Scientific Openness Support
We are genuinely passionate about openness and transparency, in science, work life and private life. We are offering a number of services to researchers, as well as private and public entities across the globe to facilitate an increased use of open and reproducible practices in science.
Preregistration support
We will guide you through the process of preparing a preregistration document for your study, including an analysis plan. We will provide recommendations and feedback throughout the process and – should you prefer it – conduct the final preregistration for you in a suitable online repository.
Transparency review of manuscripts
We are available to review works in progress and advise on potential improvements in the transparency of the reporting. Maybe it is not clear who made a certain interview or coding. Maybe it is unclear how the sample size was determined or at what time during the process your hypotheses were formed. Maybe there is material mentioned that are not yet available online. We will be the critical reader you need to further improve the paper with regard to scientific openness and reproducibility.
Preparing data files for open publication
Making research data freely available online can be a rather time consuming endeavour. The data set might need some cleaning, clarifications and changes in variable names (e.g. from a local language to English), and it might need conversion to an open file format. Most importantly, a clear and concise codebook should be written in which each variable is properly explained. Regardless of the condition of your current data set, we might be able to help you with all the above. You send us the data files, we let you know what we can do and how much it will cost. In some cases we may also be able to advise you on national laws on data sharing and where you can find a suitable repository in line with your particular country’s regulations.
Open publishing of research materials
One of the easiest open science practices to get started with is sharing your materials. Just put them out there, and voilà; you are doing open science! Here’s a very brief explainer video to get you started.
However, if you don’t have the time or energy to do it yourself, we are happy to assist you! We will archive your research material (e.g. surveys, questionnaires, instructions for participants, coders or assistants, stimuli material, advertisements) in an open online repository (e.g. Open Science Framework) making it easy to refer to the material in future publications. Making your materials publicly available online can enable others to reuse your materials, build upon and improve them – not to mention that your materials will never be lost again.
Open publishing of scientific reports
Send us your published or unpublished scientific reports. We will investigate and suggest appropriate, legal, ways to make your particular paper freely and publicly available (green or gold publication). The service can also be used to give unpublished papers a DOI (making it easier to cite properly) and make it publicly available.
Advising on open scientific practices
What is open science and why is statistical power relevant when discussing open practices?
What is open data, why should I let other people use the data I have collected and how can I be sure to be credited for my work if I make my data and material publicly available?
What are the differences between open access, open science and open source and what is open peer review?
What is preregistration and how to preregister your research? Is there any point with preregistering qualitative research?
Where do I find open software relevant to my research?
I want to learn more about open practices – where do I start?
We can provide lectures, workshops or more personalised mentorships to inform, guide and update your team or institution on the field of open science.