Open Science/Week 9: Capacity Building for Open Science

Learning Outcomes

 * Describe approaches to helping people develop knowledge and skills relevant to open science.
 * Explain how early career researchers benefit from learning about open science.

Readings
“Stepping up Open Science Training for European Research" by Schmidt, Birgit, Orth, Astrid, Franck, Gwen, Kuchma, Iryna, Knoth, Petr, and Carvalho, José in Publications 4, no. 2:16,2016, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. 10 pages.

“Open Science Challenges, Benefits and Tips in Early Career and Beyond,” by Allen, C & Mehler, DMA in PLoS Biol 17(5): e3000246, 2019, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. 14 pages.

Note: There is a published correction to the Allen & Mehler reading. The correction relates to inaccurate and incomplete citations. This may provide an opportunity to help students learn about the importance of accurate citations and the level of scrutiny they receive in the publication process. You may want to connect the example to the authors’ position on how to handle mistakes in published research.

Discussion Question
Based on what you’ve learned about the FOSTER (Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research) program from the article "Stepping up Open Science Training for European Research" by Schmidt and colleagues, describe how you would create an open science training in your national context. A thorough answer will reference at least 3 objectives and activities and will be informed by the article’s conclusions. You may also want to draw on the article by Allen & Mehler, “Open Science Challenges, Benefits and Tips in Early Career and Beyond," for information about benefits of open science training for early career researchers.  Conclude your post with a question for others in the class.

Self-check Questions


{Consult the article "Stepping up Open Science Training for European Research” by Schmidt and colleagues. Which of the following was an objective of the FOSTER program? Choose the best answer. -Support early career researchers in complying with open access policies. -Integrate open access principles into early career researchers’ workflow. -Strengthen the institutional training capacity to foster compliance with the open access policies of the ERA and Horizon 2020 (beyond the FOSTER project); -Make it easier to adopt and implement open access requirements from funding agencies. +All of the above.
 * type=""}
 * Try again. This was an objective, but it is not the only objective or the best answer.
 * Try again. This was an objective, but it is not the only objective or the best answer.
 * Try again. This was an objective, but it is not the only objective or the best answer.
 * Try again. This was an objective, but it is not the only objective or the best answer.
 * Correct! All of these were objectives of the FOSTER program.

{Which of the following were among the main activities of the FOSTER program? +Creation of an e-learning portal. +Identification of existing resources for learning open science. -Development of a new open science curriculum. +Delivery of face-to-face training.
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! FOSTER’s main activities were creation of an e-learning portal, identification of existing resources, and delivery of face-to-face training.
 * Correct! FOSTER’s main activities were creation of an e-learning portal, identification of existing resources, and delivery of face-to-face training.
 * Try again. FOSTER emphasized locating and repurposing existing training materials rather than creating a new curriculum.
 * Correct! FOSTER’s main activities were creation of an e-learning portal, identification of existing resources, and delivery of face-to-face training.

{Which of the following was a finding from the FOSTER program? -Open access and open data were the areas of greatest need for new training materials. -Train the trainer sessions were ineffective. -Open science training should maintain its independence from graduate school curricula. +Programs that expand technical capacity, such as e-infrastructure, should include integrated training components.
 * type=""}
 * Try again. Materials on open access and open data appeared well-represented in existing training.
 * Try again. The authors recommended expanding the train the trainer approach.
 * Try again. The authors recommended integrating open science training into graduate schools and research integrity training.
 * Correct! The authors recommended that all such efforts include an integrated training component, which could also become part of the FOSTER portal.

{In their article “Open Science Challenges, Benefits and Tips in Early Career and Beyond,” how do Allen & Mehler claim that early career researchers will benefit from adopting open science principles? +reputation, reliability of science, and probability of publication. -speed, flexibility, and alignment with milestones for academic careers. -productivity, patentable inventions, and fair peer review -HARKing, p-hacking, and statistical power
 * type=""}
 * Correct! The authors argue that early career researchers can expand readership and increase trustworthiness of their research. They also argue that preregistration of a study with adequate sample size increases probability of publication, compared to traditional science’s reliance on narrative and rejection of a null hypothesis.
 * Try again. These are the three challenges highlighted by the authors.
 * Try again. The researchers predicted lower productivity, acknowledged a lack of consistency in peer review, and did not discuss patents or intellectual property.
 * Try again. The authors discussed HARKing (which stands for hypothesizing after results already known) and p-hacking as problematic statistical practices. Open science will tend to have higher statistical power, because it draws attention to sample sizes during the pre-registration stage.

{In their article “Open Science Challenges, Benefits and Tips in Early Career and Beyond,” Allen & Mehler emphasized that early career researchers may need more of something if they are to incorporate open science principles into their work. What do they say these researchers will need? +time -mobility -penalties for publishing incorrect results -public engagement -money.
 * type=""}
 * Correct! The authors emphasized that early career researchers may need more time to complete research projects if they follow open science practices such as preregistration.
 * Try again. The authors actually recommended that early career researchers would benefit from less mobility, because each project may require more time for preregistration, review, and collecting enough data.
 * Try again. The authors advocated for transparency rather than punishment when inaccuracies are found.
 * Try again. The authors were more focused on engagement within the scientific community, such as with peer reviewers.
 * Try again. While it probably will cost more money to preregister studies and collect more data, the authors didn’t emphasize this point. They also suggested accepting lower levels of output, which could be consistent with keeping funding levels about the same.