The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review

Authors : Thomas Klebel, Vincent Traag, Ioanna Grypari, Lennart Stoy, Tony Ross-Hellauer

Open Science seeks to make research processes and outputs more accessible, transparent and inclusive, ensuring that scientific findings can be freely shared, scrutinized and built upon by researchers and others. To date, there has been no systematic synthesis of the extent to which Open Science (OS) reaches these aims.

We use the PRISMA scoping review methodology to partially address this gap, scoping evidence on the academic (but not societal or economic) impacts of OS. We identify 485 studies related to all aspects of OS, including Open Access (OA), Open/FAIR Data (OFD), Open Code/Software, Open Evaluation and Citizen Science (CS).

Analysing and synthesizing findings, we show that the majority of studies investigated effects of OA, CS and OFD. Key areas of impact studied are citations, quality, efficiency, equity, reuse, ethics and reproducibility, with most studies reporting positive or at least mixed impacts.

However, we also identified significant unintended negative impacts, especially those regarding equity, diversity and inclusion. Overall, the main barrier to academic impact of OS is lack of skills, resources and infrastructure to effectively re-use and build on existing research.

Building on this synthesis, we identify gaps within this literature and draw implications for future research and policy.

URL : The academic impact of Open Science: a scoping review

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241248

Methodology for AI-Based Search Strategy of Scientific Papers: Exemplary Search for Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicles in the Semantic Scholar Database

Authors : Florian Wätzold, Bartosz Popiela, Jonas Mayer

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly enhanced productivity, particularly in repetitive tasks. In the scientific domain, literature review stands out as a key area where AI-based tools can be effectively applied. This study presents a methodology for developing a search strategy for systematic reviews using AI tools. The Semantic Scholar database served as the foundation for the search process. The methodology was tested by searching for scientific papers related to batteries and hydrogen vehicles with the aim of enabling an evaluation for their potential applications. An extensive list of vehicles and their operational environments based on international standards and literature reviews was defined and used as the main input for the exemplary search.

The AI-supported search yielded approximately 60,000 results, which were subjected to an initial relevance assessment. For the relevant papers, a neighbourhood analysis based on citation and reference networks was conducted. The final selection of papers, covering the period from 2013 to 2023, included 713 papers assessed after the initial review. An extensive discussion of the results is provided, including their categorisation based on search terms, publication years, and cluster analysis of powertrains, as well as operational environments of the vehicles involved.

This case study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and serves as a starting point for future research. The results demonstrate the potential of AI-based tools to enhance productivity when searching for scientific papers.

URL : Methodology for AI-Based Search Strategy of Scientific Papers: Exemplary Search for Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicles in the Semantic Scholar Database

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12040049

The Living Library: a process-based tool for open literature review, probing the boundaries of open science

Authors : Elisabeth Angerer, Maura Cassidy Burke, Simon Dirks, Arthur Bakker, Aitana Bilinski Torres, Toine Pieters

The Living Library is a novel tool for opening the scientific process of literature reviewing. We here present its core features, set-up and workflow, and provide the open-source code via GitHub (https://github.com/Simon-Dirks/living-library). The Living Library allows researchers to sort articles thematically and temporally, has a built-in open logbook, and uses a responsive methodology.

These core features render the Living Library both a practical tool, and an educative framework for reflection on the research process. Its use deepened our understanding of what it means and what it takes to open science, which we summarise in three main lessons: openness is multidirectional, involving sharing and receiving; openness is relational and as such requires boundary work; and openness entails judgments of relevance.

This highlights the intimate connection between research relevance and open science: Opening science is no categorical practice, but the continuous syncing to a world in motion—opening up for it and to it, to varying degrees at different boundaries, in response to what is happening and what matters.

The Living Library models what such syncing can look like in relation to the evolving academic conversation. We encourage further experimentation with the Living Library to probe the boundaries of open science.

URL : The Living Library: a process-based tool for open literature review, probing the boundaries of open science

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-00964-z