King's College London

The Open Science (OS) movement promises nothing less than a revolution
in the availability of scientific knowledge around the globe. By removing
barriers to online data and encouraging publication in Open Access formats
and Open Data archives, OS seeks to expand the role, reach and value of
research. The promises of OS imply a set of expectations about what different
publics hope to gain from research, how accountability and participation can
be enhanced, and what makes science public in the first place. This paper
presents empirical material from fieldwork undertaken in (bio)chemistry
laboratories in Kenya and South Africa to examine the extent to which these
ideals can be realized in a sub-Saharan context. To analyse the challenges
African researchers face in making use of freely available data, we draw
from Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach. His theorisations of ‘conversion
factors’ helps to understand how seemingly minor economic and social
contingencies can hamper the production and (re-)use of online data. In
contrast to initiatives that seek to make more data available, we suggest the
need to facilitate a more egalitarian engagement with online data resources.