News

Materials of the ON-MERRIT final event available

2022-03-31

The final event of the ON-MERRIT project, “Ensuring Equity in Open Science”, took place on 22 March 2022 and represented a fantastic occasion to confront on the project’s results with expert keynote speakers and many interested attendees.

In the following, you will find all links to presentations and videos. Enjoy, and stay in touch on Twitter (@OnMerrit) for any questions or comments.

Sarah de Rijcke

Presentation

### ON-MERRIT results Presentations * [Cumulative advantage, training and application of OS/RRI in policies, principles and practices within academia](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6397632) * [Results on "Innovation and Industry"](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6397703) * [Results on "Policy Making and Societal Actors"](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6397757)

ON-MERRIT Recommendations

Leslie Chan

Presentation

ON-MERRIT final event: Ensuring Equity in Open Science

2022-02-04

Register now for ON-MERRIT’s final event, to be held online on March 22, 2022, 13.00-17.00 CET

Are you interested in how Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation can contribute to a more equitable scientific environment?

Then join ON-MERRIT’s final event on ensuring equity in Open Science!

ON-MERRIT is an EC-funded project investigating issues of equity in the transition to Open Science and RRI. As we reach our closing stages, we are pleased to invite you to join our final project event. Here, we will showcase ON-MERRIT’s research results and recommendations to institutions, researchers, funders and policymakers on mitigating key threats to equity in Open Science and RRI. Renowned speakers Sarah de Rijcke and Leslie Chan will also contribute their perspectives on these issues with insightful keynotes on reform of rewards and recognition and equity in Open Science respectively.

Open Science: Not the answer to inequity?

2022-01-20

Open Science for the few is just the extension of privilege. Equity is a key aim of Open Science, but could current Open Science policies actually worsen existing inequalities? Open Science needs resources (funding, time, knowledge, skills), and the traditionally advantaged people usually have more of them. Will their privilege mean that they are the ones to benefit most? How can we avoid the dynamic of the rich getting richer, known as the Matthew effect? The EC-funded project ON-MERRIT (on-merrit.eu) aims at contributing to an equitable scientific system that rewards researchers based on merit. For this purpose, it investigates the impact of Open Science practices using scientometric, sociological and other approaches.

Research assessment must reform to recognise open and responsible research practices

2022-01-17

by Thomas Klebel, Nancy Pontika, Tony Ross-Hellauer

This content has been originally published on the OpenAIRE blog.

Change is deep underway to make research more transparent and participatory through new open and responsible research practices. Key movements for change include Open Science, such as publishing Open Access (OA) or sharing research data and code, and approaches that make research and innovation more responsive to the needs of society (Responsible Research & Innovation, or RRI). Funders such as the European Commission, with its 95.5 billion Euro funding scheme Horizon Europe, are part of this movement, as increasingly requiring open and responsible practices within the research they fund. Yet, current research assessment processes are increasingly recognised as a barrier to this goal. Potential issues include the overuse of inappropriate indicators, an overemphasis on quantity over quality, and a neglect of open and responsible practices per se.

Ensuring equity in Open Science. Call for Blog Posts for the ON-MERRIT final conference

2021-12-21

Open Science and Responsible Research and Inovation (RRI) hold the promise to make scientific endeavours more inclusive, participatory, understandable, accessible, and re-usable for large audiences. However, making processes open will not per se drive wide re-use or participation unless also accompanied by the capacity (in terms of knowledge, skills, financial resources, technological readiness and motivation) to do so. These capacities vary considerably across regions, institutions and demographics. Those advantaged by such factors will remain potentially privileged, putting Open Science and RRI’s agendas of inclusivity at risk of propagating conditions of “cumulative advantage”.

More open = more participatory? Open Science and Policy advice

2021-12-20

by Stefan Reichmann, Nicki Lisa Cole, Antónia Correia, Eloy Rodrigues, Bernhard Wieser, Tony Ross-Hellauer, Pedro Príncipe

Set against the backdrop of the grand societal challenges that are reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ON-MERRIT project aims to critically interrogate whether Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) live up to the positive claims of their proponents and whether cumulative advantage and disadvantage may be present within or exacerbated by Open Science and RRI practices. Open Science (OS) and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) promise to make scholarship transparent, inclusive, and participatory. In addition they aim to increase the academic, economic and societal impact of research outputs by fostering the use of publicly available scientific outputs by civil society actors, policymakers, and the general public.

The uptake of open science resources in industry: reality or wishful thinking?

2021-12-16

by Angela Fessl, Katharina Maitz, Najko Jahn

Spurring growth and innovation in industry is a key goal of policy-makers. A commonly stated advantage of Open Science is greater return on investment for funders, as results are made re-usable to industry. According to the EC’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, for instance, “Open Access to research results [is] the springboard for increased innovation opportunities, for instance by enabling more science-based start-ups to emerge.”¹ Are Open Science resources actually being taken up by industry, though? Recognising that studies to date in this area were scarce², ON-MERRIT set out to investigate how far small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and industry actors take up Open Access publications, open data, etc., and to what extent these resources are integrated into their working environments, drivers and barriers in this context, as well as impacts on technological inventions.

Science Cultures: The Uptake of Open Science and RRI in Academia

2021-12-10

by Thomas Klebel, Nancy Pontika, Antonia Correia, David Pride, Petr Knoth, Tony Ross-Hellauer

Scientific knowledge is a key resource for achieving societal and economic goals. Open Science (OS) and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) promise to fundamentally transform scholarship to bring greater transparency, inclusivity and participation to research processes, and increase the academic, economic and societal impact of research outputs. These form a cross-cutting agenda that stands to contribute to most of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and are a central pillar of the European Commission’s Digital Single Market strategy. Yet access to scientific products and processes is not made uniform simply because they are made available via the Internet. How equitable is the implementation of OS and RRI across a range of stakeholder categories, and in particular for those at the peripheries? Might RRI interventions, in some cases, actually deepen socioeconomic inequalities (the digital divide) and be in conflict with wider sustainable development goals? How do geographical, socio-economic, cultural and structural conditions lead to peripheral configurations in the European knowledge landscape? What factors are at play and what can be done (at a policy level) to foster absorptive capacity and enhance OS/RRI uptake and contributions to scientific production across regions?

Checkpoint on the co-creation activities started in ON-MERRIT

2021-07-19

ON-MERRIT (Observing and Negating Matthew Effects in Responsible Research & Innovation Transition) aims at contributing to an equitable scientific system that rewards researchers based on merit. For this purpose, it investigates the impact of open science practices in academia, industry, and policy.

ON-MERRIT uses a co-creation process to investigate how user studies, different disciplines and combined approaches can help explain the interaction and engagement of various stakeholders with open science practices, and produce recommendations and guidelines as a result of it.

ON-MERRIT webinar on Open Science in Indonesia

2021-07-07

The fourth and last webinar of this series, with the participation of Dasapta Erwin Irawan as keynote speaker, discussed the challenges of Open Science in the Global South and the reasons why some research-related issues are not just local, but have a wider impact.

Dasapta guided us through the challenges of Open Science in Indonesia and why these matter for the global research world. The presentation is available on Figshare.

Watch the recordings!

ON-MERRIT webinar on Open Science as a driver to change?

2021-06-11

The second webinar of this series, with the participation of Paola Chiara Masuzzo as keynote speaker, discussed the idea of Open Science as a real driver for change.

Open research is definitely amongst the hot topics of the moment: the COVID19 pandemic has brought an exceptional sharing of research data and an even more exceptional uptake of preprints publishing. But is this methodological revolution here to stay? What is holding us back from making Open Science simply the default way of doing Science? And is Open Science responsible science by default? Paola illustrated the principles and motivation behind a complete transition to open research practices, including her own Open Science manifesto. She made the case that the uptake of these practices needs to be a slow, responsible process, based on education and training of core and much-needed skills. Paola also dedicated some time to the invisible side of open science, the one that can lead to the construction of more inclusive, fair, and just academic spaces.

ON-MERRIT webinar on Bibliometrics, the Matthew effect and diversity in academia

2021-06-10

Although the webinar didn’t take place as scheduled, Lizzie Gadd, the speaker of our webinar on Bibliometrics, the “Matthew Effect and diversity in academia” recorded a video with her presentation.

The content explores what academia rewards and the consequences of this, before looking at what academia actually values about research and researchers, and why this is often difficult to measure. It then considers whether falling back on bibliometrics to evaluate research is always a bad thing before drawing some conclusions.

ON-MERRIT webinar on Matthew Effects in Science

2021-05-18

On May 18, 2021 ON-MERRIT kicked off the series of webinars with the first one titled “Matthew Effects in Science”, with Tony Ross-Hellauer (KNOW Center), Bernhard Wieser and Stefan Reichmann (TU Graz).

The webinar introduced participants to Robert Merton’s notion of the Matthew effect in academia and his later work on cumulative advantage (disadvantage). Against this backdrop of a close reading of Merton’s analysis, the webinar drew links to the recent reception of these two concepts in the Open Science discourse. The webinar is related to research activities in ON-MERRIT, an EC-funded project to investigate how and if open and responsible research practices could mitigate or worsen existing inequalities in academia.

ON-MERRIT webinar series

2021-04-20

ON-MERRIT is pleased to announce its brand new series of virtual appointments!

They aim to present the project objectives and results on the one hand and explore several issues related to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Open Science with experts in those fields.

The burning issues tackled in the first batch of conversations are various. They span from research assessment and ways for RRI to change career progression and equal evaluation to Open Science as a driver to the change in research practices, from the difficulties in gender equality in research and academia to open science in the Global South.

ON-MERRIT survey on the uptake of Responsible Research and Innovation and Open Science principles in relation to policy and training

2021-03-31

ON-MERRIT just launched its survey to develop deeper insights into the participation of researchers in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Open Science training.

The survey, running until the end of April 2021, aims at providing a better understanding of the familiarity of researchers with the application of RRI and Open Science in their research areas. Simultaneously, the survey aims to identify which institutional policies support RRI and Open Science principles and which of them are more frequently adopted by academics.

ON-MERRIT survey on the usage of freely available scientific resources in SMEs and industry

2021-01-20

ON-MERRIT has launched a survey directed at SMEs and the industry to understand the usage of freely available scientific resources.

With this survey, we would like to find out whether and to what extent small and medium-sized enterprises and industry use or do not use freely available scientific resources (= Open Science Resources) such as data, information and publications. We invite employees of all levels working in SMEs and industry in the domains of health, climate and agriculture to take part in the survey.

Open Science: who is left behind

2020-10-23

Originally published on October 23rd, 2020 on the LSE Blog.

Open Access initiatives promise to extend access to scholarly conversations. However, the dominant model of Article Processing Charges, whilst lowering financial barriers for readers, has merely erected a new paywall at the other end of the pipeline, blocking access to publication for less-privileged authors. In this post, Tony Ross-Hellauer, Angela Fessl, and Thomas Klebel, ask whether open and responsible research practices could perpetuate existing inequalities resulting in a system where the rich get richer and researchers from the Global South and less privileged backgrounds lose out.

ON-MERRIT at RefResh 2020

2020-10-06

Today, ON-MERRIT took part in the RefResh 2020 workshop presenting the project’s main research topic, the Matthew Effect in Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation.

The workshop aimed at bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to reframe research, based on interdisciplinary analysis that considers research as a complex system that influences and is influenced by society, economics, culture, and politics.

ON-MERRIT was able to showcase the first tangible results of the project so far, from the Open Science Datasets to the investigation of the uptake of Open Science resources in the industry to the role of open science outputs in policymaking.

ON-MERRIT at the EASST/4S 2020 conference

2020-08-25

ON-MERRIT took part in the EASST/4S 2020 conference titled “Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds”. EASST is the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, where 4S is the Society for Social Studies of Science. Like many other events in 2020, the conference happened virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our colleagues Stefan Reichmann and Bernhard Wieser from TU Graz submitted the abstract “Between Uptake and Rigour – Dilemmas of Open Science”, and on August 19th, 2020 they had the chance to present their ongoing work in ON-MERRIT. Both lead the project work package that investigates the relationship between research and policymaking; to better identify the key issues, some crucial research questions to help understand that relationship have been developed, such as:

Workshop on Matthew Effects in Climate Science and Policy Making

2020-07-21

Open Science for the few is just the extension of privilege. Equity is a key aim of open science, but could Open Science policies actually worsen existing inequalities? Open Science needs resources (funding, time, knowledge, skills), and the traditionally advantaged people usually have more of them. Will their privilege mean that they are the ones to benefit most? How can we avoid the dynamic of the rich getting richer, known as the Matthew effect?

ON-MERRIT welcomes our project Advisory Board

2020-07-14

ON-MERRIT is glad to introduce the members of its recently established Advisory Board. The Board is composed of high-level external stakeholders with a demonstrated interest in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and Open Science, including independent experts as well as representatives of key organisations.

The task of the board is to advise the project in strategic matters and to provides advice for the high-level dissemination and outreach strategy of the project. The Advisory Board will also be key for the verification and finalisation of the project’s core results and recommendations.

Perspectives on Open Science and Inequity: Who is left behind?

2020-03-12

Due to precautionary measures in regard to the coronavirus, the second day of this year’s Open Science Conference got canceled. Luckily, the panellists Johanna Havemann, Anne-Floor Scholvinck, Daniel Spichtinger and August Wierling agreed to submit their opening statements as a blog post for ZBW MediaTalk.

Equity is a key aim of Open Science, but could Open Science policies actually worsen existing inequalities? Open Science needs resources (funding, time, knowledge, skills), and the traditionally advantaged groups usually have more of them. Will their privilege mean that they are the ones who benefit most? ON-MERRIT is a new EC-funded research project led by Know-Center to investigate these issues across research, industry and policy-making.

ON-MERRIT hosts Open Science track at STS Conference 2020

2019-12-16

Due to the current situation with the global Coronavirus pandemic and the official regulations passed by the Austrian Government we regret to inform you that the conference, which was planned to be held from May 4th to 6th, 2020, has been postponed.

We are pleased to announce that two of our colleagues in ON-MERRIT, Stefan Reichmann and Bernhard Wieser, are co-organizing next year’s Science, Technology, Society conference (STS) which will take place in Graz, Austria, 4-6 May 2020.
The conference is organized annually by the Science, Technology, Society Unit at Graz University of Technology.

ON-MERRIT kick off

2019-11-04

From 4-5 of November 2019, the ON-MERRIT partners came together in Graz to kick of the 2,5 year project, coordinated by the Know-Center GmbH.To make sure we’re on track and working together from the beginning, all partners presented their ideas on how to best tackle our research questions. The whole team worked on coordinating the plans for the different tasks, refining ON-MERRIT’s priorities, and identifying ways to support each other. The kick-off meeting was not only very productive, but we also really enjoyed working together. Full of enthusiasm, we even skipped a restaurant visit at lunch-time. Still, the delicious dinner at the restaurant the Steirer in Graz more than made up for this. Looks like there is nothing in the way for ON-MERRIT to become a real success!