In this episode of the Politics of Openness Podcast, Katja Mayer interviews Žiga Škorjanc, a postdoctoral researcher and legal expert in IT, intellectual property, data protection, and data law. They discuss his recent study for the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research on the legal frameworks of open science. The study focuses on guidelines and recommendations for legislative and non-legislative measures to support Open Science activities at the national level in Austria. Dr. Škorjanc highlights the importance of aligning EU and national laws to address practical legal issues researchers face. Furthermore, Dr. Škorjanc emphasises the need complementing legal certainty with standardisation and the sharing of best practices in data management and the sharing of research data. He explains the challenges and misunderstandings of data ownership and the necessity of robust frameworks, infrastructures and contractual agreements for data governance. The discussion also touches on rights retention strategies and the potential for legal disputes to clarify uncertainties. Dr. Škorjanc suggests that research institutions should adopt a risk-aware rather than risk-averse approach to open science. He advocates for more institutional support and guidance of researchers to build trust and facilitate open science practices, ultimately leading to increases in data sharing and collaboration across institutions.
Links:
Personal Website:
Study for the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research (in German)
- Škorjanc, Ž. (2023). Analyse der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für Open Science in Österreich (Oktober 2023) (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10078375
Uni Konstanz case