The Importance of Open Access and Technology with Mark Hahnel

Insights Xchange: Conversations Shaping Academic Research

Nikesh Gosalia and Mark Hahnel continue their discussion on making scientific data public, talking about the idea of publishing negative data and the unequal explosion of gold vs. green open access. Mark makes a strong case for keeping all data openly available in time-sensitive research fields such as COVID-19. He also discusses how open access could propel research to the next level: if all research data is available online, AI technologies could sift through it and detect trends that humans can’t. Keeping with the theme of technology, Mark touches on the role of blockchain in decentralized sciences and Figshare’s focus on building policy-compliant infrastructure to make resilient, long-lasting technology. He also shares his thoughts on collaborative efforts between humans and AI, citing the Google DeepMind project AlphaFold as an example of a successful project. Mark talks about some open science initiatives that have caught his attention, with a special focus on Cassyni, a company that uses technology to improve the impact of lectures. To end this episode, Mark shares his opinion on the factors that are preventing the mass adoption of open science.

Mark Hahnel is the Founder and CEO of Figshare, the all-in-one repository for papers, FAIR data, and nontraditional research outputs. He is passionate about open science and its potential to bring positive change to the research community. Mark has acted as an advisor for the Springer Nature master classes and is currently on the advisory board for the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). He can be reached on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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