TL;DR
- Open research and open lab notebooks have many benefits
- Shortens delay of dissemination
- Builds trust
- Can start mentorship and collaboration
- Small chance of scooping
- Mostly applicable in smaller research communities
- Publishing in high-impact journals still matters
About Rachel Harding
Dr. Rachel Harding is a post-doc at the Structured Genomics Consortium (SGC), University of Toronto, researching the huntingtin protein for Huntington's disease. She is a pioneer of open source biomedical research, sharing her lab notebook on Zenodo and blogging at labscribbles.com.
Benefits of Open Lab Notebooks
- Dramatically shortens time delay between research and dissemination
- Generates crucial info about technically challenging procedures
- Generates visibility and builds a collaborative network
Why Haven't More Scientists Adopted It?
- Time commitment -- though Rachel notes she simply copies her notes to Zenodo, making the overhead minimal.
- Fear of being scooped -- cases of scooping are rare, and the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Open research is more applicable in areas with fewer researchers, such as rare diseases like Huntington's disease, where the community benefits greatly from shared knowledge.
Other Benefits
- Greater clarity -- writing up results openly forces clearer thinking and documentation.
- Builds trust -- transparency in methods and results builds credibility.
- Mentorship opportunities -- open notebooks can attract mentors and collaborators.
- Seamless cross-team collaboration -- teams can easily build on each other's work.
Publishing Still Matters
Publishing in high-impact journals still matters. Alternative reputation systems have not yet replaced what faculty search committees and funding bodies look for when evaluating researchers.
Open Pharma
The SGC doesn't patent molecules. M4K Pharma is exploring an "open pharma" approach, making drug development more transparent and accessible.
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