Science Policy Research Articles

인공지능과 인권

Human rights and artificial intelligence are two important concepts that interact with each other in today's rapidly developing digital age. How will artificial intelligence technology affect human rights that are spreading throughout people's lives? This question has become an increasing focus of attention. Artificial intelligence is the field that enables computer systems to simulate human-like thinking and decision-making capabilities. However, some of the problems that arise from artificial intelligence may have a direct impact on human rights. The interaction between human rights and artificial intelligence is a complex problem. While artificial intelligence technology has the potential to harm people and human rights, it also has great potential to be used to protect and promote human rights. Therefore, artificial intelligence technology must be developed and used while observing human rights through an approach supported by an ethical and legal framework. In this paper, after reviewing human rights issues such as artificial intelligence and freedom of expression, artificial intelligence and freedom of privacy, artificial intelligence and bias, hate, discrimination, artificial intelligence and defamation, artificial intelligence and copyright, we will discuss the issue of legal response to artificial intelligence. Regarding the relationship between the state and science and technology, the Constitution stipulates that “the state shall endeavor to develop the national economy through innovation of science and technology and the development of information and manpower (Article 127), and the rights of authors, inventors, and scientists are protected by law (Article 22).” It declares that the state will actively plan and form for the promotion of science and technology and lead in a certain direction. In relation to these constitutional provisions, the establishment and implementation of science and technology policies can be seen as an important duty given to the Republic of Korea as a democratic welfare state. It can be said that the main legislative duty is to achieve a balance between the value of promoting the development and utilization of artificial intelligence systems and the appropriate response to the risks that artificial intelligence can pose. To achieve a balance between artificial intelligence and human rights, it is necessary to comply with ethical values, use transparent and responsible systems, update legal regulations, and adopt an approach that guarantees stakeholder participation. By doing so, we will be able to build a future where human rights are protected while taking advantage of the potential benefits of artificial intelligence.

Considerations for science and technology policies in the context of Amazon sustainability

Considerations for science and technology policies in the context of Amazon sustainability

Towards higher standardization of funding acknowledgements in scientific publications: Current status in the case of a national and a European research fellowship scheme

Abstract Acknowledgement of funding sources in scientific publications is becoming mandatory in science. As funders' instructions are often vague, there is great variability in the way authors acknowledge funding, this hindering the linking of grants to their subsequent publications. The aim of this study is to analyse how funding is acknowledged in scientific publications in two important research fellowship schemes: the Spanish Ramón y Cajal programme (RyC) and the European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Actions (MSCA). WoS publications in 2017 by Spain-based researchers that include funding acknowledgements from either of the two programmes are identified. Firstly, compliance with funders’ recommendations in terms of the elements included in acknowledgements is analysed. Secondly, the degree of comprehensiveness in the authors’ description of the grants is studied by focusing on how often different items are reported (funding agency, programme, grant number, grantee, year of the call, etc). Thirdly, the use of normalized structured notations in acknowledgements is examined. Around 78% of RyC vs. 84% of MSCA grants comply with funders’ recommendations regarding the elements to be included in the acknowledgements. A comprehensive description of grants is unusual in both programmes. Structured notations are included in two-thirds of RyC vs. one-third of MSCA grants. Advantages of using structured notations are highlighted, since they provide unique identification of grants, improve the comprehensiveness and normalization of funding data, facilitate automatic data processing and could be compatible with global grant identifiers. Further standardization of funding data in acknowledgements is needed to optimize their use in science policy studies.

Evolving Attitudes of Science Graduate Students Toward Science Policy and Communication

Widespread changes in the exchange and politicization of science have made it imperative for scientists to be prepared to engage in science communication and science policy. Separately, science graduate students express interest in a more diverse array of career trajectories beyond the traditional academic research path. These forces together inspire changes to graduate education to develop critical science communication and policy skills. However, universities remain focused on training students in primarily academic research skills. This case study measured changes to beliefs about and participation in science communication and policy among science graduate students over three years to better understand the evolution of interest in these practices. Importantly, not only did students report a significantly increased interest in and belief in the importance of science communication and policy, but also these increases were observed regardless of their initial beliefs. Graduate students also provided qualitative feedback about the reasons behind these changes and perceived barriers to participating in science communication and policy. These data help to both motivate universal changes to graduate education to include science communication and policy and to inform stakeholders on how these changes can be optimally designed to address barriers and interests. Finally, corresponding policy changes are recommended to departments, universities, scientific societies, and other stakeholders to enact effective change to graduate training.

Multi-scenario simulation and evaluation of the impacts of land use change on ecosystem service values in the Chishui River Basin of Guizhou Province, China

Changes in land-use patterns are the main driving factors of ecosystem service values (ESVs). The quantitative evaluation of ESVs is significant for the sustainable development of ecologically fragile areas. In this study, the Chishui River Basin (CRB) in China was selected as the study region, and an intensity map (IM) was used to analyze the transformation of land use/land cover (LULC). The modified equivalent coefficient value method was used to evaluate the ESVs based on the 2000, 2010, and 2020 land use datasets. The spatial and temporal distributions of ESV and its response to changes in LULC were analyzed using the Getis-Ord Gi* statistical method and Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Moreover, spatial and temporal changes in LULC and ESV over the next 30 years in the four development scenarios were simulated using the Markov-PLUS model. The following results were obtained: 1) The farmland and forestland were the dominant LULC categories, and that the LULC pattern dramatically changed in the study area; 2) the total ESV of the CRB decreased significantly from 23.21 billion yuan in 2000 to 22.29 billion yuan in 2020; and 3) the ecological conservation scenario significantly promoted the total ESV, and the town development scenario was more conducive to the urbanization process. Therefore, although the ESV of the CRB showed a decreasing to slowly increasing trend in the context of a series of ecological restoration measures, scientific ecological protection and development policies must be continuously implemented to achieve harmony between ecological service improvement and urbanization development. Our results provide important information for making land-use decisions and facilitating sustainable development in ecologically protected basins.

Wildfire risk and insurance: research directions for policy scientists

Wildfire risk and insurance: research directions for policy scientists

Navigating the path to dual carbon goals: Understanding the driving forces of energy transition welfare performance

China's double carbon target aims to improve human well-being and sustainable development. Energy transformation welfare performance (ETWP) is the efficiency of energy transition (ET) in enhancing human well-being. ETWP considers both human well-being and sustainable development. Research on its driving force is helpful in achieving the double carbon goal. Thus, this paper used Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index Model, Fixed Panel Regression Model and Grey Relational Analysis Model to analyze China's ETWP from 2006 to 2022 and predicted ETWP of 31 provinces from 2023 to 2030. The results showed that: (1) ETWP had two rising periods in 2006–2014 and 2015–2022. (2) The government's rationalization policy on energy and environment and technological innovation ability were fundamental driving forces for improving ETWP. (3) There were obvious spatial and temporal distinctions in ETWP, and it would bring out different degrees in most areas. Thus, ET should be promoted by improving the ecological environment and resource utilization efficiency; The importance of the role of scientific and technological innovation and policies should be focused on in promoting ETWP; ET policies based on local developments should be formulated and the energy structure should be changed.

Government innovation awards, innovation funds acquisition and enterprise innovation

Government innovation awards (GIAs) are not only important science and technology (S&T) policies for stimulating innovation but also serve as innovation honors for enterprises. Based on signaling theory and expectancy-value theory, we construct an enterprise innovation reputation model, consider GIAs as a signal of innovation reputation, and empirically analyze how GIAs affect enterprise innovation. The findings confirm that GIAs can promote enterprise innovation and that enterprises’ high-quality innovation is more strongly promoted than their low-quality innovation. As a signal of innovation reputation, GIAs can help enterprises obtain external government S&T funds and S&T financial funds. The results show that government S&T funds acquisition plays a significant mediating role between GIAs and enterprise innovation output. These findings reveal the effect and micro mechanism of GIAs on enterprise innovation, can help deepen the understanding of innovation reputation and enterprise high-quality innovation, and can provide implications for innovation awards and financial policy-making.

Who ought to look towards the horizon? A qualitative study on the collective social responsibility of scientific research

There is a growing concern for the proper role of science within democratic societies, which has led to the development of new science policies for the implementation of social responsibility in research. Although the very expression ‘social responsibility of science’ may be interpreted in different ways, many of these emerging policy frameworks define it, at least in part, as a form of anticipative reflection about the potential impacts of research in society. What remains a rather under-discussed issue is the definition of the bearer of the social responsibility of science. In other words, it is not clear who is supposed to engage in such an anticipative reflection, whether individual researchers or research groups. In the past few years, philosophers of science have begun to use qualitative research methods to fill the gaps between normative models of the organisation of ideal scientific communities and the reality of actual scientific practices. In this article, I follow this approach to discuss the issue of the collective dimension of the social responsibility of science. I rely on a qualitative study conducted on an interdisciplinary research group and I describe how group dynamics position individuals and distribute duties and roles, including social responsibility. Qualitative descriptions of the distribution of duties within actual research groups should inform the formulation of general prescriptive theories on the collective responsibility of science.

State of open science in cancer research.

This study has been focused on assessing the Open Science scenario of cancer research during the period 2011-2021, in terms of the derived scientific publications and raw data dissemination. A cancer search equation was executed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded, collecting the papers signed by at least one Spanish institution. The same search strategy was performed in the Data Citation Index to describe dataset diffusion. 50,822 papers were recovered, 71% of which belong to first and second quartile journals. 59% of the articles were published in Open Access (OA) journals. The Open Access model and international collaboration positively conditioned the number of citations received. Among the most productive journals stood out Plos One, Cancers, and Clinical andTranslational Oncology. 2693 genomics, proteomics and metabolomics datasets were retrieved, being Gene Expression Omnibus the favoured repository. There has been an increase in oncology publications in Open Access. Most were published in first quartile journals and received higher citations than non-Open Access articles, as well as when oncological investigation was performed between international research teams, being relevant in the context of Open Science. Genetic repositories have been the preferred for sharing oncology datasets. Further investigation of research and data sharing in oncology is needed, supported by stronger Open Science policies, to achieve better data sharing practices among three scientific main pillars: researchers, publishers, and scientific organizations.

Building Family Interventions for Scalability and Impact.

Family nursing researchers are charged with addressing the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of family research when developing family-focused interventions. Step-by-step guidance is needed that integrates current science of intervention development with family science and helps researchers progress from foundational work to experimental work with policy integration. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide pragmatic, evidence-based guidance for advancing family intervention research from foundational work through efficacy testing. Guidance regarding the development of family interventions is presented using the first three of Sidani's five-stage method: (a) foundational work to understand the problem targeted for change; (b) intervention development and assessment of acceptability and feasibility; and (c) efficacy testing. Each stage of family intervention development is described in terms of process, design considerations, and policy and practice implications. Examples are included to emphasize the family lens. This manuscript provides guidance to family scientists for intervention development and implementation to advance family nursing science and inform policy.

David Penny confronts science policy through the New Zealand Association of Scientists

David Penny confronts science policy through the New Zealand Association of Scientists

‘Space Weather Sentinels’: Halley and the evolution of geospace science

The words ‘Antarctic science’ are often synonymous with dramatic, sublime images of penguins and frozen landscapes, but not all Antarctic science looks to the ice or its megafauna. While Antarctica is an important focus of scientific research in its own right, it is also a platform ideally suited to the pursuit of geophysical science—such as solar–terrestrial physics. Investigating the histories of these fields of science contributes not only to our understanding of the history of Antarctic science, but also to the evolution of Antarctic research stations as sites entangled in international networks of people and places beyond Earth's coldest continent. This paper presents the case of Halley VI research station, a British Antarctic Survey station on the Brunt Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, and its co-evolution with geospace science throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Halley's infrastructure and science shaped, and were shaped by, the evolution of geospace science in this period, via Halley's involvement in a series of international geospace collaborations. This co-evolution also affected how the British Antarctic Survey was able to respond to changing UK science policies in later decades. This case demonstrates that Antarctic stations, while physically remote, have historically been entangled in complex networks of people, politics and science that range far beyond Antarctica itself.

The policy is dead, long live the policy—Revealing science, technology, and innovation policy priorities and government transitions via network analysis

Abstract Each government has priorities for science, technology, and innovation policies (STIP). How can we identify the changing or reinforced STIP research priorities induced by government transitions? This study aims to unveil the STIP changing structure in the public funding research call contents in Colombia from 2007 to 2022, applying a co-word and network analysis approach to 389 funding research calls. We showed each government’s changing distribution of the betweenness centrality of 334 fields from Health, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences. We found that STIP priorities are getting denser and more diverse in terms of research fields. Despite this complexity, just 14 fields of Life, Physical, and Social Sciences, such as drug discovery, general business, management & accounting, and nature and landscape conservation, maintained their higher strategic relevance despite the government in office. This study maps the short and long-term focus of STIP regardless of the changing political tide inherent in democratic countries.

Multi-Scenario Simulation and Eco-Environmental Effects Analysis of Land Use/Cover Change in China by an Integrated Cellular Automata and Markov Model

Land use transitions play a critical role in ecological environmental restoration, but they are also plagued by ecological environmental problems caused by excessive land resource development. In this study, we propose a methodological framework for unveiling the nexus profile of land use/cover change (LUCC) and eco-environmental effects. This study explored the spatiotemporal evolution patterns of LUCC over a long time series based on high-precision land use data from 1990 to 2020. Then, the ecological values (EVs) of various cities were calculated to obtain the ecological contribution rate of different land use types in the process of change. Finally, the future development trends of land use and ecological environmental quality were predicted under multiple scenarios using the cellular automata–Markov model, and scientific policy recommendations were proposed. The results showed that the expansion trajectory of the construction land in the urban agglomeration mainly expanded inwards along the mouth of the Pearl River, and the conversion of cultivated land to construction land was the most significant type of land use change. The overall ecological environmental quality of the study area showed a downwards trend, with Shenzhen exhibiting the largest decrease in EVs. Cultivated land contributed significantly to improving regional ecological environmental quality, while the land use transition types with relatively large contributions to environmental quality deterioration were conversions to construction land. Under the scenario of coordinated protection, the degree of cultivated land area reduction was significantly reduced, and the area of forestland showed a positive growth trend, with the expansion trend of construction land being reversed. These research findings can enrich the theoretical research on the sustainable development of urban agglomerations and provide reliable data support for policy-making.

Научная политика СССР в 1950-е–начале 1980-х годов в исследованиях советских и американских ученых

In the 1950s the leadership of the USSR began to realize the country’s technological lag behind the advanced Western countries. In this regard, the Soviet Union began to transform its scientific policy. The search for optimal mechanisms for the organization of science continued until the end of the Soviet period. Scientists and historians of science, being direct participants in these events, assessed the ongoing transformation. This assessment has not always been objective. Nowadays, thanks to new computer technologies, researchers have access to the documents of American specialists who studied the main mechanisms of our country’s scientific policy at the state level in the 1970s-1980s. The purpose of the paper is to compare the conclusions of Soviet and American specialists who studied the scientific policy of the USSR in the 1970s-1980s, and to identify assessments of the main mechanisms for the implementation of scientific policy in the USSR. The main sources of the work were reports by American members of the working group on the study of scientific policy, which had not been used before in Russian historiography. After conducting a comparative analysis of the works, the author comes to the conclusion that Soviet scientific policy developed in the general global mainstream. Some of the science management mechanisms developed in the USSR were innovative. Others did not work at all in the absence of competition and a rigid command system.

Difficulties in Accessing the List and Full Text of the Defended PhD Theses from Medical Schools: a Retrospective Case Study from Croatia

Objective. To conduct scientometric studies on PhD (“Doctor of Philosophy”) theses (i.e., doctoral theses), researchers should be able to access the theses. We aimed to explore how to obtain a list and full text of the defended PhD theses from medical schools in Croatia over 30 years (from the beginning of 1992 to the end of 2021).
 Methods. We tried to obtain information from the Croa- tian Bureau of Statistics, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK), universities, medical schools and online reposito- ries.
 Results. We could not find a single list (source) of all PhD theses. Based on 4 different sources (website of the University of Zagreb and Medical School in Rijeka; school administrator from Split; library catalog from Osijek), we gathered information that from the beginning of 1992 to the end of 2021, there were 2955 PhD theses defended at medical schools in Croatia – 357 in Osijek, 550 in Rijeka, 337 in Split and 1711 in Zagreb. In May 2022, the online Croatian Digital Dissertations Repository contained 631 (22%) of full-text theses in Portable Document Format (PDF). University of Zagreb School of Medicine has its own repository that holds the full text of 834 (49%) of their PhD theses. One of the three PhD programs of the University of Split School of Medicine, namely Translational Research in Biomedicine (TRIBE), published full texts of all PhD theses defended at that program on its website. NSK held 2650 (90%) of the theses in a printed version.
 Conclusion. It was extremely challenging to access the list and full texts of doctoral theses defended in Croatia. Making PhD theses publicly available would ensure transparency and enable analyses that should improve scientific policy.

Evaluation of information quality derived from AI-related information systems used for risk applications

The use of artificial intelligence, such as text and image generators, is increasingly prevalent and accessible. These technologies have been both criticized and also promoted for their potential to automate tasks and increase efficiencies. From a risk perspective, we can interpret these technologies as a new addition to an already-abundant toolkit that can aid in risk applications. However, these new technologies need to be vetted for use in risk applications, regardless of whether the technology was designed for risk analysts, risk management, or risk communication purposes. As these AI-related technologies continue to grow in use, there is a need to gauge the quality of information that emerges from these technologies as that information is used for risk applications. This paper leverages current risk science quality indicators to develop 14 criteria that can be used to gauge the quality of information derived from AI-related information systems to be used for risk applications. Those 14 criteria are then demonstrated on a widely used AI-based information system. The insights from this paper can help understand both the benefits of these technologies and also additional implications for risk science methods, policies, and research.

Academic Freedom and International Students, Part 5: The gray areas

Computer science and software engineering students and researchers are busy with their courses, in their labs, working on their studies and research - for the most part not really thinking about the impact of politics on their research. However, there are increasing restrictions on the information researchers are allowed to share with their students, and who researchers are allowed to collaborate with respect to national security and increasing concerns with China. To an increasing extent researchers are made aware at grant time. Research institutions must follow federal rules in the grant and hiring process and are conducting workshops and roundtables on issues of national security. The AIP, The American Institute of Physics provides through their mailing list an informative brief on national science policy titled "FYI: Science Policy News from AIP, This Week." The issue for January 23, 2023, invited those interested to join a National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine workshop called a "Meeting of experts," on the topic of "Fundamental Research, Openness, and Protecting the U.S. Technological Advantage: NSDD-189 in the New Global Context."

Navigating the Science System: Research Integrity and Academic Survival Strategies

Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientific behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct. Rather than framing misconduct as a result of an information deficit, we instead conceptualize Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) as attempts by researchers to reconcile epistemic and social forms of uncertainty in knowledge production. Drawing on previous literature, we define epistemic uncertainty as the inherent intellectual unpredictability of scientific inquiry, while social uncertainty arises from the human-made conditions for scientific work. Our core argument—developed on the basis of 30 focus group interviews with researchers across different fields and European countries—is that breaches of research integrity can be understood as attempts to loosen overly tight coupling between the two forms of uncertainty. Our analytical approach is not meant to relativize or excuse misconduct, but rather to offer a more fine-grained perspective on what exactly it is that researchers want to accomplish by engaging in it. Based on the analysis, we conclude by proposing some concrete ways in which institutions and academic communities could try to reconcile epistemic and social uncertainties on a more collective level, thereby reducing incentives for researchers to engage in misconduct.