We asked 15 leading experts and advocates of the Open Science and Open Access movement to share their views on the significance of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science adopted in late 2021. Here are their responses and their own recommendations for how to achieve the objectives set by UNESCO.

The internet has made it possible to both collect information from individuals in an unprecedented way and to monetize that information. Information gleaned from web browsing, online purchases, emails, and social media posts comes to mind. This information is valuable because it enables vendors to better target likely purchasers, politicians to contact sympathetic voters, and so forth. The major shift of advertising dollars into web-based ads clearly illustrates the value of this information

In this episode Jean-Claude talks to Danielle Cooper and Oya Rieger of Ithaka S+R about the cancellation of big deals between subscription publishers and university libraries. 

The existing data economy undermines the foundations of open societies: meaningful democratic participation, productive collaboration, broad distribution of benefits, and fair competition. Instead, we see power centralized in a handful of players, wasted potential, and rampant economic exploitation. Consider, for example, huge networks like Facebook and Amazon that capture the information of billions of people and place it in the service of a few shareholders’ narrow interests—when the very same technologies could be harnessed to drive shared wealth and responsible progress. What to do?

In this episode Jean-Claude talks to Graham Harrison about the need for a more formal structure for global science and research collaboration.

Emphasizing that the goals presented in the Paris Agreement, COP25, Fit for 55, and the upcoming COP26 are extremely ambitious and require urgent action, Vineis expressed the view that mitigating climate change will require a balance between two broad strategies. The first strategy, a big focus of recent agendas, is essentially technological, based on implementing technologies like green hydrogen or nuclear power and, in general, quick shifts towards renewable energy. The second strategy is partially non-technological, harnessing the health-related ‘co-benefits’ of certain societal approaches to climate change mitigation.

The COVID-19 pandemic, according to Morgan, has demonstrated that science can successfully contribute to policymaking during a crisis. However, there are several challenges still to face if science is to become a standard part of public policy, “not just when there’s a crisis, but as a culture.” To assure a place for science “at the table, rather than on tap”, Morgan believes that a broad, interdisciplinary approach is required, bringing together individuals with a variety of tools and skillsets.

In this episode Jean-Claude talks to Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, about open science, its part in the pandemic, and what happens next.

In 2001, Steve Lawrence published a hugely influential study which showed that OA conference papers in computer science were cited more than twice as often as papers that were not accessible online. But Lawrence’s paper is twenty years old and his study was limited to one kind of paper in a single discipline. Today, we know far more than in 2001. So the Policy Labs team ran a small-scale study to find out what scholars have found out.’

Richard Walker, Frontiers Policy Labs

Time will tell, but today, one and a half years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “gloom-and-doom” predictions of world-wide recession, major disruptions in international trade, and rapidly rising unemployment appear to have been exaggerated. As the International Monetary Fund pointed out, the 2008/2009 financial crisis had a much more negative impact on the economy than either a “typical” recession or past “modern” pandemics.

In this episode Jean-Claude talks to Professor Barend Mons about big-data-driven science. He discusses the importance of data stewardship so that research findings can be shared across different countries and different scientific disciplines. 

Frontiers Evidence Snapshots presents a unique data resource summarizing the results of seroprevalence studies in a broad range of countries and populations.

• 301 studies

• 600 separate population samples

• 69 countries

• Data for special populations (healthcare workers, elderly people, children, etc.)

• New studies added periodically

• Expert commentary from Dr. Milo Puhan, Swiss School of Public Health

Frontiers Evidence Snapshots surveys 350 recent papers, reporting ongoing climate change in the atmosphere, the oceans, the Arctic and Antarctic - and the effects of these changes on sea levels and on so-called extreme events (tropical storms, droughts and floods etc.)

In this episode Jean-Claude discusses the challenges of globalization with Professor Ian Goldin. They talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed some underlying fault lines - but also some strengths - in the global system.

How effective are the vaccines we rely on to vaccinate the world’s population? How do they work for the elderly, children, and pregnant women? How well do they protect against infection, severe disease and death? We summarize some of the most important findings

• 67 studies

• 5.6 million participants

• Data for all major vaccines currently available

• Links to original articles

• Regular updates

• Expert commentary from Luc Debruyne

Robert-Jan Smits
President of the Executive Board
Eindhoven University of Technology

Prof. Jean Claude Burgelman, Free University of Brussels discuss the profound and radical change COVID-19 has brought to the science-policy nexus.