The Center for Open Science (COS) and the African Reproducibility Network (AREN) have announced a partnership to jointly advance broadening participation in open scholarship practices with a focus on implementation in local contexts. The two organizations share the objective of enhancing the rigor and reproducibility of scholarship across a wide range of disciplines and geographic contexts and will be working together to make open scholarship practices easier to understand and engage with.
To support their shared goals, the organizations will focus on three main activities: 1) supporting AREN’s Local Network Lead (LNL) training program, which facilitates the establishment of local networks led by well-trained open and reproducible research champions in universities and research institutes, 2) increasing opportunities for African scholars to use and provide feedback on the Open Science Framework (OSF), a free and open-source platform developed by COS to support transparent and reproducible research across disciplines, and 3) cross-promoting mutually interesting community activities in the interest of connecting scholars with one another.
“We are incredibly excited to be working with the African Reproducibility Network, who have already made amazing strides in Africa since their founding in 2022,” said Crystal Steltenpohl, Training and Education Manager at COS. “I look forward to collaborating to support local research communities in Africa and help make the OSF and open scholarship more accessible to a wider audience.”
AREN Founder and Executive Director Emmanuel Boakye said of the partnership, “At AREN, we believe that building a culture of openness and transparency in research must be rooted in local contexts and led by the communities themselves. This partnership with the Center for Open Science offers a powerful opportunity to amplify African voices in global conversations on open scholarship, while also making tools like the OSF more accessible and relevant to researchers across the continent. We’re excited to work together to advance sustainable, community-driven change.”
This partnership reflects a shared commitment to international cooperation in building sustainable, community-driven infrastructure that meets the evolving needs of global research communities. By aligning efforts, both organizations aim to increase the availability of high quality training around open scholarship practices and accessibility of open scholarship platforms, making it easier for researchers to meet their transparency and rigor goals.
Join us on October 15 for Opening Scholarship in Africa: The African Reproducibility Network, a webinar that highlights AREN’s efforts to create sustainable pathways for grassroots researchers interested in championing open and reproducible research practices at their institutions and across the continent. We hope to see you there!
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