Reproducibility of Social Sciences' and Humanities' results

Recently we see many efforts (even challenges) to reproduce experiments and results of social scientific research. One pioneering project is hosted by the Open Science Framework:

Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science

In the project wiki replicated studies are listed: https://osf.io/ezcuj/wiki/Replicated%20Studies/

Even though replication studies are often heavily criticized the current trend fosters a new attention for reproducibility in science and social sciences. Especially big data studies come with replication challenges. 

This seems like a fascinating topic to be studied from an STS perspective.  We are currently collecting bibliographies of existing papers to that topic.

Issues in Open Research Data

A new book edited by Panton fellow Samuel A. Moore is dedicated to pressing issues of Open Research Data.

In 2010 the Panton Principles for Open Data in Science were published. These principles were founded upon the idea that 'Science is based on building on, reusing and openly criticising the published body of scientific knowledge’ (http://pantonprinciples.org) and they provide a succinct list of the fundamentals to observe when making your data open. Intended for a broad audience of academics, publishers and librarians, Issues in Research Data explores the implications of the Panton Principles through a number of perspectives on open research data in the sciences and beyond.

The book features chapters by open data experts in a range of academic disciplines, covering practical information on licensing, ethics, and advice for data curators, alongside more theoretical issues surrounding the adoption of open data. As the book is open access, each chapter can stand alone from the main volume so that communities can host, distribute, build upon and remix the content that is relevant to them. Readers can access the online version of the book via open access.

Especially recommended is the chapter by Eric C. Kansa: "The Need to Humanzie Open Science" for its critical look on technocratic OS phantasies i.a..

Open Access in the Social Sciences and Humanities

There is a wonderful book by Martin Paul Eve:

Open Access and the HumanitiesContexts, Controversies and the Future

Just click on the open access button to get a highly elaborated overview of the many factors that co-shape scholarly communication and publishing practices in the humanities.

The main focus is on the transition to- and reflection of open access strategies, all of this relevant also for the social sciences in general!

Open access, science, society, democracy and the digital divide

Sociological implications of scientific publishing: Open access, science, society, democracy and the digital divide

by Ulrich Herb at FirstMonday

This article critically approaches several claims underpinning open access from a sociological perspective based on Bourdieu's concept of scientific capital.