Open science beyond open access: For and with communities-A step towards the decolonization of knowledge

Abstract

In this paper, Leslie Chan, Budd Hall, Florence Piron, Rajesh Tandon and Lorna Williams argue that Open Science should mean more than open access to publications and data. Writing for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, they examine three forms of openness: publications and data, society, and knowledges that mainstream science has excluded. The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a case in point, illustrating how science is opening itself to citizen participation and community partnerships, even as deep inequalities persist for scholars and communities in the Global South. Particular attention goes to Indigenous ways of knowing, where cognitive justice, not just access, must guide how science engages with excluded epistemologies. The paper closes with thirteen considerations for UNESCO and other institutions, calling for an open science that is plural, decolonial, and genuinely for and with communities rather than only about them.