The Darkest Hour: Private Information Control and the End of Democratic Science

Abstract

The chapter concentrates on the evaluation of scientific research—with a focus on the situation in Italy. The latter has become more and more controversial for a number of reasons, anonymity being one of them. With the evaluation of scientific research becoming increasingly anonymous and based on data protected by secrecy and intellectual property, the author fears a “shift from democratic to authoritarian science”. While science has progressed thanks to public dialogue, the current evaluation system is centered on control of private information. One way to address the resulting issues is the concept of open science. Yet, this is will only work if, among other things, open science is accepted as the legitimate successor of all the principles that public science has brought about in the analogue age.