1 sentence of what it is

The following was copied from Open Science - Cause Prioritization Wiki. Feel free to edit at will.

Indie science could be a way beyond that. Right now, most scientists need to publish in top journals to even have a shot at a scientific career. If funding can be decoupled from publications (through mechanisms such as crowdfunding or basic income), then it may be possible for people to focus completely on science without wasting hours of time writing grants or teaching. Also, they could publish online through living documents (and since their career isn’t at stake from being open, they can afford to be as open as possible).

Open science means less “reinventing the wheel”.

Open science can include promoting new ways of producing, sharing, reviewing, and evaluating scientific research.

Importance

In 2016, GiveWell wrote that:1 > Academics seek to publish in prestigious journals; academics largely assess each other (for purposes of awarding tenure among other things) by their records of publishing in prestigious journals. Yet the traditional system is problematic in many ways:

Journals usually charge fees for access to publications; an alternative publication system could include universal open access to academic research.Journals use a time-consuming peer-review process that doesn’t necessarily ensure that a paper is reliable or error-free.Journals often fail to encourage or facilitate optimal sharing of data and code (as well as preregistration), and the journal system gives authors little reason to go out of their way to share.Journals often have conventions that run counter to the goal of producing as much social value as possible. They may favor “newsworthy” results, leading to publication bias; they may favor publishing novel analysis over replications, reanalyses and debates; they may have arbitrary length requirements that limit the amount of detail that can be included; they may have other informal preferences that discourage certain forms of investigation, even when those investigations would be highly valuable. This is particularly problematic because considerations about “what a top journal might publish” appears to drive much of the incentive structure for researchers.

From the improving science page:

If one thinks that crunch x-risks (such as resource depletion or technological arrest) are more likely than technological x-risks, then improving science as a whole is probably net positive. But x-risk researchers generally put a lot of probability mass on technological x-risks.2 So improving the speed of scientific research as a whole is probably net negative from a differential progress perspective as some scientific development could bring dangerous technologies before our social structure is able to deal with them. Although from a person-affecting view, speeding up biomedical research is more important.

Neglectedness

In 2016, GiveWell wrote that:3

Some for-profit organizations have gotten significant funding; on the nonprofit side, there are several foundations working on various aspects of the problem, though most are relatively new to the space. We have the sense that there is currently little funding available for groups focused on changing incentives and doing advocacy (as opposed to building tools and platforms), though we don’t have high confidence in this view.

We see less “room for more philanthropy” in the space of supporting tools and platforms than we expected, partly because of the presence of for-profit organizations, some of which have substantial funding.

We see more such room in the space of “advocacy and incentives” than we expected, as most of the organizations in that category seem to have relatively little in terms of funding.

Interventions

In 2016, GiveWell wrote about possible interventions.4

Altmetrics

Metrics for evaluating the use/influence/importance of research that go beyond the traditional measures of “where a paper is published and how many citations it has.

Open access publishing

Innovative open access publishing, including preprints – Models that facilitate sharing research publicly rather than simply publishing it in closed journals, sometimes prior to any peer review occurring.

Sharing data and code

Projects that encourage researchers to share more information about their research, by providing tools to make sharing easier or by creating incentives to share.

Reproducibility

Projects that focus on assessing and improving the reproducibility of research, something that the traditional journal system has only very limited mechanisms to address.

Attribution

Tools allowing researchers to cite each others’ work in nontraditional ways, thus encouraging nontraditional practices (such as data-sharing).

Alternative publication and peer review models

Providing novel ways for researchers to disseminate their research processes and findings and have them reviewed (pre-publication).

Social networks

Platforms encouraging researchers to connect with each other, and in the process to share their research in nontraditional forums.

Organizations

The following organizations were retrieved from GiveWell’s Google Sheet Open science field on 2019-04-04.

Altmetrics

ImpactStoryDescription: Open-source provider of altmetrics for individual researchersOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: $625k in Sloan grants over a few yearsStaff: Unclear; 2 cofounders on websiteCurrent Funders: Sloan FoundationSources: http://impactstory.org/faq ; https://twitter.com/ImpactStory/status/344527516599472128

Plum MetricsDescription: Altmetric provider, typically for institutionsOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: Unclear; 2 people on websiteCurrent Funders: Looked and couldn’t findSources: http://www.plumanalytics.com/about.html

Altmetric.comDescription: Almetric provider for both individuals and institutionsOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: 6Current Funders: Digital ScienceSources: http://altmetric.com/about.php

PLoS – Article Level MetricsDescription: Less “alternative” and more “article level”, open source software for publishers to use for data on downloads, access, etcOrganizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Unclear; 1 technical leadCurrent Funders: PLoSSources: http://blogs.plos.org/mfenner/about/

Post-publication peer review

Faculty of 1,000 - F1000 PrimeDescription: Paid service with ~10,000 reviewers who participate to rate articles after publicationOrganizational form: For-profit projectBudget: Info not availableStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: F1000Sources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Jane%20Hunter%20and%20Rebecca%20Lawrence%20(public).pdf

Journal LabDescription: Web interface to allow people to comment on papers, vote up comments, etc.Organizational form: For-profitBudget: Seeking fundingStaff: Unclear; 2 cofoundersCurrent Funders: Seeking fundingSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/David%20Jay%2003-14-13%20(public).pdf

Hypothes.isDescription: Annotation and conversation addon for the entire webOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~$2m budget for 2013Staff: 6Current Funders: Sloan Foundation, Mellon Foundation, othersSources: http://hypothes.is/who/ ; http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Dan%20Whaley%2005-08-13%20(public).pdf

Numerous other platformsDescription: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HD-BEaVeDdFjjCNFkb0j3pvwe7MrP3PtE-bWHkkdq7Q/edit#Organizational form: VariesBudget: VariesStaff: VariesCurrent Funders: VariesSources: document initially created by Jason Priem and shared on his Twitter feed

Innovative open access publishing, including preprints

PeerJDescription: Startup open access journal and preprint publisher, lifetime membership modelOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: 5Current Funders: Looked and couldn’t findSources: https://peerj.com/about/

eLifeDescription: New open access journal for the life sciences with no article processing charges for authors, run by HHMI and WellcomeOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Unclear; 13 “executive staff”Current Funders: HHMI, Wellcome, Max Plank SocietySources: http://www.elifesciences.org/about/elife-community/executive-staff/

PLoSDescription: Largest open-source publisher and pioneer in the field, now considered “profitable”Organizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~$20m in 2011Staff: >130Current Funders: PLoSSources: http://www.plos.org/about/people/ ; http://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/680492065

F1000ResearchDescription: New open access journal that requires submission of data, publishes prior to peer review, and uses no significance filterOrganizational form: For-profit projectBudget: Info not availableStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: F1000Sources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Jane%20Hunter%20and%20Rebecca%20Lawrence%20(public).pdf

PressForwardDescription: “A platform for overlay journals”Organizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Sloan FoundationSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Josh%20Greenberg%2003-13-13%20(public).pdf

ArXivDescription: Preprint server for physics, computer science, and some other disciplinesOrganizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: ~$800K for 2013Staff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Simons Foundation & CornellSources: https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/culpublic/Initial+Five-Year+Support+Pledges ; https://confluence.cornell.edu/download/attachments/127116484/arXiv_CY13_budget_public.pdf

Numerous other preprint serversDescription: No exhaustive list, but there are appear to be many at relatively early stages (by comparison to ArXiv)Organizational form: VariesBudget: VariesStaff: VariesCurrent Funders: VariesSources: Varies

Sharing data and code

FigshareDescription: Repository for any data, including published article data but not exclusively; gives out DOIs so that researchers can citeOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Digital ScienceSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Kaitlin%20Thaney%2004-10-13%20(public).pdf

DryadDescription: Repository for data from published articles, works with publishersOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: $1.3m NSF grantStaff: 7Current Funders: NSFSources: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1147166 ; http://datadryad.org/pages/whoWeAre#staff

GithubDescription: General service for backing up, sharing, and collaborating on code. Not specific to scholarly applicationOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: $100 million in VC fundingStaff: 174Current Funders: Andreesen HorowitzSources: https://github.com/about ; http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/07/github100m/

Nature Scientific DataDescription: Data journalOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Nature Publishing GroupSources: http://www.nature.com/press_releases/scientificdata.html

DuraspaceDescription: Produces software for institutional repositoriesOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: $1.8m in 2011Staff: 9Current Funders: Mellon FoundationSources: http://www.duraspace.org/duraspace_staff ; http://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/260389639

Registry of Research Data RepositoriesDescription: re3data.orgOrganizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: German Research Foundation DFGSources: http://www.re3data.org/about/

Dataverse NetworkDescription: http://thedata.org/Organizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: 13Current Funders: NSF grants, HarvardSources: http://thedata.org/book/people

Reproducibility

ProjectsDescription: Data/research process management softwareOrganizational form: For-profit projectBudget: Info not availableStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Digital ScienceSources: https://projects.ac/

Center for Open ScienceDescription: Assessing reproducibility of psychology studies, building infrastructure for future reproducibility studiesOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~$5m grantStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Arnold FoundationSources: http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/center-open-science-provide-revolutionary-approach-scientific-communication

Reproducibility InitiativeDescription: Effort to assess the reproducibility of a sample of volunteered biomedical lab studiesOrganizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Seeking fundingStaff: 0 full timeCurrent Funders: Seeking fundingSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Elizabeth%20Iorns%20conversation%2002-26-13%20(public).pdf

RunMyCodeDescription: Allows public reproducibility of submitted data and codeOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Unclear; ~13 people on website (excluding board), but many appear to be part timeCurrent Funders: Sloan FoundationSources: http://www.runmycode.org/CompanionSite/team.do

iPython NotebookDescription: Software environment for reproducible data analysisOrganizational form: Nonprofit projectBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Sloan FoundationSources: http://www.givewell.org/fi les/conversations/Josh%20Greenberg%2003-13-13%20(public).pdf

Attribution

ORCIDDescription: System to create unique identifiers for researchers so that they can be cited correctlyOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: >$750k in contributionsStaff: 6Current Funders: Numerous societies and publishersSources: http://orcid.org/about/team ; http://orcid.org/about/community/sponsors

DataCiteDescription: Infrastructure to enable the citation of dataOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Member organizationsSources: http://www.datacite.org/whatdowedo

Advocacy

AllTrialsDescription: Campaign to ensure that all trials are registered and fully reported in a timely mannerOrganizational form: CampaignBudget: ~$60k Just Giving targetStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Looked and couldn’t findSources: https://www.justgiving.com/alltrials

SPARCDescription: Main open access advocate in the USOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: <<$1M/yearStaff: ~5Current Funders: OSFSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Heather%20Joseph%2005-23-13%20(public).pdf

PLoS - Cameron NeylonDescription: PLoS’ advocacy team, working to support open accessOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: 2Current Funders: PLoSSources: http://www.plos.org/about/people/staff/#advocacy ; http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Cameron%20Neylon%2003-26-13%20(public).pdf

Retraction WatchDescription: Blog about retractionsOrganizational form: BlogBudget: ~NoneStaff: 2 volunteersCurrent Funders: NoneSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Ivan%20Oransky%20Conversation%2002-21-13%20public.pdf

SF Declaration on Research AssessmentDescription: Campaign against the use of journal impact factors in research evaluationOrganizational form: CampaignBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Looked and couldn’t findSources: http://am.ascb.org/dora/

Open Knowledge FoundationDescription: Works to open both government and scientific dataOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Unclear; ~40 on website but many appear to be volunteersCurrent Funders: Sloan Foundation, Hewlett FoundationSources: http://okfn.org/about/partners-and-funders/ ; http://okfn.org/about/team/

Sage Bionetworks - John WilbanksDescription: Policy efforts to make it easier to donate medical dataOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~$6m in 2011Staff: ~35 total, with ~1 devoted to policy workCurrent Funders: Numerous biomedical fundersSources: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/John%20Wilbanks%2003-25-13%20(public).pdf ; http://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/264489946

Changing publication models

FORCE 11Description: Hosts Beyond the PDF conferences, devoted to the next generation of scholarly communication, community websiteOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~$200k grantStaff: ~1 staff member; ~400 community membersCurrent Funders: Sloan FoundationSources: Martone notes

myExperimentDescription: http://www.myexperiment.org/Organizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: EUSources: http://www.myexperiment.org/

ScalarDescription: Platform for digital publications that are not (just) journal articlesOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: Looked and couldn’t findStaff: Unclear; 6 people on websiteCurrent Funders: Mellon FoundationSources: http://scalar.usc.edu/people/

Workflow4EverDescription: http://www.wf4ever-project.org/web/guest/homeOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: ~4m Euro grantStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: EUSources: http://www.wf4ever-project.org/partners

Social networks that are working on these issues

Academia.eduDescription: Social network for scientists to share papers, get metricsOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: $6.7m in VC fundingStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Spark and other VCsSources: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/academia-edu

ResearchGateDescription: Social network for scientists to share papers, get metricsOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: >$35m in VC fundingStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: Benchmark, Founders Fund,Bill Gates, other VCsSources: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/researchgate

MendeleyDescription: Reference manager and social network for scientistsOrganizational form: For-profitBudget: $2m in VC funding, acquired by Elsevier for ~$100mStaff: Looked and couldn’t findCurrent Funders: ElsevierSources: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mendeley

Alternative peer review model

RubriqDescription: http://www.rubriq.com/Organizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: 13Current Funders: Looked and couldn’t findSources: http://www.rubriq.com/who/our-team/

Peerage of ScienceDescription: A collaborative peer review model in which reviews are eligible for use by multiple jounals; journals pay for the service. Peer reviews are themselves peer reviewed Organizational form: For-profitBudget: Info not availableStaff: 2-5Current Funders: May be profitableSources: http://www.peerageofscience.org/company/our-team/ ; http://www.peerageofscience.org/faq/#faq13

Iris.AI Description: Research discovery with artificial intelligence Link: https://iris.ai/

1science Description: A comprehensive suite of products based on a curated collection of 93 million articles published in peer-reviewed journals in all fields of academia and research, in all languages, and from all over the world. Link: https://www.1science.com/

Other

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)Description: Data archivingOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: $10 million in grants in 2012Staff: 36Current Funders: NIH, Gates, NSF, NCAA, Shriver Institute, Department of Justice, RWJ Foundation, and moreSources: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/landing.jsp

Citizen Science AssociationDescription: Advocacy group for Citizen ScienceOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: N/aStaff:Current Funders:Sources: http://www.citizenscienceassociation.org

Citizen Science AllianceDescription: Advocacy group for Citizen ScienceOrganizational form: NonprofitBudget: N/aStaff:Current Funders:Sources: http://www.citizensciencealliance.org

Citizen Science CenterDescription: Advocacy for Citizen (participatory science)Organizational form: ProfitBudget: n/a Staff:Current Funders:Sources: http://www.citizensciencecenter.com

Funders

The following organizations were retrieved from GiveWell’s Google Sheet Open science field on 2019-04-04.

Digital Information TechnologyFunder: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.Description: “the program aims to maximize the efficiency and trustedness of academic research.”Conversation notes: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Josh%20Greenberg%2003-13-13%20(public).pdf

Data-Driven DiscoveryFunder: Gordon and Betty Moore FoundationDescription: see http://www.moore.org/initiative.aspx?id=4775Budget: $60M/5 years (as of 2016)Organizations currently funding: just getting started; no public grants at last check (2016)

Research IntegrityFunder: Laura and John Arnold FoundationDescription: “The Research Integrity initiative is aimed at improving the reliability and validity of scientific evidence across fields that inform governmental policy, philanthropic endeavors and individual decision-making. As a society, we often rely on published scientific research to guide our policy, health and lifestyle choices. In some fields, the research is rigorous and thorough. In other areas, it is weak, spurious and unreliable.”Organizations currently funding: Center for Open Science ($5M grant)

Scholarly Communications and Information TechnologyFunder: Andrew W. Mellon FoundationDescription: see http://www.mellon.org/news_publications/annual-reports-essays/annual-reports/content2011.pdfBudget: $26M in 2011Organizations currently funding: Hypothes.is, Scalar, many others

Life Science EntrepreneurshipFunder: Ewing Marion Kauffman FoundationDescription: “Much of the progress in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease can be attributed to medical research in university labs. The Kauffman Foundation is identifying barriers that slow or deter life science innovators—the scientists in those labs—from getting their discoveries to the health care market. The Foundation’s Life Science Entrepreneurship program includes a host of initiatives designed to help life science entrepreneurs commercialize their research to benefit patients.”

Research Tools and Science Metrics divisionsFunder: Digital ScienceDescription: Part of Macmillan Publishers, owner of Nature, incubator and funder for new toolsOrganizations currently funding: Figshare, Altmetric.com, ProjectsConversations notes: http://www.givewell.org/files/conversations/Kaitlin%20Thaney%2004-10-13%20(public).pdf

Assorted venture capitalistsDescription: Benchmark, Founders Fund, numerous othersOrganizations currently funding: ResearchGate, Academia.edu

Grants

Wikimedia’s Individual Engagement Grants

External links

With respect to AI safety:

Other:

Cause_areas

Open science/Citizen Science