6 Open Science Practices

Open science practices are crucial for enhancing the transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility of scientific research. By adopting these practices, researchers can ensure that their work is more reliable, collaborative, and impactful. At the Inclusive Education Research Lab we we harness the infrastructure of the Open Science Framework and Brock University’s Digital Repository to embrace open science practices such as:

1. Pre-registration of Hypotheses:
   Description: Pre-registration involves publicly recording the research plan, including hypotheses, methodology, and analysis strategies, before data collection begins. See for example our lab’s public pre-registration for the Designing for Justice study.
   Importance: This practice helps prevent “p-hacking” (manipulating data to achieve significant results) and selective reporting. It promotes transparency by clarifying the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory research.
2. Open Research Materials:
   Description: Open research materials refer to making the tools and resources used in a study, such as surveys, experimental protocols, and code, available to other researchers.
   Importance: Sharing research materials allows other scientists to replicate and verify findings, facilitates collaborative efforts, and accelerates scientific progress by enabling others to build on existing work.
3. Open Data:
   Description: Open data entails making the raw data collected during a study accessible to the public, often through repositories or data sharing platforms.
   Importance: Providing open access to data enhances the reproducibility of research results and allows for secondary analyses and meta-analyses. It fosters trust in scientific findings and can lead to new discoveries by enabling researchers to reanalyze data from different perspectives.
   Limitations: The Inclusive Education Research Lab recognizes that for many of our projects, our data will need to be as open as possible and as closed as necessary. For example, during the design phase of a study, it may be deemed not appropriate, to open the anonymized dataset from a survey if the participants might object or feel uncomfortable with this level of openness. Decisions about the openness of research data will be guided by a range of ethical considerations including lab commitments to equity, inclusion, decolonization, as well as our commitment to the well-being and respect of our research participants.
4. Open Access Publishing:
   Description: Open access publishing makes research articles freely available to the public, without subscription barriers, including by publishing in diamond/platinum open access journals and by sharing pre-prints or post-prints in an open repository. See for example the pre-print of the Foreword from the book  Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy or this article on Framing Open Educational Practices from a Social Justice Perspective in the open access Journal of Interactive Media in Education.
   Importance: Open access ensures that research findings are accessible to a broader audience, including researchers in developing countries, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public. This democratizes access to knowledge, increases the visibility and impact of research, and promotes the dissemination of scientific discoveries.

Collaborative Reference Management with Zotero

In addition to the above, we embrace a collaborative approach to reference management in the lab using Zotero, a free and open-source solution for organizing references. When you join the lab, we will add your preferred email to our lab Zotero folder. To access Zotero, visit their website and download the program suitable for your operating system. You may also integrate the Zotero connector into your browser to simplify the process of saving sources.

Once you have Zotero up and running, you will see folders for categorization. You can add sources manually, through an identification code, or via the Zotero connector.

Zotero simplifies the process of creating a references page by allowing you to select articles, right-click, and choose “Create Bibliography.” You can customize the output mode to suit your needs; for in-text citations, select “Citations,” or for an APA style bibliography (APA 7th edition), choose “Bibliography.” If you require further assistance, do not hesitate to consult the Lab Manager. Zotero is a valuable tool for maintaining order in your research projects within the lab.