Building Community and Support for Open Science at Carnegie Mellon University – A Conference Report

Openscienceisoneofthemajorwaystocombatthe"reproducibilitycrisis"plaguing many areas of research, from biomedical research to psychology and data science. Despite growing interestand increasingmandates tomake researchoutputsopenly availableandtofacilitatecollaborationthroughopendataandresearchtools,barriers existthatpreventthebroaderadoptionofopenscience.Lackofincentives,metrics, and an open culture persist as main roadblocks to the adoption of open science practices. Universities' libraries are playing increasingly important roles in open scienceadoptionbyprovidingtraining,resources,andexpertise.However,oneofthe challenges many libraries face is the ability to connect and collaborate with the researchcommunity.Facingthischallenge,threeliaisonlibrariansatCarnegieMellon University (CMU) teamed up with faculty in Biological Sciences, thanks to the embeddedliaisonmodelat CMU. Together,we obtaineda joint grant from theDSF Charitable Foundation (through the Mellon College of Science) to host a transdisciplinaryOpenScienceSymposiumonOct18-19,2018.Comprisedofaseriesof presentations,paneldiscussion,hands-onworkshopsanda"scientificspeeddating" event, this symposium stimulated discussions about opportunities and challenges in open science practices, accelerated the adoption of open research tools, and built community and collaborations in life sciences and related disciplines. We expected thiseventtobewell-attendedandhighlyinteractive.Inthefirsttwo weeksafterthe registration opened, an impressive response was received from CMU and nearby universities, with more than 75% or registrations being graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty. As deliverables of the symposium, we will publishaconferencereportsummarizingdiscussionsatthesymposium,makeasetof recommendations for advancing open science at CMU, and make plans to host a futureeventtoreachabroadersetofdisciplines.This conference report was presented at the Coalition of Networked Information (CNI) Fall meeting, Washington DC, 10 December 2018.