Louise Bezuidenhout is a social science researcher specialising on issues relating to Open Science. Her research is broadly oriented around themes such as justice and access, inclusion and marginalization and equity. Much of her work to date has concentrated on identifying ways to improve the inclusion of low/middle-income country researchers into the Open Science landscape.
Dr Bezuidenhout holds PhDs in cardiothoracic surgery (University of Cape Town, RSA) and sociology (University of Exeter, UK). She has previously worked at the Universities of Exeter, Notre Dame, Oxford, the Witwatersrand, Edinburgh and Cape Town, and University College London. Dr Bezuidenhout currently work for the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences as a senior research data expert. Her current work relates to the evolution of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and involves working with multi-partner consortia to develop EOSC training and responsible research materials.
All Sessions by Louise Bezuidenhout
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Day 2
June 28, 2023 (CEST)
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13:00
Representation and Inclusion in Open Science: Working Towards a Global Digital Commons <span class="sessiontype">[Talk]</span> <b><br/>↓ click for abstract</b>
13:00 - 13:30The Open Science movement continues to advance global research access. Around the world, researchers are gaining access to previously unavailable articles, software and data through Open Science infrastructures, FAIR data standards and access policies.
Despite these advances, Open Science infrastructures require constant scrutiny to ensure equity of access. More scrutiny is needed to examine access by marginalized research communities and address structural challenges to data use and reuse. Without this scrutiny, it is possible that existing socio-economic inequalities are unintentionally being perpetuated within the new Open Science milieu. Failure to address these inequities weakens Open Science and undermines the ideal of a Global Digital Commons.
In this talk I present some recent work looking at unequal access to Open Science resources due to socio-economic and geographical realities. The research challenges the implicit assumption within both FAIR and Open discussions that access to Open Science resources are independent of the user’s geolocation. Many researchers continue to struggle to access Open Science resources due to connectivity issues or explicit geoblocking. These challenges undermine the equity of Open Science resources, as well as limiting marginalized researchers from from Open Science discussions and adapting Open Science infrastructures to improve equity of access.
These marginalisations mirror wider political issues and infrastructural deficits, and raises serious questions about the limits of openness. Without targeted action, and given the volatile nature of politics and the slow pace of infrastructural investment, the expansion of Open Science may unintentionally reinforce current access inequities and research inequalities around the globe.