Abstract

The Corona pandemic has boosted openness in science with researchers sharing and communicating results and data faster and without access restrictions. The amount of open data and research has greatly facilitated potential for meta-science applications such as meta-analysis, big data usage, machine learning and etc. However, the speed and openness of science during the pandemic has garnered criticism in civil society, especially the media. We discuss two questions in this panel: Why do those new forms of research openness lead to controversial reactions in the public? How can we better communicate open research practices to the public? For example, we will discuss if communication methods are necessary to make research understandable and appear more trustable across diverse audiences such as the public, policymakers and scientists. We will discuss new formats of information and communication in research, and share insights from a successful 5 year fellowship programme (from Wikimedia) on fostering open science among interdisciplinary early career researchers.