Live, Virtual Open Scholarship Training for Researchers

Advancing open and reproducible research practices with hands-on learning.

Scientific rigor and transparency are key factors in making research outcomes more impactful. However, increasing rigor often requires that researchers and labs implement new practices and learn new tools. The good news is that the Center for Open Science (COS) offers a variety of training modules to help you navigate this complexity.

We have developed a robust, hands-on, pragmatic curriculum, curated from use cases developed in collaboration with the community of open researchers we engage, continuously iterating to bring forth new use cases, examples and workflows.

The modular curriculum content will help researchers answer common questions:

  • What is reproducibility and what are the current issues and barriers?
  • What actions in daily research throughout the research lifecycle can be adapted to be more reproducible?
  • How will making my research reproducible help science and my career?
  • How can I increase transparency in my research workflow?
  • What is a research or data management plan and how can I implement this in my research workflow?
  • What are tools that can streamline the open and transparent practices in my research workflow?
  • How can OSF help in my application of open and rigorous research practices?
  • How can I make my research open, share it with other researchers in my field or beyond and receive credit for my work?
  • How can I integrate tools I use in OSF to have an efficient research workflow?

Discuss your training needs and goals with open science experts at the COS and find a training curriculum best suited for you. 

Training Modules

The training modules are designed to give individuals the knowledge and skills they need to manage open research workflows, collaborate with team members, and increase the visibility of their projects, through lectures and hands-on activities in OSF.

As part of training participants receive: 

  • Live, virtual training with Dr. Crystal Steltenpohl, COS's Training and Education Manager
  • Access to an office hour during the training period
  • Access to a custom OSF project with all training materials, in perpetuity
  • Results of a pre- and post-training evaluation to see how much participants have learned

The modular training curriculum that COS employs is openly licensed and available for others to reuse. We offer our staff with expertise to deliver the training to your participants at low costs.

Topic:
Introduction to Open Scholarship

Learning Objectives

  • Describe open scholarship and its practices
  • Identify current mandates for open scholarship
  • Describe the benefits of performing open scholarship
  • Describe barriers, risks, and costs associated with open scholarship practices
  • Summarize research evidence supporting open scholarship adoption

Topic:
Management and Sharing

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the importance of data management
  • Describe the components of FAIR data
  • Identify appropriate data management strategies
  • Define metadata
  • Describe the importance of data sharing
  • Identify trusted repositories for sharing data
  • Articulate considerations for when to share (or not share) data

Topic:
Reproducible Methods

Learning Objectives

  • Find reproducible protocols and study methods for research
  • Select reporting guidelines for research
  • Create reproducible documentation of study methods, instrumentation, lab protocols, and analyses where applicable
  • Document reagents, plasmids, cells, and organisms where applicable
  • Describe how to get a protocol peer-reviewed
  • Share a protocol
  • Check a protocol or manuscript for transparency

Topic:
Preregistration and Registered Reports

Learning Objectives

  • Describe preregistration and why it is important
  • Identify the appropriate preregistration template for your study
  • Describe the differences between preregistration and registered reports
  • Identify journals that accept registered reports
  • Complete, share, and update a preregistration

Topic:
Collaboration on the OSF

Learning Objectives

  • Organize your project materials
  • Create a collaborative environment for a research team on OSF
  • Choose appropriate access and permission settings for your workspace
  • Document changes to your project

Topic:
Research Sharing

Learning Objectives

  • Identify whether, when and how to share various research materials
  • Compare and select a sharing solution that fits a project’s sharing limitations
  • Compare and select repositories to suit a research project
  • Use PIDs to connect the all of the people, places, and things related to a research project
  • Curate the metadata of a research project to improve adherence to FAIR principles

Topic:
Preprints

Learning Objectives

  • Define preprints and postprints
  • Explain the benefits and drawbacks of preprins
  • Search for preprints
  • Upload, license, and update a preprint on the OSF
  • Cite preprints
  • Add a preprint to your CV/resume

Topic:
Teaching about Open Scholarship

Learning Objectives

  • Identify relevant open scholarship practices for your community
  • Explain why open scholarship is relevant to your community
  • Develop measurable learning objectives
  • Adapt course materials to suit the needs of your community
  • Measure the learning of your community

Pricing

  • Email us at training@cos.io for our updated per-module prices.
  • Our price per module allows for hands-on teaching of 10-40 people. If you're interested in larger group training, reach out. 
  • Teaching about Open Scholarship is intended for educators and is often paired with one or more other modules
  • We work with libraries, institutional research departments, research organizations, companies, funders and research groups who purchase training for groups of people within their organization.
  • If you are a researcher, work with your institution to book a training. We currently do not offer training to individuals looking for personal training sessions. 
  • If your organization is an OSF Institutional member, you receive a 25% discount on all trainings.

Contact Us

At this time and for the foreseeable future, COS will only be offering the remote option for providing training services. We believe we can effectively provide training workshops using virtual conferencing and document sharing tools for small to medium size audiences. Please don't hesitate to contact us at training@cos.io with any questions.

FAQs

How does the remote workshop work?

The presentation and explanation portions of the workshop are handled via Zoom by one of our trainers (and helpers as needed).  Most of us are located in Virginia (US Eastern Time). You can facilitate the delivery of the workshop in two ways:

  1. All participants join separately via video conference
    OR
  2. Participants are all together in one room locally, while the trainer is present via Zoom. Local facilitators and remote helpers should work with researchers during the exercise portions of the workshop to ensure no one gets stuck, to help pass common questions or challenges over to the remote trainer so that they can be addressed for the whole group, and to help keep to the schedule by signaling the remote trainer when the room is ready for the next material. Facilitators should review the material prior to the session. Only one facilitator must be available during the training though having two or three can be beneficial.

What are the minimum AV requirements for providing the remote workshop?

Most participants will benefit from having access to their own device (laptop or desktop computers strongly recommended for hands-on activities) during workshop sessions. This enables them to participate easily in all activities.  For sessions with a local presentation component, there should be sufficient AV equipment for participants to see and hear the trainer, as well as a microphone to speak to the trainer.

What are the minimum preparation conditions?

The trainer and facilitators should agree on the delivery method at least one week in advance.  If the facilitators are providing the video conference platform, then the facilitators and trainers should arrange to test the platform at least two days in advance.  Trainers and facilitators should plan to join the video conference at least 10 minutes before the event begins.

How do we get the word out about the workshop?

COS provides a template flyer and logos available for you to freely distribute.

How do we evaluate the success of the workshops?

COS generates standard anonymous surveys for workshop participants, delivered both before and after the event, to gauge their existing familiarity with the concepts and tools discussed, the impact of the workshop on their intention to implement various reproducibility-related practices in their research, and their general interest in additional training on these topics. We are happy to share these survey results with event organizers and/or integrate the questions into any existing training survey/feedback processes on campus.

Do you allow recording of workshops?

Yes, it is fine to record a workshop and make it available later for researchers who were unable to attend the workshops. 

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