The Dark Corners of Open Science

The Da k Co ne s
o Open Science
Alex Ioannidis
CERN IT Depa men , Zenodo
This wo k is licensed unde C ea i e Commons A ibu ion 4.0 In e na ional (CC-BY)
10.5281/zenodo.17150790
Sep 16, 2025
“The oad o hell
is pa ed wi h
good in en ions”
Spamme s - he Sin

Las mon h
●Ou o 21k new accoun s → 408 banned 1.8%
●Ou o 115k new eco ds → 1,049 dele ed 0.9%
O e all
●Ou o 1M accoun s → 240k banned 23.8%
●Ou o 7M eco ds → 1.1M dele ed 15.8%
●Au oma ed il e s
●Use epo s, manual e iew
Spamme s - Con apasso
●False-posi i es
●Sea ch noise
●Pollu ing he schola ly g aph
Spamme s - he Toll
Ha es e s - he Sin
●In es iga e access pa e ns and blocking IPs/UAs
●Tie ed a e-limi s
○Anonymous s. Au hen ica ed
●Bulk da a access
●In as uc u e scaling/op imizing
○Time-consuming and cos ly
Ha es e s - Con apasso
Falsifie s - he Toll
●“DoS a ackˮ on human esou ces
○Legal o ices, Da a P i acy O ice s
○CERN, Eu opean Commission, o he in a p o ide s
●Conspi acy heo ies ge equal pla o m wi h igo ous esea ch
●Public loss o ai h in expe ise
●AI a ms ace

Technical issues → E hical dilemmas
Ex e nal h ea s → Sys emic issues
Ou Descen so a
●Spamme s - ob ious bad ac o s, easy o iden i y and block
●Ha es e s - agg essi e use s pushing ou in as uc u e o i s limi s
●P eda o y publishe s - exploi ing ou openness o p o i
●Falsi ie s - AI-gene a ed nonsense and conspi acy heo ies unde mining
us in science
●Weʼ e cons an ly lea ning
●The eʼs mo e we can do
●“As open as possible, as
closed as necessa yˮ
The Ascen :
Li ing wi h
Pa adox
No clean solu ions,
only ade-o s
The Need o
T anspa ency
●Be (also) open abou …
○…limi a ions
○…policy and due-p ocess
○…cos s o unning in as uc u e
●De elop and sha e…
○…ope a ional knowledge
○…communi y s anda ds
“In isible”
Wo k
…bu essen ial
o open science o unc ion
●Ne e planned
●Ne e explici ly unded
●Implici ly abso bed cos s
Image C edi s
Gus a e Do é illus a ions 1861 - Public Domain, ia In e ne A chi e, Wikimedia Commons
William Blake illus a ions 182427 - Public Domain, ia Ge A chi e
Bo icelli illus a ions 1480s - Public Domain, ia Wikipedia Commons
Eugene Delac oix 1822 - Public Domain, ia Wikipedia Commons
Funde s:
Ope a ional sus ainabili y is
no o e head, bu ounda ion
In as uc u es:
S op p e ending his is easy!
S a demanding suppo
Resea che s:
These a e you in as uc u es!
Help us p o ec hem
These
da k co ne s
a e eal…

Bonus slides
●Compu e i us da abases → used o c ea e new malwa e
●Conse a ion da a → poache s use o ind endange ed species
●Dep ession‑de ec ion models → epu posed o exclusion
●Ne wo k analysis o in o ma ion lows → eused o s ee ake news
Dual-Use esea ch - he Sin
●De ec ion and e alua ion is al eady an issue
●E hics commi ees donʼ scale
●Open Science agains humani y
●Weʼ e no alone hough…
Dual-Use esea ch - Con apasso and Toll