Knowledge Equity and Responsible Research: Thoughts regarding Early Career Researchers

Discourses on open science in the global North have tended to focus on technical requirements and policy compliance while emphasizing productivity and “accelerating discovery” as the goal. Such framings have favoured the replication and consolidation of existing inequities in the global knowledge production system, excluding scholars in the margins, particularly early career researchers (ECR), who are the most precarious in the current system. Responsible research should go beyond normative practices of doing science and be more intentional about the conditions of its production. This requires expanding thinking about openness to include epistemic diversity, communities and excluded knowledges, and citational justice while moving from the extractive modes of knowledge production to generative and re-generative forms of knowledge making and sharing. Above all, responsible research is not possible when the working conditions of scientists, particularly for ECR, are irresponsible and highly precarious.
This talk was presented as a keynote on the 1st of December at a virtual symposium, which explored "Global Dynamics in Responsible Research". The symposium is hosted by The Einstein Foundation and organised by eLife Community Ambassadors.