PHDDS92023 Open and Credible Science (Autumn 2024)

The course is connected to the following study programs

Elective course in the PhD programme Digitalisation and Society.

PhD candidates from other institutions are welcome to apply, but students from this PhD programme will be prioritised.

Absolute requirements

Research methods, philosophy and history of science, and experience with scientific writing.

Lecture Semester

3rd semester (autumn)

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

Knowledge

The student has developed knowledge about

• the principles of O&C science, as well as O&C science tools for research workflow

• how to pre-register a study; how to write registered reports; how to make the research materials open; how to make the research data open; how to write journal articles transparently; open access publishing

• core principles of data management that will remain the same, despite the new tools developed, and according to the Open Science and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles

Skills

The student is able to

• employ O&C science principles in all the steps in the research process, from designing a project to communication of research results

• plan replicating, and pre-registering a study, pre-registering a systematic review protocol, writing a registered report

• plan curating and managing research data, considering national and international legal and ethical regulations related to data collection, storage, publishing, and sharing

• identify suitable repositories/platforms for storage of all study materials (e.g., manage research project in the Open Science Framework)

• write transparent research reports and increase the visibility of own research

General competence 

The student has developed understanding about

• historical, philosophical, ethical and personal dimensions of O&C science/research

• recent developments and ongoing debates concerning O&C science/research

• different facets of academic and scientific publishing including considerations when

Content

The purpose of this PhD-course is twofold:

1) to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the foundations, recent developments and ongoing debates in Open and Credible (O&C) science;

2) to equip students with knowledge of basic tools, platforms for registering and sharing data and materials, as well as necessary skills to implement O&C science principles in their research workflow.

The course will cover the recent initiatives related to reconsidering the foundations of scientific research. The course will provide an insight into the benefits, obstacles, and controvery of the O&C science approach. Students will be encouraged to think critically about how research is conducted and inferences are made in their own fields. Discussions will cover both quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods’ research.

Topics such as transparency and accessibility, reproducibility, replicability, integrity, ethics, diversity, equity and inclusion, rigour and robustness of scientific research will be addressed. In addition, open peer-review, meta-science/meta-research and open and reproducible research synthesis will be introduced and discussed.

Students will be introduced to various initiatives, networks, and communities focusing on O&C science (e.g., Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), RiOT Science Club, ReproducibiliTea). Students will also become familiar with platforms and/or depositories to make the workflow open and effective (e.g., GitHub, Open Science Framework and Zenodo).

Open science takes advantage of the digital technologies and awareness of basic software and platforms for registering and sharing research, as well as digital skills of researchers are the critical determinant of scientific success. Therefore, librarians will be invited to the course to introduce and discuss effective data management, including legal and ethical data sharing and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The students will also engage in discussions related to the affordances of the main platforms/repositories to store research materials including research data. The course will use a participatory approach and students will be encouraged to reflect over and engage in discussions related to the topics included in this course description.

A broader scope of the course will offer participants from various fields possibilities to learn, reflect on, and discuss how they can contribute to increase the credibility, integrity, and rigour of their own research, both quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, as well as to better evaluate research conducted by others.

Forms of teaching and learning

Lectures, seminars and individual presentations, peer review of fellow student’s paper, and discussions.

The duration of the course is six days, distributed over two or more sessions.

Workload

The workload is estimated to 130 hours.

Coursework requirements - conditions for taking the exam

• Write an evaluation of replicability and reproducibility of selected earlier studies. Studies to be evaluated will be selected by course instructors.

• Produce a data management plan

• A minimum of 80% coursework attendance is required.

Examination

Individual oral presentation

The student is required to prepare a 20 minutes oral presentation introducing a plan on how he/she intends to implement O&C science principles in their own research. Presentations will be supplemented by follow-up discussions with the fellow students.

The student is allowed to use PC/laptop for the presentation.

Grading scale: pass/fail.

Examiners

Two internal examiners.

Conditions for resit/rescheduled exams

Same requirements as the main exam.

Course evaluation

Feedback from our students is vital in order to develop and offer high quality courses. The course is evaluated using an oral evaluation conducted at the end of the course.

Literature

The current reading list for 2024 Autumn can be found in Leganto