Fair trade in building digital knowledge repositories: the knowledge economy as if researchers mattered
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SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION
Fair trade in building digital knowledge repositories: the knowledge economy as if researchers mattered Giovanni De Grandis1
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Both a significant body of literature and the case study presented here show that digital knowledge repositories struggle to attract the needed level of data and knowledge contribution that they need to be successful. This happens also to high profile and prestigious initiatives. The paper argues that the reluctance of researchers to contribute can only be understood in light of the highly competitive context in which research careers need to be built nowadays and how this affects researchers’ quality of life. Competition and managerialism limit the discretion of researchers in sharing their results and in donating their working time. A growing corpus of research shows that academic researchers are increasingly overworked and highly stressed. This corroborates the point that the room for undertaking additional tasks with future and uncertain benefits is very limited. The paper thus recommends that promoters of digital knowledge repositories focus on the needs of the researchers who are expected to contribute their knowledge. In order to treat them fairly and to ensure the success of the repositories, knowledge sharing needs to be rewarded so as to improve the working conditions of contributors. In order to help implementing this researcher-centred approach, the paper proposes the idea of expediential trust: rewards for contributing should be such that rational, self-interested researchers would freely decide to contribute their knowledge and effort trusting that this would make them better off. Keywords Knowledge repositories · Data sharing · Incentives and rewards · Competition in research · Expediential trust ‘What fools these mortals be! … They never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity—time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay’ (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius. On Saving Time, Trans. By R. Gummere). ‘The “dirty little secret” behind the promotion of data sharing is that not much sharing may be taking place’ (Borgman 2010). ‘Today, knowledge is the key source of competitive advantage’ * Giovanni De Grandis [email protected] 1
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NTNU Dragvoll, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
(Huggins and Izushi, Competing for Knowledge, 2007). ‘A punishing intensification of work has become an endemic feature of academic life’ (Gill 2010).
Introduction This Special Issue addresses the question of whether we can trust Digital Knowledge Repositories (henceforth DKRs) in the field of biomedical sciences. An interesting fact about these repositories is that many are envisaged, and many projects launched, but few manage to achieve the volume and uptake needed for taking off as useful research and translational tools or to keep up with the new knowled
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