Open Science

NLM has nearly two centuries of experience delivering information to those who need it, when they need it. Of course, our offerings have evolved and expanded since our inception, long before the term “open science” was coined. Last year, NIH was one of several federal agencies to join the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in their celebration of 2023 as the Year of Open Science. Observing the Year of Open Science allowed us an opportunity to reflect and strengthen this foundation.

In this special episode of NNLM Discovery, we chat with Lisa Federer, Acting Director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives at NLM and Maryam Zaringhalam, Data Science and Open Science Officer in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at NLM.

We discuss how NLM’s long-standing commitment to provide access to research products and processes aligns with the U.S. Government’s definition of open science and the NNLM's role in fostering communication between the NLM and users of its products and services.

The NNLM is the outreach arm of the National Library of Medicine with the mission to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The seven Health Sciences Libraries function as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for their respective region, with Region 7 consisting of: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. 

All of the artwork for this podcast series has been created with a generative AI image-to-image tool!  The prompt for this episode was “Open and free science available to all communities as an abstract painting.”

We invite each of you to complete this survey about the podcast series, whether you are a frequent listener or are new to the podcast series. The anonymous survey is open through Friday, March 15. 

Survey link:  https://redcap.link/nnlm_discovery_nlmnnlm

Join Outreach Services Librarian, Yamila El-Khayat, for new episodes of the NNLM Discovery podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or listen on our website www.nnlm.gov/podcast. Please be sure to like, rate, and review the show!

Transcript

00;00;02;14 - 00;00;25;03
Yamila El-Khayat 
I’m librarian Yamila El-Khayat and this is NNLM Discovery a podcast from the Network of the National Library of Medicine. Today’s episode is, “Open Science,” a story from the National Library of Medicine. In January of 2023, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a ‘federal year of open science.’

00;00;25;03 - 00;00;26;14
Yamila El-Khayat 
You might be asking,

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Yamila El-Khayat 
what is open science?

00;00;28;06 - 00;00;30;19
Yamila El-Khayat 
Haven't we always done open science at NLM?

00;00;30;19 - 00;00;43;02
Yamila El-Khayat 
So, a quick example why this is important… Artificial Intelligence. It seems like everything we do comes back to A.I. in some way, and this story is no exception.

00;00;43;02 - 00;00;51;04
Yamila El-Khayat 
A.I. is only as good as the datasets that are used to train it. So the quality and reliability of data is really important.

00;00;51;04 - 00;01;03;11
Yamila El-Khayat 
So our issues of security, bias, consent, and privacy. This is where open science comes in. It's all about sharing research in an effective and equitable way.

00;01;03;11 - 00;01;14;03
Yamila El-Khayat 
Let's jump right into my discussion with two of our very own NLM experts who have spent the last year working on this multi-agency open science initiative.

00;01;14;28 - 00;01;19;28
Yamila El-Khayat 
All right, so we're rolling. Let's start off by just identifying yourself

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Unknown
and saying your job titles here at NLM.

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Lisa Federer
Yeah. So my name is Lisa Federer. I am the Acting Director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives here at NLM.

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Maryam Zaringhalam
Sure, I am Maryam Zaringhalam. I am the Data Science and Open Science Officer sitting in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at NLM.

00;01;38;14 - 00;01;47;06
Yamila El-Khayat 
Okay. Most important question, for someone who has no idea what is open science?

00;01;47;06 - 00;02;04;03
Maryam Zaringhalam
We have a federal definition for open science that was unveiled at the start of 2023, and it is the principle and practice of making research processes and products available to all while respecting diverse cultures,

00;02;04;03 - 00;02;11;28
Maryam Zaringhalam
maintaining security and privacy, and fostering collaborations, reproducibility, and equity.

00;02;12;01 - 00;02;28;04
Maryam Zaringhalam
So this is the first time that we have a consistent definition across all of the US government around what open science is and also what we're trying to achieve by advancing a more open way of doing research.

00;02;28;04 - 00;02;54;23
Lisa Federer
Open science is an umbrella term for a range of scientific practices that involve making the products and processes of research open. So traditionally you would go to the lab, collect some data, do some analysis, write a paper, you'd submit that paper, and then that paper may or may not be open access for people to read without a subscription.

00;02;54;25 - 00;03;22;18
Lisa Federer
But open science involves really all of those products and processes being made open. So the data is available for people to use. In many cases, the software and code that you use to wrangle and analyze it is available. Of course the literature is available. So it's really important because it allows people to have a better view into that scientific process and understand how is this information collected,

00;03;22;18 - 00;03;43;29
Lisa Federer
how did the scientist come to the conclusion that they do in their paper. But it also gives people the opportunity to reuse some of those things. So potentially data is out there that is useful to a study that I'm interested in doing, and I don't have to take the extra time and funding to collect that data again, I can go and find it and use it for my research.

00;03;43;29 - 00;03;49;00
Yamila El-Khayat 
So what is the National Library of Medicine's role in open science?

00;03;49;00 - 00;03;54;18
Maryam Zaringhalam
Yeah, so NLM is a library, right? And libraries are all about connecting

00;03;54;18 - 00;04;10;16
Maryam Zaringhalam
different audiences, different users of our resources, with the information that they need in ways that, you know, are meaningful to them. So as a library, we're really, you know, I see it as really baked into the mission.

00;04;10;16 - 00;04;22;13
Maryam Zaringhalam
And what we have done over the last two centuries is really connecting people with information that they need, which is really at the center of open science.

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Lisa Federer
So there's a lot of researchers who are interested in doing this, sort of for the good of science. And there's also people that will be required to do it because policy,

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Lisa Federer
says that they must as a condition of their funding.

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Lisa Federer
So I think NLM plays a really important role in being that place that people can go to put their research, to put their data, and also to be a trusted source of data. So with more and more data available out there, more and more repositories, it can be a challenging landscape to figure out, you know, where do I get the best quality data?

00;04;57;28 - 00;05;06;27
Lisa Federer
And just as NLM has been a source of trusted health information in the past, we are a source of trusted data as well.

00;05;07;01 - 00;05;20;01
Yamila El-Khayat 
I'm the happy librarian that thinks this should be an easy thing to roll out. I mean, we've been doing it for 200 years. So what are some of the concerns to open science and why hasn't the research community jumped at this opportunity?

00;05;20;01 - 00;05;39;00
Lisa Federer
So I think some people have some concerns about making data available because being at the NIH, we fund a lot of research that has human subjects data. But it's important to recognize that open science and data sharing is not just a blanket share everything fully, openly, all the time.

00;05;39;00 - 00;06;03;04
Lisa Federer
So we have safeguards in place to make sure that people are using the data responsibly and appropriately, and that patient data remains secure. So that I think, is a really important piece. There's also concerns that people put their data out there and they don't really get credit or get recognized for that, and it's definitely an evolving space.

00;06;03;04 - 00;06;20;11
Lisa Federer
But NIH has been thinking about and other research institutions have been thinking about how do we make sure that people who share high quality data sets get credit for that in the same way that people who publish high impact, highly cited journal articles get credit for those?

00;06;20;11 - 00;06;26;28
Lisa Federer
So it's a shift in thinking about how we value academic and research output.

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Lisa Federer
But now that we have these resources, like repositories to make data available, we now have a way to surface those and get them, you know, out of your lab drawer or off of your hard drive and have them in a place where people can see them and therefore can reuse them

00;06;44;03 - 00;06;45;01
Lisa Federer
and can reward them.

00;06;45;01 - 00;06;57;22
Yamila El-Khayat 
Thanks, Lisa. That's quite the shift in thinking. So, Maryam, tell me more about why is open science important and what impact does this have on science and research?

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Maryam Zaringhalam
We’re giving others an opportunity to sort of look under the hood of what sort of

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Maryam Zaringhalam
underpins the discoveries that we've made. The datasets, the codes, so that they can, you know, reuse them so that they can verify them.

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Maryam Zaringhalam
And that really makes our research more robust, more reliable, more trustworthy, the more opportunities that we're giving

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Maryam Zaringhalam
to sort of promote and enable that transparency and that accountability and ensure that science

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Maryam Zaringhalam
is self-correcting if it needs to be,

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Maryam Zaringhalam
or that we can feel really, really confident in the results that we have because we've given those opportunities to verify.

00;07;42;05 - 00;07;59;04
Maryam Zaringhalam
So if we are going to achieve the goals of open science, we have to make sure that we are sort of thinking about communities that maybe don't feel like science is for them, who were maybe told in the eighth or ninth grade that they weren't a science person.

00;07;59;06 - 00;08;17;16
Maryam Zaringhalam
And so what are on ramps that we have to bring people into the processes and products of research, not that they have to become a scientist or a researcher or a science nerd, but to kind of demystify what we're doing as a scientific and research community.

00;08;17;16 - 00;08;22;16
Maryam Zaringhalam
And so that's where I see the sort of relationship between equity and open science.

00;08;22;17 - 00;08;30;10
Maryam Zaringhalam
It's thinking about what are the needs of these communities that we want to connect to those processes and products

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Maryam Zaringhalam
and what are the tools that we have, you know, as a library to enable those connections. connections.

00;08;36;09 - 00;08;49;09
Yamila El-Khayat 
That leads into my next question perfectly. This is NNLM Discovery. So how is the NLM able to help spread the word of open science to communities across the country?

00;08;49;16 - 00;08;50;05
Maryam Zaringhalam
So I think

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Maryam Zaringhalam
one of NLM's greatest assets in open science, and particularly in, you know, how do we increase access

00;09;00;04 - 00;09;07;02
Maryam Zaringhalam
for all of the different communities across the country while respecting diverse cultures and promoting equity?

00;09;07;09 - 00;09;11;01
Maryam Zaringhalam
And I see the Network of the National Library of Medicine,

00;09;11;12 - 00;09;43;26
Maryam Zaringhalam
which has over 8000 points of presence across the country, is really the roots in the ground for NLM and a great connection point between NIH and all of the different communities across the country in not only sort of delivering information, but also creating opportunities to get input and information back to us as this sort of like bidirectional engagement relationship that I see is really important to advancing open science.

00;09;43;26 - 00;09;44;09
Lisa Federer


00;09;44;11 - 00;10;00;10
Lisa Federer
Also the role of training librarians, they do a huge amount of outreach and training to librarians, which I think is a really powerful investment, because then those librarians go out to their communities and they're able to spread that knowledge as well. So

00;10;00;10 - 00;10;02;19
Lisa Federer
NNLM is definitely doing a lot to drive these efforts as well.

00;10;02;19 - 00;10;27;09
Yamila El-Khayat 
Oh my goodness. Thank you both so much. You've described the important role of NNLM so well. That's exactly what we do. I think someone new to our podcast will understand our important relationship to NLM from that response that you gave us. So 2023 was an important year. Describe for us what was the year of Open Science?

00;10;27;09 - 00;10;39;26
Maryam Zaringhalam
So the year of Open Science was this effort that spanned across the U.S. government agencies. So 17 federal agencies and departments signed on

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Maryam Zaringhalam
saying that 2023 would be a year of open science.

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Maryam Zaringhalam
And the idea was to promote adoption of open science, to raise awareness of what open science is, and the various benefits that it can have,

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Maryam Zaringhalam
to advance policies across the government that promote more open, equitable and secure ways of doing research,

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Maryam Zaringhalam
to support and strengthen infrastructures that enable access to federally funded research,

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Maryam Zaringhalam
and to create opportunities for training and capacity building so that we're really making sure that as we're spreading the word about open science, we're also building a workforce and opportunities to use to really be able to tap into the potential for open science.

00;11;35;22 - 00;11;56;18
Lisa Federer
So NLM was one of the agencies that participated, and we really focused a lot this year on just communicating what we're doing around open science. This is not anything new to NLM. We've been doing open science before that was even really a term, making literature available, making data available.

00;11;56;21 - 00;12;13;02
Lisa Federer
So for us it was partly just about helping people to realize like, oh yeah, this is open science. Like this is not a game changing, totally new paradigm. This is actually something that we've been doing for quite a while.

00;12;13;02 - 00;12;31;15
Yamila El-Khayat 
Federal agencies working together to improve and enhance science. That's amazing. So I've got the list of agencies in front of me. I just want to read off a few. There's obviously the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, CDC.

00;12;31;15 - 00;12;39;20
Yamila El-Khayat 
And these are just a few of the agencies listed on this paper. To end our discussion, now that 2023 is over

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Yamila El-Khayat 
what is the future of open science?

00;12;42;13 - 00;12;50;26
Maryam Zaringhalam
So the Year of Open Science was never about just one year. It was about sort of sowing the seeds to propel us into a future.

00;12;50;26 - 00;12;54;16
Maryam Zaringhalam
And we're now in that future and

00;12;54;16 - 00;13;05;26
Maryam Zaringhalam
will continue to think about how we as NLM can really be leaders in creating that more open and equitable and responsible sort of future

00;13;05;26 - 00;13;07;00
Maryam Zaringhalam
for research.

00;13;07;00 - 00;13;11;28
Lisa Federer
I'm very optimistic about the future of open science. I think that,

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Lisa Federer
there are, of course,

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Lisa Federer
these policies that are moving the culture in that direction.

00;13;17;09 - 00;13;35;24
Lisa Federer
But I think there's also a shift in researchers thinking about open science. And a lot of researchers are excited about making their data openly available, and the opportunities that that can present to them to collaborate with other researchers, and just have their science out there.

00;13;35;24 - 00;13;42;28
Lisa Federer
So I think it's a bit of a culture shift, but I think that even though that may happen slowly, there's

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Lisa Federer
some really great opportunity to change the landscape of how we do research.

00;13;48;15 - 00;14;19;27
Yamila El-Khayat 
Thanks to Maryam and Lisa again for taking the time to talk with us. I think it's important to showcase how the NNLM and NLM work together to advance the adoption of open, equitable and secure science. You can read more about the Year of Open Science on the NLM’s Musings from the Mezzanine blog. NNLM’s project director, Martha Meacham, contributed an article featuring Lisa and Maryam titled “Carrying the Momentum from a Year of Open Science Forward in 2024.”

00;14;19;27 - 00;14;23;12
Yamila El-Khayat 
We’ll include a link to that article in our show notes.

00;14;23;14 - 00;14;38;03
Yamila El-Khayat 
To learn more about the Year of Open Science and to see a full list of agencies involved, visit open.science.gov or check out our show notes with the direct link. This is NNLM Discovery. Thank you for listening.