[GOAL] Re: Open access research: some basics for scientists

[Heather Morrison]

Social science research encompasses a wide range of methodologies, including a range of quantitative methods. 

The key points I am trying to make:

Academics doing research with human subjects, which includes such tools as surveys and interviews, should check to see whether their universities have requirements to clear research ethics before proceeding. If you're in North America and working at a reputable institution, the answer is almost certainly yes. If you might want funding at some point for this research, it would be a good idea to see whether funding agencies of interest have such guidelines.

Canadians might refer to the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans:
http://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique/initiatives/tcps2-eptc2/Default/

Research methods such as surveys and interviews require careful planning, knowledge of the subject area and the methodology. A survey containing ill-formed questions reflecting the researcher's lack of understanding of the topic and/or the basics of survey design does not advance our knowledge.

Scientists interested in pursuing these methods might approach this by seeking to form a team with scholars with the appropriate domain (in this case, open access) and methods expertise.

Science and social science approaches both have expectations that researchers will conduct a literature review and be familiar with work on their topic before proceeding, if I understand correctly. With respect to survey research on open access, I would add that there is a compelling reason to conduct a fully open research process. If a person or organization receives a number of similar surveys on a hot topic like this, this increases the odds of a low response rate to one or perhaps even all of the surveys.

best,

Heather Morrison

On 2013-09-17, at 4:49 AM, BAUIN Serge wrote:

> Arthur,
> 
> I am amazed... Do you mean that social scientists are not scientists?
> You might recall the etymology of the word "statistics" (e.g. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=statistics ).
> A (regrettably) large majority of economists are actual mathematicians. Demographers... what do they do all day long? Quantitative sociologists, geographers? Are they all in literature?
> 
> Serge Bauin
> Formerly sociologist, initial training in engineering
> CNRS
> 
> 
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] De la part de Arthur Sale
> Envoyé : mardi 17 septembre 2013 00:42
> À : 'Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)'
> Objet : [GOAL] Re: Open access research: some basics for scientists
> 
> Heather
> 
> I agree with you and endorse your comments. However, there is a caveat: some questions addressed in open access are indeed scientific, and not social scientific. I think of measuring adoption rates, deposit delays, bibliometrics, etc from analyses of public data on the Internet or services such as ISI and Scopus.  
> 
> To be sure (and this I think you missed and should have mentioned) a reasonably good knowledge of statistics is also necessary (generally). Many agricultural scientists and medical scientists would meet this criterion far better than most social scientists. Many engineers would also have a better grasp of using complex mathematical tools such as chaos theory, fractals, and fourier analysis. It isn't black vs white.
> 
> Arthur Sale
> University of Tasmania
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: goal-bounces at eprints.org [mailto:goal-bounces at eprints.org] On Behalf Of Heather Morrison
> Sent: Tuesday, 17 September 2013 2:04 AM
> To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)
> Subject: [GOAL] Open access research: some basics for scientists
> 
> As the OA movement continues to gain steam, we are seeing scholars with a background in sciences take a keen interest and even develop surveys and such. While the enthusiasm is welcome, from what I am seeing in several instances now, is that scientists do not necessarily understand how to go about social science research.
> 
> A scholar with a background in chemistry doing social science research with no training is not unlike a social scientist with no training in chemistry walking into a lab and playing about (although the potential damages are generally of a different nature).
> 
> Scientists doing social science research:
> 
> -	should be aware of research ethics requirements - at universities in
> North America, for example, you must get a research ethics clearance to conduct survey or interview research
> -	should understand the methodology used and its limitations
> -	should know the area. A poorly conducted survey by someone who is
> not an expert on the topic surveyed may be more damaging than helpful. For example, the way questions are framed shapes how people understand the topic. Before you develop a survey on open access, you should be aware that there are least two basic approaches (green and gold), and if asking questions about gold, you should be aware that this is not equivalent to the article processing fee business model
> 
> best,
> 
> --
> Dr. Heather Morrison
> Assistant Professor
> École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies University of Ottawa
> 
> http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
> Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca
> 
> ALA Accreditation site visit scheduled for 30 Sept-1 Oct 2013 / Visite du comité externe pour l'accréditation par l'ALA est prévu le 30
> sept-1 oct 2013
> 
> http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html
> http://www.esi.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa

http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca

ALA Accreditation site visit scheduled for 30 Sept-1 Oct 2013 /
Visite du comité externe pour l'accréditation par l'ALA est prévu le 30
sept-1 oct 2013

http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html
http://www.esi.uottawa.ca/accreditation.html