An Introduction to Open Science

This video outlines key features of reproducible research and provides further details on this mini-course.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the difference between reproducible and replicable research
2. Outline the core components that make research reproducible
3. Become aware of how you can use this course to further your own learning and dissertation project

Video

Question 1

What do you think researchers need to prioritise to make sure their work is reproducible?

You can find answers after the video

This video provides outlines the structure of this mini-course on reproducible research practice and lays the ground-work for later videos. You will learn what makes research reproducible, the important features of reproducible research and, importantly, how they relate to your own work. This video is led by Dr Alex Mitchell. who is a Teaching Fellow here in Psychology.

Contact: Alexandra.Mitchell@ed.ac.uk or edinburgh.reproducibilitea@ed.ac.uk

Download the slides for this presentation here.

Solution

All of these steps will help to make science more reproducible.

• A scientist’s workflow needs to be transparent.
• Data needs to be open.
• Steps should be traceable.
• Research should be accessible to others.
• Methods are easily replicable.

Quiz

The Q&A below provides key information for this course

Question 2

What aspect of my dissertation will this course likely aid the most?

Solution

The course will aid all of your dissertation! But especially completing the progress report – which requires pre-planning necessary in reproducible research

Question 3

What is the biggest challenge researchers face when making their own work reproducible?

Solution

There are many, many challenges, but perhaps the most difficult will be changing the hard-learned research practices of older researchers (perhaps like your dissertation adviser!) and adapting to ‘new’ and more rigorous ways of doing research.

Question 4

What is the key difference between ‘reproducible’ and ‘replicable’ research?

Solution

Reproducible research refers to the entire research process and ensures that researchers can reproduce the same result with the same data. Replicable refers to researchers being able to copy precisely the same methods (and ideally the same results) with a different data-set.

Question 5

Do researchers need to follow all the steps outlined in this course?

Solution

No- any effort towards making your research reproducible should be of benefit!