Hi all! I'm really excited about the possibility of getting myself involved in MozFest this year. 🎉 ❤️ ✨ So much so that I proposed not one, but two sessions to share my passion for open science and communication.
The first session proposal is based on the project I am co-developing with Daniela Saderi. This project aims to develop resources to encourage the incorporation of preprints into journal clubs (JCs) at research institutions around the world. Preprints are free and immediately available versions of scientific manuscripts that have not yet undergone peer review. By encouraging the reading and evaluation of preprints among groups of scientists, we hope to increase the awareness, usage, and value of preprints, particularly in the biological sciences.
After stating our CoC, we will use a short interactive survey to assess participants’ level of preprint awareness. We will start by showing a Youreka Science video explaining preprints and their usefulness for scientific advancement, followed by updates on the status of preprints in biology, and then open the floor for questions. In our next segment, “Think BIG”, we will ask participants, "If you could dream, what is your vision for how research is communicated and rewarded in the future?" We hope to inspire participants to think BIG about alternatives to the current publishing system. We will conclude by presenting our Preprint Journal Club Starter Kit project to exemplify how an idea born during a Mozilla workshop can give rise to a collaborative project.
According to a 2016 survey conducted by the scientist-driven preprint advocacy group ASAPbio, a whopping 91% of scientists expressed dissatisfaction with the current publishing system. As a result of ASAPbio’s efforts, preprints have become more widely adopted in the biological sciences, but there are still many scientists that are unaware or misinformed as to what preprints are and how they can benefit science. We aim to educate scientists about how preprints can revolutionize the way we communicate scientific progress, and promote the open access and open use of scientific research to aid rapid progression and collaboration within science.
We hope that we will provide our participants with the knowledge they will need to engage in discussions about preprints at their local institutions, and inspire them to initiate their own preprint journal club, or another project to promote changes in the publishing system. We will provide any future support for any participants in setting up a preprint journal club or similar project, and will follow up with them regularly to encourage continued growth of the project.
The second session proposal stems from my passion for podcasting. I learned how to create a podcast by joining the wonderful team of UCSF grad students and postdocs at Carry the One Radio and now I want to share that knowledge to empower open advocates out there how to voice their opinions to the world, literally.
After stating the CoC, I will play clips from various podcasts that have different styles and degrees of editing, including my very first podcast, to illustrate that podcasting is open to any level of experience. Participants will pair up and interview each other to ask “What does open mean to you?”. I will help participants improve audio quality using free Audacity software, show them how to use a free trial of Hindenburg software to string their clips together, and add open source music/sound effects. We will record a group intro and outro for the podcast and then merge all our efforts together to form a collaborative MozFest podcast made up of individual stories about what open means to each participant.
Podcasting has exploded since 2014, and is an extremely effective and innovative medium for getting your voice heard. Therefore, the main goal of the session is to empower participants with the basic skills needed to become a podcaster, to illustrate that podcasting is open and inclusive, and to have fun! In the spirit of being open and inclusive, we will create a podcast episode together, which will form a segment of episode 1 of my podcast focused on the open and preprint movements.
I hope that I will provide the participants with the knowledge, skills and inspiration to produce their own podcast, and communicate their passion to the world. I will happily provide future support for participants in podcast production and will create a page here with podcast production guidance and useful links. I will follow up with participants regularly to encourage continued growth of their projects.