Science 2.0 (change will happen….)

Abstract

In this paper we outline some of the main trends and changes we consider will affect science over the next 20 years, mainly driven by a new socio-technological paradigm, which results from the use of information and communication technologies. We first analyze three main trends (growth of scientific authorship; growth in scientific publishing; growth in data availability and processing) which are already visible now but will grow exponentially in the coming decades and will thus affect the dynamics of science. We then frame the above changes in the context of the transformation of the scientific production and publication conditions -- seen as production process of a cultural good -- which then feedback into the nature of science itself. Finally, we will take together these interrelated growth trends of authors, publications and data and pinpoint their profound and multiple impacts on the very nature of scientific work and its professional dynamics, in terms of increased openness, instability and inequality.