No abstract

Open Science that is adaptive to the complexity of the 21st century is emerging in transdisciplinary institutions outside of academia. Despite its growing popularity and plurality as a movement, the scope in which Open Science is practiced and discussed inside academia is still mostly restricted to the scientific community and fragmented between disciplinary silos. Researchers and policymakers promoting Open Science often focus on knowledge translation and still recognise experts and academia as the main producers of knowledge, essentially closing the research process to non-researchers and preventing other perspectives from being integrated into knowledge production. Our aim with this project was to adopt a systems perspective to understand how Open Science can address the challenges in the current knowledge production system. Open discussions among the team members revealed distinct understandings of what constitutes Open Science. Thus, during our process we collated these many defi nitions of Open Science and extracted the dimensions that underlie such definitions and mapped how these dimensions could be interconnected in a more comprehensive conceptualisation of Open Science. Future iterations of the challenge could build on our reflections and explore how these Open Science dimensions translate into scientific practice and how researchers can be encouraged to reflect on Open Science in a more systems-oriented way. Our findings have been summarised in a small video.

Background: Chronic infection withSchistosoma haematobium  causes female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), which leads to diverse lesions in the female genital tract and several complications, including women infertility and a higher risk for HIV transmission. This study, therefore, aims to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward FGS and associated factors among women and health professionals in the schistosomiasis endemic focus of Kimpese, western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Methods: In January 2022, a semi-quantitative questionnaire was administered to randomly selected community women in Kifua II village and health professionals (nurses and doctors) from Kimpese Health Zone. KAP statements were coded and summarized as frequencies and percentages. Association between the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and KAP was assessed using Pearson chi-square (χ2) test, Cramer’s V (ϕ) and gamma (γ) coefficients. Results: A total of 262 participants were included (201 community women, 20 nurses and 41 doctors). Overall, respondents had high knowledge of schistosomiasis in general but low FGS-specific knowledge (91% versus 45%). Some misconceptions regarding FGS transmission were even higher among healthcare professionals compared to the community women. Almost a third (30%) of the community women and 20% of the nurses believe that FGS is transmitted by drinking untreated water, while 27% of the doctors believe that sexual contact is a mode of FGS transmission. Additionally, 30% of the doctors do not link FGS with urinating in the water. Furthermore, many community women (60%) practice open defecation or urination and do not consider avoiding contact with contaminated water sources important (72%), especially the younger ones. Finally, diagnostic technologies for FGS are lacking, with only 57% of healthcare workers having a microscope in their facilities.   Conclusion: This study reveals insufficient knowledge about FGS and existing negative attitudes toward FGS among community women associated with socio-demographic factors. Additionally, health professionals lack the means (equipment) and specialised knowledge to diagnose FGS correctly, which probably leads to underreporting as this region is endemic for urinary schistosomiasis.