[Responsible-digital-futures] Fwd: CfP: FOR 2026 - The Future of Open Research

Mon Jun 23 13:53:55 BST 2025

Dear colleagues,

This CfP might be of interest. Details below.

Best wishes

Suchith

Professor Suchith Anand
Professor of Practice in Science Policy | Senior Adviser to Governments and
International Organisations | Scientist | Global Citizen | Science
Diplomacy |  SDG Volunteer and Advocate
https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/43268-suchith-anand
https://ethicaldatainitiative.org

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Sabina Leonelli
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 at 10:51
Subject: CfP: FOR 2026 - The Future of Open Research
To: professorships.sts at sot.tum.de

*Call for Papers - FOR 2026 Conference: The Future of Open Research:
Reliable, Responsible, Equitable*

*4-6 May 2026, Institute for Advanced Studies, Technical University of
Munich*

Conference URL with preliminary information and submission guidelines:
https://opensciencestudies.eu/for-2026-conference/

The future of open research is uncertain. On the one hand, decades of
activism and institutional support have placed the value and significance
of intelligent strategies and formats for open research (and its
dissemination) beyond doubt. Openness is central to the development of
trustworthy, accountable, collaborative and socially engaged knowledge. On
the other hand, open research measures need to be tailored to diverse
research conditions around the globe and across domains, which in turn
requires substantial investment, local engagement, responsiveness to the
ethical and social dimensions of inquiry, and attention to diversity,
equity, and inclusion.

While the implementation of open science principles is certainly
facilitated by ever more accessible digital technologies and training
programmes, for many researchers around the world acquiring the expertise
and skills to engage in open research practices remains elusive. Exposure
to open research initiatives often happens as an end-user rather than as an
active contributor. This is because well-resourced environments produce the
tools, set the research goals, define the standards and methods, which
leads to them benefitting disproportionally from the opportunities. This
makes even the best-intentioned projects into opportunities for the best
resourced environments (which are often in charge of producing open science
tools) to impose their own understanding of research goals, standards and
methods on everybody else. Therefore, without domain- and location-specific
input, the risk is that open research amplifies existing inequities and
discrimination in the production, use and evaluation of knowledge, thereby
inflicting damage to the research system instead of the promised
improvements. And this is not to mention the ongoing debates over how
politically unpalatable open science may be, the extent to which open
research has been appropriated by commercial entities such as large
publishing companies and digital platforms, the fraught intersection
between open science and artificial intelligence, and the ongoing
difficulties in supporting and maintaining open research activities and
tools in the long term.

This conference brings together scholars, activists and policymakers to
consider this challenging landscape and discuss the future of open
research. Our goal is to facilitate the development of open research
practices explicitly geared to serve the public interest, which involves
interrogating what may constitute that ‘public interest’ to different
audiences and in different locations around the world. A central element
for our discussions will be the development of a *Munich Manifesto for
Equitable Open Research*, detailing ways to utilise open research to foster
reliable, responsible, and equitable forms of inquiry. A draft text of the
manifesto will be circulated two weeks before the conference to all
participants, and one session of the conference will be dedicated to
discussing and finalising  the declaration and its possible signatories.

We call for contributions by researchers across all fields of knowledge
including the arts and humanities, policy-makers interested in research and
development, representatives of scholarly and commercial institutions
involved in research, and civil society associations engaged in knowledge
production. Themes may include, but not be limited to:

   - Historical, philosophical and social studies of open research and its
   implementation
   - Ethics and research integrity in the context of open research
   - Bibliometric and other data-intensive investigations of open research
   - The use of AI in support of socially responsive and responsible forms
   of open research
   - Legal perspectives on open research implementations across different
   settings
   - Training and capacity building for responsive and responsible open
   research
   - Infrastructures and tools supporting responsive and responsible open
   research
   - Policy-making initiatives and recommendations for equitable open
   research
   - Contributions from the arts and humanities to represent open research
   in alternative formats

*Contributions formats*

Contributions may consist of abstracts for individual papers (including by
large groups of co-authors where appropriate) and posters. The conference
will be single stream so we will not have the opportunity to welcome panel
proposals; we ask research groups and projects to please bring together
their perspective and experiences within one talk, delivered jointly by a
maximum of three individuals. *Abstracts* for both papers and posters are
expected to be a *maximum of* *500 words* and should be accompanied by
a *description
of the authors’ background* of *maximum 500 words* length. When submitting
your proposal, you can choose whether you wish to be considered for a talk,
a poster or both. The conference language is English. Session presenters of
accepted proposals are expected to register for the conference (in-person
attendance). Presentations will be recorded for posting online after the
conference.

*Submission*

*We use OxfordAbstracts as a submission system. Please submit your
contributions through the link provided on the conference website by 30
September 2025 (**https://opensciencestudies.eu/for-2026-conference/*
<https://opensciencestudies.eu/for-2026-conference/>*)    *

*Important dates*

   - *Abstract submission deadline:* September 30, 2025
   - *Notification of acceptance/rejection:* October 31, 2025
   - *Deadline for early bird registration fees*: 31 January 2026
   - *Conference date:* May 4-6, 2026, Munich, Germany

*Accessibility of materials*

It is expected that authors publish materials such as posters and
presentation slides as well as session outcomes at least licensed as CC-BY
4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0 on Zenodo (you may reserve a DOI
<https://help.zenodo.org/docs/deposit/describe-records/reserve-doi/>
before) and make it available to the Future of Open Research Community
(coming soon!).

Sabina Leonelli
<http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/research/sts/egenis/staff/leonelli/>

Professor of Philosophy and History of Science and Technology, Technical
University of Munich

Director of Ethical Data Initiative <https://ethicaldatainitiative.org/>
Honorary Professor of Philosophy and History of Science, University of
Exeter

President-Elect of the International Society for the History, Philosophy
and Social Studies of Biology <https://www.ishpssb.org/>

Open Science Studies <http://www.opensciencestudies.eu/>

*Mail address:* School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical
University of Munich, Arcisstraße 21, 80333 Munich, Germany
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