Workshops

This page contains information about each of the workshop sessions. 

Day 1: Tuesday 10 December 2019 

Session 1: Introduction to open science

The Goals of Openness

Presenter: Dr Mathew Ling 

Time: 10.30 - 11.30 am

Criticisms of scientific and statistical methodology have a prolonged history, but it is an uncontroversial statement that our current “replication crisis” or “credibility revolution” is a high-water mark in the implementation of reforms to improve the transparency and replicability of science. But how well are these practices aligned with the goals of openness? What should we focus on in the pursuit of systematic practice reform? This session will discuss the history of the Open Science movement in psychology, review the practices emerging from this movement, and propose the benefits of cynicism to science and scholarly revolutions.

 

Session 2: Statistical foundations of reproducible science

Presenter: Dr Clair Alston-Knox

Time: 11.30 am – 12.30 pm

The publication Why Most Published Research Findings Are False (Ioannidis JPA, 2005) resulted in an avalanche of literature and discussion on the topic of reproducibility, and the lack thereof, in scientific research. Generally termed “the reproducibility crisis in science”, the majority of the blame is being laid with the misuse of p-values. Researchers such as Fraser & Reid (2016) contend that many of the issues are due to the mixed messages imparted to researchers during their undergraduate training, and that this situation is resulting in seriously misinformed scientific conclusions.

In this session attendees will re-examine commonly used techniques in statistical analysis, such as p-values, significance and power, highlighting when they are useful, what they cannot tell you, and the role sample size plays in the interpretation of basic statistical analysis. While revisiting these concepts, we will discuss the number of studies we would expect to be non-reproducible, as opposed to the potential number of reproducible outcomes that are being seen in the literature. Using case studies, attendees will discuss suggested techniques to enhance researchers understanding of their data, and how simple changes in statistical thinking can, if not completely avoid situations of non-reproducibility, at least enhance researchers understanding of their data analysis and the certainty they can place on their conclusions.

Session 3: Preregistration and Registered Reports 

Presenter: Mx Raine Vickers-Jones

Time: 1.30 - 3.00 pm

This session introduces the concept, purpose, and process of preregistration and Registered Reports. It is aimed at people who have not heard of preregistration, people who know what it is but not how to do it, and people who don't see the value in it but are willing to have an open mind. Raine will briefly cover what preregistration is, why it might be useful, and how it can be done. Attendees will then get the opportunity to assess the possible benefits and challenges of preregistration in various research situations.

Session 3 collaboration page.

 

Session 4: Reproducible analyses 

Presenter: Ms Amanda Miotto 

Time: 3.30 - 5.00 pm

This session focuses on common scenarios such as losing a key member of your lab, misplacing a hard drive, or having your study reproduced or challenged by an external group. These scenarios are complemented with methods (reproducible ‘things’) that researchers can use to be prepared for these scenarios. The workshop methods are organized into Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels for users to make their research process more efficient and effective than yesterday. Resources to continue learning post-workshop are also provided. This workshop is applicable to any researcher or institute.

Session 4 materials. 

 

Day 2: Wednesday 11 December 2019

Session 5: Open data, materials and code

Organise, document and share research data and codes using R

Presenters:     Dr Emerson Del Ponte, Universidade Federal De Viçosa

   Associate Professor Adam Sparks and Dr Francis Gacenga, University of Southern Queensland

Time: 9.10 – 10.30 am 

This session focuses on how you can make your research data, materials and code open and available. It will present the concept of a research compendium as a means to ensure open data and research and motivations for sharing materials openly.

The session will cover information about: 

• FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable),
  
• using tools such as Jupyter notebooks and R Markdown for organising your materials
  
• and GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Figshare, Zenodo, OSF and others means to share openly.
  

The main presentation will be delivered by Associate Professor Emerson M. Del Ponte, from Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) Brazil on his experiences using research compendia and pre-prints for making data, materials and code open and available. A panel discussion will include Dr Francis Gacenga, Associate Professor Adam H. Sparks, Associate Professor Emerson M. Del Ponte and Ms Belinda Weaver.

Attendees will then have the opportunity to create a research compendium using OSF using either their own materials, or a set of materials provided by us for this exercise. 

By the end of this session users will have learned what tools are available to make their research data, materials and code open and available. To aid in this, we have put together a website with more information from the workshop with further suggested reading on the topic of research compendia and other resources for participants to refer to.

Session 5 information website.

This website was created using: blogdown, RStudio, GitHub and Netlify and released it under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

All of the code and materials are available here.

Session 6: Preprints and open access

The 21st Century academic: smart, savvy and social - and open!

Presenter: Professor Ginny Barbour and Ms Nerida Quatermass, Queensland University of Technology

Time: 1.30 - 3.30 pm

It is not easy to be an academic researcher in the 21st century. The rapidly changing scholarly communication landscape demands an ever-expanding variety of skills, abilities and knowledge. While the past was all about publications, the present is about publishing all of your research outputs in an environment where governments and publishers demand transparency, reproducibility and open research. This session will take you through some of the tools and resources to navigate a path to publish, license and promote your work and yourself in the ever-proliferating ecosystem of online journals and websites.