Digital USD - Digital Initiatives Symposium: What If We Get Open Access?: A New Case for Undergraduate Scientific Literacy

Abstract:  For the educators among us who care about the Open Access Movement, are we prepared for what comes in a post-OA world? Suppose that Plan-S (or another initiative with similar objectives) succeeds in making vast quantities of previously paywalled scientific literature openly available to anyone with an Internet connection.

On one hand, it's the utopia we've fought for: our best ideas, set free to circulate among the minds who will incorporate them toward solving the big issues humanity faces. On the other hand, what if scientific literature becomes weaponized in the same way that journalism has in recent years, where legitimate work gets sewn with seeds of doubt, and bad-faith efforts gain more traction than they deserve. When our research institutions continue to have trouble assessing science literature, to what measure should laypersons hold themselves?

In this cheery presentation, we will imagine a possible dystopia of our own creation, followed by a discussion of tools, tech, and approaches that could be used in an undergraduate education setting to make our future scientists better research communicators and our future citizens better research consumers.