Prof. Dr. Jana Lasser has a PhD in physics and her research focuses on emergent phenomena in complex social systems, employing machine learning, data science, and computational modelling. Her work spans topics such as public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of misinformation on social media, and the societal impacts of recommendation algorithms. Jana is also a strong advocate for scientific integrity and open science practices, emphasising the importance of transparency and reproducibility in research. She shares her experiences and motivations for embracing open science, particularly open data practices, which stem from her early encounters with the challenges of accessing scientific publications.
Jana discusses her journey from physics to computational social science and the epistemic and pragmatic reasons behind her commitment to open science. She elaborates on the concept of reproduction packages, which include comprehensive documentation and code to ensure research is reproducible and accessible. She provides an example of a recent study published in Nature Human Behavior, highlighting the importance of thorough documentation for future use and collaboration. Jana also addresses the ethical challenges in open data, especially in sensitive research areas like hate speech. She emphasises the need for responsible data management and the role of ethics review in ensuring privacy and ethical considerations. Additionally, Jana discusses the potential of large language models (LLMs) for simulating human behaviour and the importance of openness in both models and training data not only to enhance scientific transparency and reproducibility, but also to comply with scientific integrity, as well as ethical and legal frameworks.
Links:
Personal Website Jana Lasser
IDEA Lab Uni Graz
Network against Abuse of Power in Science
Works mentioned:
Lasser, J., Aroyehun, S.T., Carrella, F. et al. From alternative conceptions of honesty to alternative facts in communications by US politicians. Nat Hum Behav 7, 2140–2151 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01691-w
Repository with the reproduction package: https://github.com/JanaLasser/new-ontology-of-truth
Lasser, J., Herderich, A., Garland, J., Aroyehun, S. T., Garcia, D., & Galesic, M. (2023). Collective moderation of hate, toxicity, and extremity in online discussions. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.00357. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.00357
Lasser, J., Ahne, V., Heiler, G., Klimek, P., Metzler, H., Reisch, T., Sprenger, M., Thurner, S. and Sorger, J. (2020). Complexity, transparency and time pressure: practical insights into science communication in times of crisis JCOM 19(05), N01. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.1905080
- CSH Explorer for COVID19 prevention strategies at schools https://vis.csh.ac.at/covid-schools/
- Freies Wissen fellowship project (2019): https://de.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Fellow-Programm_Freies_Wissen/Fellows2019
Furthermore:
PhDComics Open Access explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY