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Short abstract:

Should we as science scholars intervene in the reform movement, and if so, how can we do so effectively? Part of the problem is that STS scholars and reformers may live in their respective bubbles. Here, I tell some stories on ways of alignment work that can help to overcome some problems.

Long abstract:

Should STS scholars and philosophers intervene in the reform movement, and if so, how? In practice, such intervention attempts can be unsuccessful because science scholars and reformers typically live within their own bubbles or worlds. Recent STS work (see special issue in Science and Technology Studies, 2023, 4) has focused on ‘alignment work’, which I suggest is a good way to think around some of the problems that can emerge with such interventions: after all, one needs to efficiently translate between the two epistemic cultures to have the intended impact. And indeed, a misunderstanding can go both ways: how can we also understand them better? How to interact in effective ways across the two bubbles?

Here, I will share some stories of ways in which I and my colleagues have done forms of alignment work in our current project on ‘replications in action’. In our ethnographic work, we closely interact with advocates of the open science reform movement. We achieved some success with impact and collaborations by the close and prolonged interaction with replicators, by asking critical questions in interviews and field work, by hosting workshops with replicators and reformers, by co-writing papers with replicators, and by presenting talks in the open science community. In connection with this, I want to emphasize that perhaps the biggest impact we as science scholars can have on the reform movement is not by producing scientific output that only reaches our own community, but by making efforts to reach out.