Scientific reform, citation politics and the bureaucracy of oblivion

Current reform movements in science seek to change how researchers do science, the tools and infrastructure they use to so, and how they assess each others’ work in terms of quality and value. Here, we argue that openness and replicability are quickly becoming key indicators for such quality assessments and they sometimes operate through citation strategies that actively pursue (some degree of) oblivion for non-reformed science. We do not oppose a genuine pursuit of transparency and methodological quality, but are concerned by how uncritical and oversimplified interpretations of both are skewing the collective memory of the scholarly community.