Open Science in Closed Societies

摘要

As you can so easily imagine these days, I am writing this editorial from my living room since about half of the human population has been advised not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. Our lives have so dramatically changed in the last two months as rarely before. Realising the proportion of the threat imposed by a new virus SARS-CoV2, most European governments reacted by supressing the number of social contacts, closing kindergartens, schools, universities, public transports, most shops, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, all social events, public parks, open markets, and in most countries restricting the movement of their citizens including crossing the local and national borders ( ). Such massive closing up of our societies has probably never been seen in our history. On the other hand, fighting the challenge of a new pandemic virus requires collaboration and a consorted action of researchers all over the world. Thus, a need for open science has never been as clear as today. It did not take long before the broad human population realized that only science can provide solutions for the ongoing problem. The traditional European scepticism in science and scientists’ opinions ( ) melted quickly and the trust in the scientific community grew like seldom before. The character of the pandemic we are facing clearly implies that it cannot be fought independently in one country or region but that the global response of health systems throughout the world is required. Under such conditions, the importance of scientific communication needs no particular explication. We need fast and accurate dissemination of scientific information in medical sciences. Scientific journals bear the responsibility for reporting scrupulously reviewed papers, particularly in the area important for coping with the epidemic crisis. Therefore, the flux of information has to be fast, but at the same time thoroughly controlled as human lives depend on it. More efficient communication means better collaboration, faster revealing new effective drugs and vaccines, and eventually thousands of spared lives. The public attention these days is mainly to the medical field and the pressure on medical journals is the highest ( ) but at the same time it is obvious that we are dealing with a problem much broader than just medical. Pandemic has changed our way of life, our views and opinions. It has so many faces that practically every scientific field needs to respond in one way or another. Psychological help for many is needed, engineers are challenged to increase hospital capacities in short time and build enough medical equipment, economists are facing enormous challenges in the production arrest and an abrupt decrease of both supply and demand, law experts are asked how much our constitutionally granted freedoms can or should be restricted in an effort to minimize social contacts and limit the virus spread. Education processes have been challenged by closing the schools and universities leading to massive introduction of distance learning, and employers are asked to reduce the number of employees physically coming to their working places every day. All these demand new processes, new behaviour and new decisions that have to be based on research that has to be undertaken and then disseminated. Even historians may be asked how people used to deal with contagious diseases in the past when they did not have appropriate medicines or vaccines. Well, we do not have an efficient drug either, and it will take another 12 to 18 months for the first vaccine to become publicly available.