The document summarizes the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) which is funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa and directed by CODATA and the Academy of Science of South Africa. The AOSP aims to promote open science and open data practices in Africa. It discusses the key stakeholders involved, challenges around open data and science in Africa such as lack of infrastructure and incentives, and the potential benefits of the platform for African research. The AOSP will focus on developing policies, assessing infrastructure needs, training and capacity building around open data sharing and management.
Breaking New Ground: The African Open Science Platform
1. Breaking new ground: the
African Open Science Platform
Presented by Susan Veldsman & Ina Smith
2. Agenda
• About the African Open Science Platform (AOSP)
incl. ICSU, CODATA, ASSAf
• Key stakeholders
• Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World
• Open Science in the context of AOSP
• Rationale for & value of an African Open Science
Platform
• Focus areas of AOSP
• Challenges faced in terms of open science, open
data
3. About the African Open Science
Platform (AOSP)
• Funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF)
(SA Dept. of Science and Technology)
• Directed by CODATA (ICSU)
• Managed by Academy of Science of South Africa
(ASSAf)
4. About ICSU & CODATA
• ICSU: International Council for Science – consists of
17 interdisciplinary bodies e.g. CODATA
http://www.icsu.org/
• CODATA: Committee on Data for Science and
Technology
http://www.codata.org/
• Mission: Strengthen international science for the
benefit of society by promoting improved scientific
and technical data management and use.
5. About ASSAf (1)
• Recognise scholarly achievement & excellence
• Mobilise members in the service of society
• Conduct systematic & evidence-based studies on
issues of national importance
• Promote the development of an indigenous system
of South African research
• Publish science-focused journal
http://www.assaf.org.za
6. About ASSAf (2)
• Develop productive partnerships with national,
regional and international organisations to building
capacity within the National System of Innovation
(NSI)
• Create diversified sources of funding for sustainable
functioning and growth of a national academy
• Communicate with relevant stakeholders
http://www.assaf.org.za
7. AOSP Governance
• Advisory Council
• Terms of Reference
• Technical Advisory Board
• Terms of Reference
• Platform Office (ASSAf) & ICSU/CODATA Office
• CODATA Executive Director
• 2x Senior Project Officers
• 1x Junior Project Officer
8. Key Stakeholders
• Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA)
(ICSU)
• The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
• Regional Office for Africa (ROA)(ICSU)
• World Data System (WDS)(ICSU)
• Research Data Alliance (RDA)
• SCiGAIA (Science Gateways and e-Infrastructures in Africa)
• Association of African Universities (AAU)
• African Research Councils
• African Universities
• African Governments
• NRENs (Internet Service Providers for Education)
• Other
9. Accord: Open Data in a Big Data
World
• Values of open data in
emerging scientific culture of
big data
• Need for an international
framework
• Proposes comprehensive set of
principles
• Provides framework & plan for
African data science capacity
mobilization initiative
• Proposes African Platform
10. Open Science Defined (1)
“Open Science is the practice of science in such a way
that others can collaborate and contribute, where
research data, lab notes and other research
processes are freely available, under terms that
enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the
research and its underlying data and methods.” -
FOSTER Project, funded by the European Commission.
11. Open Science Defined (2)
“Open Science moves beyond open access research
articles, towards encompassing other research
objects such as data, software codes, protocols and
workflows. The intention is for people to use, re-use
and distribute content without legal, technological
or social restrictions. In some cases, Open Science
also entails the opening up of the entire research
process from agenda-setting to the dissemination of
findings.” - Open and Collaborative Science in
Development Network project, funded by IDRC.
12. Open Data, Open Science and the
Research Lifecycle (Foster)
https://www.rri-tools.eu/-/research-lifecycle-enhanced-by-an-open-science-by-default-workflow
16. Rationale for an African Platform
• AOSP will be basis for shared investment in infrastructure
• Harvest and circulate good ideas
• Spread and support good practice
• Develop capacities of individuals and institutions
• Promote key applications of relevance to African economies
and societies
• Act as conduit for links with international open data and
open science programmes and standards, vital for it to
flourish
• Coordinate and develop activities to enhance capacity of
individuals, institutions, national systems
• AOSP to become basis for Open Science in Africa
17. Value of an African Platform (1)
• Properly manage African research data, overview
• Showcase African research data
• Contribute to global knowledgebase
• Increase the return on investment
• Track usage and impact
• Identify lack of data/opportunities/gaps
18. Value of an African Platform (2)
• Cross-use data across disciplines/studies
• Protect Intellectual Property (IP)
• Protect privacy of research participants
• Make data more discoverable/visible
• Participate in collective problem-solving
• Avoid duplication of effort
19. 5 Focus Areas
• Promote development & adoption of data policies,
principles, practice
• Determine infrastructure available
• Address issues of incentives, best practice, benefits
• Foster training & capacity building activities
• Create an awareness, stimulate dialogue (frontiers)
31. OA to Scientific Information in
Emerging Countries
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march17/schopfel/03schopfel.html
32. Survey: Status of Openness in Africa
• Preliminary findings from survey
• Launched 1 November 2016; due date 31 January
2017
• 35 responses received
33. Focus of data initiatives
69% = training; 60% = stewardship; 54% = policy
34. Funding of data initiatives
51% = host institution; 34% = international grant;
20% = national grant
35. AOSP Actions & Deliverables 2017
• SFSA Side Event & Panel Discussion
• Visit http://africanopenscience.org.za/
• Planning Phase
• Advisory Council & Technical Advisory Board
Next:
• Identify & train representative on national level (each
country actively producing data, with research interest)
• Coordinate national workshops to introduce AOSP, Open
Data, Open Science
• Desktop research to Identify initiatives on national level &
populate database
• Engage on meetings as opportunities arise, engage with
stakeholders
37. Conclusion
• Africa to manage & share data – contribute to the
international knowledgebase
• Survey & country representatives to contribute
information; desktop research
• Africa has lots to offer, if all work together
38. Acknowledgments
• SA Dept. of Science & Technology
• National Research Foundation (NRF)
• CODATA
• All African partners
Editor's Notes
The 2015 edition of Science International has developed an international accord on the values of open data in the emerging scientific culture of big data. The Accord recognises the need for an international framework of principles on “Open Data in a Big Data World” and proposes a comprehensive set of principles.
These principles provide a guiding framework for an African data science capacity mobilization initiative spearheaded by ICSU and supported by other Science International partners. The initiative puts forward a comprehensive capacity mobilization plan, to be co-designed and delivered with key partners in Africa. It proposes the establishment of an African Open Data Platform, which will coordinate a series of actions at different levels of national science systems in the region.
Research Lifecycle enhanced by an "Open Science by Default" Workflow
Homo naledi has made headlines around the world as one of the most significant fossil discoveries ever made.
The unprecedented sample of fossils represents a rich record of an ancient population of human relatives, preserving nearly every part of the skeleton and spanning the lifespan.
Many people around the world have been following the compelling story of discovery from the first days of the excavation.
Using social media to tell the story
As our cavers and scientists worked underground in challenging conditions, we kept the world up to date on Twitter, Facebook and with our Rising Star Expedition blog.
Since those first days, the team has worked to build open access into every stage of the project. People can now share not only in the discovery but also in the process of understanding these ancient hominins.
After nearly two years of work, on September 10 we published our first scientific papers on this discovery in the journal eLIFE. These original scientific descriptions of these fossils and their geological context are free for anyone in the world to download and share.
In the week since we published these papers, the lead paper describing Homo naledi has been viewed more than 170,000 times – an extraordinary figure for any scientific paper.
Our team has also moved quickly to make our data available to anyone in the world. Many of our fossils are now represented by research-quality 3D scans on MorphoSource.
This online archive of data from skeletal and fossil discoveries, maintained by Duke University, provides a way to share large data sets both for scientific work and teaching.
3D technology used in classrooms
Our team has generated virtual reams of scans that enable anyone to visualise these fossils, and even to use 3D printing technology to create their own physical copies.
Right now, teachers and researchers all around the world are printing 3D models of the fossils of Homo naledi. Kristina Killgrove, a leader in applying 3D printing technology in her anthropology classroom, wrote:
I downloaded the model as an .STL file…and then printed it using my trusty old MakerBot. It took 20 minutes, tops. Then I gave the model to a grad student who was heading in to teach the undergraduate lab in biological anthropology. Bam! Species-announcement-to-teaching-cast in under 12 hours.
In the first week after the announcement, more than 1700 copies of these data sets have been downloaded, with makers proudly showing off their printed models on Facebook and Twitter.
Find broke boundaries
Paleoanthropology has often been caricatured as the lone pursuit of fossils by Indiana-Jones-like characters. But in the 21st century, making new discoveries in paleoanthropology – as in all other areas of science – requires collaboration across many disciplines.
This project has involved a team of more than 60 scientists, each bringing their own distinctive expertise and data sets together to help solve the problems posed by these fossils.
The project is led from South Africa and stretches across international boundaries to impact the world.
At the event announcing Homo naledi at Maropeng, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, Adam Habib, remarked on the importance of open access for building a 21st century science:
We often talk about science as having no boundaries, but in our world scientific knowledge has become commodified, and too often, what should be the bequest of the world, the bequest of a common humanity, is locked up under paywalls that postgraduate students and researchers cannot get access to. So what we did when we made this discovery, was we put cameras in the cave, and we streamed it live from day one.
We partnered with eLIFE, an open access journal, to make sure that the discovery was available to all of humanity. And what we did in that practice, is create the first elements of a common global academy….We are not simply going to be beneficiaries of open access, but we are going to be contributors to open access, to the knowledge of a common humanity.
eLIFE editor Randy Schekman wrote about the benefits of open access publishing in 2013 when he won the Nobel Prize. His article, entitled How to break free from the stifling grip of luxury journals, emphasised that by limiting access to publishing, traditional journals create artificial scarcity to distort the process of scientific communication. Open access makes for better science.
Public engagement
The open access philosophy has driven our work on Homo naledi from the beginning. Instead of keeping these discoveries veiled behind locked doors, we have tried to bring them to the public in ways that will drive greater curiosity and engagement with science.
We are proud to be able to share the original fossils with the public at Maropeng, where they will be on display until October 11.
Not only the public benefits from scientific open access; science itself benefits. Showing the process of science in action, we create better tools for educators to equip students with the scientific method.
As we train a new generation of scientists, we must give them the tools to build collaborations and work with massive data. By sharing data openly, we build a worldwide community of practice as we attempt to understand this and other future discoveries.
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used by the U.S. Department of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In his book The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education,[1] Deming championed the work of Walter Shewhart, including statistical process control, operational definitions, and what Deming called the "Shewhart Cycle"[2] which had evolved into PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act). This was in response to the growing popularity of PDSA, which Deming viewed as tampering with the meaning of Shewhart's original work.[3] Deming is best known for his work in Japan after WWII, particularly his work with the leaders of Japanese industry. That work began in August 1950 at the Hakone Convention Center in Tokyo when Deming delivered a speech on what he called "Statistical Product Quality Administration". Many in Japan credit Deming as one of the inspirations for what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960, when Japan rose from the ashes of war on the road to becoming the second largest economy in the world through processes partially influenced by the ideas Deming taught:[4]
Better design of products to improve service
Higher level of uniform product quality
Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers
Greater sales through side [global] markets
Deming is best known in the United States for his 14 Points (Out of the Crisis, by W. Edwards Deming, preface) and his system of thought he called the "System of Profound Knowledge". The system includes four components or "lenses" through which to view the world simultaneously:
Appreciating a system
Understanding variation
Psychology
Epistemology, the theory of knowledge[5]
Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's reputation for innovative, high-quality products, and for its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact on Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being honored in Japan in 1951 with the establishment of the Deming Prize, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death in 1993.[6] President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Technology in 1987. The following year, the National Academy of Sciences gave Deming the Distinguished Career in Science award.
Whilst most researchers appreciate the benefits of sharing research data, on an individual basis they may be reluctant to share their own data.
The "Showing the Seed" study, commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, has gathered evidence, examples and opinions on current and future incentives for research data sharing from the researcher’s point of view, in order to provide recommendations for policy and practice development on how best to incentivise data access and reuse.
This study is based on qualitative interviews with 22 selected researchers of five research teams that have established data sharing cultures, in the partner countries of Knowledge Exchange: Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.The five case studies span various academic disciplines: arts and humanities, social sciences, biomedicine, chemistry and biology.
D-Lib Magazine
March/April 2017Volume 23, Number 3/4Table of Contents
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Open Access to Scientific Information in Emerging Countries
Joachim SchöpfelUniversity of Lille, GERiiCO LaboratoryORCID:0000-0002-4000-807Xjoachim.schopfel [at] univ-lille3.fr
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https://doi.org/10.1045/march2017-schopfel
Access to information plays a critical role in supporting development. Open access to scientific information is one solution. Up to now, the open access movement has been most successful in the Western hemisphere. The demand for open access is great in the developing world as it can contribute to solving problems related to access gaps. Five emerging countries, called BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — play a specific and leading role with a significant influence on regional and global affairs because of their large and fast-growing national economies, their demography and geographic situation. In order to better understand open access in each of the five countries, in this paper we take a look at specific conditions in each country, relying on data from information professionals and scientists from BRICS, with an empirical approach focused on country-specific characteristics and challenges. The paper is an updated and enriched synthesis of a recent work on open access in the BRICS countries published by Litwin, Sacramento CA.
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The Sci-GaIA project has developed and deployed a standard-based Open Science Platform that supports federated authentication.Users can access a federated Open Science Platform to reproduce, re-use and publish their research products and link them to their ORCID profile to increase the visibility of both Science and scientists.
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