Fair trade in building digital knowledge repositories

The knowledge economy as if researchers mattered

Bibliographic Data

ID21702679
AuthorsGiovanni De Grandis (0000-0002-1948-7467, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume23
Issue4
Pages549-563
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedicine Health Care and Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1386-7423 • E-ISSN: 1572-8633
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11019-020-09966-z
PMID32683609
OpenAlexW3043517279
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

Both a significant body of literature and the case study presented here show that digital knowledge repositories struggle to attract the needed level of data and knowledge contribution that they need to be successful. This happens also to high profile and prestigious initiatives. The paper argues that the reluctance of researchers to contribute can only be understood in light of the highly competitive context in which research careers need to be built nowadays and how this affects researchers’ quality of life. Competition and managerialism limit the discretion of researchers in sharing their results and in donating their working time. A growing corpus of research shows that academic researchers are increasingly overworked and highly stressed. This corroborates the point that the room for undertaking additional tasks with future and uncertain benefits is very limited. The paper thus recommends that promoters of digital knowledge repositories focus on the needs of the researchers who are expected to contribute their knowledge. In order to treat them fairly and to ensure the success of the repositories, knowledge sharing needs to be rewarded so as to improve the working conditions of contributors. In order to help implementing this researcher-centred approach, the paper proposes the idea of expediential trust: rewards for contributing should be such that rational, self-interested researchers would freely decide to contribute their knowledge and effort trusting that this would make them better off

Business · Discretion · Knowledge economy · Knowledge management · Knowledge sharing · Managerialism · Philosophy of medicine · Political science · Public relations · Computer Science · Expert finding and Q&A systems · Knowledge Management and Sharing · Research Data Management Practices

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Open DOIOpen Access