Presentation by Kate Hertweck at the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) meeting in Portland, Oregon in July 2023, https://aessconference.org/

1. Opening science to interdisciplinarity:
balancing trade-offs while creating,
curating, and maintaining the commons
Kate Hertweck, Ph.D.
Program Manager, Open Science
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
https://bit.ly/HertweckAESS2023

2. Photo by Kate Hertweck
From evolutionary relationships among plants…

3. André Karwath aka Aka, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
…to experimental evolution in fruit flies…

4. …to supporting open science.
Photo by Scott Murphy, courtesy of CZI

5. Open Science @ CZI
We invest in tools, platforms, and organizations that expand participation and access to
the scientific process, by making it open, reproducible, and collaborative.
czi.co/OpenScience
Photo by Scott
Murphy, courtesy of
CZI

6. UNESCO.org, CC BY-SA 4.0, via
Wikimedia Commons

7. The intention of open science is to make scientific knowledge
more accessible for wider dissemination and reuse.
The expectation to incorporate and leverage large amounts of
pre-existing data in research continues to increase.
Incorporating existing data into research is becoming even more
difficult, especially as work becomes more interdisciplinary.

8. Applying existing data to new
research questions is hard.
Photos by Kate Hertweck

9. João Batista Neto, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Finding data applicable
to your research
question is hard.
There are currently 5909
databases for biological data
(Database Commons)

10. FAIR data, SangyaPundir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

11. The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

12. Florian Thiery, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

13. Closing thoughts
● Close inspection of assumptions associated with data collection makes research
more robust, inclusive, and ethical.
● Emerging AI technologies like ChatGPT are going to make it easier to answer
questions using large datasets, but also increase the risk of misuse of data.
● Building connections among disparate bodies of knowledge presents the
opportunity to transform the global commons.
https://bit.ly/HertweckAESS2023

14. Selected resources
UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science
FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship
The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, by the Global Indigenous Data
Alliance
Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice
The Unfolding of the Knowledge Commons

15. Abstract
A defining feature of open science practices is contribution to widely accessible scientific papers, freely
accessible data, and other types of shared knowledge--in other words, supporting an academic commons.
The intention behind exerting the time, energy, and even money to share research deliverables is to allow a
broader audience to access these resources, ultimately accelerating research and increasing its efficiency
and impact. As interest to use the resources of open science commons moves further towards
interdisciplinarity, however, the ability of researchers to actually use openly available resources becomes
more difficult. Why is this the case, and what are the effects on the transformative goals of open science?
Drawing from experience engaging in research across multiple disciplines, as well as current efforts funding
and otherwise supporting open science, this presentation explores the trade-offs associated with embracing
open science in an increasingly interdisciplinary research environment. The discussion will include examples
from multiple types of open science practices, such as data and code sharing, as well as associated activities
in open science capacity building, like training programs and community engagement. Specific intersections
among research topics, such as climate change, biomedicine, and evolutionary genomics will further inform
these examples. This examination of challenges will be complemented by recommendations for making
choices when engaging in open science, whether as a scientist, scholar of the humanities, or citizen
concerned with the state of the surrounding world.