thescienceagenda

1. ESTABLISH A CONVINCING RATIONALE

DONE:

• • Dare to Share

  • The Future - Morphing PPP into SCIEnCE 

The links above detail the philosophy behind S.C.I.En.C.E. and the Open Science movement in general. These arguments and those of many other Open Scientists mentioned within provide a convincing rationale for changing the current incentives driving science away from secretive competition toward more open collaborative process.

2. RECRUIT A CORE GROUP OF RECRUITERS

 IN PROGRESS:

• • SCIEnCE Role Models

Currently, the Open Science movement remains small and scattered. But a growing number of articulate voices are speaking up. Mutual cooperation will strengthen our voices as we devise the most practical plan for spreading Open Science.

SCIEnCE's companion wiki, ShareScienceIdeas, could serve as a forum to collaboratively refine both scientific research proposals and Open Science agenda items. ShareScienceIdeas has already enlisted several members and a handful more comment contributors.  Let's help each other out!  

NEEDED: Open Scientists

with the following skills:

• • Programming/web development

  • Non-profit marketing

  • Connections (Academic, Industry, Charity, Media)

  • Expertise in diverse scientific disciplines

3. ESTABLISH GRANT PROPOSAL REPOSITORIES

Public funded grant proposal repository (DONE)

• • NIH's CRISP database is the best example, though it needs improvement...

  • NEEDED: 

    • Help convincing the NIH to make its CRISP database public.

    • Please email the administrator... 

Private unfunded grant proposal repository

• • A centralized grant proposal repository would greatly increase market efficiency between scientists and funding agencies.

  • NEEDED: 

    • Programming help or the involvement of an organization such as Google.org to host and regulate the repository.

Public unfunded grant proposal repository

• • This is the ultimate goal of SCIEnCE and ShareScienceIdeas - a 'crowdsourcing' approach to research proposal development. The best proof-of-principle for this approach would be to successfully submit a collaboratively-developed research proposal for funding by more traditional agencies.

  • NEEDED at ShareScienceIdeas:

    • New proposal submissions

    • Comments/suggestions on existing submissions

4. ESTABLISH THE P.C.R. - PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION RATING

• • A more comprehensive statistic for rating scientists and ideas... 

  • There is no perfect way to objectively rate a scientist's overall contributions. One thing is for sure - number of first-author publications and grant dollars won is not enough to go by. The PCR will be based on a more comprehensive set of criteria, resulting in a better metric by which to grade scientists for grant funding, promotion, and tenure. See more at the link above.

  • NEEDED at ShareScienceIdeas:

    • Algorithm-minded scientists (and SABRmetricians!) to help devise and test the PCR

5. ATTRACT FUNDING AND WEB SUPPORT

SCIEnCE is soliciting start-up funds and web support from these and other sources:

• Progressive private philanthropists

  • Google.org

  • Bill and Melinda Gates

  • Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

  • Paul Allen Institute

  • Gotham Prize Foundation

    • And others! 

• Advertising

  • Google AdSense?

  • BioCompare? 

• Journals

  • As SCIEnCE gains popularity, the ensuing publications produced will become more prominent, meaning more profits for the journals publishing them. Leading publishers such as Nature Publishing Group may have the foresight to invest in this movement.

6. SPREAD THE SCIEnCE SYSTEM

Once SCIEnCE demonstrates viability by reaching a tipping point for the above Agenda items, the movement should spread more easily, as greater numbers of scientists, journals, funding agencies, and universities will realize the benefits of open, collaborative research and objective rating criteria.

It is hoped that by 2015, the Open Science movement will represent a serious alternative to the traditional, secretive, competitive science of the past.