Open to Complexity: Symposium on Open Science in the Social Sciences and Humanities | Tilburg University

But is it possible to practice Open Science when your academic discipline is not immediately associated with hypotheses, confirmatory statistics, and formulas? And how can open research practices be embraced while taking into account the potentially unintended yet harmful consequences? We intend to answer these questions at a one-day symposium for which any interested researcher or policy officer, at and outside of Tilburg, is invited to present or attend.

Open Science handbooks do not really address what happens in culture studies, history, law, theology, anthropology, communication studies, data science, philosophy and other disciplines. In these qualitative, exploratory fields with mixed method approaches, inquiry centers not so much on fixed hypotheses, data, or code − which can easily be shared. These modes of inquiry traditionally have a bigger emphasis on exploring ideas, interpretation, argumentation, comparison, and critical thinking. The ‘material’ or ‘data’ of this kind of research seems almost too subjective and slippery to share before the final book or article is written. But is it?

We think that the social sciences and humanities (SSH) could benefit from a more transparent way of working. Therefore, we want to scrutinize how explorative research is done in these disciplines and how they are also able to integrate Open Science principles. Moreover, the reflexive nature of these disciplines provides ample reason to carefully considers the risks of opening up research. How can academics do so in a responsible way?"