Human Right to Science

Open Science

Claudio Torre

Inecol

Miguel Equihua

Inecol

Xalapa, Ver., 9 September 2024

Unpacking strategies in Mexico

The Human Right to Science is an old one

  • It dates back to the 1948 American Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man on Article XIII.

  • The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Article 27.

  • The 1966 United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on Article 15(b).

  • Despite existing since the inception of the human rights movement after WWII, the HRS has been one of the less developed and therefore its capacities and mandates are still not fully achieved.

The 2019 Constitutional Reform

  • On May 2019, without much, if any public discussion, Article 3 (V) of the Mexican Constitution was reformed by Federal Congress:

Every person has a right to enjoy the benefits of science development and technological innovations. The State shall support scientific, humanistic and technological research and innovation and shall guarantee an open access to the information derived from it, and shall provide sufficient resources and stimulus, on the basis of coordination, linkage and participation previously established by applicable laws; the State shall strengthen national cultural values.

Basic structure of the Constitutional

Human Right to Science

  • a universal right to enjoy the benefits of science development and tecnological innovations

  • a State obligation to fund and stimulate research and innovation

  • a State obligation to secure open access to research supported by government funds

  • an orientation towards nationalistic cultural protection

How to move forward?

  • Unpacking human rights

    • The mere presence of a human right in the constitution does little if not actively unpacked.

    • Is the constitutional text sufficient to provide directions for the unpacking?

    • It contains a guarantee of financial funding and open access to govt funded research results, but to what extent? Is it enough?

    • It may be interpreted as a partial implementation of the so called Open Science movement, which has been very active in the last two decades.

Unpacking the HRS

  • A new federal law

  • In 2023 Congress enacted a new Federal Law for Humanities, Science, Technology and Innovation.

  • This Law was challenged as unconstitutional by a fraction of members of Congress and its constitutionality is under revision at the Supreme Court of Justice.

  • However, it is a piece of legislation that does mark a direction for the unpacking of the HRS, clearly from a government perspective.

  • What do members of civil society need from the HRS to thrust its impact towards sustainable development and environmental protection?

Transparency

  • Do not take it for granted

  • Recent decrees and reforms have undermined decades of efforts to generate access to information.

  • Despite being a constitutional right, the right to information has been weakened by emerging policies that consider the INAI (National Institute for Access to Information), an independent organism, as unnecessary, redundant and opposed to current policies of national transformation.

  • A large portion of experts, activists and policy makers see the disappearance of INAI as a step back towards authoritarianism, as citizens are losing the opportunity to access vital information on a variety of issues, ranging from large and strategical projects that are harming nature, to data on greenhouse gases emissions, to public contracts, among many others.

Transparency and science towards sustainability

  • How then, to align recent legislative developments regarding the Right to science, with what many consider a step back in institutional guarantees to information?

  • Mexico has been quite active in the Open science movement and has participated in most international developments in the matter.

  • A most recent regional development in Latin America is the 2024 Panama Declaration on Open Science, on it participants declared: “We want to make public our confidence in the role of science as an engine of democracy, freedom and social justice in the current historical moment. We want more science and we want it to be open.”

  • Therefore, the alignment between the constitutional right to science, to the policy development on open science is not perfect.

Initiatives towards Open Science

  • The case of INECOL

  • INECOL is leading the unpacking of the HRS as is currently developing a set of Guidelines for Open Science.

  • Among the challenges it faces, is the lack of precise agreement among academics and other institutions on the extent of what is to be considered open access to research funded by government.

  • The Federal Law of Science remains unclear and it is likely that precise unpacking may come from further academic research, legislative advancements and strategic litigation.

Panama Declaration

  • Understands that knowledge is a common good.
  • Is confidente on the role of science as an engine of democracy, freedom and social justice in the current historical moment.
  • Wants more science, which should be open.
  • Moves towards collaborative models between Academia-Citizenship-State-Company.
  • Claims opening science requires going beyond open access
  • Urges that society needs to regain leadership
  • Claims citizens have the right to produce and benefit from science, technology and innovation.

 

panama declaration

 

  • Open data
  • Open education
  • Citizen science
  • Reproducible and replicable research.
  • Open evaluation and open peer review.
  • Open tools and free software and hardware policies.
  • Open infrastructures.
  • Open source innovation Free licenses,
  • Equitable access to biological research material

Toward a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2020)

Reproducibility crisis

1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility

Data: storage and management

  • Commit to Open Data
  • Data Management Plan
  • Choosing a repository
  • Reproducibility Checklist

How to Store and Manage Your Data (plos)

Is it good to share data?

  • Impact is more likely to go further when it reaches a broader audience.
  • Helps progress in your field more swiftly by removing barriers to access and reuse your published work.
  • Making all data available in open repositories, helps collective knowledge.

Fair principles

Go FAIR

 

unintended consequences?

 

Article-Processing Costs (APC)

The APC model, while deconstructing the paywall blocking access for readers has merely erected a new paywall at the other end of the pipeline, blocking access to publication for less-privileged authors.

The UnFAIR

We must be especially sensitive to the ways in which Open Science policies may actually worsen existing inequalities.

 

 

 

 

This Prersentation is at: https://pe-ciencia-abierta.netlify.app/presentaciones/2024-09-09-open-science

Comments, feedback, wishing to collab?

miguel.equihua@inecol.mx

equihuam@gmail.com

claudiotorresnachon@gmail.com

i-Gamma