What is the precise relationship between Open Research and Decentralised Science?

I’m interested in the community’s opinion about the relationship between Open Research and Decentralised Science (DeSci).

Open research describes a collection of practices researchers can implement to improve the quality of their work. Implementing practices such as study pre-registration, open study materials, open (and/or FAIR) data, pre-printing and open-access publishing helps to make research more equitable, reproducible and accessible.

DeSci is a nascent but growing movement of independent but largely aligned projects aiming to decentralise different areas of the research ecosystem, such as research funding, publication and commercialisation. Some DeSci projects focus on specific research topics such as longevity. The common factor underlying DeSci projects is the enabling web3 technology - blockchain and associated developments in collaboration such as decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs).

The use of these tools appears to be key to what is and isn't considered DeSci. Many DeSci projects implement open research principles and I believe the open research movement will continue to lead to growing interest in DeSci. As the barriers to entry of DeSci communities are much lower than academic research, many DeSci projects could also be described as citizen science. It is important to consider the variability between DeSci projects, for example, a project can have a DAO or a token, but these are not prerequisites. How much each project aligns with open research principles will also vary, so each project should be considered independently.

This variability highlights the limits of this distinction. I could imagine a project aiming to either investigate or directly decentralise research processes that doesn’t use web3 tools. Conversely, a conventional academic research project could utilise a DeSci tool for part of the process, for example, they publish an DeSci node alongside the other outputs. Could these still be considered DeSci projects? Is this even a useful distinction to make (beyond branding/marketing considerations)?

Ultimately, while open research and DeSci are useful terms, the precise relationship between the two areas remains unclear. All research projects (DeSci tools or not) will implement open research practices to differing degrees and should be assessed based on their individual merits.

Let me know what you think!

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What is the precise relationship between Open Research and Decentralised Science?