Research often conjures images of scientists locked away in their laboratories for days at a time conducting experiments. Competition for funding is intense and grant agreements can restrict the amount of information scientists share outside the laboratory. Reports about results are published via peer reviewed academic journals who charge a fee to download an article, which works to make data inaccessible to many science professionals and the general public. Or in some cases, if the research work failed, the report is never published and the lessons learnt from the mistakes made are lost because of the ‘taint' of failure. Dr Alice Williamson is an advocate for open science forums and believes making science more accessible to everyone will improve the efficiency of experiments, enhance the knowledge of research practitioners and inform the global community.   

Listen to this interesting presentation: We need to open science up to everyone by guest speaker Dr Alice Williamson, a lecturer in Chemical Education from The University of Sydney. 

Program: Ockham’s Razor

Presenter: Robyn Williams

Producer: James Bullen

Broadcaster: ABC National Radio 

Broadcast Date: 23 September 2018