Exploring the state of science and the role of science policies in the era of digitalisation through a new initiative: the OECD International Survey of Scientific Authors

This presentation will provide participants with a brief introduction to publicly available OECD resources on statistics for science, research and innovation, going on to focus on a recent and experimental addition to the OECD toolbox for the statistical analysis of major science and research policy questions (http://oe.cd/issa). It will sum up the main findings of its pilot survey of scientific authors on open access publishing practices and related incentives, whose results point to a potential decoupling of access and quality assurance objectives and the need for policy makers to consider the role of economic incentives and social norms when considering different policy options. The results also provide new evidence on pathways for societal impacts of science and on the extent of scientist mobility and career progression, including the extent of gender pay bias notwithstanding similar citation impacts. The presentation will conclude with a brief discussion of OECD plans to carry out a second pilot survey on the extent to which scientific authors react to the opportunities of digitalisation in conducting and disseminating their work, with a view to inform policy discussions at OECD in the context of its work on Making the Digital Transformation Work for Growth and Well-being (www.oecd.org/sti/goingdigital.htm) and implement the agenda arising from the 2016 Blue Sky Forum (http://oe.cd/blue-sky).   

Fernando Galindo-Rueda is a Senior Economist in the Economic Analysis and Statistics Division of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. He leads the directorate’s Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators unit and coordinates the work of the OECD Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI). He is responsible for the update and development of OECD statistical standards for the measurement of R&D and innovation (e.g. Frascati and Oslo Manuals), the delivery of targeted analysis of science and innovation data and the dissemination of key OECD statistics, including the Main Science and Technology Indicators, the R&D Statistics and R&D Tax Incentives databases. He is also in charge of implementing the measurement agenda arising from the OECD Blue Sky III Forum, which he co-organised in 2016. 

Prior to joining the OECD in 2010, he was Deputy Director in charge of Business Economics at the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where he was responsible for economic advice on and the evaluation of UK industrial policies, with particular focus on technology-advanced sectors and the impact of energy and climate change policies. He has also led the Economic Methodology branch at the UK Office for National Statistics; and has been a research economist at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, working on productivity and skills issues and on the evaluation of education policies. He has a PhD in Economics from University College London and an MSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from the same institution.