Engaging learned societies in promotion of open science and responsible research
Creators: name: Pölönen, Janne
name: Late, Elina
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Learned societies
Open Science
Research integrity
Research ethics
Research assessment

description: Since the 17th century, learned societies - voluntary non-profit organizations involving academics - have existed for the advancement of scholarship, research, disciplines, publishing and public understanding of science. Publishing scientific journals and books has traditionally been an important part of the activities of learned societies but they also take other various activities including arranging conferences, supporting research, and popularizing knowledge. The most well-known learned societies are the national science academies, in which membership is typically based on invitation and merit. However, there also exists a much broader archipelago of local, national and international societies, whose membership is open to all academics, and often also to interested professionals and citizens. In English-language literature, a learned society can also be referred to as a learned/scholarly/scientific association or scholarly society. Occasionally, the term professional society is also used. We have estimated in a working-paper that there are around 9000 learned societies in Europe (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5513560). In historical perspective, learned societies constitute, along with universities and other kinds of research performing organizations, the foundation of contemporary academia. International Survey on Research Integrity (IRIS: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XB9RK) provides the broadest available indication of the continued relevance of learned societies. Over 82% of 60,885 active researchers from Europe, United States and other countries, who in 2021 answered the IRIS survey question concerning professional societies, identified at least “a little bit” with the societies, and 62% identified “moderately”, “a lot” or “a great deal”. Yet, surprisingly little information and research exists on their current number, forms of organizations and operation, or contributions to scientific and societal impact of research in specific countries, regions or globally. While more attention has been paid to the obstacles and challenges for promoting open access in the landscape of learned society journals, next to nothing is known or said about the (potential) role of learned societies in the area of responsible research, including research integrity and research assessment. However, we argue that these societies create networks of scholars and professionals and have discipline specific expertise on scholarly activities that should be exploited more. In this paper we address the following questions: 1. What role does open science and responsible research play in societies’ activities? 2. Do the members expect open science and responsible research to be part of the societies’ activities? To answer these questions, we would need a global review of learned societies, their activities and membership. The scope of our present study is mainly focused on Finland, from which we have a comprehensive report in 2019 (https://doi.org/10.23847/isbn.9789525995190). Besides Finland, one survey study has covered learned societies in Portugal, and another one social science societies in the UK. Methods and data We provide data from Finland and from Finnish societies. Currently, almost 300 societies are members of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), and they have more than 250,000 individual members (Finland has a population of 5,5 million). Recently TSV collected two broad datasets from its member societies and the individual members of these societies.The first dataset (N=114 unique societies) concerns the actions related with responsible research of learned societies. The second dataset (N=1540 individual members of learned societies) concern the membership of the societies. By integrating these two datasets we are able to provide insight about the open science and responsible research activities from the viewpoint of the societies and their membership. Results Over 94% of 114 learned societies in Finland, who answered the survey in 2021, indicated that the promotion of scientific activities is a major part of their activities, followed by the promotion of general understanding of science and societal impact. Generally speaking, the promotion of responsible research and open science has not yet become a key part of learned societies’ operations. Yet around 70 per cent of the societies participate in developing open science, 60 per cent publish immediately openly available publications. However, activities linked to research integrity, open data, open education and citizen science are rarer. Nevertheless, the majority of societies were interested in developing their activities in one or more areas of responsible research: identifying and proposing experts to working groups, committees or as evaluators (65 % of societies), promoting open science and organizing events (more than 50 %), evaluating the quality of research (more than 40 %), assessment of social impact, science education and research ethics (approx. 30 %). The membership of the learned societies regards traditional forms of operation, such as networking, publications, events and the popularization of science as the most important parts of the societies’ operations. Over 90 per cent of the respondents agreed at least partially with the statement that the promotion of the openness of research-based knowledge is important, and more than 80 per cent agreed that this should be free of charge to the readers. Almost 90 percent of the respondents agreed at least partially with the statement that the promotion of research integrity should be an important task of societies, and almost 80% agreed also on the importance of responsible assessment of researchers and research quality. Almost 60% agreed on the promotion of citizen science, while 45% agreed that producing open learning materials is an important task of societies. Significance Our case study in Finland shows that societies are active in the most traditional forms of open science, such as open access publishing. Publication activities are indeed one of the learned societies’ key forms of operation, and a significant proportion of learned societies’ publications already complies with the principles of open science. The societies have been important enablers and promoters of open, non-profit and scientific publication activities without author fees (so called Diamond OA) in Finland. Other forms of open science and responsible research are not yet established but highly supported by the members of the societies. The perceptions from the membership should guide the future development of the societies. Data on society memberships shows that learned societies represent the science community on a broad scale in terms of age, field of education, work organization and place of residence. The networks created by the societies are cross-organizational and often international and provide a unique resource for identifying experts of different domains and creating collaboration between the domains. Thus, societies have a great potential in implementing and developing field-specific open science practices through engagement of researchers at the grass-root level towards a more responsible direction. Policy makers, research performing and funding organizations could develop more strategic collaboration with learned societies as a valued intermediary between science and society.