2012-07-31-habits-of-open-scientist.html

---
layout: post
name: habits-of-open-scientist
title: 7 Habits of the Open Scientist
time: 2012-07-31 23:43:00.000000000 +03:00
tags: open-access open-science publications science scientific-reading software-distribution reproducible-research
categories: community
---
Note: This post was originally written by <a href="http://www.davidketcheson.info/2012/07/31/habits-of-open-scientist.html" target="_blank">David Ketcheson</a>.

<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">Science has always been based on a fundamental culture of openness.  The scientific community rewards individuals for sharing their discoveries through perpetual attribution, and the community benefits by through the ability to build on discoveries made by individuals.  Furthermore, scientific discoveries are not generally accepted until they have been verified or reproduced independently, which requires open communication.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">Historically, openness simply meant publishing one's methods and results in the scientific literature.  This enabled scientists all over the world to learn about essential advances made by their colleagues, modulo a few barriers.  One needed to have access to expensive library collections, to spend substantial time and effort searching the literature, and to wait while research conducted by other groups was refereed, published, and distributed.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">Nowadays it is possible to practice a fundamentally more open kind of research -- one in which we have immediate, free, indexed, universal access to scientific discoveries.  The new vision of open science is painted in lucid tones in Michael Nielsen's <a href="http://scienceinthesands.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/book-review-reinventing-discovery.html">Reinventing Discovery</a>.  After reading Nielsen's book, I was hungry to begin practicing open science, but not exactly sure where to start.  Here are seven ways I'm aware of.  Each will be the subject of a longer forthcoming post.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">I believe that every scientist has a moral imperative to adopt the first two:</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">1. <a href="http://scienceinthesands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/7-habits-of-open-scientist-1-open.html"><strong>Freely accessible publications</strong></a>.  At a minimum, make sure that everyone is allowed to read your research.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">2. <a href="http://scienceinthesands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/7-habits-of-open-scientist-2.html"><strong>Reproducible research</strong></a>.  Release your code and data so  that anyone who wants to can verify or build directly on your work.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">The remaining five are marks of a truly open scientist:</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">3. <a href="http://scienceinthesands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/7-habits-of-open-scientist-3-pre.html"><strong>Pre-publication dissemination of research</strong></a>.  Just because peer-review and journals take time, that doesn't mean you need to embargo your audience.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">4. <strong>Open collaboration through social media</strong>.  Find the person who knows that one thing you need, through new scientific networking tools -- and share your own expertise where it's needed most.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">5. <strong>Live open science</strong>.  Tell people about your marvelous discoveries -- as you make them.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">6. <strong>Open expository writing</strong>.  Teach others about the field you work in through a blog or online book.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Skia;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Palatino;">7.  <strong>Open bibliographies and reviews</strong>.  Let your colleagues know what you're reading, and what you've learned from it.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4660225022390848760-5195607085851158662?l=scienceinthesands.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>