Software Competence, Self-Sufficiency, and Sovereignty through Open Science

A talk given at the Max Planck IMPRS in Leipzig, Germany: https://imprs-coni.mpg.de/events/42858/34550 Abstract: To funders, society, and aspiring early career researchers, open science is a strict necessity in research conduct - and with good reason. But when you’re buried in the everyday workload in science, inches away from a last-minute deadline, or within a rather traditional research environment, open science can feel like an additional burden stacked on top of a large existing todo list. This talk focuses on open science from the perspective of open source research software, which at times may feel particularly cumbersome: Why open tools rather than the integrated analysis suite there is a license for anyway? Why script, when there’s a point and click interface? Why publish my code, or even maintain it, when others may use it to publish faster without any benefit to me? In this talk, I’ll argue for the concrete benefits of these decisions, and explore how open practices and their byproducts empower researchers to take control over their outputs, ensure sustainability, and contribute to digital sovereignty – both for the individual scientist and science and society at large. A rendering of these slides is available at https://files.inm7.de/adina/imprs/