The impact of digitalisation in scientific research: risks, opportunities and ethical challenges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61007/QdC.2023.3.159Keywords:
Digital transformation, scientific research, digitalisation of science, social and ethical challengesAbstract
Internet of Things, robotics, biometrics, persuasive technology, Big Data, virtual, augmented reality, and digital platforms are pervading the world of scientific research, influencing how everyday scientific work practices are organized and conducted. In this emergent context, the essay wants to offer a theoretical reflection on the purposes and functions of digital technology in scientific research processes, enhancing the dimension of ethical choice and crucial judgment in governance processes and researchers’ professional development.
References
Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. University of Chicago Press.
Bello and Galindo-Rueda (2020a). “Charting the digital transformation of science: Findings from the 2018 OECD International Survey of Scientific Authors (ISSA2)”, https://doi.org/10.1787/18151965, based on OECD ISSA 2018, http://oe.cd/issa.
Boccia Artieri, G. (2012). Pubblici, cittadini e consumatori nella (Social) Network Society, Milano: FrancoAngeli.
Boccia Artieri, G., Colombo, F., Gili, G. (2022). Comunicare. Persone, relazioni, media. Bari: Laterza.
Boyer, E. L. (1990), Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Buchanan, E. A., & Ess, C. (2008). Internet research ethics: The field and its critical issues. In K. Himma & H. Tavani (eds.), The Handbook of Computer and Information Ethics (pp. 272–92). Boston: Wiley.
Buchanan E. A., Ess C. M. (2009). Internet research ethics and the institutional review board: Current practices and issues. Computers and Society, 39(3), 43–49.
Callon, M. (1984). Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. The Sociological Review, 32(1_suppl), pp. 196–233.
Callon, M. & Law, J. (2005). On qualculation, agency and otherness. Environment and Planning D: Space and Society 23: pp. 717–733.
Capogna S. Sociology between big data and research frontiers, a challenge for educational policies and skills. Qual Quant. 2023;57(1):193-212. doi: 10.1007/s11135-022-01351-7. Epub 2022 Mar 5. PMID: 35283540; PMCID: PMC8897736.
Castells, M. (2009) The Rise of the Network Society. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
Csordas Thomas J. (1994) Embodiment and experience. The existential ground of culture and self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Donati, P. (2004) Introduzione alla sociologia relazionale, Milano: FrancoAngeli Milano.
EE. UU. (2020) Strategic plan 2020-2024 – Research and Innovation. At https://commission.europa.eu/publications/strategic-plan-2020-2024-research-and-innovation_en#details Last Access: 08/09/2023.
Fedeli, L. (2017), La ricerca scientifica al tempo dei social media. Milano, Franco Angeli; pp. 11 - 134 (ISBN: 9788891757494.
Floridi, L. (2007). A Look into the Future Impact of ICT on Our Lives,The Information Society, 23:1, 59-64, DOI: 10.1080/01972240601059094.
Floridi, L. (2013). The ethics of information. Oxford University Press.
Floridi, L. (Ed.) (2015). The onlife manifesto. Being human in a hyperconnected era. Springer.
Floridi, L. (2016). The 4th revolution: How the infosphere is reshaping human reality. Oxford University Press.
Floridi L, Taddeo M. (2016). What is data ethics? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 374: 20160360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0360.
Foucault, M. (1966) Le parole e le cose: un’archeologia delle scienze umane, (trad. Emilio Panaitescu, Milano: Rizzoli, 1967.
Gantz, J. and Reinsel, D. 2011. Extracting Value from Chaos. IDC iView, International Data Corporation (IDC).
Han, B.C. (2015) Nello sciame. Visioni del digitale. Nottetempo editore.
Holewa, H., Wolski, M., Dallest, K., & McAvaney, C. (2015). The HWMD maturity model: A foundational framework to measure the effectiveness of institutional research infrastructures. Proceedings of the 2015 Higher Education Technology Agenda Conference (TETHA 2015), 1–17. Gold Coast, Australia. Retrieved from http://dro.deakin.edu.au/view/DU:30073806.
Laney, D. (2001). “3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity, and Variety”, Gartner, file No.949. Feb 6 2001, At https://studylib.net/doc/8647594/3d-data-management--controlling-data-volume--velocity--an. Last access: 05/10/2023.
Jankowski, N.W. (Ed.). (2009). E-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203875049.
Jansen, D. (2021). Safeguarding academic and digital sovereignty: a model for action. EUA Expert Voices https://eua.eu/resources/expert-voices/250-safeguarding-academic-and-digital-sovereignty-a-model-for-action.html.
Jonas, H. (1979). The imperative of responsibility: In search of an ethics for the technological age. Chicago (Ill.): The University of Chicago Press.
Knorr Cetina, K. D. (2001) ‘Postsocial Relations: Theorizing Sociality in a Post-Social Environment’, G. Ritzer and B. Smart (ed.) Handbook of Social Theory (pp. 520-37), London and Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.
Latour B., Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor- Network Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005.
Law, J., (Ed.) (1986) Power, action belief: A new sociology of knowledge? London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Lei, H., Xiong, Y., Chiu, M. M., Zhang, J., & Cai, Z. (2021). The relationship between ICT literacy and academic achievement among students: A meta-analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, p. 127, 106123.
Mauss, M. (1934) Body Techniques. Article Originally Published Journal of Psychology, XXXII, ne, 3-4, 15 March-15 April 1936. Paper presented at the Society of Psychology on May 17 1934.
Merleau-Ponty, M., (1945) Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris: La Librairie Gallimard.
Ribeiro, B., Meckin, R., Balmer, A., & Shapira, P. (2022). The digitalisation paradox of everyday scientific labour: How mundane knowledge work is amplified and diversified in the biosciences. Research Policy, 52(1), 104607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2022.104607.
Russo, F. Digital Technologies, Ethical Questions, and the Need of an Informational Framework. Philos. Technol. 31, 655–667 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-018-0326-2.
Salganik M.J. (2018), Bit by bit. Social research in the digital age. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Samuel, G. Buchanan, E. (2020). Guest Editorial: Ethical Issues in Social Media Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. 15(1-2):3-11. doi:10.1177/1556264619901215.
Schon Donald A. (1993) Il professionista riflessivo. Per una nuova epistemologia della pratica professionale. Edizioni Dedalo.
Špiranec, S., Kos, D. & George, M. (2019). Searching for critical dimensions in data literacy. In Proceedings of CoLIS, the Tenth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science, Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 16-19, 2019. Information Research, 24(4), paper colis1922. Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/24-4/colis/colis1922.html.
Sun, Y., Zhang, C., & Kok, R. A. (2020). The role of research outcome quality in the relationship between university research collaboration and technology transfer: empirical results from China. Scientometrics, 122, 1003-1026.
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Basic Books.
UNESCO (2017). Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers.
Van Dijck J. (2014), Datafication, dataism and dataveillance. Big data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society 12 (2): 197-208.
Van Dijck J., Poell T., de Waal M. (2018). The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World, New York, NY, Oxford University Press.
Van Petegem, W., Bosman, J., De Klerk, M., & Strydom, S. (2021). Evolving as a Digital Scholar: Teaching and Researching in a Digital World. Leuven University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv20zbkk0.
Zhang, Y., Adams, D., & Lee, K. C. S. (2022). Assessing academic staff’s ICT integration in higher education: instrument development and validation. Journal of Computers in Education, pp. 1–20.
Weinhardt, M. (2021). Big Data: Some Ethical Concerns for the Social Sciences, Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020036.
Weller, M. (2018). The Digital Scholar Revisited. The Digital Scholar: Philosopher’s Lab, 1(2) 52–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/dspl20181218.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Quaderni di comunità. Persone, Educazione e Welfare nella società 5.0

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.