Encouraging the Adoption of Open Science Practices in Influenza Research

Preliminary research demonstrates that the influenza community sees value in preregistration and data sharing, the publication of null results, and replication studies. 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 research¹. 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.

The Center for Open Science (COS), and Flu Lab are collaborating to support the adoption of open science practices within the influenza research community, encourage the availability of all findings that contribute to the influenza body of knowledge, and bypass detrimental publishing incentives using four primary actions:

1. Creating an Open Science Fellowship for early- and mid-career researchers interested in pioneering a movement toward open science within the influenza research community. Please see the section below for additional information.
2. Creating a Steering Committee of leaders in the field who can direct activities and connect emerging interest groups around open research practices.
3. 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.
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 open science, and, subsequently, (2) a body of research that is more credible, less affected by publication bias, and more verifiable through the increased adoption of open science practices.

With generous funding from Flu Lab, COS  is recruiting post-graduate, early- and mid-career influenza and public health researchers to learn about open science practices, apply them to their work, and promote open science within their communities.

Open Science Fellows will:

• Participate as part of a small cohort in three one-hour virtual training sessions on the fundamentals of open science (no prior knowledge needed)
• Learn how to implement open science practices and conduct more transparent, rigorous, and reproducible research
• Exchange ideas with other fellows in your cohort
• Repurpose training materials to share your open science knowledge and tools with others, and earn a $2,000 USD award

The Open Science fellowship will be divided into three cohorts. Members of each cohort will attend three one-hour training sessions covering the philosophy and motivation behind the open science movement as well as important facets of open science, including open data, materials, and code; reproducible analyses; preregistration and registered reports; and replication research. Fellows will also learn how to use the Open Science Framework (OSF) to implement open science practices in their own research.

Following the cohort sessions, fellows will have the opportunity to attend a one-on-one session with an open science expert to help them prepare for disseminating their new knowledge in a venue of their choice. This might involve presenting at a conference, giving a departmental talk, hosting a webinar, administering their own workshop, or giving a lecture. After submitting verification that they have engaged others in their community, either by sharing pictures, posters, slide decks, or other artifacts, fellows will be awarded $2,000 USD.

Cohorts will convene in the following months:

Cohort 1: Late October into November 2022
Cohort 2: January 2023
Cohort 3: February 2023

Sessions will be recorded for those who cannot attend due to scheduling conflicts although synchronous attendance is encouraged. For more information, please see the Eligibility and Awards tab or contact us at flulab@cos.io.

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¹The OSS is a standard, modular survey to assess open scholarship attitudes, perceptions, and behavior of researchers

In order to accommodate a variety of schedules and preferences, each cohort will follow a distinct meeting cadence. The first cohort will convene over the course of three weeks, with a single one-hour workshop session per week. The second will span one week, with one-hour sessions on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The third cohort will combine all of the workshop sessions into one single three-hour session. See below for the exact schedules, note that all times are EST:

 

 

Session One
The philosophy and motivation behind the open science movement

Session Two
Important facets of open science: data management, open materials and code, reproduction and replication, preregistration, registered reports, preprints

Session Three
How to use the Open Science Framework (OSF) to implement open science practices in your own research

Researchers whose work is related to influenza are eligible to participate in the Fellowship. Qualifying researchers’ specific discipline may be biomedical, behavioral, epidemiological, or interdisciplinary.

Applying for the Fellowship starts with submitting a Google Form to COS confirming interest and availability. A member of the COS team will review applications and reach out via email to confirm prospective Fellows’ acceptance. The application deadline is October 14, 2022.

Fellows are eligible to receive financial awards from Flu Lab after (1) attending or reviewing the video recordings of all 3 workshop sessions presented to their cohort, (2) participating in a one-on-one session with a member of the COS team, and (3) within 4 months after the open science workshop sessions, verifying that they have shared their knowledge by submitting one or more of the following artifacts to the COS team:

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.