The knowledge we create is not private. It should be shared.
Una is an electrical engineer who wanted to explore biomedical applications for her doctoral studies. She started in neuroscience, but then she moved to the lab of embedded systems, where she found the right combination of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering. As a member of ESL (Embedded Systems Laboratory), she works on projects that focus on designing machine-learning approaches for wearable devices in the domain of biosignals and health monitoring. Her doctoral research focuses on utilising a novel form of machine learning called hyperdimensional computing for small, lightweight wearable devices, with the ultimate goal of using them for EEG and epilepsy monitoring.
I first met Una during the summer of 2022 when she took part in EPFL-ETHZ open science summer school. In 2023, I met Una again as a member of the organisational committee for EPFL-ETHZ open science summer school 2023. Hence, here we mostly focus on Open Science.
When and how did you first encounter open science?
I don’t think I ever thought about open science per se. I would recognize the term, but I don’t think I knew much about what it entails. Basically, until last summer school, I didn’t know about the changes that were happening in the scientific community in this regard. I was not aware of how essential the Open science topic is. Now, on the other hand, I’m actually surprised how little people know or care. But I was also one of them.
I feel, as a scientist, your main focus is your research, and you deal with everyday research challenges. You do not have much time to think globally; about how your research can be presented to other scientists or to the public, how it is going to be used, or how it can influence other research or even the future. We rarely think about the long-term impact.
You did not know much about the topic. How come you joined the summer school on open science?
As a doctoral student, you must take courses to get enough credits. Instead of taking technical courses like machine learning or image processing, I looked for topics that could provide me with a broader perspective and could be transferable outside of research. So I took courses like MINTT (Management of Innovation and Technology Transfer), Communication in Science and Technology, etc.
When I saw a call for a summer school on open science, I thought this would be a very interesting topic. I believe that science should be openly shared and communicated to the general public more than it currently is. Ultimately my personal motivation for doing science is to do something useful, make some progress, and bring something meaningful to society. Thus I wanted to hear what others think and what more I can learn about this topic.
For example, if we think about preprints, so much is going on in this domain. Journals and conferences are now widely accepting papers that are already available as preprints. The number of preprints and preprints servers is constantly growing, and open review websites are making science more available and discussions open. Yet, many researchers are not aware of this.
I wanted to understand the Open Science situation better and be able to discuss with others how to make science more accessible. That’s why I applied.
How was the summer school? What was your experience?
I became aware of the complexity of Open Science. I realised that there is so much history, policy, and human psychology behind it.
It was interesting and eye-opening to talk with other people who care about these things and learn about situations in their field of research. When you work in one area, you don’t really know how things are in the other research areas. And very often, people face limitations, problems, and challenges that might look very specific but are quite general.
There were also a couple of things that were completely new and shocking, e.g., the reproducibility crisis or trends in open-access publishing. Basically, the whole ecosystem around publishing and reviewing was designed 50+ years ago. It was designed for the pre-internet and pre-social networks era and thus should be adjusted.
It seems that you had a very positive experience. Am I correct?
Yes. I can only recommend to all my colleagues to apply. It is a good investment of time.
I got inspired to the extent that this year I am part of the organising committee for the next summer school on open science. This year, the focus is policy and open science. Science plays an essential role in shaping the future of society, but there is still a significant gap between science and policy-making. We wanted to address this gap by bringing experts from science, policy-making, science journalism, and also the regulatory side to the table.
Having your personal experience of learning about open science and later getting actively involved, what would you recommend to an individual when she/he would like to practice open science?
As a doctoral student, first, you can start by making sure that you document well what you do, e.g., your code and your research steps.
Then, share your results with others within your laboratory or community. Even if it is not fully open to the public, at least you share it with your community, and it can be used even after you are no longer PhD student.
Next, make your research available as preprints. This way, you make it available for people from smaller universities who might not have access to all publications behind the paywall. You make it possible to cite the research immediately and not after months of revisions. And most importantly, you make it also available for people outside of the research community. Taxpayers ultimately finance our research, but because of the double-dipping problem of publishers, they do not have access to the results of our research.
When talking about other research results except for papers, e.g. code, data, protocols, and negative results, all of that can be shared online and help science be more transparent, reproducible, and ultimately more efficient. Share these things.
And then, in a world of social media, you can easily promote your papers or other publicly available outcomes of your research. Everybody is online today. There are many tools and tutorials that can help you create an impactful message.
Finally, bring the topic of open science to the discussion. Encourage others to learn more and follow good open science practices.
What role an organisation, e.g., university can play in this journey?
Well, first is education – courses, seminars, and lectures are a great starting point. Everybody should be able to learn what all open science entails, why it is so important, and how to intercorporate it into everyday research practice.
More open science statistics can also help raise awareness and serve as a good example, e.g., the number of EPFL-affiliated preprints and the number of datasets published over time or research areas that could be interesting. It can motivate others to open up their research.
There should be some kind of minimum requirements or guidelines for the labs in terms of open science. Open science practice should eventually become part of the assessment of the labs, newly hired researchers, etc.
Some people are very closed when it comes to sharing their research. They are scared of sharing ideas, which I can understand. But I think some minimum should be required by now. In the end, we are funded by public money. Therefore, the public has a right to know what we are doing with it. The knowledge we create is not private. It should be shared.
Finally, the upcoming summer school “Science and Policy: How to bridge the gap?”. Can you share some details?
The school will take place on 10th-14th July 2023 in Beatenberg, near Interlaken (Switzerland).
So, if you are a PhD student interested in science communication, the impact of your research on society, the importance of evidence-based research to implement effective policy measures, if you wonder how federal decisions were made during the COVID-19 crisis, how energy policies are decided, or how researchers will help implement ethical and policy measures for the use of AI; this summer school is for you! We welcome applications from every field of study until the 1st of May!
Links:
- Contact author: Pale Una
- Contact laboratory: Embedded Systems Laboratory
- Learn more about EPFL-ETHZ Open Science Summer Schools – 2022, 2023
Authorship Notes:
This interview with Pale Una was conducted in March 2023. The article was prepared and published by Miriam Braskova. Pale Una made only minor changes during the editing process.