An official website of the United States government
Synopsis Equity and inclusivity in STEM research has become a larger topic of discussion in recent years; however, researchers and scientists with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses are often missing from these conversations. Further, while field research is a major research component for some STEM disciplines, it is unclear what accessibility barriers or accommodations exist across the field sciences. Field research can sometimes involve harsh environments, topography, and weather that present challenges to those with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses. A large and coinciding obstacle standing in the way of field research accessibility is the ableism present across science and academia, resulting in and from a lack of prioritization of attention and funding from universities and institutions. Biological field stations have been shown to be valuable not only as infrastructure for field-based research, but also as providing resources toward the scientific education of students and scientific outreach initiatives for the general public. As such, biological field stations are perfectly positioned to reduce barriers in research inclusion and accessibility for students and scientists with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses. The current work presents the results of a survey meant to inventory the presence or absence of accessible infrastructure across field stations, with responses spanning six countries and 24 US states. Our results highlight a number of accessibility deficits in areas such as accessible entrances, kitchens, and bathrooms. Our results suggest that (1) biological field stations have significant variability in accessibility with significant deficits, especially in non-public-facing buildings used primarily by staff and researchers, and (2) field stations would benefit from an increase in federal funding opportunities to expedite their progress toward compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. We propose potential solutions to field work infrastructure spanning a range of financial costs, with emphasis on the point that efforts toward accessibility do not require an “all-or-nothing” approach, and that any step toward accessibility will make field stations more inclusive. Additionally, we further suggest that federal funding sources, such as the NSF and NIH, as well as university leadership, should consider broadening diversity initiatives to promote the continuation of, and increased accessibility of, university-affiliated field stations.
more »
« less
FAIR Island: real-world examples of place-based open science
Abstract The relationship between people, place, and data presents challenges and opportunities for science and society. While there has been general enthusiasm for and work toward Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data for open science, only more recently have these data-centric principles been extended into dimensions important to people and place—notably, the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, which affect collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, and ethics. The FAIR Island project seeks to translate these ideals into practice, leveraging the institutional infrastructure provided by scientific field stations. Starting with field stations in French Polynesia as key use cases that are exceptionally well connected to international research networks, FAIR Island builds interoperability between different components of critical research infrastructure, helping connect these to societal benefit areas. The goal is not only to increase reuse of scientific data and the awareness of work happening at the field stations but more generally to accelerate place-based research for sustainable development. FAIR Island works reflexively, aiming to scale horizontally through networks of field stations and to serve as a model for other sites of intensive long-term scientific study.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2132549
- PAR ID:
- 10402405
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- GigaScience
- Volume:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 2047-217X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
We examine the intersection of the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), the challenges and opportunities presented by the aggregation of widely distributed and heterogeneous data about biological and geological specimens, and the use of the Digital Object Architecture (DOA) data model and components as an approach to solving those challenges that offers adherence to the FAIR principles as an integral characteristic. This approach will be prototyped in the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) project, the pan-European Research Infrastructure which aims to unify over 110 natural science collections across 21 countries. We take each of the FAIR principles, discuss them as requirements in the creation of a seamless virtual collection of bio/geo specimen data, and map those requirements to Digital Object components and facilities such as persistent identification, extended data typing, and the use of an additional level of abstraction to normalize existing heterogeneous data structures. The FAIR principles inform and motivate the work and the DO Architecture provides the technical vision to create the seamless virtual collection vitally needed to address scientific questions of societal importance.more » « less
-
Digital publishing platforms and internet resources enable openness of access to scientific findings and data at scales never before realized. Unfortunately, researchers sometimes embrace lock-in systems for data generation and analysis out of necessity because meaningful alternatives do not exist. Scientific advances still take place when this occurs, but they become fragmented with discordant quality control, interoperability, reproducibility, and democratization of access. To maximize the value of these—often—publicly funded resources, disciplines are turning to FAIR Guiding Principles for data stewardship. FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse) promotes the added value of widespread data sharing that is transparent, equitable, and inclusive. Here we present NoCTURN, an NSF-funded FAIR Open Science Research Coordination Network for computed tomography users. NoCTURN (the Non-clinical Computed Tomography Users Research Network) aims to address the fragmentation of tomography toolkits stemming from proprietary software, non-uniform metadata formats, and repeatability limits. In this presentation, we outline how we will achieve this aim together by 1) developing a community committed to information sharing; 2) coordinating data analysis, storage, and reporting requirements; 3) highlighting underrepresented voices in the field; 4) developing community standards inclusive of industry, research, education, and outreach stake-holders; and 5) modeling FAIR open science strategies for our colleagues and students. NoCTURN is recruiting undergraduates through established investigators from X-ray-, neutron-, and synchrotron-beam computed tomography communities—and we want to hear from you.more » « less
-
This perspective article presents the vision of combining findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) Digital Objects with the National Science Data Fabric (NSDF) to enhance data accessibility, scientific discovery, and education. Integrating FAIR Digital Objects into the NSDF overcomes data access barriers and facilitates the extraction of machine-actionable metadata in alignment with FAIR principles. The article discusses examples of climate simulations and materials science workflows and establishes the groundwork for a dataflow design that prioritizes inclusivity, web-centricity, and a network-first approach to democratize data access and create opportunities for research and collaboration in the scientific community.more » « less
-
Abstract Science Gateways provide an easily accessible and powerful computing environment for researchers. These are built around a set of software tools that are frequently and heavily used by large number of researchers in specific domains. Science Gateways have been catering to a growing need of researchers for easy to use computational tools, however their usage model is typically single user-centric. As scientific research becomes ever more team oriented, the need driven by user-demand to support integrated collaborative capabilities in Science Gateways is natural progression. Ability to share data/results with others in an integrated manner is an important and frequently requested capability. In this article we will describe and discuss our work to provide a rich environment for data organization and data sharing by integrating the SeedMeLab (formerly SeedMe2) platform with two Science Gateways: CIPRES and GenApp. With this integration we also demonstrate SeedMeLab’s extensible features and how Science Gateways may incorporate and realize FAIR data principles in practice and transform into community data hubs.more » « less
