Recent Articles
Open Data can be advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, but will still require a comprehensive approach
Sharing research data openly is becoming more common, but only slowly. Here, I will discuss whether the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the adoption of open data as a common academic practice.
Predictions on the spread of COVID-19 bear many uncertainties
Computational models can show how processess will behave in non-linear ways, but these demonstrations are very simplistic and do not consider all factors that influence the dynamic in reality.
Embracing complexity: COVID-19 is a case for academic collaboration and co-creation
As serious as the COVID-19 pandemic is, it could be an opportunity for science, says our editor Benedikt Fecher.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Special Issue: Science during COVID-19
The COVID 19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to science and higher education. Scientists are working hard on solutions to highly complex problems. They are working flat out on finding cures and vaccines. They must assess the consequences of the pandemic for society. They have to advise politicians and provide information to a highly agitated public. And all of this within a climate of extreme uncertainty.
We are looking for contributions to the following questions:
– How will science respond?
– How will academic institutions react?
– How do science and society interact in times of crisis?
– How does university teaching adjust to this?
– And what could the crisis mean for science and (higher)
education in the long run?
In this special issue we would like to discuss these developments.
We welcome contributions that deal with the crisis and that may also offer a glimmer of hope.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Improving software infrastructure in multidisciplinary research
Dealing with code, robots and specific domain knowledge is a huge challenge. How can we improve the technical infrastructure?
Challenges in Building Innovative, Sustainable and Open Research Infrastructures
A number of social, technical and political-economic problems call to rethink the current practice of funding and governing research infrastructures.
Critical research infrastructure: The importance of synthesis centers
In this piece, Specht, Corrêa, Belbin and Loescher elaborate their thoughts on the role of synthesis centers in facing today’s challenges of research.
Ideas as Infrastructure
Øyvind Paasche on the immaterial kinds of infrastructure in science and the fundamental role of trust, transparency and openness.
Responsible Innovation: Universities and public research institutes have to be radically adapted
René von Schomberg on Responsible Innovation and its dimension of societal impact.
What’s the Value of Social Science?
Prof. Lupia on the value of social science, its responsibilities, potentials and application.
An Accelerator for Science in Latin America: FAPESP
A driving force for Latin America’s research infrastructure: The São Paulo Research Foundation
Why are infrastructures of infrastructure important for research?
Pascale Ehrenfreund on the role of maintenance-intensive infrastructures, CC licenses, and the internet in the research of the DLR.
The Need for an African Lightsource
Setting up new infrastructures would play an important role in preventing best-trained African researchers from emigrating. The physicist Prosper Ngabonziza states that having a synchrotron light source would be very beneficial for the continent as a whole.