There has never been a Science Revolution in Language – well, I’m calling for one now!
Yes, Frontiers – at https://www.frontiersin.org– shares on Facebook today, Friday, 29 May 2020, that it is “150,000 steps closer to open science” in publishing its 150,000th open-access article, a mountain of achievement.
No, Frontiers, you are not “150,000 steps closer to open science.” This is an Editor In Chief speaking from 45 years experience.
In fact, Frontiers, you are 150,000 steps farther from Open Science!
Frontiers, your Open Science is Elitist, and you do not realize why?
To you, Frontiers, “Open Science” is “open access” but you limit access to the technical materials in your publications, accessible only to technical people – no, your “Open Science” is not understandable even by a college student, much less a high schooler. If you declare “Open Science,” science, or knowledge, must be available to all in the form and language that people can appreciate.(jargon image From The Grapevine[1])
Yes, your science must be
Science with a human face!
That is notyour science, Frontiers. That phrase appeared 19 years ago in the book ICRISAT Annual Report 2000 “Science With A Human Face.” ICRISAT is the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in India; its Director General, from 2000 to 2014, is now Secretary of Agriculture William Dar of the Philippines. I personally know that because I was ICRISAT’s international consulting writer from 2007 to 2014, working from home – minding my popular science.
Frontiers, you have to make the contents of your 150,000 technical articles available to the public – to unmake your elitist “Open Science.”
Not only you, Frontiers. Worldwide, all institutions publishing technical journals should publish popularized versions of their papers – otherwise the people (taxpayers) are paying for science that they cannot understand, much less use.
This is a call for An Open Science Revolution!
Break down all border walls of Closed Science!
This is The Frontier that even giant Frontiers has not been thinking of.
For instance, in the paper “Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Management And Public Health Response[2]” authored by Giuseppe Di Lorenzo and Rossella Di Trolio, it says:
Another explanation for the higher lethality is the presence of other pathologies and the comorbidities of the elderly population.
That is ClosedScience! This is a people science writer speaking, one who has been blogging earnestly since 2007, publishing 5,000+ essays of at least 1,000 words each. In my old blog iCRiSAT Watch, I published 305 long essays all about the science and leadership of William Dar. If you ask me, he is the epitome of “Science with a human face” – that which Frontiers should be targeting if it truly is for Open Science.
So, Frontiers has so far 79 of what it calls “specialist journals” being published. “Specialist journals” means it is only the specialists in the science/s who access, assess, appreciate and apply the contents of those journals.
Pity those who do not understand technical language even while an Open Science policy has been declared all over the Internet!@
[1]https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/innovation/cant-understand-science-studies-might-be-about-change
[2]https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00140/full?utm_campaign=ba-cov-sci-fmed-italy-risk-factors&utm_medium=cvlp&utm_source=fweb?utm_source=fweb&utm_medium=fmain&utm_campaign=ba-cov-sci-hpfea-covid-disease-italy
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