The OLS 2020 story

This is a speed-blog of our OLS 2020 experience. Brenda, Jelioth and I were participants of the second cohort dubbed "The Masked Cohort" :-)

Building and leveraging on a covid-19 database for Immunology to promote awareness of Open Science communication

My journey into the 2nd cohort of the Open Life Science (OLS) 2020 program, was that of a timely coincidence where opportunity met need. The covid-19 pandemic, though horrifying with imposed lock-downs, presented an unforgettably beneficial experience through the OLS program. As a graduate student, based at a government university in a semi-urban town located near Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa), I knew well the frustration of journal paywall subscriptions. In addition, I had experienced first-hand the barriers to conducting academic research brought about by these paywalls.

So why was the covid-19 pandemic unforgettably beneficial again? One, while doing literature review for a concept note, I noticed many early-version full-text scientific articles (also known as preprints) on various covid-19 topics readily available across different international publishing platforms unlike ever before. I was taken aback. This was quite new. Different, if I may add. No paywalls at all. Just information being actively communicated across the scientific research communities, globally.

Two, I realized also that this quick and open way of communicating scientific findings led to a significant rise in covid-19 articles, on pre-print especially, from all themes of research. Statistics. Epidemiology. Social science. Immunology. Molecular Biology. Biochemistry. Microbiology. Name them all.

Three, a drive to increase visibility of covid-19 immunology research articles especially during the initial global vaccine development phase was born. One major motivation for this project was from an article, “Harnessing Open Science Infrastructure for an efficient African response to covid-19,” published by AfricArXiv earlier in the pandemic year. An important highlight from this article was the need for more development and collaborations on open science practice in Africa to tackle the pandemic in a concerted manner.

Finally, Brenda and Jelioth, who shared similar sentiments with academic paywalls comprised really great OLS journeying partners through the 16-weeks of the program. Brenda, a graduate student in a Kenyan government learning institution and Jelioth, working in a Kenyan government research institution, both resonated with the limiting process of closed research articles as well as concurrently appreciated the openness with research articles during the covid-19 era. How else could I describe the famous Swahili proverb: “Umoja ni nguvu” (translated in English to: “Unity is strength”), except through the support of opinion from two other like-minded individuals?

Swahili is an indigenous language spoken in Kenya, East Africa (Brenda, Jelioth and I are natives of Kenya)

Expectations from the program

The OLS-2 program provided a timely chance to learn and gain formal exposure on Open Science practice, especially in the area of open access publishing including the various available open publishing platforms.

Brenda, Jelioth and I had little exposure and knowledge in the area of open access publishing and open science practice generally. Since it was a beginners’ journey, we were excited to be part of the learning experience under the guidance of our OLS mentor, Naomi Penfold. We looked forward to lots of learning and understanding and meeting with a diversity of people across the globe with different projects participating in the program

Goals set at the beginning of the program

One central mission for us was to acquire formal learning and exposure of open science publishing as well as different concepts of open science practice. The project, sparked by the covid-19 pandemic, presented an opportunity for us to participate in the invaluable OLS program - which could be termed as "a blessing in the disguise of global unrest from the corona virus.”

We also sought to apply these learnings by thinking critically about the project and delving deeper towards understanding the final outcome we were envisioning to build. As junior post-graduates, we hoped the learning experience would, in the long run, shape our mindsets in our career journeys, produce a positive influence on us as well as those we interact with along the way.

Key understanding and accomplishments

Brenda says:

“Open inclusion and collaboration when working on a project; involving others the whole step has shown me some significant benefits of working together on a project”

“The significance of self-care and personal ecology in replenishing one’s energy while working on a project; Looking after personal wellness through occasional breaks helps to keep one refreshed to continue working on a project.”

“The open canvas helped me think deeper about the project in terms of the contributors, collaborators and the problem at hand; it also helped to measure project goals and success”

Jelioth says:

“The importance of creating a conducive environment for the project to nurture positive and negative feedback which goes a long way in building the direction of a project.”

“The general impact of gifting in encouraging good relationships especially with potential contributors, users and collaborators.”

“Conducting user research interviews to test the open canvas is a great learning point for me. I realized the importance of understanding the user needs on the ground before building something. This goes a long way in knowing and building a product that is useful for the community.”

Harriet says:

“Github is one OLS gem I take home - it is a powerful project collaborative tool that breaks the boundaries of location. It makes working collaboratively on a project easy regardless of place and time while tracking the different versions of the work.”

“The open canvas has been really useful in crystallizing the project's vision; brainstorming on the different aspects of the project like the project goals, resources required to build a minimum viable product, potential adopters, contributors, collaborators and the unique value addition.”

“Researching on the project usability before actual project building is another plus from the OLS journey; surveying other similar projects gave inspiration to keeping pushing through crystallizing the project based on potential gaps from market research.”

The main goals achieved in the project

We have gone through a great deal of learning about:

• Various open science practices such as licensing for open projects, using the open canvas for project design and strategy, readme files for project description and inviting contributors
• The central role open access publishing has played in the covid-19 era
• Git-hub and how to navigate it as a platform for collaborative work
• Market research, where we were exposed, through our mentor Naomi, to other projects for inspiration and understanding of our project area
• User research interviews, where we generated interview questions and conducted some interviews with researchers in the community so as to test the project open canvas – this was a major milestone for the project.
• The importance of personal wellness and care when working on a project

The initial steps

Naomi Penfold, an expert in open science communication, and our OLS mentor played a key role in the initial stages. She:

• enabled us delve into the problem with an objective mind by asking the right questions as well as sharing relevant resources, links and other similar projects.
• in addition, created an environment for informative and productive meetings that sharpened and shed more clarifying light to the project.
• led us into thinking through the project's vision and what the most immediate next steps could be.

What elements helped you get there?

The following elements have gone a long way in helping us grow in our learning experience as open science leaders during the OLS-2 program:

• The invaluable efforts of the OLS organizers to put together the various cohort sessions where we always learnt a new concept of open science
• The precious time spent with our mentor Naomi thinking through the project and our next steps
• The OLS-2 cohort community sharing their various experiences which inspired and enriched our learning.

Next steps

The immediate step is to...

• We are currently looking forward to conducting more user research interviews to shape the direction of the project. The outcome of this will hopefully help us explore different ideas or thoughts about the project.
• We are also hoping to keep using and sharpening on the formal learning and skills (such as Git-hub) acquired through the OLS-2 program.

Longer term tasks

The longer term goal is to hopefully create beneficial experiences in our communities through the project we are building, which will set a good stage to promote more awareness of the value of open science communication and open science generally. Inviting more efforts and inputs to collaborate on this project is also part of the longer term tasks

Staying connected

We look forward to:

• Keep working together with our OLS mentor, Naomi Penfold
• Keep communication channels open and active with the OLS cohort community, including the OLS organizers. Kindly see our project issue on the OLS repo for more contact details

Special mentions and acknowledgments

Many thanks to:

• the OLS organisers - Yo Yehudi, Malvika Sharan, Berenice Batut and Emmy Tsang for organising the OLS-2 program
• the entire OLS-2 cohort community i.e. all the project leads for participating in the program and sharing their experiences; the OLS-2 mentors and experts for availing their time and expertise.
• Meag Doherty, an OLS-2 expert and mentor, for taking time to share resources and insights with us on user research interviews – we learnt some new ideas on value exchanges and the use of personas
• Emma J. Owidi, an interviews expert from KEMRI-Kenya, for sharing valuable tips and information on how to conduct zoom and phone call interviews
• User research interviewees from Kenya
• Naomi Penfold, our OLS-2 mentor for walking with us the whole OLS journey

Compiled by Harriet Natabona @natty2012, Brenda Muthoni @sonibk, Jelioth Muthoni @Jelioth