1. Open Science: Past,
Present and Future
Andrea Miller-Nesbitt
Life Sciences Library
andrea.miller-nesbitt@mcgill.ca

2. Outline
• What is Open Science?
• How did we get here?
• How is Open Science currently being practiced?
• How can we participate as librarians?
• What is in store for the future?

3. Open Science
“Open science is the idea that
scientific knowledge of all kinds
should be openly shared as early as
is practical in the discovery process”
-Michael Nielson
http://www.openscience.org/blog/?p=454

4. The Past: How did we get here?
• Thousands of years ago
• Empirical science – describing natural phenomena
• Last few hundred years
• Theoretical science – using models and generalizations to explain
phenomena
• Last few decades
• Computational science – using digital technology to simulate
phenomena

5. The Fourth Paradigm
• Data intensive scientific discovery
• Unifying theory, experiment and simulation
• Data exploration
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/fourthparadigm/

6. Growth of GenBank (1982-2008)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/genbankstats-2008/

7. HGP and the Bermuda Agreement
1) Primary genomic sequences should be
in the public domain
2) Primary genomic sequence should be
rapidly released
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_srYW_dzrwIc/TI2ReCat2sI/AAAAAAAAAGM/qg71oPhRtlw/s1600/DSCF1005.JPG

8. The Present: Open Science at Work
http://www.galaxyzoo.org/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
http://fold.it/portal/
http://www.mygrid.org.uk/
http://polymathprojects.org/
http://onschallenge.wikispaces.com/

9. Current Challenges
• Legislation and policy
• International, federal, provincial, institutional
• Intellectual property rights issues
• Infrastructure
• Data deluge
• Economic sustainability
• Interoperability
• Training and support
• Standardized training for researchers and information professionals
• Scientific culture
• Publish or perish
• Fear of misinterpretation
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/about/backgrounder.html

10. Solutions
http://datacite.org/
http://total-impact.org/
http://www.nih.gov/
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/
http://www.researchgate.net/
http://www.oecd.org

11. Canadian Context
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Must deposit certain data types upon publication
• Must keep all data for a minimum of five years
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
• Strategic Network Grants Guidelines
• Encourages researchers to share data within a reasonable period of
time
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
• SSHRC Research Data Archiving Policy
• Must deposit data within two years within two years of project
completion

12. Role of the librarian
data management
plan
Help users
integrate collect
access data
Data
lifecycle
Identify and
analyze describe apply appropriate
metadata
preserve
Identify appropriate
repository

13. Role of the librarian
• Planning and data
management
• Metadata and archiving
support
• Finding and using
relevant infrastructure
• Building and managing
institutional policies
and repositories
• Support and training
http://www.flickr.com/photos/litandmore/2284209815/

14. The Future…
http://www.bighappyfunhouse.com/archives/cellular11.jpg

15. Selected Sources
Allard, S. (2012). DataONE: Facilitation eScience through collaboration. Journal of eScience Librarianship, 1(1), 4-17.
Carlson, J., Fosmire, M., Miller, C. C., & Nelson, M. S. (2011). Determining data information literacy needs. Libraries and
the academy, 11(2), 629-657.
Hey, A. J. G., Tansley, S., & Tolle, K. M. (Eds.). (2009). The fourth paradigm : data-intensive scientific discovery.
Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Research.
Martin, E., Leger-Hornby, T., & Kafel, D. (2012). Frameworks for data management curriculum: Course
plans for data management instruction to undergraduate and graduate students in science,
health sciences and engineering programs. Retrieved from
http://library.umassmed.edu/data_management_frameworks.pdf
National Research Council of Canada. (2012, January 30, 2012). Research Data Strategy Retrieved April 16, 2012, from
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/index.html
Nielsen, M. A. (2012). Reinventing discovery : the new era of networked science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press.
Ouellette, F. (2011). Data sharing: bioinformatics of cancer genomics. The 2011 Canadian Research Data Summit. Power
Point Presentation. Retrieved from
http://rds-sdr.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/events/data_summit_2011/presentations.html
Shearer, K. (2011). Comprehensive brief on open access to publications and research data for the federal granting
agencies. Retrieved from
http://www.science.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=en&n=2360F10C-1
Soehner, C., Steeves, C., & Ward, J. (2010). E-Science and data support services: A study of ARL member institutions.
Report. Retrieved from www.arl.org/bm~doc/escience-report.pdf

16. Questions?
Andrea Miller-Nesbitt
andrea.miller-nesbitt@mcgill.ca
(514) 398-1663
• What are the implications of data-
intensive science on library collections?
• Will we see large groups of non-scientists
co-authoring papers?

17. Suggested Resources for Librarians
Resource Content Link
eSciences portal for Provides useful links to overviews of http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu
New England librarians eScience, data management support, /index
science basics for non-scientists, etc.
Open Science list serve Relatively low-volume list for the open http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinf
science community o/open-science
Journal of eScience Open access, peer-reviewed journal http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/j
librarianship which began in 2012 eslib/
Data information Information about a data information http://wiki.lib.purdue.edu/display/st
literacy literacy program being developed by a e/home
number of academic libraries in the
U.S.A.
The Fourth Paradigm A continuation of the published book http://blogs.nature.com/fourthparad
blog The Fourth Paradigm igm/
Inter-university Provides training in data access, http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrwe
consortium for curation and analysis for social science b/ICPSR/index.jsp
political and social research community
research
ARL eScience survey Various links for institutions planning http://www.arl.org/rtl/eresearch/es
resource page to support eScience cien/esciensurvey/surveyresearch.sh
tml