Strengthening and development of capacities for scientific dissemination based on the social appropriation of knowledge. An open science approach
Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad
Problem Statement: Colombia although work has been made towards clear measurement and open science guidelines, the focus of action, i.e., dissemination and enactment, has been centered on major cities, leaving the needs and particularities of developing regions aside, which has generated considerable backlog in the adoption and the knowledge of the actions to be performed to implement open science in the remaining cities. The aspects must be treated as an integral set of actions, not as independent elements. Therefore, it is necessary to have a strategy that allows articulating the academic, research, and social communities of major cities with those that have been thus far isolated and do not even have enough physical resources or knowledge to understand and advance the current dynamics of science. In this sense, the goal is to elaborate a permanent training strategy that integrates a Bogotá DC with nearby regions with the purpose of exchanging experiences, and resources. This strategy would be consolidated an “online” school that allows the research community to access a tool aiding in strategic decision-making and in strengthening their mechanisms for the social appropriation and dissemination of science. School will be made openly available to the whole community and will be accompanied by knowledge transfer sessions carried out between experts on the subject and liaisons designated by the institutions to reinforce the implementation of this knowledge and capacity building process.
Proposed Activities: It is necessary to review some of the systems for disseminating knowledge that the institutions currently have, i.e., journal repositories and management platforms for scientific journal publishing, as these systems are the main sources of consultation for the academic and research communities. This, in addition to the fact that they are components considered within open infrastructures for sharing knowledge. Different organizations and researchers established guidelines, practices, and standards for repositories to align, as well as to normalize their features and processes. An example of this is Recolecta, which issues guidelines to be observed with the purpose of having an interoperable repository that can be accessed by the community. As part of the diagnostic process, an online tool will be implemented which automates the evaluation of repositories. This tool will be accompanied by a report that aids decision-making in order to improve the institutions’ dissemination systems and facilitate their integration in the country’s open science ecosystem. Editorial management tools will be complemented with a web form that evaluates the quality of the references used in works published in scientific journals and the generation of bibliometric indicators based on collected metadata, with the aim to track references and rate the editorial process. This system supports journal editors by reviewing the metadata generated from the submitted works, by providing a landscape of scientific production while indicating the citation sources used by authors, and by generating reports from the DOIs of the submitted works. This is complemented with a feature that verifies whether the references of a work comply with the selected norms, improving the works by the institutions’ authors by ensuring a correct articulation with cited works. It is worth highlighting that, despite the fact that the project is initially aimed at universities in the Cubdiboyacense region, these tools and resources will be made available for both the national and international community, as the review parameters have been designed while following international guidelines and criteria. In the same way, we aim to pool the institutions’ efforts to preserve the project in the long term and continue to incorporate features allowing it to improve every day. Finally, we intend to host a Hackathon with the purpose of addressing, from the community’s perspective, the actual status of the progress made with regard to open science and its application based on the resources available to the institutions. This will strengthen the interaction between regular citizens and institutional resources while also allowing to understand the perceived usability and availability of the information demanded by the community. This work will be carried out in a year. This process will be carried out in parallel with the personalized consultancy and the design of strategies for the participating institutions.
Openness: The developed resources will be made available online for permanent use and access by the community. In the same way, although the project’s initial focus involves the institutions of the Cundiboyacense region, the events and online training sessions will be open for the participation of anyone who requires it. In the requested funding forecast, the hiring of translators is procured for a greater outreach of the materials developed. Accessibility experts will also be hired in order for most of the resources to be available for consultation by people with sensorial limitations, seeking to implement strategies to integrate vulnerable populations in the development of skills and facilitating the transfer of knowledge. The project also promotes the use of the governance recommendations proposed by DeEtta Jones & Associates with the purpose of generating institutional policies that define and demarcate roles, as well as an articulation with national and international open science standards and laws. Finally, as an initiative, every resource directly or indirectly generated by the project participants will have to be shared in open access in order to strengthen the skills of new institutions. The participants will be asked to commit to replicating the acquired knowledge with different societal actors, which includes other members of the same institutions as well as regular citizens.
Challenges: The main development of the project has to do with a paradigm shift in the executives of the institutions regarding the adjustment of policies that agree with the open science movement, especially concerning the provision of resources within an open infrastructure ecosystem. However, given the support of an approved National Policy, and with the help of training and awareness-raising on the subject, as well as with the integration of people from different fields, we believe that there will be both willingness and action when it comes to presenting results and making concrete decisions for the short and medium terms.
Neglectedness: The project has received initial funding for the development of tools, as it has competed in the institutions’ internal funds. It is worth highlighting that, thanks to said funding, the project already has elements that facilitate the execution and diagnostics of the education and training needs for building capacities.
Success: Based on the data collected in the diagnostics phase and the Hackathon event, a plan for the training and experience exchange sessions will be developed, which will be focused on the global needs identified in the institutions. According to the inputs received, resources will be created, and consultancy and accompaniment will be provided by means of various webinars allowing to boost the skills and abilities that the institutions already have. Similarly, personalized consultancy will be provided to the institutions in order to generate a set of improvement plans in accordance with the particularities identified in the diagnostic phase. During the implementation process and the events to be hosted, collaborative work groups will be adopted in order to articulate the efforts made by institutions with limited capacities and resources, thus allowing to share knowledge and good practices, boosting and developing the necessary skills for adopting open science as a driver of institutional – and therefore regional – development. As a result of the commitment of the proposing institutions to adopt and promote open science, diverse elements will continue to be made available for the permanent training of our researchers and the members of society who want to support the project’s growth and who, from different disciplines, may contribute to the transversal development of skills promoting the principles of open science.
Total Budget: $17,000
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas; Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
LMIE Carveout: This project will be carried out in the Cundiboyacense region of Colombia, articulating members of both regions and decentralizing the resources and investments concentrated in the country’s capital. In the same way, by articulating the institutions in the region, the investment of resources in training and in the acquisition of skills by the institutions’ members would be optimized, thus fostering active participation in the region with regard to the formulation of joint initiatives with an impact on society, taking advantage of the availability of accessible data and research and avoiding to repeat research works in each institution, as well as the underutilization of the results obtained which may be applied by the business and governmental communities.
Team Skills: Universidad Distrital has played an important role in making knowledge visible by means of its editorial management system, as well as in exerting an influence in spaces for the exchange and management of knowledge. Among the achievements of the last six years, the following stand out: Being the only member of DOAJ and the Latindex center in the country. Contributing with its professors and researchers in the construction of the country’s 2022-2031 National Open Science Policy. Participating in collaborative events regarding Open Science such as the Ibero-American Congress on Open Science with other higher education institutions. On the other hand, UPTC has a broad experience in the execution of projects. Its Institutional Strategic Plan includes the adoption of guidelines and policies promoting open science as a pillar for the access to and dissemination of knowledge in society. UPTC has led initiatives in the region, such as: The Boyacá Science, Technology, and Innovation Observatory (OCITEB), which has consolidated as a constant source of information and is a facilitator of statistics based on the traceability and homogeneity of research data in the region. It is a member of the Collegiate Administration and Decision Body of Boyacá, which makes it a facilitator of the articulation between academia, the government, and the industry for the development of research projects in the region, dynamizing and optimizing the resources of entities in the region.
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
TLDR: Open science for the development and integration of regions
Submission Number: 7
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