Open Research across Disciplines

How the principles of open research can be applied to your discipline

Psychology

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Case Studies

UKRN case study: Experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience
University of Bristol case study: Psychology – Group authorship to increase researcher engagement.  Video.
University of Glasgow case study: Open research in psychology
University of Glasgow case study: Working in the Psychological Science Accelerator
University of Leeds case study series: Social Distancing & Development with Catherine Davies
University of Manchester case study: INSIGHT: A co-produced qualitative exploration of young women’s perspectives on psychological distress in their population and priority actions for responding
University of Manchester case study: #BeeWell, a programme that aims to make the wellbeing of young people everybody’s business
University of Manchester case study: Testing the influence of minority stress-related experiences on mental wellbeing for trans/gender diverse and cisgender adolescents: a registered report
University of Manchester case study: Children’s understanding of comparative concepts
University of Manchester case study: Contrast and Scatterplots: Taking Research from Pre-registration to Open-access Publication
University of Manchester case study: Time perception in autistic adults
University of Newcastle case study: Embedding Open Research Practices in Psychology through Undergraduate and Postgraduate Teaching
University of Reading case study: Practical Paths to Open Research in Neuroimaging
University of Sheffield case study: Claudia von Bastian on Training studies in Psychology. Video
University of Sheffield case study: The development of a novel decision-making task in addiction research
University of Sheffield case study: Applying open research practices within the field of cognitive developmental psychology
University of Sheffield case study:Preregistration, sharing materials, and conducting replication studies in Psychology
University of Surrey case study: Open research principles for depression diagnosis with machine learning
University of Surrey case study: Using Automatic Analysis to improve neuroimaging
University of Surrey case study: Modifying a self-efficacy tool for people with learning disabilities using inclusive, open and accessible research
University of York case study: Dissociating memory accessibility and precision in forgetting: writing a Registered Report – York Open Research – York Wiki Service

Examples of open research practices

Open Methods: Hoch, O’Grady and Adolph (2019) studied locomotion exploration in infants and found their movement to be instigated by the journey of exploration instead of a particular destination (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/desc.12740). Their data were obtained from Datavyu (http://datavyu.org/), an open-source video coding and data visualization software which incorporates machine learning algorithms that can be used to annotate videos. It also generates paths taken by individuals as well as identifying people in videos which allows behaviour coding inputs to be conducted in real time. Datavyu has the aim of making behavioural data accessible to increase transparency in research and to instigate the use of videos as raw data. By using openly shared videos for data and documentation, the preserved data create an opportunity to ask new research questions and accelerate progress in the field.

Open Methods: The Many Babies project (https://manybabies.github.io/) aims to use an open approach to research into early development. The project works collaboratively with labs around the world to make all key project decisions (e.g., the research question, data collection, and the analysis). Their first project explored infants’ preferences for infant-directed speech, compared to adult-directed speech (https://manybabies.github.io/MB1/). The study involved 69 laboratories, from 16 countries, with a total of 2,329 infants studied, with each lab using one of three methods to measure the infants’ discrimination: the head-turn preference, central fixation, or eye-tracking. Through collaboration, this project was able to replicate a well-known finding from developmental research, in infants around the world. The materials used in this study and the data collected are all openly accessible on GitHub (https://github.com/manybabies/mb1-analysis-public) and the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/re95x/). The collaborative projects undertaken by the Many Babies Project allow standardized replication of developmental research around the world whilst being as open and transparent as possible.

Open Methods and Open Data: PLAY (Play & Learning Across a Year) is a project that aims to explore infants and their mother’s natural behaviours in their homes, across 50 universities in the United States. All materials, home visit protocols and the video and questionnaire data collected are all openly available on their website (https://www.play-project.org/index.html).

Open Data: Anne Urai focuses on the neural basis of decision-making across mammalian species, the interaction between learning and perception, and the neural basis of cognitive aging. The International Brain Laboratory (IBL, https://www.internationalbrainlab.com/) is a collaboration of ~20 laboratories worldwide. Its researchers are dedicated to standardizing mouse decision-making behavior, coordinating measurements of neural activity across the brain, and using theoretical approaches to formalize the neural computations that support decision-making. In contrast to traditional neuroscientific practice, in which individual laboratories each probe different behaviors and record from a few select brain areas, IBL aims to deliver a standardized, high-density approach to behavioral and neural assays. This approach relies on a highly distributed, collaborative network of ~50 researchers – postdocs, graduate students, and scientific staff – who coordinate the intellectual, administrative, and sociological aspects of the project. IBL has a data portal that provides tools and solutions they adopted and developed at IBL which are open-sourced and accessible on GitHub.

Resources

General Resources

Open Methods

Open Data

Open Outputs

This page is adapted and extended from: Farran, E. K., Silverstein, P., Ameen, A. A., Misheva, I., & Gilmore, C. (2020, December 15). Open Research: Examples of good practice, and resources across disciplines. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/3r8hb