Apply for Small Awards to Encourage Open Science Practices in Influenza Research

With generous funding from Flu Lab, The Center for Open Science is providing $100 USD to $2,000 awards to early and mid-career researchers to encourage open science practices among their peers. Awards will be given for:

• Creating open science primers
• Giving departmental talks that demonstrate open science practices
• Hosting a webinar about applying open science in research
• Conference and travel support
• Publishing a replication or null results report 

Please see ‘Eligibility’ and ‘Submission Criteria’ tabs above for further details on how to apply.

Reproducible evidence is a signature strength of science, yet replications and negative results rarely appear in journals because cultural incentives emphasize novelty over verification (Nosek, Spies, & Motyl, 2012). These behaviors must be addressed and amended in all areas of research, and especially as they relate to findings that can dramatically improve public health and education.

Preliminary research demonstrates that the influenza community sees value in the publication of null results and replication studies¹. However, these same respondents believe that their peers hold disfavorable views regarding these same practices, demonstrating a mismatch between researchers’ perceptions and beliefs of open science practices in influenza research². 

The Center for Open Science (COS), and Flu Lab are collaborating to bypass these detrimental incentives and to encourage the availability of all findings that contribute to the influenza body of knowledge, using four primary actions:

1. Creating a Steering Committee of leaders in the field who can direct activities and connect emerging interest groups around open research practices.
2. Using data gathered through surveying efforts to identify opportunities for messaging and begin conversations with editors, researchers, and funders about mismatches between desired and actual practice.
3. Convening a Journal and Funder Roundtable Summit to encourage the development of a journal consortium for publishing null results, replication studies, and Registered Reports.
4. Fostering online community engagement and a resource hub for implementing these practices.

This project is working to create (1) a community of influenza researchers sharing knowledge and practices in improved open science, and (2) a subsequent body of research that is more credible, less affected by publication bias, and more verifiable through the increased adoption of open science practices. 

Through the Opening Influenza Research project, we invite the influenza research community to “empty the file drawers” and contribute to a thorough aggregation of open and accessible findings.

Please download, print, and place this flyer on department bulletin boards or pass along through departmental e-mail lists.

¹78, 80% of influenza researchers in the Open Scholarship Survey indicated a favorable attitude toward null results, replication studies.

²39, 48% of influenza researchers in the Open Scholarship Survey perceived a favorable attitude toward null results, replication studies.

Whichever submission type is selected, the primary focus of the work must be related to influenza, though the specific discipline or methodology may be biomedical, behavioral, epidemiological, or interdisciplinary. 

• Creating open science guides ($500 USD) 
• Giving departmental talks about open science ($100 USD)
• Hosting webinars about open science ($500 USD)
• Funding conference travel for relevant presentations ($1,000)
• Publishing a replication or null results report ($2,000 USD). 

Please see the Submission Criteria tab for further details.

Awards cannot be sent to countries where U.S. law prevents such transactions. Please see the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) FAQs for further details.

• Manuscript Acceptance: Awards of $2,000 USD (plus any applicable author processing charges) will be granted for an accepted article by a journal of the authors choice, that empties the file drawer of null results or replication studies and is directly related to influenza research.
  
  
• Conference Support: Awards of up to $1,000 USD will be granted to support standard travel or registration fees for presenting a poster or session at a relevant conference on open science practices related to influenza research.

• Awards of up to $1,000 USD are provided upon confirmation of attendance and poster or session acceptance. 
• Please provide COS with conference-related receipts.

• Webinars: Awards of $500 USD will be granted for the presentation of a webinar at the intersection of open science and influenza. 

• Awardees are required to disseminate their resource through existing networks (e.g. departmental newsletters, social media, or other peer-peer channels).
• Awardees will agree to the resource being added to the Open Scholarship Knowledge Base (OSKB) Influenza community hub.
• Awards of $500 USD are provided upon receipt of the open science resource and proof of researcher dissemination.

•  Departmental Presentation: Awards of $100 USD will be granted for presenting on a preregistration or other example of an open science practice to a departmental meeting to engage colleagues and incentivize adoption.

• Awards of $100 are provided upon receipt of proof of departmental presentation (e.g., talk slides and departmental announcement).
• Awardees will agree to the presentation slides being added as a resource to the Open Scholarship Knowledge Base (OSKB) Influenza community hub and seek original author approval where necessary.

Questions? Please contact flulab@cos.io for assistance.

Negative and Null Results Publications

Kenmoe S, Kengne-Nde C, Modiyinji AF, Bigna JJ, Njouom R (2020) Association of early viral lower respiratory infections and subsequent development of atopy, a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0231816. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231816

Replication Studies

New Registered Replication Studies

Please download, print, and place this flyer on department bulletin boards or pass along through departmental e-mail lists.