STI 2024

Summary

Topic Call For Papers — STI 2024
When Sep 18, 2024 to Sep 20, 2024 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
Where Berlin — Germany
URL https://sti2024.org/sti-conference/call-for-paper.php
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Description

The 28th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators

will be held on 18 - 20 September 2024 in Berlin, Germany and the organising committee now invites submissions of abstracts. All contributions submitted to the conference will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Reviewers can but do not have to disclose their identity. Reviewers will be recruited primarily from the pool of submitting authors (first authors only). Thus, by submitting a paper to STI2024, you agree to review up to 3 submissions. If, however, there is still a need for additional reviewers, established experts, who have not submitted a manuscript themselves, will be invited as reviewers. We highly appreciate your support!

Based on the outcomes of the peer review process, the conference’s program committee will select the contributions for presentation at the conference, either as an oral presentation or as a poster presentation. Contributions are to be submitted using the EasyChair platform.

Regarding the conference fee, we strive to keep the conference fee as low as possible, i.e. we aim for a fee not exceeding 400 € (optional conference dinner included). Reduced rates will apply to people who are students, unwaged, or based in low-income countries. There also will be an early bird phase.

Deadline for abstract submission is 1 April 2024, notifications of decisions will be shared in early June 2024.

To submit a contribution, please follow the instructions for authors.

Deadline for special session submission has been extended from 4 March to 22 March 2024. Information on acceptance will be shared in early May 2024,

To submit a proposal for a special session, please contact us by email.

Call for papers
Into the great wide open?

Openness is intensively discussed in science, industry, and the science & technology policy arena. It is defined as a policy priority, for instance, by the European Commission, and is associated with high expectations for improving the quality, efficiency, accountability and responsiveness of research and innovation. This emphasis on openness is evident in the current discourse surrounding indicators, not limited to science indicators but also including technology and innovation indicators. This discourse favors a multitude of openness notions and imperatives. Prominent among these are Open Science, Open Access, Open Innovation, Open Data, and Open Source Software. Additionally, there are less widely discussed concepts such as Open Peer Review, Open Frameworks, Open Collaboration, Open Hardware, and Open Distributed Infrastructures. Besides those established notions and those rather prominent by being continually addressed but rarely stabilized and resolved, there are more secluded ones, discussed mainly when specific issues become problematic. These include the openness of valuation dimensions versus the arbitrariness of criteria, impact profiling versus the plannability of careers, openness of professions versus consolidated practices and codes of conduct, open categories of diversity versus quantitative representation, and open expectations versus mission orientation.

These latter issues underscore broader considerations that may have become both obscured and overly apparent in our communities. Specifically, they highlight the external boundaries of these openness notions and raise questions about the need for partial closures, such as routine, comparability, convention, accountability, competence, coordination, standardization, selection, or stabilization. These closures may compete with the promotion of variety through openness among different communities and stakeholders.

Navigating these complex constellations of openness and closedness is central to the epistemic core of STI communities. Questions arise about the intersection of openness and closedness. When, where, why and how do notions of openness and closedness meet? How does the way we measure openness shape discourse about openness in policy and practice? Do we need to address openness and closedness procedurally, i.e. having distinct beginnings and ends? Does openness and closedness function as hinges connecting the diverse ecosystems of science & technology production and consumption? Does it make sense to engage in strong bifurcated dualities of openness vs. closedness or choose an integrated approach? How much closedness is embedded in openness and vice versa and how to measure these intertwined phenomena? How can we arrive at more nuanced operationalizations? Is nuance even desirable or does it produce ambiguities and do these in turn inform, reform or deform what counts as openness? How does engaging in, with and through openness and closedness shape outcomes of engagement? Finally, how to transform these ontological intricacies into viable forms of quantitative measurement?

The conference aims to provide a platform for discussing these conceptual issues alongside empirical evidence. It will explore the effects of different notions of openness and their implementation at various abstraction levels, the governance of what is considered open and closed, and the development of effective openness notions in the realm of indicators and beyond. Additionally, the conference seeks to facilitate community learning about the notions of openness adopted by others, contributing to a better understanding of their opportunities, limitations, and risks.

Major conference topics of interest include, but are not limited to

Context-specific opportunities and challenges of openness
Practices, notions and effects of openness in science, technology & innovation
Cultures of openness (e.g. in scientific careers)
Diversity
Inter-, trans- and multidisciplinarity
Practices of evaluation and assessment
Exploring negotiations of openness
Situatedness of openness in science & innovation
Procedural and evolutionary aspects of openness
Coordination in open infrastructures
Lessons learned from “going” or “becoming” open

Contributions may be based on, but need not be limited to, the following methodological approaches, or mixes of these methodological approaches

Methodological contributions (incl. indicator development)
Indicator-related applications (Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence etc.)
Bibliometrics, scientometrics, technometrics & informetrics
Altmetrics & webometrics
IP-analytics
Empirical policy analysis
New data sources
Survey research
Observational works & case studies
Ethnographic works
Interviews & focus groups

Types of contributions

Short research papers (max. 3000 words, incl. a short abstract of 50-150 words) presenting the method applied incl. data used as well as intermediate or final results of a study. Use this template for your submission.
Poster contributions (max. 1000 words, incl. a short abstract of 50-150 words) presenting a brief summary of a study. Use this template for your submission.

Submission and peer review process

All contributions submitted to the conference will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Reviewers can but do not have to disclose their identity. Based on the outcomes of the peer review process, the conference’s program committee will select the contributions for presentation at the conference, either as an oral presentation or as a poster presentation. Submissions will be open from early March 2024. The submission link will be available via the website (www.sti2024.org).

Special Sessions

In addition to regular submissions, we invite proposals for special sessions. These sessions are a great opportunity to focus on specific topics or innovative ideas. Diverse structures / formats, including panels, round tables, and pitch sessions followed by discussions, can be employed. Session initiators are free to suggest the format they perceive as the most suitable. Proposers of a special session are, of course, invited to also contribute to their session. The submissions for special sessions will be assessed by the scientific committee of the STI2024 conference.

Proposals for special sessions should include:

A description of the session topic (max. 3000 words, incl. a short abstract of 50-150 words)
Relevance and significance of the topic for the conference
A description of the format to be implemented
A list of contributors
Contact information of the session organiser(s)

Key dates