La scienza aperta contro la mercificazione della ricerca accademica? = Open Science vs Commodification of Academic Research?

The aim of this short essay is to answer the following question: is Open Science (OS) able to oppose the expansion of commodification of scientific and academic research? The answer is positive only if we conceive OS not only as free access to and reuse of scientific outputs (publications and data), but also as a broader system of values such as democracy, transparency, equity, cooperation, and moral integrity. From this perspective, fostering OS also means investing energy in teaching. We need to educate the new generation of scientists by teaching them the values and practices of OS. In addition, policy and formal norms can help us to build a legal environment apt to embrace the OS principles. In particular, we have to adjust the current research assessment system by decentralising the evaluation process and making it transparent. Moreover, we need to reform copyright law to enable more freedom to access to and reuse of scientific contents. All these efforts may generate a new communication ecosystem in which interaction among ethics, formal norms and technology would guarantee the pluralism of sources and intermediaries.