Open Science in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Argentina and Germany: Opportunities, Challenges, and Contestations

From a comparative perspective, the project deals with the challenges that individual scientists and scientific institutions in Argentina and Germany face in the context of the Open Science approach. As a first step, we will analyze the national legal frameworks for Open Science, along with regulations regarding governmental transparency and treatment of personal data. We will also take into account the relevant legal requirements and recommendations at regional level (European Union, Mercosur). In a second step, we will map the available open infrastructures and repositories as well as the capacities for curatorship and evaluation of Open Science resources. In a third step, we examine the experiences of scientists from three disciplines (Political Science, Sociology, Cultural and Social Anthropology) with sharing their research data and research results. The question is how individual scientists deal with the demand for open research data and to what extent they interact with social actors during the research process. What experiences, learning processes, co-production of knowledge and contestations are taking place? How are culturally sensitive data handled and how is the protection of the persons involved guaranteed? Is any kind of authorship assigned to social groups that are involved in research? The project not only provides empirically based results on the comparison of Open Science practices in Germany and Argentina, it also aims to develop policy recommendations and incentives, toolkits and actions of care to foster the expansion of Open Science practices in the social sciences and humanities.

The general objective of this project is to examine the progress and contestation to Open Science practices in the Social Sciences and Humanities, in a comparative perspective (Argentina-Germany).

Specific objectives

• Describe the institutional, national and regional regulations related to Open Science

• Mapping of the available infrastructure, capacity, training and institutional support provided by the CONICET in Argentina and the universities of the Berlin University Alliance in Germany to assist SSH researchers in Open Science practices.

• Identify successful cases of open research data and good practices of participatory science by researchers in Political Science, Sociology, and Social and Cultural Anthropology affiliated with CONICET (Argentina) and the universities of the Berlin University Alliance (Germany).

• Analyze experiences in the co-production of knowledge with social actors and the challenges they face in sharing and disseminating the results.

• Examine the resistance to the openness of primary data and citizen science. 

• Elaborate policy recommendations and toolkits to encourage open practices in the SSH.

WP 1: Comparative analysis of national regulations and recommendations for Open Science in Germany and Argentina

WP 2: Infrastructures, curatorship-capacity and institutional support for Open Science in the SSH

WP 3: Comparative analysis of experiences, practices and perceptions of the SSH researchers in relation to open data management and open access publications

WP 4: Final research report, policy recommendations and toolkits to incentive open practices in the SSH 

• Publication of a policy brief , which will describe the legal framework for Open Science in SSH for Argentina and Germany, including an outline of the legal voids and opportunities for mutual learning.

• Publication of a policy paper, which will describe the procedures for the deposit of SSH datasets and the institutional support provided by CONICET and the BUA.

• Open dataset with the transcript interviews and focus groups (anonymized). 

• Publication of 1 scientific paper with the comparative results and a typology of resistances to Open Data.

• Final report including policy recommendations.

• Toolkits to encourage open practices in the disciplines involved in the project.