How can "Open Science" help restore public trust in research – and why are technical solutions alone not enough to create meaningful change? In her doctoral thesis, Parissa Mokhtabad Amrei explores how visions of transparency, participation, and public benefit are put into practice through Open Science initiatives. The findings show that infrastructures play a crucial role in determining whether ideas of openness and participation become sustainable in the long term or remain short-lived ambitions.
What challenges do you focus on in your research?
“There have been ongoing discussions about crises in science, such as the erosion of public trust, the replication crisis, and concerns that science often addresses the interests of limited groups rather than society as a whole. Open Science practices such as Open Access, by making research publicly available, Citizen Science, through participatory ways of doing science, and Open Data, through transparency, aim to address these crises and change how science is conducted, mainly through the use of digital sharing technologies. In my research, I focus on cases of Open Science and study how the visions of Open Science to reform science are enacted in various contexts.”
How do you address the problem?
“I approach Open Science practices, and specifically their temporal aspects, through the concept of infrastructure. In four empirical case studies, I analyze how Open Science practices become infrastructures, how they reconfigure existing infrastructures, or why such infrastructuring efforts are sometimes not sustained. The cases include discussions of Open Science in published academic papers in the behavioral sciences, comparisons of environmental citizen observatories in Europe, efforts toward open data and digital participation in urban governance, and a case study on the use of open-source tools in water infrastructure.”
What are the main findings?
“My findings indicate that Open Science practitioners and advocates often aim to reform science and policy through visions of participation, public benefit, and transparency, but these visions are difficult to realize when they rely on technocratic solutions, neglect the importance of connections to infrastructures, or underestimate rigid classifications and exclusions.”
“At the same time, the final study demonstrates that open-source tools can contribute to public benefit when they are integrated into an existing infrastructure. The findings further suggest that infrastructures play a critical role in enabling or constraining the visions of transparency, participation, and public benefit in Open Science.”
What do you hope your research will lead to?
“I hope my research will contribute to a better understanding of Open Science as something more than technical or bureaucratic. I want to highlight the critical role infrastructures play in enabling public benefit, participation, and transparency, and to emphasize that Open Science practices need to be value-laden. Most importantly, they should aim to find ways to benefit the public through intermediaries. At the same time, for these practices to persist, they need to establish and maintain infrastructural ties.”
Read the thesis: Visions and Infrastructures of Open Science
Public defence: 4 June 2026 at 13:15
- Doctoral Student, Science, Technology and Society, Technology Management and Economics
Supervisor
- Associate Professor, Science, Technology and Society, Technology Management and Economics