David Garcia will present a talk in the SciBeh 2020 Virtual Workshop session on “Managing Online Research Discourse” on Tuesday, November 10 at 14:30 (CET).
For the full program of the virtual workshop and more information on the sessions, click here.
Session overview
Online environments are increasingly important spaces for research discourse, as review, critique, and discussion expand beyond journal peer review and publication to pre-print servers and even social media (e.g., Twitter). Discourse has important functions for research: Review, critique, and discussion of research help to refine new ideas and findings, correct errors, and increase the epistemic diversity of work. Knowledge needs to be well-communicated outside the academic sphere to avoid misinterpretation and misinformation. Online, transparent, constructive research discourse can take place quickly, raising the profile of research findings.
In open online spaces, critique and review may also not be as detailed as through the traditional processes. Uncertainty and disagreements are also unavoidable in science, and discourse can get heated and become unproductive. At worse, scientific disagreement may harm public perception of science and research. For these reasons, researchers may be reluctant to engage with critiques of their work, or publicly critique others’ work.
In this session, we address the issue of building sustainable, transparent, and constructive online discourse among researchers as well as between researchers and the wider public. Some of the questions we ask are:
- What levels of discourse support quality assurance in research?
- Why should researchers discuss work in online spaces, with each other and with the public?
- How should researchers engage in online research discourse to combat misinformation?