science more open, as well as key points to remember when using them as a knowledge translation method.

Learning objectives

After this webinar, the audience will be able to:

  • Understand the unique role preprints play within the open science movement
  • Understand how journalists use preprints and the potential benefits and risks of preprint media coverage for the public
  • Identify ways to share preprint research that provide journalists and their audiences with the necessary context to interpret research findings accurately.

Speaker bio

Alice Fleerackers is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British Columbia, and a researcher at the Scholarly Communications Lab, Simon Fraser University. She studies the intersections of journalism, health and science communication, and scholarly communication. She is also a freelance writer, the vice president of the Public Communication of Science and Technology Network (PCST), and co-founder and co-chair of PCST’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee.

Juan Pablo Alperin is an associate professor in the publishing program, Scientific Director of the Public Knowledge Project, and the co-director of the Scholarly Communications Lab at Simon Fraser University. He is a multi-disciplinary scholar who uses a combination of computational techniques and traditional qualitative methods. His work focuses on investigating ways of raising the scientific quality, global impact, and public use of scholarly work.