How to structure open science collaborations online

Science-in-the-open has the potential to redefine the traditional scientific framework and greatly accelerate high-impact research. It usually involves a large team of volunteer researchers asynchronously working together in a public Discord server. This approach allows one to harness crowd-sourced intelligence to tackle ambitious problems collaboratively and attract specialized expertise and creative approaches you might not find in a traditional lab. Unfortunately, in practice, the benefits are often outweighed by management challenges. With an open invite, you’ll likely have a heterogeneous group of contributors: different backgrounds, skill levels, time zones, and commitment levels. Coordinating a larger, decentralized team is hard. There’s a risk of wasting time onboarding people who later disappear, or trying to mentor enthusiastic novices at the expense of research progress. Newcomers may find it impossible to figure out the project status or how to contribute amidst the chatter. Progress can stall as volunteers are under no obligation to stay or finish tasks. Below, I outline strategies that have worked in my experience to optimally steer open science collaborations.