Responsible Open Science: Moving towards an Ethics of Environmental Sustainability
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Difficulties Assessing Open Science Environmental Impacts
3. Difficulties Enacting Responsibilities towards Environmentally Sustainable Open Science
4. Concluding Remarks
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
- OECD. Making Open Science a Reality; OCED: Paris, France, 2015; Available online: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/paper/5jrs2f963zs1-en (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data. Turning FAIR into Reality. Final Report and Action Plan from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data; Directorate-General for Research and Innovation: Brussels, Belgium, 2018; Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/turning_fair_into_reality_1.pdf (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; Policy and Global Affairs; Board on Research Data and Information; Committee on Toward an Open Science Enterprise. Open Science by Design: Realizing a Vision for 21st Century Research; National Academies Press (US): Washington, DC, USA, 2018. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK525413/ (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Levy, K.E.C.; Johns, D.M. When open data is a Trojan Horse: The weaponization of transparency in science and governance. Big Data Soc. 2016, 3, 2053951715621568. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Nerlich, B.; Hartley, S.; Raman, S.; Smith, A. Science and the Politics of Openness; Manchester University Press: Manchester, UK, 2018. [Google Scholar]
- Elster, D.; Barendziak, T.; Birkholz, J. Towards a Sustainable and Open Science: Recommendations for Enhancing Responsible Research and Innovation in the Biosciences at the University of Bremen; University of Bremen: Bremen, Germany, 2019; Available online: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00107721-18 (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Samuel, G.; Derrick, G. Defining ethical standards for the application of digital tools to population health research. Bull World Health Organ 2020, 98, 239–244. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Bostrom, N. Strategic Implications of Openness in AI Development. Glob. Policy 2017, 8, 135–148. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Katz, D.S.; Smith, A.M. Transitive Credit and JSON-LD. J. Open Res. Softw. 2015, 3, e7. [Google Scholar]
- Legge, M. Towards sustainable open access: A society publisher’s principles and pilots for transition. Learn. Publ. 2020, 33, 76–82. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bihouix, P. The Age of Low Tech. Towards a Technologically Sustainable Civilization; Bristol University Press: Bristol, UK, 2020. [Google Scholar]
- United Nations. Framework Convention on Climate Change (2015) Adoption of the Paris Agreement. In Proceedings of the 21st Conference of the Parties, Paris, France, 12 December 2015; Available online: https://unfccc.int/files/essential_background/convention/application/pdf/english_paris_agreement.pdf (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Blair, G.S. A tale of two cities: Reflections on digital technology and the natural environment. Patterns 2020. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Danilak, R. Why Energy Is a Big and Rapidly Growing Problem for Data Centers. 15 December 2017. Available online: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/15/why-energy-is-a-big-and-rapidly-growing-problem-for-data-centers/ (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Ekin, A. AI can help us fight climate change. But it has an energy problem, too. Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine. 12 September 2019. Available online: https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/ai-can-help-us-fight-climate-change-it-has-energy-problem-too.html (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Code of Conduct for ICT; EU Science Hub, European Commission: Brussels, Belgium, 2016; Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/energy-efficiency/products/coc (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Environmental Protection Agency. Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Executive Summary; Environmental Protection Agency: Washington, WA, USA, 2007. Available online: https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/prod_development/downloads/EPA_Report_Exec_Summary_Final.pdf (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- ITU. Toolkit on Environmental Sustainability for the ICT Sector; ITU: Geneva, Switzerland, 2012; Available online: https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/4B/01/T4B010000060001PDFE.pdf (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Liu, R.; Gailhofer, P.; Gensch, C.; Köhler, A.; Wolff, F. Impacts of the Digital Transformation on the Environment and Sustainability 2019; Öko-Institut: Freiburg, Germany, 2019; Available online: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/enveco/resource_efficiency/pdf/studies/issue_paper_digital_transformation_20191220_final.pdf (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- European Commission. ICT Environmental Impact; European Commission: Brussels, Belgium, 2020; Available online: https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/rolling-plan-ict-standardisation/ict-environmental-impact (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Lucivero, F. Big Data, Big Waste? A Reflection on the Environmental Sustainability of Big Data Initiatives. Sci Eng Ethics 2020, 26, 1009–1030. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Gov.UK. Greening Government: Sustainable Technology Strategy 2020; Gov.UK: London, UK, 2018. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-sustainable-technology-strategy-2020/the-greening-government-sustainable-technology-strategy-2020-sustainable-technology-for-sustainable-government (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Howes, C. Defra Leads on Government-Wide ICT Sustainability Report; Defra Digital: London, UK, 2019. Available online: https://defradigital.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/14/defra-leads-on-government-wide-ict-sustainability-report/ (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- NHS Digital. NHS Technologists Urged to Be Part of NHS Digital Sustainability Forum. Available online: https://digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/news/nhs-technologists-urged-to-be-part-of-nhs-digital-sustainability-forum (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- NHS Digital Moves National Services to the Cloud. Health Technology Newspaper. 27 January 2020. Available online: https://www.thehtn.co.uk/2020/01/27/nhs-digital-moves-national-services-to-the-cloud/ (accessed on 11 December 2020).
- Lucivero, F.; Samuel, G.; Blair, G.; Darby, S.J.; Fawcett, T.; Hazas, M.; Holter, C.T.; Jirotka, M.; Parker, M.; Webb, H.; et al. Data-Driven Sustainability—An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Governing the Environmental Impacts of a Data-Driven Society. Available online: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3631331 (accessed on 10 December 2020).
- Samuel, G.N.; Farsides, B. Public trust and ‘ethics review’ as a commodity: The case of Genomics England Limited and the UK’s 100,000 genomes project. Med. Health Care Philos. 2018, 21, 159–168. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Wagner, B. Ethics As an Escape from Regulation: From Ethics-Washing to Ethics-Shopping. In Being Profiling. Cogitas Ergo Sum; Hildebrandt; Amsterdam University Press: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2018. [Google Scholar]
- Samuel, G.; Derrick, G.E.; van Leeuwen, T. The Ethics Ecosystem: Personal Ethics, Network Governance and Regulating Actors Governing the Use of Social Media Research Data. Minerva 2019, 57, 317–343. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Samuel, G.; Chubb, J.; Derrick, G. Has responsible research and innovation disseminated across the research Ethics Ecosystem? A case study of AI population health researchers in UK and Canadian Higher Education Institutions. J. Empir. Res. Human Res. Ethics. Under Review.
1 | |
2 |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Samuel, G.; Lucivero, F. Responsible Open Science: Moving towards an Ethics of Environmental Sustainability. Publications 2020, 8, 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8040054
Samuel G, Lucivero F. Responsible Open Science: Moving towards an Ethics of Environmental Sustainability. Publications. 2020; 8(4):54. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8040054
Chicago/Turabian StyleSamuel, Gabrielle, and Federica Lucivero. 2020. "Responsible Open Science: Moving towards an Ethics of Environmental Sustainability" Publications 8, no. 4: 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8040054
APA StyleSamuel, G., & Lucivero, F. (2020). Responsible Open Science: Moving towards an Ethics of Environmental Sustainability. Publications, 8(4), 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8040054